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Sony: On to the Video
SV Staff  |  Aug 30, 2007  | 
Whoulda thunk that the company that invented the portable music player would years later play catch up to a computer company and some of its biggest TV rivals? But that's what happened to Sony and the Walkman in the digital age. Today's...
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Audio Video News
First $199 Chinese HD DVD Player Announced
 |  Aug 29, 2007  | 

First the<A HREF="http://www.ultimateavmag.com/news/82007paramount/"> Paramount defection</A>, and now some potentially big hardware news from the HD DVD camp. We've been hearing for months that the Chinese are coming with cheap HD DVD players in the fourth quarter of this year, and the first announcement appears to have been made. Headquartered in Canada, Venturer Electronics is releasing the Chinese-manufactured SHD7000 HD DVD player in time for this year's holiday shopping season. No offical release date or price was given, but Video Business is reporting it will be the least expensive standalone HD DVD player on the market at $199.

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Analysts Call Vizio Top TV Brand
Mark Fleischmann  |  Aug 28, 2007  | 
Vizio is claiming bragging rights as the number one selling brand of flat-panel TVs in a press release citing numerous market analysts. Note the distinction between "brand" and "manufacturer."
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Audio Video News
What Did We Do Before the DVR?
SV Staff  |  Aug 28, 2007  | 
A recent survey by Leichtman Research Group indicates that one in five homes now has a DVR. I get that. I don't know where I'd be without mine. I never would have been able to keep up with Lost and I never would have enjoyed Desperate Housewives...
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Free Analog Cable Service Urged
Mark Fleischmann  |  Aug 27, 2007  | 
A coalition of small cable operators is urging Congress to let them provide free analog cable service following the switchover to digital television broadcasting. That should make the DTV transition painless for owners of old-fashioned analog TVs, right? But there's a catch. The cable ops want a waiver on the retransmission fees that they'd otherwise have to pay broadcasters in exchange for carrying network signals.
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"Magic": Early Vinyl Gets the Grammy?
SV Staff  |  Aug 24, 2007  | 
Hot on the heels of my Bruce Springsteen post last week comes word that his new album with the E Street Band, due October 2 on CD, will appear on LP a full week earlier, on September 25. Why? Because the cutoff date for albums to be eligible for...
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Sly & the Family Stone: "Hits" Are Back!
SV Staff  |  Aug 24, 2007  | 
You may recall that, in his review of the Sly and the Family Stone boxed set The Collection, Steve Simels wrote the following: "For reasons I find unfathomable, Epic/Legacy chose not to include a remastered version of Greatest Hits in the...
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Audio Video News
Celebrity Antics Bore Public
Mark Fleischmann  |  Aug 24, 2007  | 
Are you tired of relentless celebrity "news" coverage? Had you had enough of their drug 'n' alcohol problems, fender benders, public meltdowns, legal woes, spells in the slammer, and unburied corpses? Turns out you have plenty of company.
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Did the Industry Just Yell Ouch?
SV Staff  |  Aug 24, 2007  | 
Just when it seemed like the Blu-ray camp was starting to gain an upper hand in the high-res DVD format war, HD DVD scored a major coup. But did the industry shoot itself in the foot again? Paramount Home Entertainment announced this week that all...
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Genesis Update: Hey, They're Late!
SV Staff  |  Aug 23, 2007  | 
As a postscript to my Genesis scoop below: Rhino has just announced that Genesis: 1983-1998, the second boxed set of the band's complete studio recordings in surround sound, has been bumped from October 23 to sometime in November. Meanwhile, an...
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HD DVD Victory Dissected
user  |  Aug 23, 2007  | 
Tuesday's surprise announcement that Paramount and DreamWorks would drop Blu-ray for HD DVD caused quite a flutter in the home theater community. Following are a few notes in the aftermath of the PR explosion.
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Audio Video News
A Little Fashion Goes a Long Way
SV Staff  |  Aug 21, 2007  | 
The female demographic has always been a tough nut to crack for the consumer electronics market. After all, pixel count, dB of SPL and high-octane wattage ratings are the kinds of testosterone-driven salesspeak that make most women's eyes glaze...
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Audio Video News
Fox Strikes Back
 |  Aug 21, 2007  | 

On the heels of Paramount's stunning announcement that it will be supporting HD DVD exclusively, Fox and MGM have jumped back into the fray with a massive slate of 29 "new release and must-have" Blu-ray Disc titles that will be in stores by the end of the calendar year. Included will be six Blu-ray titles released day and date with DVD, led by <I>Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer</I>, <I>Live Free or Die Hard</I> and Fox's hit TV show, <I>Prison Break</I>.

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Paramount, DreamWorks Dump BD for HD
Mark Fleischmann  |  Aug 20, 2007  | 
Until now the conventional wisdom has been that the victor in the format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD would be Blu-ray, if there were a victor at all. Well, now all bets are off. Two major studios have announced that they're dumping Sony's Blu-ray format for Toshiba's HD DVD. It looks as though both formats are likely to be around for the foreseeable future.
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Paramount and DreamWorks Animation To Support HD DVD Exclusively
 |  Aug 20, 2007  | 

In one of the most bold, stunning and unforeseen moves that's occured over the entire course of the format war, it was announced early this morning that Paramount and DreamWorks Animation will support HD DVD exclusively moving forward on a worldwide basis. Next week's HD DVD release of <I>Blades of Glory</I> will be the first Paramount HD DVD exclusive, followed by this summer's hits <I>Transformers</I> and <I>Shrek the Third</I>.

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