Last month, I ran a list of favorite oldies that a radio
station had gleaned from its readership, and asked for your candidates. I was somewhat
surprised at how little response there was -- one letter -- but maybe that shows I'm an
old fogey, and my audience finds Fifties and Sixties pop records about as relevant as
Victorian music hall numbers. Anyway, here's the one response:
Only three Beatles songs in the top 50, and "Twist and Shout" being one of
them? That's just wrong. And one Stones song? Let's just fix that right now.
Beatles: "Penny Lane"
Beatles: "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds"
Rolling Stones: "Paint It Black"
Duly noted, except that "Lucy" never made the charts, however important it
may have been as a song.
...Ian G. Masters
I've been a Stereo Review reader on and off for about 18 years. I guess you
could say that you basically taught me just about everything I know about audio, at least
indirectly, through the Q&A column. I'm still a bit rusty when it comes to video,
though. I've just purchased a modest high-definition-capable rear projection TV that does
have the ability to accept and natively display a 480p input. Assuming I'm using the
proper component video input, will a progressive-scan DVD player, without 3:2 pulldown,
give me a noticeable improvement over a decently performing player without progressive
scan output?
...David R. Reedich
It'll definitely be better overall. The lack of 3:2 pulldown (to compensate for the
difference in film and TV frame rates) will sometimes cause artifacts that the more
advanced circuitry would eliminate, but only on material that started out as film, and
only sometimes even then. Even that is probably preferable to a regular interlaced
picture.
...Ian G. Masters
I'm stumped. I have a receiver that I thought would provide me with Dolby Digital
surround sound processing. Now I want to purchase a DVD player and have been told by more
than one sales person that I must get a more expensive DVD player with a DTS processor
built in. I thought I already had a processor in my receiver? Can you help me out? Do I
need to spend the extra money to buy a "processor" or can I just purchase a
regular DVD player?
...Randy Nault
You'll only need DTS capability if you specifically want to buy discs whose audio is
encoded in the system, and there are relatively few of those. For most of us, Dolby
Digital is all we'll need, and it can be processed by virtually all of today's receivers.
...Ian G. Masters
I recently immigrated from a country that uses the PAL TV standard. I am a freelance
cameraman and producer, and I had a lot of material on both VHS formats.This was not a
problem because most of the TVs and VHS players in my home country were dual format. I am
now in the process of buying DVDs here and wondered what the result will be if and when I
return to live in a PAL country. Will I be able to get a DVD machine that plays discs from
all regions?
...John Queenan
