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  1. Marc Rochkind

    Dish digital audio... is it ever Dolby Digital? 5.1?

    I get digital audio fine from my dish receiver (508). It's connected to my receiver with an optical cable (only), and the digital light on the receiver lights up. But, none of the movies I've recorded seem to be in Dolby Digital, only PCM. Can someone with Dish confirm this? Do you ever get...
  2. Marc Rochkind

    Can a round 18" disk get HDTV?

    Over and over I read that you need a multi-satellite elliptical dish to get HDTV from DirecTV. However, I assume this requirement is for getting BOTH HDTV and regular service, as they come from two different satellites. Suppose I want ONLY HDTV. Can I do it with a single, round dish, pointed...
  3. Marc Rochkind

    Download my home theater book FREE!

    I've just completed a new book, Home Theater Explained, and you can now get it as an ebook for free from my site (see signature below). Any and all comments--and I'm sure there will be some! ;)-- are welcome, either here or by email. Enjoy!
  4. Marc Rochkind

    Can a bipole surround be wall mounted?

    My understanding is that a bipole has in-phase speakers firing front and back, whereas a dipole has out-of-phase speakers firing front and back OR out the front, but pointed 90 degrees from each other. (I have a pair of B&W dipoles suitable for wall mounting.) Therefore, if the above is...
  5. Marc Rochkind

    Analog-to-digital converter from Radio Shack

    This little box ($50) from Radio Shack converts analog audio to digital (digital coax or Toslink) and composite video to S-video. No kidding. http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...5Fid=15%2D1242 I wonder why anyone would do this, as everything I can think of with digital audio input also has...
  6. Marc Rochkind

    A different view of surge protectors

    First of all, I want to note that there's an interesting phenomenon that occurs when something is introduced to prevent a bad thing from happening, as opposed to something introduced to cause a good thing to happen. It's that, whatever happens, the something is assumed to have been valuable. The...
  7. Marc Rochkind

    RIAA finally does something right!

    Not sure if you've all seen this press release. Click here.
  8. Marc Rochkind

    TV zoom mode: loses resolution?

    I understand from some posts in the "sources" area that when a non-anamorphic image is zoomed (to, for example, fill a 16:9 screen with a letterboxed image), that the scan lines are just blown-up, so that they are spread farther apart. An example of this is a Toshiba's Theaterwide 2 mode. To...
  9. Marc Rochkind

    Experience with Dolby Headphone

    Dolby Headphone (DH) is a new signal-processing scheme that claims to bring surround sound to ordinary headphones. There's lots of information on the Dolby site (http://www.dolby.com/dolbyheadphone/). DH can be applied to existing non-DH soundtracks, in which case it is in the playback...
  10. Marc Rochkind

    Help review a sub setup section for my book

    I'd appreciate comments on the following section from a forthcoming book I'm writing on HT. This part is about how to set the various switches and dials on the back of a sub. Other parts of the setup, such as bass management and receiver setup (e.g., "small" vs. "large" speakers) are covered...
  11. Marc Rochkind

    Comments on my Bass Management writeup for my book

    I'm completing a book on home theater and have just written short section on bass management. I'd appreciate any comments. Thanks! "When you have a subwoofer connected to the receiver, you can tell the receiver to cut off audio frequencies below a certain threshold (typically 80 Hz.) that...
  12. Marc Rochkind

    Do DVRs (PVRs) allow me to skip commercials when watching "live?"

    I don't have one of these, but it occurs to me that if I did, I would start watching TV shows a little late, so I am in effect watching the recording. That way I could fast forward through commercials. For example, I would start watching a one-hour show at, say, 9:20 instead of at 9. (The...
  13. Marc Rochkind

    Help me with my list of Best Home Theater sites

    I'm trying to assemble a list of the BEST Home Theater sites. Not trying to be comprehensive at all, but just to list the very best. I'd appreciate any comments, including ones I ought to drop or ones I ought to add. Thanks! Please send comments and additions to [email protected] or just post a...
  14. Marc Rochkind

    Has anyone painted wall 18% gray?

    I read somewhere that the best light for a non-front-projector TV was a 6500K light shining on the wall behind the TV. The wall should be painted 18% gray (Zone V, for you Ansel Adams fans). I'm curious... has anyone actually done this? Just for fun, I had my local paint dealer match an 18%...
  15. Marc Rochkind

    Distinct LFE channel from unpowered sub?

