to Issue 14 (July 2007)!
Contents
1. tains the solid blacks and shadow delineation The place with the rest of the front stage s sonics WR DM Blood Diamond ss Breach P3 5 S4 5 P3 5 S3 5 Fu E a Critics Composite 3 5 Critics Composite 4 0 28 i wf vaso aL ae LINT J same as on the DVD image is good but not consistently so The uncompressed linear PCM 5 1 channel soundtrack features very good fidelity There are moments where dialogue is too obviously ADR produced Phantom imaging is incorporated well around the room which really brings life to the soundtrack P WR WIDESCREEN REVIEW NEWSLETTER 14 Previously reviewed in Issue 120 on DVD Special features are the The VC 1 encoded 2 38 1 Blu ray Disc can look very good with bold colors and good resolution Outdoor scenes can be overly contrasted at times but not consistently so and some of the darker scenes can look artificially flat In general the tic as in the DVD P 4 Previously reviewed in Issue 122 on DVD Special features are the same as on the DVD The highly stylized VC 1 encoded 1 78 1 Blu ray Disc looks muted and flat for the most part and while details can be captured well there are times when they are slightly soft Edge enhancement can be seen in this release but is not as dras The Dolby Digital Plus 5 1 channel soundtrack features good fidelity and a very low noise floor making for a believable experience The mix is slightly lacking though with littl2. page brings up a list of the Hecommended and Optional Commands with a box on the bottom of the page that allows the user to add New Commands that are not in either of the two lists For my proces sor there were many com mands that use often that were not in the lists and adding them was an easy process With the remote connected to the computer via the provided USB cable you simply hold the components original remote about two inches from the bot tom edge of the AVL 300 where an IR receiver is located and press the button you want it to learn New Commands can only be learned one at a time which can make the process cumbersome if there are many codes you want to teach it Also in the Device Options page is the option Customize the Device Mode where you can edit the commands that are accessi ble by pressing 37 of the hard buttons on the remote as well as the commands that can be associated with the eight hard buttons that flank the LCD screen four on each side As many pages of com mands eight or four depending on the AVL 3005 settings com mands are on a page can be stored as needed and the Page Left and Page Right buttons below the LCD on the remote make navigat ing through the pages easy This customization is very helpful and the easy to read labels on the LCD screen make it painless for any one to use the device s remote commands without needing additional coaching From the installation software you can
3. three featurettes Atlanta Aquarium Working Underwater two minutes so don t blink Tyler s Team Cast amp Characters 14 minutes and Introducing The McClain Sisters four minutes Additional features include the following featurettes Touring The Sets six minutes Conducting Chaos The Riot Scenes seven minutes and The Oakland Cemetery five minutes 16 deleted scenes two gag reels and three uncut scenes The anamorphically enhanced 1 82 1 DVD can look good with well balanced contrast and natural looking fleshtones but shadow delineation is slightly lacking which can mask details in the darker scenes Details on occasion can be slightly soft and colors are slightly muted especially greens Some com pression artifacts and moir artifacts can be noticed from time to time but edge enhancement is not over ly distracting The H 264 AVC encoded Blu ray Disc has the requisite increase in resolution as afforded it by the high definition format but some details are sti 3 soft and colors can be slightly muted Shadow delin eation is still underwhelming and the image can look rather flat at times The image is not bad but it does have its problems The Dolby Digital Surround EX although labeled Dolby Digital on the packaging and menus 5 1 channel soundtrack has problems with forward sounding dialogue that also can be noticeably ADR produced The mix is uninspiring with little surround envelopment and lit
4. a fairly dramatic improvement in room acoustics can be achieved by eliminating these ricochet sounds caused by sound reflecting back and forth between the two parallel walls Competent research has shown that a 4 foot wide by 7 foot high sheet of 3 to 4 inch thick acoustical foam now available in black or decorator colors placed on the wall immediately behind the listener can often turn a problem room into an audio pleasure palace given such seating limita tions By absorbing a large portion of the sound that would normally be reflected from the back wall a standing wave between the wall and the listener alternate addition and cancellation between the direct and reflected wave components is almost elimi nated Such standing waves produce the peaks and valleys in frequency response that can destroy the quality of an otherwise excellent system The optimum positioning of the listener relative to the back wall would be to position the listener out from the back wall by at least 5 feet or more to place the reflective sound beyond the fusion time of the human hearing process This arrangement is ideal for multichannel discrete music and home theatre listening in which every loudspeak er position is equidistant from the prime lis tener seated in the sweet spot T The location of doors alcoves and windows within the room are often very important Doors alcoves and windows along the walls of a room can signific
5. but still slightly muted Edge enhancement is noticeable but is not overly distracting The H 264 AVC encoded Blu ray Disc is a marked improvement believable color scheme Black levels are deep and shadow delineation is good making for an enjoyable experience Some of the computer generated moments can look noticeably different from live action which can be a minor distraction The Dolby Digital 5 1 channel soundtrack can be very lively with each of the full range channels used often with good localization of effects around the room Dynamic range is good and even in the most intense scenes subtle effects and low level dia logue can still be heard Fidelity is not perfectly natu ral and there are times when the audio can sound rather digital and unrefined The Blu ray Disc s uncompressed linear PCM encoding is also enjoy able with an exciting mix and good overall fidelity Dynamic range is rather impressive but dialogue can occasionally sound artificial and a hissing distortion HORROR The Messengers 4 0 54 5 4 0 54 0 CRITICS COMPOSITE 2 0 mua 2 xi Prat In The Messengers Roy McDermott and Denise Miller move their family from big city life Chicago to the quiet beauty of a North Dakota sunflower farm But life turns anything but tranquil for teenaged daughter Jess Stewart when she and her brother Ben Evan amp Theodore Turner are witness to dist
6. understanding ingenuity resourcefulness and a lot of perspiration Likewise poor placement of loudspeak ers within the listening room can seriously degrade the sound quality and imaging of even the most accurate loudspeakers A good start to understanding your listen ing room is to examine how the hearing process works how various attributes of a listening room size shape resonance modes sound absorbing surfaces etc affect its sound qualities and how different loudspeaker locations within the room can significantly alter the perceived realism of well recorded music reproduced by an accurate audiophile system What And How We Hear Those audiophiles blessed with reason ably good hearing and relevant listening experience are usually able to discern whether sounds reproduced by their stereo WIDESCREEN REVIEW NEWSLETTER 14 or multichannel system match those of a live performance with acceptable realism when listening to accurately recorded music or movies But even the most accurate audiophile systems are always dependent upon room acoustics and proper placement of the loudspeakers within the room relative to the room boundaries walls doors etc and the primary listening position if truly accurate reproduction and stereo imaging between two loudspeakers are to be achieved Indeed to achieve accurate imaging it is absolutely necessary that the front stereo loudspeakers or for that matter the side and
