Scott Wilkinson

Premiere Design
Kaleidescape M-Class Blu-ray Server System
Scott Wilkinson  |  May 11, 2010

As an A/V enthusiast, you might well be familiar with <A href="http://www.kaleidescape.com">Kaleidescape</A>, a California-based maker of high-end movie servers. <I>UAV</I> hasn't covered its products lately because we are dedicated to high def, and they have been limited to serving DVDs&#151;until now. The company today announced the introduction of full support for Blu-ray with its new M-Class architecture.

Continue Reading >
Premiere Design
Sweet Space
Scott Wilkinson  |  May 10, 2010

The transition from monaural to two-channel stereo in the 1930s is undoubtedly one of the most important innovations in the history of recorded and reproduced sound. The idea first came to Alan Blumlein when he went to the movies, which had only recently been enhanced with synchronized audio.

Continue Reading >
3D Tech
Passive Polarization
Scott Wilkinson  |  May 07, 2010

As I explained in a previous entry in this blog, virtually all direct-view 3DTVs coming to market now use battery-powered active-shutter glasses to ensure that each eye sees only the image it's supposed to. But if you've gone to see a 3D movie at a commercial cinema lately, you were undoubtedly handed a different type of glasses that includes no electronics at all. These so-called passive glasses are much less expensive than their active counterparts—which is why they're used in public settings where they can be easily damaged or stolen—and there are two different types, depending on the technology being used in a particular theater. In this blog entry, I'll explain how one of these technologies—polarization—simulates 3D on a 2D screen.

Continue Reading >
Premiere Design
Musical Fidelity Titan 2-Channel Power Amp
Scott Wilkinson  |  May 06, 2010

Audiophiles know well the name <A href="http://www.musicalfidelity.com">Musical Fidelity</A>, a high-end British manufacturer for more than 30 years. The self-proclaimed culmination of all that experience is the Titan 2-channel power amp.

Continue Reading >
Ask S&V
Surround Formats, Defeating Overscan, Glassesless 3D
Scott Wilkinson  |  May 05, 2010
It's What's Up Front That Counts
I have an Onkyo TX-NR807 receiver, which provides seven channels of amplification, and it can do 7.1, Dolby Pro Logic IIz, and Audyssey DSX. Which of these surround formats do you recommend?
Continue Reading >
Home Theater Geeks Podcast
Podcast 19: Etienne Fortin
Scott Wilkinson  |  May 04, 2010  |  Published: May 05, 2010
Sensio CTO Etienne Fortin talks about the process of creating, encoding, delivering, and decoding 3D content as well as Sensio's 3D codec, 3D movies, one reason why active-shutter glasses are so expensive, and more.

Run Time: 58:27

Continue Reading >
3D Tech
Orson Scott Card on 3D
Scott Wilkinson  |  May 04, 2010

A couple of weeks ago, Tom Norton sent me a link to a blog entry on the website of Orson Scott Card, one of my favorite sci-fi authors who wrote the Ender and Alvin Maker series of books as well as many other fascinating stories, such as Songmaster and The Worthing Saga. In this particular blog entry, Card writes about why he hated Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and why he hates 3D in general.

Continue Reading >
Premiere Design
Acapella Sphäron Excalibur Speaker
Scott Wilkinson  |  May 03, 2010

Audiophiles who want to impress their friends&#151;and I seriously doubt there are any who don't&#151;would be hard pressed to do better than a pair of Sph&#228;ron Excalibur speakers from German horn specialist <A href="http://www.acapella.de/en/">Acapella</A>. But you'd better have a pretty big room to comfortably house these beautiful beasts, which stand over seven feet tall and weigh 1364 pounds each.

Continue Reading >
3D Tech
Samsung 3DTV Briefing
Scott Wilkinson  |  Apr 30, 2010

On Tuesday, I visited Samsung's QA (Quality Assurance) Labs in Los Angeles to discuss the company's 3D technology in some detail. Of course, there was a Samsung 3DTV on hand—the UN55C7000 LED-edgelit LCD—along with a BD-C6900 3D Blu-ray player and a high-def media server with some additional 3D content.

Continue Reading >
Premiere Design
Scaena Model 1.4 Speaker System
Scott Wilkinson  |  Apr 29, 2010

I've written about line-array speakers in this blog several times, and for good reason&#151;tall stacks of drivers deliver smooth horizontal dispersion and sound levels that fall off more gradually than point-source speakers, creating a coherent, open soundstage. That's the idea behind the so-called iso-linear speakers from American maker <A href="http://www.scaena.com">Scaena</A>, whose name is Latin for "stage."

Continue Reading >

Pages

X