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Tracy E. Lecrone

DVE: HD Basics will work just fine with your projector—it works on all high-def displays, regardless of technology.

Up to Speed
You have buyer's guides for everything except Blu-ray players. It would be nice to see a buyer's guide for them. I also have a question that everyone seems to dance around. Every review I read about dedicated Blu-ray players mentions the fact that it isn't a PS3. Why is that? I can't believe the output from dedicated units is worse than a gaming system. I also find it hard to believe that there isn't a unit out there that provides all the features like 7.1, Netflix, Pandora, BD-Live, etc.

Greg Phillips

We are about to launch a new buyer's guide that will include Blu-ray players, so stay tuned for that.

Most Blu-ray players are compared to the PS3 because the PS3 is so good at playing Blu-ray—not because the image looks better, but because it loads discs so quickly. It's Cell processor is extremely powerful in order to render games well, which provides the side benefit of loading Blu-rays very fast. The Oppo BDP-83 is the first dedicated player to challenge the PS3 in terms of load times; see our reviews here and here.

Most current players are capable of 7.1 playback and BD-Live, so I'm not sure where you got the idea that these features are rare—they used to be, but no longer. Also, there are now some players with access to online content, such as the Samsung BD-P3600 and LG BD300.

Video Delay?
I have a Sony KDL-52V5100, TiVo HD DVR, and Panasonic DMP-BD60 (thanks for the great review on this one, which led me to buy it). Both devices are connected to the TV with 30-foot HDMI cables. Video looks great, but the sound is a little bit behind the action. I can put up with the out-of-sync dialog, but when Steven Segal is banging pool sticks with some Chinese thugs, I really need the sound effects to match the onscreen actions. Can I compensate for this with any of the devices I already own, or do I need to purchase some other device to get things to match up?

Chris Gordon

First of all, 30 feet is pretty long for an HDMI cable, though I doubt this is the source of your problem. I'm surprised that the sound is behind the picture—usually, the video lags behind the audio due to image processing. As a result, many AVRs have an audio-delay function that lets you sync the sound to the video. Unfortunately, I don't know of any consumer devices that delay the video to sync with the audio.

Are you sure the audio is not slightly ahead of the video? Sometimes it's hard to tell. If that turns out to be the case, an A/V receiver with audio delay will fix the problem—just connect the TiVo and BD player to the AVR and the AVR's HDMI out to the TV, and use cables that are as short as possible. You'll also need a set of speakers, which will sound much better than the TV's onboard audio system.

If you have a home-theater question, please send it to scott.wilkinson@sorc.com.