David Ranada

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Custom Installation How-To
Bravo D1 Upconverting DVD Player
David Ranada  |  Apr 29, 2003

Photos by Tony Cordoza Just when you thought you had mastered the intricacies of video connectivity-having sorted out composite video, S-video, and the two flavors of component video (interlaced and progressive-scan)-V Inc.'s Bravo D1 comes along to make life complicated again.

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Custom Installation How-To
Burning Desire
David Ranada  |  Feb 03, 2006

Like swimmers in some Darwinian gene pool, DVD recorders are quickly mutating to fill every possible niche. Yet as they evolve, you can count on finding a core set of features in most decks - a TV tuner, a VCR-style timer, and a handful of recording "modes" that let you trade picture quality for playback time.

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Other Tech
Celestron’s Pocket Planetarium
David Ranada  |  Jan 08, 2006

The Celestron SkyScout is a handheld device for locating stars, planets, and other heavenly bodies.

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Other Tech
CES04 Live: Higher-Tech DVD
David Ranada  |  Jan 10, 2004

The first piece of A/V equipment you encounter after passing through security and entering the main hall of the CES is decidedly not high-tech.

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Custom Installation How-To
Copy Cats
David Ranada  |  Oct 28, 2004

Many video enthusiasts, al though they may have long wanted to destroy their cantankerous, tape-eating, low-resolution VHS machines, have collected large libraries of off-air programs or camcorder footage that they wouldn't want to be without. What better way to preserve your VHS library than to copy it to a far more robust and easy-to-use medium like recordable DVD?

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Cost Control
David Ranada  |  Jul 10, 2005

Designers of surround sound receivers have a tough job. In a multikilobuck flagship model they can use the best parts, the most advanced signal processing, and the most elaborate construction to deliver the features and performance specs users want.

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Other Tech
David's Dartboard: Fashion Statements
David Ranada  |  Mar 14, 2006

03/17/2006 Last weekend I went shopping for a protective jacket for the iPod Nano I bought recently. (Yes, even Sound & Vision reviewers buy gear at retail.) The buzz was that the Nano's high-gloss finish was more easily scratched than the finish on earlier iPods, something I can't verify.

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Denon AVR-2803 Digital Surround Receiver
David Ranada  |  Jul 14, 2003

Photos by Tony Cordoza As much as we'd all like to own a flagship model receiver, they aren't for everybody. Though well equipped and high powered, they tend to be massive and extremely expensive. If you set your sights just a little bit lower - especially when it comes to power - you can get an awful lot of receiver for substantially less money.

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Denon AVR-3805 Digital Surround Receiver
David Ranada  |  Jul 19, 2004

Many of us yearn to own a glistening flagship receiver: the prestige . . . the state-of-the-art performance . . . the vast array of features . . . the satisfaction of knowing that you own the very best. But flagships can be prohibitively expensive, as well as awkwardly large and extremely heavy. Ask any admiral. And then there's the complexity issue.

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Custom Installation How-To
Denon DVD-3910 Universal DVD/SACD player
David Ranada  |  Dec 31, 2004

One way to improve the performance you get out of your home theater is with a component that can be adjusted in so many ways, you can enhance the whole system just by setting it up right. That's what Denon's hyperadjustable DVD-3910 does for multichannel music and movie soundtracks.

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