Audio Video News

48 years after its release in 1965, Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” finally has an official music video. Well, actually, it has an infinite number of videos. The digital media company Interlude Studios has created a totally unique interactive video for Dylan’s classic that turns channel-surfing into a mind-blowing experience.

Stepping up its TV game in 2014 by putting a “big emphasis on picture quality,” Vizio announced yesterday that it will add full-array LED backlighting with local dimming to its 2014 E Series line of LCD TVs. The line will include a 55-inch model that will sell in the “mid $700” range, according to a spokesman.

In a recent Ask S&V column, I answered a reader question about North American-made audio: Does anybody make audio gear over here anymore? One name I listed in my response was Canadian speaker-maker Paradigm, a company that manufacturers a wide range of speaker models, subwoofers, and audio electronics in a 225,000 square-foot facility located in Mississaugua, Ontario. Sound & Vision has rarely met a Paradigm speaker or electronics component from Paradigm’s sister-brand Anthem that it didn’t like, so the company is obviously doing something right. To get an overview of just what is happening under the roof of that 225,000-square foot facility, Paradigm’s marketing dept. invited me up for a day to check things out. Ready for a tour? Let’s go!

At the annual CES Unveiled event in New York City last night a few dozen companies offered a glimpse of products they plan to show at CES in early January. Here are a few that caught our eye…

Blockbuster, the name that became synonymous with video rental and represented an empire of 9,000 stores at its peak, announced plans to close the remaining 300 company-owned stores in the U.S. by early January.

The wildly popular Google Chromecast just got even better. It has added Pandora Radio and Hulu Plus to its list of supported content. And, the best may be yet to come.