State of the Blog: 'AV it!

Not much actual blog news this week. Things are ticking along, primed to explode with TV shows this September. August was a period of AV updating for me, what with the arrival of a Virgin+ HD digibox*, which in turn required a new speaker system because V+ only has HDMI/optical ports. After a week of research and deliberation, I purchased the Onkyo HTX22HD system, mainly because I can't be bothered messing around buying separates, but also because it's one of the few sub-£400 kits that can decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD from Blu-ray. Yes, I know my PS3 already decodes those formats internally, but it was still a plus point for me, and means I'm not forever tied to that console.

This all marks my re-entry into the wonderful world of surround sound, after my Toshiba CRT TV (with built-in DD5.1) died a death last summer. I now have a burning desire to re-rent a few Blu-rays that I suspect were stupendous but sounded anemic with two speakers and a subwoofer connected by phonos. I only have three Blu-rays that I actually own, so I've been listening to Dark Knight (TrueHD), Dark City (DTS-HD) and Watchmen** (TrueHD). All sound excellent.

I dare say they'd sound better if I had pricier speakers and top-quality speaker wire, but I'm not THAT anal about sound. My front room's too small to discern the difference. I can still tell it's better than regular DD5.1 and DTS. Indeed, the PS3's menu shows that Dark Knight in DD5.1 outputs around 600Kbps of audio info, which leaps to around 3MBps with TrueHD. It's just clearer, richer and the sound flows around the speakers like silk.

In other AV-related news, I found a great way to calibrate your LCD/Plasma TV if you have one. Simply follow the basic instructions on this BBC blog. It helps if you can download their BBC TV Test Card .PNG image and display it on your TV to check your colour/contrast/brightness settings. If not, the Test Card appears during the BBC HD preview, but you'll have to wait for it and then scramble to perform your TV calibration while it's up!


* No, I haven't forgotten my promise to review the new Samsung V+ box here. Stay tuned for that.

** Incidentally, I'm surprised so many Blu-rays are region-free. I'm taking that as a sign Blu-ray is now a global market and the studios are happy for people to import discs. Watchmen still cost me £20 via Amazon US, so I dare say the American retailer is making a profit (that's about $35, isn't it?) I won't make a habit of this, though -- I only did it because the Director's Cut is unavailable in the UK and it makes a good demo disc.