7. C About Pasma DISPLAY TEC ee Part Also 12 Month Access 15 00 25 00 To Subscribe Go To www WidescreenReview com subscribe WIDESCREEN REVIEW NEWSLETTER 14 24 Month Access e The Essential Home Theatre Resource Widescreen RevI CW JULY 2007 www WidescreenReview com Just another day in Paradise As sit here Under The Tuscan Sun looking out at hillsides filled with vineyards I m feeling a tiny bit guilty that I m not at work But only a tiny bit In an attempt to ease some of the guilt thought get started on my column Here in a beautiful villa just outside of Greve Italy with my hus band son and a group of my nearest and dearest friends it s easy to forget about home theatre land back home sort of There are no big flat panels hanging on the walls no in walls no on walls and no loudspeakers outside where l m sitting The only television in the place is a 24 inch CRT Sinudyne what the heck is that and for audio we have some old Sony mini system There is some beautiful music playing inside however which could sound a little better admittedly the windows are open and the tunes are making their way Out here Life just doesn t get much better than this Before left home went on a little field trip drove out to Costa Mesa California to visit with Mike Sisco of Customworks Inc Mike opened his store in 2002 and he says that business is
8. DVD as well as the same problems DOCUMENTARY One Six Right P3 5 53 0 P4 0 53 0 WSR SCORE 3 0 I Sit back and soar into the vast blue yonder and learn about the busiest general aviation airport in the world the Van Nuys Airport in California You will be amazed at the facts learned from this documentary like Van Nuys has taking off or landing every 45 seconds during the y Mal than England s Hea hrow Airport it busier And when you hear the controller announce Clear to land on One Six Right you know you re safe you know youre home Special features include five featurettes Flight at four minutes The Joyride Il in a minute two and a half minutes of Childhood Dreams three minutes up in the clouds in They Call Em Clouds and less than two minutes in Old Helmet amp Goggles some historical photos and production stills and three deleted scenes In addi tion to those the HD DVD includes additional HD fea tures a three minute aerial footage featurette nto the Clouds The Joy Ride lll a one and a half minute aerial stunt footage featurette and Movie Montage a 13 minute montage of footage from the film The anamorphically enhanced 1 78 1 DVD shows vibrant well balanced colors and natural contrast with well rendered details and good shadow delineation There are times in the interview segments where the sub can OOK them look slightly too pink skinned Ed
9. WIDESCREEN REVIEW NEWSLETTER 14 bly modified by reflected sounds if they add to and or subtract from the direct sound in a manner that creates peaks and valleys in the frequency response curve that span more than about one third of an octave This is because reflected sounds produce partial cancellations nulls at those frequencies where they are out of phase with the direct signal and enhancements peaks at those frequencies where they are in phase with the direct signal The Shape Of A Room And Its Respective Length Width And Height Dimensions It is equally important that the length width and height dimensions of a room be different from each other by certain ratios that tend to prevent the resonances that occur between parallel walls and the floor and ceiling from mutually enhancing each other Some of the more popular ratios are discussed later in this article For example it should be relatively easy to understand that a room in the shape of a cube would represent the worst possible listening condi tion because a sound radiated into the room would tend to be subject to reinforce ment and cancellation at the same set of frequencies as a result of the similar path lengths of the reflected sounds A square shaped room identical length and width is the second worst shape Indeed certain optimum ratios of length to width to height do exist and can yield outstanding results if the user has the luxury of
10. also change the LCD screen s background image using any properly sized JPG image on your computer and add a JPG slide show that can be played on the remote s screen although the screen will still turn off when inactive as it always does even with the slide show running Lighting When combined with lighting dimmers and switch es the AVL 300 becomes a very powerful device A large number of JULY 2007 www WidescreenReview com Monster AUL 300 AVL 300 In Charging Cradle lights can be controlled by the system I stopped at 50 and being controlled by Z Wave technology the lights can be turned on turned off or dimmed from anywhere in the house Each lighting switch or dimmer plug in or in wall acts as a node for the mesh network meaning the controllers range expands as you add more switches and dimmers making it possible to easily cover an entire house if needed The AVL 300 did exactly what it was supposed to do in conjunc tion with the dimmers and switches and the simple setup and instal lation gave me full house lighting control within hours without the need of a custom installer This is definitely a must have for that do it yourselfer who wants whole house lighting control Component Activities And Lighting Scenes The AVL 300 includes the ability to set Component Activities or macros for turning on and off specific components in your house with the single push of a bu
11. back wall stereo pairs be located pre cisely equidistant and equiangularly from the listener Otherwise center stage sounds will be heard as being either off center or diffuse Anyone who claims oth erwise has never heard a pair of truly accu rate loudspeakers properly set up within a good listening room For example a mismatch of only about 1 dB in amplitude between a pair of stereo loudspeakers can shift the apparent loca tion of a center stage sound by about 10 degrees For those possessing a sound level meter such as those available from Radio Shack etc a source of mono broadband noise an FM tuner tuned off station can be used to assist in accurately locating loud speakers When a stereo pair of loudspeak ers are located precisely equidistant and equiangular from the listening position a nearly 3 dB rise in amplitude will be observed within the space of a few inches When this is achieved excellent imaging should be heard from a pair of accurate well matched loudspeakers Our human hearing process is truly amazing with respect to the range of acousti cal properties it can discern quantify ana lyze and determine to be satisfying or annoying Although not everyone is born with or retains near perfect hearing most of us possess a level of hearing acuity that permits us to readily determine the quality and realism of music being reproduced by an audiophile system Several different attributes and f
12. booming He told me something about his clientele though that think many of you will find quite surprising if not disturbing He said that the major ity of his customers care more about appearance than performance when it comes to home theatre And l m pretty sure his customers aren t all women But hey this is The OC were talking about after all The purpose of my visit was to check out the Artcoustic Loudspeakers that Mike has on display in his demo room first learned about Artcoustic of Denmark when John Caldwell of St John Group and Peter Hoagland paid a visit to Widescreen Heview Among the things they brought with them was Artcoustic s 2007 full line brochure Fascinated by what was looking at on paper decid ed that just had to see and hear what these loudspeakers had to offer Customworks is located in a large industrial block of businesses next to Orange County s John Wayne airport And do mean right next to it didn t go upstairs where the various offices are located but downstairs next to the reception area is a small demo room with the Artcoustic loudspeakers on display Mike had them already in Play mode when arrived and they were sounding quite impres sive indeed But what really got me excited was the way they looked Not only do these loudspeakers pack a lot of performance they offer the best of both worlds performance and appearance At first didn t realize was even looking at loud
