Audio Video News

Low-cost TVs: Free trade may be good for American consumers, but it isn't always good for American workers. So concluded a US trade panel investigating charges that Chinese manufacturers have been "dumping" low-cost television sets on the US market over the past three years. On May 14, the US International Trade Commission voted unanimously to impose duties averaging 23% on imports of Chinese-made color televisions (CTVs), an action that could force up retail prices. Acting on a petition brought by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the Industrial Division of the Communication Workers of America (IUE-CWA), and Five Rivers Electronic Innovations, LLC, a TV manufacturer in Greeneville, Tennessee, the Commission found that between 2001 and 2003, total CTV imports from China rose 3000%, from 56,000 units to 1.8 million units. Imports of consumer goods reached an all-time high of $31.3 billion in March 2004, according to Five Rivers president Tom Hopson.

Motorola, Inc. has upped the stakes in race to build the next generation set-top box (STB).

Live music from popular recording artists is on tap for attendees at the Home Entertainment Show coming to NYC May 20—23, 2004 at the Hilton New York Hotel. And best of all—all performances are FREE to all Show attendees!

It's expensive to acquire new satellite TV subscribers. Both DirecTV and EchoStar added hundreds of thousands of new subscribers in the most recent quarter, but both posted financial losses in the process.

From the March/April issue, Steven Stone sits himself in the middle of the <A HREF="/speakersystems/304genesis">Genesis 6.1 surround speaker system</A> and files his report. SS was curious what he would hear; this 5.1 system "represents the company's first dedicated multichannel music and home theater product."

More Marilyn . . . Well, sort of. It's been over 50 years since this quartet of modestly sophisticated comedy/dramas hit the silver screen to entertain post-WWII America. In those early years of the soon-to-be-booming 1950s, audiences might have had inklings that a certain young, blonde starlet might have a big decade ahead of her. More likely, ticket buyers were eager to see Claudette Colbert (Let's Make It Legal), Ginger Rogers and Fred Allen (We're Not Married), Monty Woolley and Thelma Ritter (As Young as You Feel), or June Haver and William Lundigan (Love Nest). You'd have no way of knowing that, however, from 20th Century Fox's packaging of these cinematic time capsules that capture an intriguing era of Hollywood movie-making that's forever gone. Marilyn Monroe's second-tier presence in this foursome of flicks is clearly the marketing angle that 20th Century Fox feels will mint new cash from old celluloid.