David Ranada

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Other Tech
Tech Talk: Laser-Driven DLP Projectors
David Ranada  |  Apr 04, 2006  |  0 comments

04/05/2006 On Monday I heard that later this week Mitsubishi will be showcasing some rear-projection TVs based on Texas Instruments' digital micromirror (DMD) DLP technology.

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Other Tech
Tech Talk: Your Brain on Music
David Ranada  |  May 02, 2006  |  0 comments

05/02/2006 On April 21, our local National Public Radio outlet, WNYC, broadcast (and streamed over the Internet) an episode of the station's Radio Lab program. This slickly produced series combines aspects of NPR-style radio journalism with modern audio-studio production techniques that are the sonic equivalents of MTV-type visual effects.

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Other Tech
Thanks for the Memories
David Ranada  |  Jul 05, 2006  |  0 comments

"So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye." So goes the song. But only some of those sentiments apply to four digital-audio formats that have gone, or are about to depart, from the consumer-electronics scene. DAT, DCC, MD, and SACD never did fare "well" in the marketplace.

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Other Tech
The CD: 16 Bits and 20 Years
David Ranada  |  Dec 08, 2003  |  0 comments
The introduction of the compact disc was the greatest single leap forward in the history of recorded audio after Edison's invention of the phonograph in 1877 and the introduction of electrical recording in the late 1920s. By 1983 the long-playing (LP) record had entered what the late Peter Mitchell, my prime audio mentor, aptly referred to as its Baroque period.
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Other Tech
The Cutting Edge: Sony MXS10 Vaio PC
David Ranada  |  Apr 01, 2002  |  0 comments

At $2,800, the least expensive Vaio PC in Sony's MX desktop line doesn't seem like much of a bargain these days, even for a 1.7-GHz, Pentium 4 with an 80-gigabyte (GB) hard drive, 512 megabytes (MB) of memory, the exciting "home" version of Windows XP, and two better-than-average speakers (the 15-inch Sony LCD monitor shown is $600 extra).

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Other Tech
The Ghost of a Machine
David Ranada  |  Oct 03, 2006  |  0 comments

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Other Tech
The Missing Link
David Ranada  |  Nov 19, 2005  |  0 comments

During most of our recent tests of HDTVs, we've attempted to use them with a Scientific-Atlanta 8300HD cable box supplied by Time Warner connected via an all-digital HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) hookup. We often end up looking at a screen displaying an imperious message typical of cable-company communications: "Your HDTV does not support HDCP.

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Other Tech
The Progressive Tradeoff
David Ranada  |  Jan 19, 2006  |  0 comments

Hardly a week passes when we don't receive one or more letters from readers who seem to be in a panic about the difference between 1080i and 1080p HDTVs. All of their concerns arise from the desire, sometimes bordering on the obsessive, to get the best possible resolution from their sets.

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Custom Installation How-To
Toshiba D-R1 DVD Recorder
David Ranada  |  Feb 16, 2004  |  0 comments

Equipment photos by Tony Cordoza

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Custom Installation How-To
Toshiba SD-4800 DVD-Audio/Video Player
David Ranada  |  Jan 13, 2003  |  0 comments
Finding a product that performs better than its price would lead you to expect is always a pleasure for a reviewer. Toshiba's SD-4800 is just such a product-a relatively inexpensive DVD player that's packed with all the latest features. For example, it plays DVD-Audio discs through its multichannel analog outputs, which also serve for Dolby Digital playback.
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