13. listening room and the location of loudspeak ers within it are very important for best stereo and soundfield imaging Accurate stereo imaging created by a pair of perfectly matched loudspeakers along each wall of a home theatre system that remains stable throughout the audio spectrum requires that the listener hear reflected sound from all directions with an equal time delay This can only be achieved in a symmetrical room with the loudspeak ers and the principal listening position locat ed in a symmetrical configuration with respect to the walls It is especially impor tant that each pair of loudspeakers be locat ed at exactly equal distances from the pri mary or center listening position if opti mum imaging and a strong phantom center image are to be achieved in a holosonic configuration in which each side wall per fectly reproduces stereo phantom imaging This is because our hearing process evalu ates and determines the location direction of arrival of a sound on the basis of the rel ative time of arrival and the relative ampli tude of the sound as it is heard simultane ously by both ears For truly optimal imaging it is also best for the location of drapes windows etc on both side walls to be arranged in a symmet JULY 2007 www WidescreenReview com FROM he Archives rical manner 10 For stereo applications alone loudspeakers should be located along a wall facing the shortest dimensio
14. quality and must be dealt with by covering or treat ing offending wall ceiling or floor surfaces with materials that exhibit appropriate acoustical absorption properties 3 Sensitivity Low Level Threshold To begin imagine a room of arbitrary size with stereo loudspeakers at one end and a listener at the opposite end In addition to the direct path sound the listener hears sound energy reflected from the wall sur faces behind the loudspeakers the two side walls the ceiling the floor and the wall behind the listener Each of these reflected sounds arrives at the listener s ears with a time delay related to the length of the path taken by the sound traveling at a velocity of about 1 140 feet per second approximately 13 7 inches during each 1 1 000 of a sec ond In a home theatre ideally the principal viewing and listening position would be equi distant from all five or six if your system sup ports a center back surround channel loud speakers and at equal angles relative to the listener Depending upon the delay times encoun tered by the reflected sounds and whether the original sound consisted largely of con tinuous tones organ notes or of transients plucked strings etc the listener may per ceive the combination of the direct and reflected sounds as being either pleasant adding ambiance or distracting smearing complex transients The perceived spectral balance of a loudspeaker may also be audi
15. quality and to sourced critics reviews as a composite score see Discography Due to recent changes some studios are no longer providing us with advance copies of their new releases Please check our Web site at www WidescreenReview com for up to date reviews that may not be in the magazine clockwise the boxes represent the Left Center Right Right Surround Center Surround and Left Surround channels and the small box in the center repre sents the LFE channel This logo provides a graphical method of quickly determin ing how active each loudspeaker is in a soundtrack Red is for aggressive Green is for moderate Yellow is for weak and White means the channel is not used From top left DRAMA Black Snake Moan 4 0 53 5 MOAN P4 5 S3 5 4 1 4 5 53 5 CRITICS COMPOSITE 3 5 One never knows what he may find in the middle of a country dirt road and God fearin Lazarus Jackson is no exception when he stumbles across the badly beaten town tramp Rae Ricci Not sure what to do he takes this scantily clad blonde back to ANS ome to mend her wounds and get some meat on her bones It is during her chain monitored recovery that he discovers her soul is in desperate need of saving and calls in reinforcements to force the devil from her Black Snake Moan made its 2007 debut at the Sundance Film Festival Special features on both versions include commentary with Writer Director Craig Brewer the 2
16. six AVL 300s can be configured into the same network This is incredible flexibility to find in a hand held remote control system with the ability to truly provide whole house control Giving the AVL 300 s Remote Assistant the controllers built in help as much trouble as could started having problems pairing the OmniLink to the system but it was relatively easy to get myself out of trouble when the Assistant failed Monster includes a Customer service department phone number on the AVL 300 s packaging if you need additional help as well as help sections on the www mon stercentral com Web site and directly within the Monster Central Control setup and installation software After telling the software what equipment is in the room by select ing from their impressive list of manufacturers and typing in the model numbers or names you can set up Activities macros that automatically tune the TV pre amp or receiver and any other devices to the correct inputs and power states and add lighting scenes if you have installed any IlluminEssence lighting controls The setup system is very easy to follow and understand holding your hand through the entire process It isn t the most powerful of installation setup programs that have used but it is functional Next you can add the llluminEssence lighting dimmers and switches and set up Lighting Scenes These allow you to set the lev els and on off states of all the connected lights with the pres
17. 8 minute making of featurette two music oriented featurettes The Black Snake Moanin nine minutes and Rooted In The Blues in almost 13 minutes five deleted scenes with optional Brewer commentary a photo gallery and previews which are also shown upfront While the anamorphically enhanced 2 40 1 DVD does show good depth of field with solid blacks and well delineated shadows details can be slightly soft and edges can look pixilated Colors look good with well saturated natural hues Fleshtones are slightly too red but only slightly and contrast is balanced well Edge enhancement is very become a distraction The H 264 AVC encoded HD DVD and Blu ray Disc both look fantastic with deep blacks good shadow delineation and well captured details Colors are vibrant and realistic and skintones are natural Differences between the two high defini tion formats are negligible at best The Dolby Digital 5 1 channel soundtrack is rather basic with little in the way of phantom imaging around the room The front stage is adequate though for both music and effects Dialogue general ly sounds good but it can be slightly boxy at times The LFE channel is incorporated well when needed and deep bass is present in the front full range chan nels at times as well but it is rare The HD DVD s Dolby Digital Plus encoding sounds slightly more dynamic and fluid than the Blu ray Disc s Dolby Digital encoding but both have the same mix as the
18. Bonus features on both versions include two com mentaries the first with Director Gabor Csupo Writer Jeff Stockwell and Producer Hal Lieberman and the second with Actors Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Hobb and Producer Lauren Levine two Backstage Disney featurettes Behind The Book The Themes Of Bridge To Terabithia 15 minutes and Digital Imagination Bringing Terabithia To Life six minutes and the AnnaSophia Keep Your Mind Wide Open music video The DVD includes previews which are also shown upfront while the BD adds a Movie Showcase With well captured details and good color satura tion the anamorphically enhanced 1 85 1 DVD looks very good Black levels are deep and when com bined with the very good shadow delineation it can make for a very dimensional looking image Fleshtones look very natural Edge enhancement can be a problem at times and pixel breakup can also be a distraction Compression artifacts are also noticeable The H 264 AVC encoded Blu ray Disc also shows deep blacks and very good shadow delineation and with its slight ly over enhanced contrast it makes for a very dimen sional looking image Fine details in close shots are captured well but medium and long shots are slight ly soft Fleshtones have a slightly pinkish hue The Dolby Digital 5 1 channel soundtrack can be exciting with each of the available channels used effectively but a hissing distortion can be heard at times throughout the pre
