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Audio Video News
Panasonic 2011 Blu-ray Players
Scott Wilkinson  |  Mar 08, 2011  | 
Panasonic today held press briefings at its Panasonic Hollywood Labs facility near Universal City, CA, regarding its 2011 line of Blu-ray players, HTIBs (home-theater-in-a-box systems), self-contained iPod microsystems, and a soundbar. This being Ultimate AV, I'll focus on the Blu-ray players here.
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Audio Video NewsPortable Player ReviewsHeadphone Amp/DAC Reviews
Pioneer's New Receivers Really Love Apple
Brent Butterworth  |  Mar 08, 2011  | 

DVD, say your prayers. Blu-ray Disc, better get your affairs in order. Judging from the new A/V receivers Pioneer introduced on Monday at the W Hotel in San Francisco, one could easily conclude that the old "hard" media formats have pretty much played out.

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Audio Video News
iTunes Now Does Home Sharing
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 08, 2011  | 
Apple has a new trick, one all but overlooked in its recent announcement of the second-generation iPad. Devices running iOS 4.3 now do Home Sharing of iTunes 10.2 library content via wi-fi.

So if you have an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch running iOS 4.3, you can stream movies, music, and other stuff from your PC or Mac running iTunes 10.2. This does not include the streaming and transfer of movie rentals.

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Audio Video News
Apple Seeks to Offer Cloud Access
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 07, 2011  | 
Don't you hate it when you've paid for a download but can't enjoy it—because it's on a device that's either unauthorized, lost, or dead? Apple is proposing a solution to the music industry in the form of cloud-based content access.

The proposal under discussion would "give users more flexibility in how they access purchased music," says Bloomberg News, which broke the story. "A deal would provide iTunes customers with a permanent backup of music purchases if the originals are damaged or lost."

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Audio Video News
Win the Polk F/X Wireless Surround
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 04, 2011  | 
Polk Audio is staging a contest that will put F/X Wireless Surround speakers into the hands of happy surround buffs. You can enter every day between now and March 31, 2011. No purchase is required.

The F/X Wireless Surround looks more like a squat subwoofer than a surround speaker. This unorthodox product is designed to be placed behind the main seating area, providing surround effects without intruding into the room.

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Audio Video News
Roku Embraces Amazon Prime Video
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 03, 2011  | 
Roku is adding another feather to its cap. Its set-top box will stream Amazon Prime Instant Video.

Amazon Prime Instant Video is itself fairly new. Its initial purpose was to give free two-day shipping. Now it also includes Instant Video streaming of 5000 movie and TV show titles.

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Music ReviewsAudio Video News
The Rolling Stones Catalog Comes to HDTracks.
Stan Horaczek  |  Mar 03, 2011  | 

It was kind of a big deal with The Beatles finally made their way onto the ever-growing digital music behemoth that is iTunes, but we find this news just as, um, satisfying. Starting this week, 27 Stones records will be finding their way onto the audiophile music service, HDTracks.com. The tracks have been pulled from remasters that were originally created for and released on SACD in the early 2000s.

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Audio Video News
It's here: Bambi 2
SV Staff  |  Mar 02, 2011  | 
That's "2" as in Disney's Second Screen technology, introduced on the 1942 animated classic's Blu-ray debut, which was unveiled yesterday in a Diamond Edition. Yes, confusingly, there are...
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Audio Video News
Netflix to Expand Use of Subtitles
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 02, 2011  | 
Movie subtitles are a must for the elderly, the hard of hearing, and those for whom English is a second language. They're a universal part of Blu-ray and DVD releases but rarer in video streaming. Netflix aims to fill that need by expanding the use of subtitles in the majority of its online offerings.

Specifically, Netflix aims to have subtitles in 80 percent of its streaming programming by the end of 2011, up from 30 percent now.

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Audio Video News
7.1 From Day 1
Brent Butterworth  |  Mar 01, 2011  | 

Home theater enthusiasts have had seven speakers in their systems for a decade now, but only now is Hollywood finally catching up. Last Saturday, Dolby Laboratories feted the release of the Megamind Blu-ray Disc, which it says is the first movie released in 7.1-channel sound in theaters and on Blu-ray. A screening of the Blu-ray Disc in the company's technically unassailable theater was preceded by a discussion with Erik Aadahl, one of the movie's two supervising sound editors.

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Audio Video News
Pssst, Mac, Wanna Buy a Video Rental Chain?
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 01, 2011  | 
Blockbuster Inc. is looking for a buyer. The chain has already been in bankruptcy since last fall. Selling itself to the highest bidder is the only way to avoid liquidation.

Not that the rot hasn't started already. The news comes as Blockbuster has been shedding brick-and-mortar stores, closing 609 of 3400 last month.

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Audio Video News
There's an App for That Movie
Mark Fleischmann  |  Feb 28, 2011  | 
Warner is trying a new approach to movie sales. It's simple and logical: Just download the movie as an app.

There's only one problem. Apple may kill the idea.

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Audio Video News
Amazon Announces Free Streaming Content for Prime Subscribers
Stan Horaczek  |  Feb 25, 2011  | 

I've been a subscriber to Amazon's Prime service for a while now for the free shipping it affords. But now there's a new reason to sign up in the form of a full-on free streaming media service not unlike the one offered by Netflix.

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Audio Video News
Denon Retrofits Flagships
Mark Fleischmann  |  Feb 25, 2011  | 
Manufacturers of surround gear typically upgrade products by replacing one model with another. But Denon is taking a different path with upgrades of a pair of four-year-old products.

The Denon AVR-5308CI flagship audio/video receiver and AVP-A1HDCI preamp-processor are geting Audyssey MultEQ XT32 room correction, Audyssey DSX width- and height-enhanced listening modes, and the Dolby Pro Logic IIz height-enhanced listening mode.

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Audio Video NewsPremiere Design
Thunderbolt Ups the Ante for HTPCs
Scott Wilkinson  |  Feb 24, 2011  | 
Intel and Apple today announced the introduction of a new computer I/O technology called Thunderbolt, which makes its debut on the latest MacBook Pro laptops. Yet another connection might seem the antithesis of cool, but this is big news for home-theater PCs.
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