Movie Theaters Are To Home Theater As Live, Unamplified Music Is To Recorded Music:
There, I've said it. The analogy continues in how these art forms are perceived: in a public place vs the home. Live music and film presentations involve audiences; this is an integral part of the experience. A film viewed in a theater is the "original"; the audience experiences the director's vision in its most direct form. Home Theater and audio-only experiences are far from their "audience-involved" counterparts. They share a detachment---the viewer/listener is removed from the scene. Home Theater…
Jimi Hendrix: Woodstock (MCA MCAL-11107, LD; MCA MCAD-11063, CD), though not a great recording, is still an inspired performance from the master. On laserdisc, most of the beautiful distortion from Jimi's Strat is smoothed over, the visceral excitement reduced. The ring of Mitch Mitchell's snare drum on "Red House" is lost; Jimi's vocals sound as if he's off-mike; the LD loses vital information. To render Jimi Hendrix boring should be a criminal offense! Bertrand Tavernier's Round Midnight is a wonderful, moody jazz film starring Dexter Gordon as an expatriate jazz musician living in late…
The Magical Mystery Tour of Surround-Sound:
Though it seems as if surround-sound was invented for Home Theater as a way to sell more speakers, amps, processors, and cables, surround-sound has been around for decades. In the early '50s, Cinerama and 70mm were the first to use surround effects; film-sound mixers have been grappling with what to do with this effect for over 40 years. Yes, surround-sound serves to envelop the audience in sound, but I find the disparity of placement (picture in front, sound behind) a distraction. Momentary sounds, such as a jet flying overhead, make more…
Joel Silver---Pro
Joel Silver is co-founder of the Imaging Science Foundation, a professional organization that offers retailer training in video basics and setup. Both Thomas J. Norton and J. Gordon Holt of Stereophile have taken the ISF course. Dear Steve: The marriage of audio and video is far from being in trouble. In fact, in the next 12 months this union will blossom into a new era of high-end electronic home entertainment. That era will begin with the introduction of the Digital Video Disc format---the DVD.
We at the Imaging Science Foundation are high-end electronic…
NTSC is an "interlace" system. In 1939 we couldn't make a TV that could write fast enough to show 525 lines in 1/60 second. The solution was simple---write the odd-numbered lines in the first 1/60, and write the even-numbered lines in the next 1/60. We then see a whole picture every 1/30 second. No problem, except picture quality! We only have half the lines on the screen at any moment in time. The DVD, like your computer monitor, has all the lines every time, every frame, in a "progressive scan" display. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8...all together at one time in their proper order, not 1-3-5-7-9...and…
Table 1:
Image Format35mm FilmNTSC Video Vertical
Resolution4000 equivalent lines525 lines (Letterbox loses 150 lines) Brightness
Contrast Ratio200:160:1 Color Depth
Equivalent14-bit8-10-bit Sidebar 1: A Personal Definition of Home Theater
Home Theater seeks to re-create the cinema experiences at home. The basic Home Theater system includes a video monitor or video projector; five speakers (left, right, center, and at least two surrounds); subwoofer(s); surround processor; and, of course, a laserdisc player or VCR deck. Any similarities between the above descriptions…
Sidebar 2: Too Much of A Good Thing?
It was probably inevitable, but I still don't have to like it. I'm sure I'm not the only audiophile who has noticed what's happened to bass balance since CD came along. Unanimously praised for bringing us the Best Bass We Ever Had, the CD is now bringing us the most bass we've ever had, to well beyond wretched excess. It started when a few small audiophile labels discovered that omnidirectional microphones give "great bass" from stereo systems that have always had to struggle to simulate the kind of low-end richness and "bloom" we hear in a good…
Letters in response appeared in the April 1996 issue of Stereophile: What's Wrong With This Picture?
Editor:
Steve Guttenberg proves exactly nothing by comparing Home Theater sound with that of CDs and LPs ("Lights in a Box?," January 1996). As Guttenberg himself indicated, the comparison should be between film sound and Home Theater sound. As to laserdisc sound being inferior to that of CD and LP, I would certainly expect that; the sound on the laserdisc has been drastically manipulated and distorted (for artistic effect), while that of the CD and LP almost certainly is derived…
Immediate Attention
Editor:
It's just past midnight, I haven't yet finished my newest copy of Stereophile and I'm writing because the Steve Guttenberg/Joel Silver articles on Home Theater demand immediate attention. Mr. Guttenberg eloquently expresses an opinion that the mere existence of surround-sound will detract from appreciation of really great music, and is an affront to a true audiophile. I am not an audiophile. I am, instead, a fairly knowledgeable, fairly discriminating, middle-aged man who happens to love music. I earn my daily bread as a Sales Associate (Home Audio…
"Equipment Reports," "Record Reviews," "Letters," "Industry Update," "Sam's Space," "As We See It," "The Final Word"---I read and enjoy them all. But the section of Stereophile I especially look forward to reading is "Manufacturers' Comments." How is the manufacturer going to respond to a review that's considerably less than 100% positive? Can they take criticism gracefully, or do they have an attitude? If I were a consumer considering purchase of one of their products, would their comments convince me that they'd be a good company to deal with? Are they uptight beyond reason, or do they…