19. L 300 is a fantastic universal remote that can provide com plete control for all of the A V devices in your home as well as all of the lights It is very easy to operate and set up and doesn t have many hiccups in its operation The button layout is well mapped and itis a very comfortable remote to hold It is easily customized and with its huge database of remote codes adding new devices to the controller is a simple straightforward process Even when the remote codes it suggests do not work adding the correct codes is relatively pain free The price is a little high 499 95 without any lighting dimmers or switches for a universal remote without a touch screen LCD inter face but it is one of the only hand held devices available that can perform lighting control The build quality is generally solid but the protruding Select button in the middle of the remote does seem slightly flimsy and could pop off if the AVL 300 is not properly handled Overall this is a great product that will make your home theatre experience more enjoyable If you want to add universal control to your components and lighting control to your house the AVL 300 is defi nitely worth an audition And to make things even better the AVL 300 is having a 399 95 factory special pricing during summer 2007 yeah right now VER Wid ji 3M 1 3 Expiined By pamade lese The 2007 Full Range 2 Louds Issues ker BUYER S GUIDE
20. Lar Firs HOMI 3 ae y Fond T Essential Home Theatre Resource escreen REVIEW x Fa 1 Wide eset ew ree LIC HOME Industry News DVD Equipment Community Advertisers WSR In Print Optoma The complete cinematic al solution at home rA Projector People com WELCOME since Widescreen Review decided to combine the July and August print magazine into one we thought it only right that we give you something extra special in this month s August newsletter Besides Part 6 of John Dunlavy s seven part archived loudspeaker design series of articles and our other regularly featured articles we are including a number of DVD HD DVD and Blu ray Disc reviews just like we do in the print magazine every month as well as a product review of Monster s AVL 300 One thing have noticed as read through electronic newsletter after electronic newsletter is that they all basically say the same thing The same news is repeated over and over again in whatever online publication happen to be reading at the time hope you have found that Widescreen Reviews free monthly newsletter is different from all the others and that you are enjoying the new content that we bring to you each month Lastly if you visit our Web site and hope you do I think you ll find we have made a few changes Besides our new look we have also added the Loudspeaker Buyer s Guide look forward to your feedback mud LU PP ad Cary Reber Edito
21. and valleys are portrayed on a topographical map And each dimension of the room its length width and height produces standing waves with corresponding resonant frequencies and modes and their harmonics Therefore locating an optimum position for loud speakers within a room requires first a defi nition of what optimum implies maximum low bass extension smoothest overall bass response widest stereo soundstage with best imaging etc No one location in a room is likely to be capable of fulfilling all such definitions of optimum a compromise is almost always necessary The lowest natural resonant frequency of a room is called its fundamental resonance The fundamental resonance occurs at that frequency for which the length or longest dimension of the room is equal to one half of a wavelength A half wavelength expressed in feet is found by dividing 567 by the fre quency in Hertz based on air at a tempera ture of 70 degrees Fahrenheit with average atmospheric pressure and humidity Conversely since wavelength and fre quency are inversely related the fundamen tal resonance of a room in Hertz may be determined by dividing 56 7 by its length in feet Thus a room with a length of 20 feet has a fundamental resonance equal to 567 20 or approximately 28 Hz If the room has a width of 13 feet another resonance occurs at about 44 Hz A ceiling height of 8 feet implies a third resonance at about 71 Hz Harmonic re
22. antly alter the spectrum of the sound reflected from the wall area involved Large glass windows left uncovered can be a source of harsh sound 117 ing reflections worthy of being avoided The optimum approach would be to create your multichannel music and home theatre space in a room without windows or alcoves 8 The angle subtended by the loudspeakers from the listening position should exceed about 60 degrees the distance from the lis tening position to each loudspeaker should be less than the distance separating the loudspeakers With well recorded music and highly accurate loudspeakers closely matched as a pair separation angles of as much as 100 degrees or more can be used without any degradation of the center image for center stage vocals or instruments In fact experience has shown that wide separa tions can be used to provide an even more realistic accurate and stable soundstage than that achievable with closer spacing This presumes that the recording was recorded with a wide soundstage and moni tored as such In this regard a pair of pre cisely matched loudspeakers in a good lis tening room can easily rival the quality wide soundstage and pinpoint imaging of the best available stereo headphones but with a visceral impact unavailable with headphones Imagine duplicating such a realistic soundstage within a four wall space thus creating a seamless three dimensional soundfield 9 The symmetry of the
23. choosing them for a customized listen ing room Likewise optimum locations exist for the loudspeakers and the listening posi tion within a room However if the dimen sions of an existing listening room are less than optimum it is possible to lessen the bad effects of troublesome reflections by carefully choosing locations for the loud speakers and for the primary listening posi tion within the room Another means for diminishing the effects of undesirable reflections is by covering reflective areas along walls the ceiling and the floor with proper amounts of efficient sound absorbing materials and or time fre quency dispersive diffusion materials some of the important aspects and crite ria regarding listening rooms and loud speaker placement that should be under stood and appreciated by the serious audiophile are 1 An acoustically dead reflection free room does not provide the best listening environment A room devoid of acoustical reflections referred to as being anechoic usually does 10 not sound natural because our subcon scious visual assessment of the room con flicts with our aural assessment based upon what we hear Thus music repro duced within a truly reflection free room would tend to sound good in total darkness but unnatural with the lights on using recordings containing good hall ambiance However few rooms exhibit anechoic response below about 200 Hz because of the inef
24. e theater projector Its complete two piece system features a studio grade video color management processor and Texas Instruments DarkChip3 technologies for amazing home theater Add Optoma s 1080p series Anamorphic Lens solution for a full and brighter widescreen cinematic experience Only Optoma one of tha world s largest suppliers of DLP projectors can deliver such awe inspiring image quality HDB1 LV 1080P NATIVE 16 0 WIDESCREEN COLOR MANAGEMENT SCALER HDTV READY Optoma HOJA HOTZ HD70 BX ALI23 Anamorphic Lens 1080 720 pris 2 35 Widescreen solution fopra atacar iT E Fal pe Pa Be E QT panni aray wc DI Fre ee nr u irn omes DISC REVIEWS GaryReber GR Editor In Chief amp Publisher DannyRichelieu DR Managing Editor amp Picture Sound Quality Reviews TriciaSpears TS cA Staff Writer JackKelley JK Staff Writer Research amp Production Editor EXCELLENIT Reference Quality 5 GOOD sure To Please FAIR Mediocre 3 POOR isappointing 2 UNACCEPTABLE ot Recommended 1 Critics Composite Score From WSR Ographies gt CRITICS COMPOSITE 2 5 DVD Picture Sound Quality Score gt HD DVD Picture Sound Quality Score gt Blu ray Disc Picture Sound Quality Score gt The Rating Values 4 0 54 5 4 0 54 5 4 0 54 5 WWW WIDESCREENREVIEW COM The rating values apply to presentation picture quality and sound