    As I understand it, if you have an unpowered subwoofer that you're using with Dolby Digital 5:1, you would do this: 1. Set up the receiver for no subwoofer and large left- and right-front speakers. 2. Run wires from the left- and front-speaker receiver output jacks to the subwoofer. 3. Run...
  16. Marc Rochkind

    AVIA better than Video Essentials

    I'm sure this gets discussed from time to time, but I have some very recent experience that I thought I would share. I started with A Video Standard when I played laserdiscs, and then rented Video Essentials (its successor) from Netflix because I was familiar with it, and because they didn't...
  17. Marc Rochkind

    Speaker cables should be 10% of speaker cost

    This is rule I just made up. Do you all think it makes any sense? Example 1: I spent $3350 for 6 speakers (5 B&Ws and 1 Velodyne), so I should spend $335 for speaker cable. Example 2: Someone buys an HTB for $1000. Figuring half the money went for the speakers, they should spend $50 for...
  18. Marc Rochkind

    Any comments on LAT International SS-800 speaker cables?

    I found these at www.latinternational.com. One feature I like is that you can get locking bananas.
  19. Marc Rochkind

    OK, so connectors are better than bare wire, but.. WHY?

    Here are some reasons why I've heard that connectors (e.g., spade, banana) are better than bare wire for attaching speaker cable to a binding post: 1. Much more convenient to attach and detach, especially if bananas. 2. No stray strand of wire to cause a short. 3. Connection doesn't break...
  20. Marc Rochkind

    Receivers with sping-clips instead of posts: bare wire or pins?

    For receivers that use those spring clips with the holes in them, is it better to use bare wire or pin connectors? With a binding post one would normally not use bare wire, but I'd be concerned about whether with spring clips there's enough pressure and enough surface area to give a proper...
  21. Marc Rochkind

    5-way binding post: what are the 5?

    I'm guessing that these binding posts are the ones with the threaded rod with a hole through them and a cavity at the end that receives a banana plug. So, what are the 5 ways? I can think readily of these: 1. Bare wire poked through hole in post and then held by plastic threaded nut. 2...
  22. Marc Rochkind

    Good sources for HT seating?

    I came across www.htmarket.com. Any other favorites?
  23. Marc Rochkind

    Is DVD in Bose Lifestyle 50 progressive scan?

    I don't see it mentioned in the specs on the Bose web site, and intuitively I wouldn't think so, but does anyone know for sure?
  24. Marc Rochkind

    Does DVD 4:3 P&S setup mode actually work?

    I've believed for a while that of the two 4:3 setup modes on DVD players (called letterbox vs. P&S), the difference is that the former sends the picture as is (after stretching an anamorphic image, if present), whereas the latter takes a 4:3 piece out of the middle. Today I decided to test...
  25. Marc Rochkind

    "If I had a Hi Fi" spelled backwards is...

    "If I had a Hi Fi." Just heard this on the radio this afternoon. Thought you'd all want to know right away!
  26. Marc Rochkind

    If you had $5000 to spend...

    ... on a system with 16:9 TV, progressive-scan DVD, receiver, and speakers, how would you spend it? Here's my attempt: Toshiba 57H81 -- $2990 Toshiba SD4700 (DVD) -- $230 Denon AVR-3802 -- $780 Polk Audio RM6600 (5 speakers + sub) -- $1000 TOTAL -- $5000 (The Polk system was a wild...
  27. Marc Rochkind

    Why isn't DVD player setup answer to OAR/P&S problem?

    I've read a few threads here about the problem of people who rent or buy OAR DVDs not liking the black bars. Most (maybe all--I don't know) DVD players have a setup option to show widescreen movies at 4:3, effectively doing P&S in the player. I'm assuming that in many, if not most, cases the...
  28. Marc Rochkind

    Why universal remotes are hard to learn to use (very long)

    I was going to add this to the "wife" thread, but that thread has gone off in another direction. Here's why universal remotes are hard to learn to use. (This applies to any user interface, not just remotes.) 1. Too many buttons are modal. That is, a given button on the remote does different...
  29. Marc Rochkind

    What do "Lo/Ro" and "Lt/Rt" stand for?

    I understand that "Lo/Ro" is un-matrixed and "Lt/Rt" is Dolby Surround matrixed. (My DVD player can downmix Dolby Digital to them.) Assuming "L" stands for left and "R" stands for right, what do "o" and "t" stand for? I could guess nOn-matrixed and maTrixed, but I'd rather know for sure. ;-)
  30. Marc Rochkind

    DirecTV + HD + TiVo

    Is there a box that combines all three: 1. DirecTV receiver, 2. HD tuner, and 3. TiVo Lots of boxes combine 1 and 3, and some combine 1 and 2. I understand that I can't record in HD, but still it makes sense (to me, anyway) to have all three in one box. Does anyone make such a box?
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