25. e use of the surround channels and a rather narrow front stage WR JULY 2007 www WidescreenReview com EQUIPMENT R REV Danny Richelieu Introduction Fa hs As Monster continues its evolution from a cable company to a complete home theatre solution provider they have released their first high performance universal remote controller sold under the sub brand Monster Central Control Systems the AVL 300 The AVL 300 is more than a typical universal remote as it can also control your home s lighting when paired with Monsters IlluminEssence lighting system Changing out your homes light switches with these Z Wave powered in wall dim mers and switches In Wall Light Dimmer System 600 doesn t exactly roll off the tongue and In Wall Switch both about 130 and adding plug in dimmers and switches to lamps Light Station Dimmer and Light Station Switch 100 will link your homes lights into a strong mesh network for more information on Z Wave technology visit http www z wave com Monster will be the first to admit that they needed help in designing and building these switches and dimmers so they went to Leviton the company that has been involved in lighting since its inception in 1906 Monsters llluminEssence lighting system has been designed to be capable of even more advanced features beyond the AVL 300 s capability in regards to remote monitoring and two way broadcasting Onboard mem ory
26. eatures of our hearing pro vide us with an ability to evaluate whether our audio system sounds realistic good pleasant etc The more important of these attributes are 1 Frequency Response Spectral Balance Those audiophiles whose hearing ampli tude response is reasonably good over the entire audio range generally possess a bet ter ability to discern whether their audio sys tem exhibits a good spectral balance However despite the popular notion that most people can hear musical sounds up to about 20 kHz the truth is that less than about one fourth to one third of America s population can hear sound of reasonable amplitude above about 10 kHz Based upon recent surveys many young people who regularly listen to rock music at SPLs exceeding 105 dB possess a usable fre quenoy response limited at the high end to about 7 kHz a truly sad commentary regarding our present culture Indeed it has been estimated that less than about 10 percent of the total population can actually discern sound at frequencies up to 20 kHz Generally speaking most experienced audiophiles can discern an audible differ ence between a loudspeaker with a plus or minus x1 dB amplitude vs frequency response using time aligned drivers and a first order crossover network and one with a 3 dB response when listening to audio phile quality recordings within a reasonably good listening environment 2 Transient Response Fusion Time Whether a
27. edia Wall is an innovative new product that is designed to hide flat screen and loudspeaker cables available in a standard black or white finish Mike wanted to show me the system set up in a house he had recently completed So off we went to the home of Ryan Heuser one of the co founders of Paul Frank Industries You know creators of that cute little monkey Julius that you see on so many articles of clothing these days This was the first job that Mike had completed with Artcoustic loudspeakers where he actually installed them directly into the wall rather than hanging them on the wall With the standard white cloths that Ryan chose to go along with the rest of his very modern d cor and the flush look of the frame this was a very different and impres sive look Of course had to be nosy and take a good look around the whole house Inside the closet in the exercise room Mike had installed all of the audio video equipment hiding it out of sight a very nice touch for sure And outside after crossing over a bridge under which swam a group of beautiful koi there was a backyard worthy of some serious entertaining The outdoor system is sure to be a hit at any party I m feeling a little less guilty now and think I ll take a walk with the group up to the winery above us But before go just want to mention one more thing While was going through airport securities sitting in lounges and looking at people using t
28. ficiency of most absorbing materials at lower frequencies leaving typical ane choic rooms sounding somewhat bass heavy 2 The positioning of good loud speakers tends to be more critical with respect to location within the listening room The effect of room reflections is usually much more pronounced with accurate loud speakers than with loudspeakers whose curve of amplitude versus frequency already contains a number of peaks and valleys When the peaks and valleys of the room response are superimposed on the response of accurate loudspeakers the degradation in response is much more evident than when the effect of the room is combined with the jagged response of poor loudspeakers This effect is especially evident as the loca tion of an accurate loudspeaker is changed from one position to another within a room 3 Good loudspeakers can only provide their full potential for achiev ing an accurate soundstage at care fully selected listening positions within a room It is true that accurate loudspeakers will usually provide a better and more believable soundstage than poorly designed or poorly matched pairs of loudspeakers regardless of their location within a room However loudspeakers with radiation lobes pointing everywhere may generate a diffuse sound stage that seems more stable though imprecise than that of accurate loudspeak ers whose imaging might appear to shift strongly as the listening position is
29. ge enhancement is a major problem that can really butcher many scenes Original material and photographs look very good in the MPEG 2 encoded HD DVD Details are generally captured well and the dimensionality of the images looks very natural There are times when fine lines can show moir artifacts but it is not overly distracting The Dolby Digital 5 1 channel soundtrack generally sounds good but the mix is typical of most documen taries Dialogue is recorded well for the most part but there are times when it can sound harsh and edgy Music is generally mixed into just the corner full range channels with little imaging between the front two channels and lit tle contribution from the surround channels The HD DVD s Dolby Digital Plus encoding provides the same mix and dialogue intelligibility with slightly improved SIL QUU and fidelity Quer ine DVD s encoding Still Daddy s Little Girls P3 5 53 0 P3 5 53 5 CRITICS COMPOSITE 3 0 Determined not to let his low life ex wife Jennifer Smith get custody of his three daughters mechanic Monty Elba seeks help from hoity toity attorney Julia Union As Daddy s working hard to get his Little Girls back home with him Julia loosens up a bit and discovers that she s no better than him after all Special features on the DVD and Blu eva Disc include audio with Director Nriter Tvler Perry an extended scene previews and WIDESCREEN REVIEW NEWSLETTER 14
30. he usually greater distance from the ceiling to the radiating portions of a loud speaker provides a longer path length to the listener than reflections from the floor resulting in a perception similar to that of a reflection from a side wall In small rooms with a low ceiling however reflections from the ceiling can result in a harsh sound or an unpleasant alteration in spectral balance Ample evidence exists for favoring a ceil WIDESCREEN REVIEW NEWSLETTER 14 ing with reasonably large at least 2 inch by 6 inch rough hewn wood beams running perpendicular to the path from the loud speaker to the listener Such beams break up and disperse the sound energy in a way that is perceived to be pleasant to most lis teners As an alternative commercially available dispersive panels can be placed at and near the principal reflection area on the ceiling with a similar result 6 Live End Dead End room treatment The concept of a Live End Dead End listening room for stereo reproduction has been around for more than a decade and is generally attributed to the well known Don Davis Its success in improving the sound quality of most rooms is attested to by its longevity among knowledgeable audio philes Basically it involves treating a sec tion of the wall behind either the loudspeak ers or the listening position with an efficient type of acoustical absorbing material to reduce what are often called slap echo effects Properly done
31. heir laptops on the plane something hit me With all this constant talk about the battling HD DVD and Blu ray Disc formats and the comparison to the VHS and Betamax days thought of another parallel Macs vs PCs was witnessing people using both Some people prefer Macs others prefer PCs Guess what There s room in this world for both Maybe it ll just have to be the same for HD DVD and Blu ray Disc Ciao JULY 2007 www WidescreenReview com FROM Ihe Archives Loudspeaker Accuracy How Room Acoustics And Loudspeaker Positioning Affect The Music Part 6 JOHN DUNLAVY This is the sixth article in a series on the topic Loudspeaker Accuracy that have written for Widescreen Review as a guest editorialist In this article will cover room acoustics and loudspeaker positioning with in the room Introduction A lot of popular misconceptions exist concerning listening rooms the proper placement of loudspeakers with respect to room boundaries walls and the overall best listening position within a room Many an audiophile have fallen prey to such mis conceptions and friendly but poor advice only to end sadder but wiser by the experi ence Indeed a listening room with good acoustics is usually a blessing and a source of continuing enjoyment for any serious audiophile By contrast a listening room with poor acoustics can represent a stress inducing challenge requiring a combination of patience
32. ing valuable about the world of audio reproduction sitting at John s knee That s why I ve invited him to pen this Guest Editorial column for the next several months to provide us all a short course in acoustics and audio reproduction looking forward to it as look forward as always to your comments Gary Reber Editor In Chief Widescreen Review Digital Video ssentials ind ES HIGH DEFINITION in HD DVD Available Now At WidescreenReview com 12 JULY 2007 www WidescreenReview com
33. is included in the dimmers and switches which can provide more advanced scene functionality directly from the switches and dimmers to be accessed without the need for a remote These features were not live as of press time but Monster has announced plans to incorporate them in the future Monster has also promised that software improvements are forthcoming to improve the AVL 300 s functionality in regards to lighting and A V device control as well and additional AVL 300 controllable Z Wave based devices will be arriving soon including controls for window shades and ceiling fans And to ensure that their remote would be compatible with as many products as possible they partnered with Logitech mak ers of the popular Harmony universal remote controllers har nessing their huge database of IR remote codes for home enter tainment equipment Monster relatively easy to use PC and Mac OS X compatible setup software is also mainly from Logitech The AVL 300 sells for 500 and does not come with any switches or dimmers for controlling your lighting Aesthetics The AVL 300 has a candy bar shape or in other words it s roughly a 2 x 0 75 x 8 inch box The back of the remote has WIDESCREEN REVIEW NEWSLETTER 14 Monster AVL 300 Home Theatre And Lighting Controller gentle curves across the width in the middle of the remote and behind the LCD The curve across the middle is in a perfect place for resting your index finger holdi
34. n of the room for the most accurate reproduction of bass One of the longest running myths in the audiophile industry that certainly needs to be set straight is that loudspeakers should always radiate along the longest dimension of the listening room for optimized stereo reproduction not home theatre which opti mally requires a different approach 11 It is usually best if the distance of a loudspeaker from the side wall does not equal the distance to the back wall If a loudspeaker is located equidistant from both the side and back walls the dis tance being measured from the center of the front surface to the relevant reflection point on the wall a symmetrical cavity is formed This may create enhancements of as much as 6 dB at some frequencies resulting in a degradation of perceived sound quality especially in the upper bass and lower midrange Best overall response is usually obtained when the distance of the loudspeaker from the side wall is either larg er or smaller than the distance of the loud speaker from the back wall This will prevent reinforcements of peaks and valleys from occurring at the same set of frequencies thereby smoothing the overall frequency response of the system For a typical room of average size for example 8 feet high 13 feet wide and 20 feet long and a listening distance of from 8 to 12 feet a good start ing point would be a distance between the loudspeakers and the back wall of approxi ma
35. ng it with either the left or right hand and puts the most accessed buttons fast forward reverse play pause record volume channel guide etc within thumb pressing distance The remote has a soft almost rubberized feel to it that is very comfortable Overall the remote is easy to hold and is laid out well The remote includes 43 hard buttons plus another eight buttons that correspond to rows on the LCD screen Tilting the remote auto matically turns on the AVL 300 s backlight a feature that can be defeated in the settings which is very effective in making every but ton visible in the dark When first received an AVL 300 for review there were problems with the way it charged as the metal leads that connect the remote to the charger did not seem to make a clean connection assumed this was a design flaw but recently a new firmware version was released that seems to have fixed the problems had with charging the remote and it wasn t a hardware design flaw after all very good news Installation Before beginning an on screen the remote s screen tutorial you must charge the remote the very basic installation user manual does not provide a suggestion for the length of time it should be charged but you might as well wait until it is full it took about an hour for me The remote s 1 25 x 1 5 inch LCD screen has a battery charge level indicator in the top right hand corner After charging the remote s Tie C
36. r In Chief Widescreen Review NOW AVAILABLE ON NEWSSTANDS Widese creen Issue 122 July August 2007 of Widescreen Review CW Fact OrFicponc 1 3 Expleined By Founcder e Niles StageFront Loudspeaker System By Danny Richelieu 6 e Von Schweikert VR 4jr Full Range Loudspeaker By Peter Moncrieff e Kaleidescape System New 10 Movie And Music Server By Danny Richelieu The 2007 Full Ranget e The 2007 Full Range Loudspeaker Buyer s Guide e udspea er e HDMI 1 3 101 By Joel Silver L BUYER S GUIDE 19 All About Plasma e Display Technologies Part Ill Plasma Displays By Lancelot Braithwaite e Over 50 Blu ray Disc HD DVD and DVD picture and sound quality reviews And more TECHNOLOGIES Part ATTRACTIONS 3 Web Exclusive Disc Reviews Niles Audio Takes Front Stage Kabeidescape s Mosig Changing Experieme 5 Monster AVL 300 Home Theatre And Lighting Controller By Danny Richelieu Wife Acceptance Forum By Tricia Spears 9 From The Archives Loudspeaker Accuracy How Room Acoustics And Loudspeaker Positioning Affect The Music Part 6 By John Dunlavy WIDESCREEN REVIEW NEWSLETTER 14 1 JULY 2007 www WidescreenReview com DLP TEXAS IN STEUMENTS Optoma Home Theater Projectors A view to kill for P Experience the thrill of true 1080p High Definition vibrant color and subtle datails with the Optoma HDS81 LV hom
37. rk T ERES CoS teh OmniLink JULY 2007 www WidescreenReview com short tutorial helps in familiarizing the layout of the remote and the locations of key buttons The Internet enabled setup guide a CD ROM is included with the AVL 300 containing both the PC and Mac OS X versions of the soft ware is fairly easy to use and very intuitive After setting up a login and password both for protecting your codes and accessing online help and firmware updates you link the remote and OmniLink RF to IR converter and IR blaster to each other The OmniLink box which is included with the AVL 300 allows you to control components that are housed behind a door or even in another room even if they do not have an HF emitter built in most components are limited to the line of sight limited IR But the OmniLink is not just an RF to IR bridge it also houses 65 percent of the commands that are found in the AVL 300 itself meaning it stores the IR codes for the AV compo nents that are connected to it so it can manage the state of the devices internally to minimize conflicts and to create a more robust multi room system The AVL 300 also comes with four ControlLink IR emitter dongles that each have emitters for two components And when coupled with the OmniLink the AVL 300 has an RF range of up to 130 feet making it one of the most powerful RF remotes on the market today The AVL 300 can be mated with up to six OmniLinks and up to
38. s of a button With dimmers you can set the percentage light level you would like for the light and with both the dimmers and switches you can set whether the light is on or off creating a very dramatic as well as affordable and easy controlled lighting system in your home After setting the remote and lights up a process that took about two hours including the time it took to install the in wall dimmers remember to shut off the power almost everything worked perfectly The lights were all easy to control and the activities worked well The commands were a little bit slow in delivery but the lag time can be adjusted if you go back to the component page in the installation software The remote can control a large number of components l gave up after adding 31 bogus devices The AVL 300 did not properly control my ADA preamp with the Best possible remote codes that it automatically selected so had to program in the individual codes from the remote by hand This process was very easy although it could get slightly cumbersome Going to the Modify Settings page in the installation software then selecting the component you want to modify brings you to a page with 13 options for changing the devices settings including renam WIDESCREEN REVIEW NEWSLETTER 14 EQUIPMENT REVIEW Monster AUL 300 ing the device adjusting inputs adjusting remote delays and learning infrared command codes Going to the learning
39. sentation and dialogue can sound forward both of which can be very distracting The Blu ray Disc s uncompressed linear PCM 5 1 channel soundtrack also has problems with the dia logue and distortion in some of the canned effects Dynamic range is limited and a high pitched hiss can be heard but the mix is enveloping VER THRILLER PRIMEVAI Primeval P3 0 S4 0 P4 5 54 0 CRITICS COMPOSITE 2 0 t 3 ENS you re ever in Africa and decide to take a dip in a nearby river use extreme caution Extreme You see there s this Primeval croc that goes by the name of Gustave and he s hunting and he s hungry And unfortunately an American film crew has ventured into the remotest parts of Africa in killing machine This tale scary enough is inspired by true events Special features on both versions include commentary with Director Michael Katleman and Visual Effects Supervisor Paul Lindden three deleted scenes with optional commentary and the nine and a half minute Crocumentary Bringing Gustave To Life featurette There are also up front previews The BD also has a Movie Showcase The anamorphically enhanced 2 35 1 DVD is rather soft with fine details difficult to make out Once reaching Africa the color scheme becomes very hot in daytime scenes and in my opinion the filmmakers overdid it in this regard as the imagery looks com pletely unnatural At night the colors are much more realistic
40. sonances and anti resonances occur at higher frequencies being whole number multiples of each of the fundamen tal frequencies At each fundamental bass resonance of a room a maximum Sound Pressure Level SPL occurs near the center of the two walls perpendicular to the relevant dimen sion length or width Minimum SPLs corre sponding to each of these maximums are located in the geometric center of the room Therefore the center of a room with respect to the front and back walls tends to be the poorest listening position if maximum low end bass is desired That is why it is desir able to offset an otherwise symmetrical mul tichannel music or home theatre system within the room Because no two rooms are ever exactly alike the only way to achieve optimal sys tem performance is to experiment with loud speaker positioning The above is meant to serve as a practical guide for no guarantee can be given that yields an optimum result in all situations or with respect to all types of loudspeakers and or all possible loca tions of loudspeakers within the room MEI About John Dunlavy John Dunlavy MAES FIREE etc is a well known and highly respected engineer and scien tist with a number of patents to his credit and 40 years at the forefront of audio innovation John s special interest is loudspeaker accuracy a notion he s been working on and talking about for decades Agree or disagree with him we can all learn someth
41. sound reflected from the walls floor or ceiling of a listening room is heard by a listener as an echo an alteration in JULY 2007 www WidescreenReview com FROM he Archives spectral balance or as a blurring of musical transients is related to what is called the fusion time of our hearing process Fusion time is the separation in time between two short duration pulses measured in millisec onds for which the sound is no longer per ceived as a single pulse but as two sepa rate pulses This may range from a short 4 milliseconds 4 1 000 of a second to as long as 15 milliseconds depending upon the hearing acuity of the individual Generally this corresponds to a delay between any given direct and reflected path of from about 4 5 to 17 feet or 4 to 15 milliseconds If the reflected component of any transient type sound arrives within this fusion time it will usually be perceived as either a blurring of musical transients perhaps turning a tic sound into a toc or a drum snap into a boom or an alteration in spectral balance if the music contains mostly sustained notes such as organ sounds However if the delay between direct and reflected sounds substantially exceeds the fusion time the effect is more likely to be perceived as tran sients becoming separate tics or organ notes acquiring a short delayed echo Either way reflected sounds frequently result in an unacceptable degradation in sound
42. speakers On each side of the flat screen TV hanging on the wall was a loudspeaker which in actuality looked like a pair of beautiful paintings and below the tele vision was a white subwoofer The loudspeakers come standard in either white black or grey grill cloths and as their catalog shows there is a large selection of artwork available that can be substituted for the solid color grill cloths Additionally if a customer has a favorite picture or photo they would like to use instead of one in the Artcoustic catalog this is available as an option at no extra cost Just think you could change the looks of your loudspeakers to go along with whatever season it happens to be Tis the season Put up a wintry Christmas scene Relatives in town Throw up one of the family photos Or if you happen to be in a plain kind of mood exchange your paintings for the solid color grills that are included along with the custom options WIDESCREEN REVIEW NEWSLETTER 14 Wish the woman in your life would show a little more empathy or at least a tiny bit of enthusiasm when it comes to your passion for home theatre If so send her my way tricla widescreenreview com and I ll be happy to try and clear up any questions or concerns that she may have in a language that she ll even be able to understand Besides loudspeakers and subwoofers Artcoustic also makes a stylish contemporary storage cabinet that Customworks also had on display And their M
43. tely 3 feet 36 inches and a distance to the side walls of about 4 feet 48 Inches After listening for several minutes to a variety of music at these distances either shorten or lengthen the distance to the back or the side walls by about 6 inches and determine whether or not the change made an improvement in the overall spectral bal ance Patient experimentation with different distances will usually be necessary before the optimum distances to the back and side walls are discovered 12 The resonant frequencies asso ciated with the length width and height of the listening room and the location of the loudspeakers within the room tend to dominate our per ception of sound quality especially at bass frequencies and imply the existence of optimum ratios for room dimensions and the best location for loudspeakers within a room In reality the loudspeaker and the listen ing room are components that interact with WIDESCREEN REVIEW NEWSLETTER 14 each other as members of the same system In fact it is usually the resonant frequency of the room that dominates the lowest fre quency that a full range audiophile loud speaker can reproduce But that lowest fre quency can vary substantially from one part of the room to another because of the standing waves that are always present These standing waves set up a pattern of modes at each frequency above resonance consisting of minimum and maximum levels of amplitude much like hills
44. the sound source shifted from the front left or right channel loudspeaker to the center channel loudspeaker As a consequence most high quality home theatre systems now configure all three front channel loudspeakers at the same height above the floor However for an audiophile system it is always best to locate the phase center acoustical center of both loudspeakers at ear height above the floor usually about 33 to 37 inches when seated in a chair of average height 5 Floor coverings and ceiling tex ture are important considerations The presence of the floor provides a sub stantial boost in low end bass for loud speakers with a woofer or subwoofer locat ed near the floor This occurs because a mirror image of the woofer appears in the floor providing a near doubling of the sound level For this reason it is important to cover the floor when possible with a heavy wool rug preceded by a thick layer of wool underfelt Natural sheep s wool has been found to be one of the best of all sound absorbing materials This treatment of the floor will also improve the quality of the upper bass and lower mid range reproduction by reducing the level of these frequencies to one more consistent with that of higher frequencies where the relatively narrow vertical dispersion of most loudspeakers prevents much of the radiated power from bouncing off the floor except at longer distances where the vertical angle becomes small T
45. tle in the way of atmospheric ambiance Music is mixed into the front left and right channels but imaging across the front stage can be limited The Blu ray Disc includes a 7 1 channel uncompressed linear PCM encoding which sounds noticeably more refined than the Dolby Surround EX encoding that is also included on the disc The mix is still lacking and the entire sonic character sounds rather thin Dialogue can also sound fairly hard and edgy and the center surround channels do not really much to tne surround envelooment DR MD JULY 2007 www WidescreenReview com WWW WIDESCREENREVIEW COM DISC REVIEWS FANTASY ADVENTURE The Bridge To Terabithia P4 0 53 0 P4 0 53 0 CRITICS COMPOSITE 3 0 Jess Hutcherson has a tough life for a grade schooler He has two older sisters who look down on him and a younger sister that looks up to him constantly and annoyingly by his side His dad is less than understanding and accepting of his artistic abilities Plus he is picked on by the school bully who just happens to be a girl But a breath of fresh air blows into his world in the form of Leslie Robb a pretty and free spirited girl that joins his elementary class and becomes his next door neigh bor With her imaginative ways she transports Jess away from his daily life to a far away fantasy land found across The Bridge To Terabithia Based on Katherine Paterson s Newberry Award winning novel
46. tton You can set up Activities for things like Watch A DVD Watch TV Listen To A CD or whatever else you might want to do and you can program the remote to automatically turn on the correct components and switch to the correct inputs for any of the devices in your home The Component Activities worked very well for me and didn t run into a single problem after properly setting them up SUBSCRIBE NOW WIDESCREEN REVIEW Print Subscription Special Two Year 24 U S 60 00 One Year 12 Issues U S 34 00 Canada Mexico 40 00US International 55 00US All pricing includes shipping International Online Subscription Special Canada Mexico 70 00US 100 00US All pricing includes shipping The AVL 300 can also control Lighting Scenes which will turn on turn off or dim to a preset brightness percentage any of the lights that the remote is controlling with the press of a single button You can also tie these Lighting Scenes to Component Activities to adjust all of the components and lights for a given activity with the press of a single button In my house set the Watch A DVD Activity to turn on the TV preamp and amplifier switch to the correct input on the TV and preamp and then turn off all of the lights in the theatre while bringing the lights in the kitchen to 30 percent brightness and turning off the rest all with the touch of one button And it worked flawlessly Conclusions The AV
47. urbing visions that her par ents aren t able to see Special features on both versions include commentary with Kristen Stewart amp Guests the seven part Exhuming The Messengers in 38 min utes and previews which are also shown up front The stylized anamorphically enhanced 1 85 1 DVD exhibits a pleasing image with solid blacks and good shadow delineation Details can be slightly under defined at times and contrast can be slightly too bright in the daytime Colors are slightly under saturated which matches the story well Edge enhancement is noticeable but generally only on high contrast transitions The H 264 AVC encoded Blu ray Disc shows well captured details and main imagery can look rather deep and contrast seems to be slightly more realistic in daytime scenes Some color banding can be noticed at times and occa sionally scenes can look too digitized The Dolby Digital 5 1 channel soundtrack can be very lively with each of the full range channels incorporated to create a well defined sonic landscape Dialogue is well recorded and played back The LFE channel is used well to help build suspense and deep bass is delivered in each of the available chan nels The mix is exciting which helps move the story along well The Blu ray Disc s uncompressed linear PCM 5 1 channel encoding is enjoyable with the exciting mix teamed with good dynamic range and articula tion Dialogue can sound slightly too forward out of
48. varied But properly positioned usually symmetrical with respect to side walls and the listening location an accurate and well matched pair of loudspeakers can provide an incredibly lifelike and stable soundstage that poorly designed loudspeakers with a diffuse char acteristic can never even approach 4 The height of the loudspeaker its acoustical center above the floor is important to achieving a life like spectral balance and ambiance The hearing of most humans is reason ably acute with respect to discerning the relative height of a sound source above the floor The hearing process basically uses two separate mechanisms in determining JULY 2007 www WidescreenReview com FROM he Archives height e the spectral shift of certain frequencies caused by interference between the direct sound from the source and the reflected sound off the floor and or ceiling and e the spectral processing that takes place within the pinna outer ear The existence of this spectral shift and processing became quite apparent with the advent of home theatre systems and their use of three front channel loudspeakers Many early home theatre systems placed the front left right channel loudspeakers with their center at ear height but with the center channel loudspeaker on the floor beneath the screen But it was soon discovered that as someone walked across the movie stage while talking the spectral balance of their voice changed markedly as
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