Audio Video News

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HT Staff  |  Feb 24, 2004  |  First Published: Feb 25, 2004  | 
Many home theater experts contend that the proper place for a center channel speaker is directly behind the screen, as in a commercial theater. Such arrangements require perforated screens that are acoustically transparent but visually reflective, an arrangement that can wreak havoc with some fixed-pixel projectors. Annoying moire patterns can result from the relationship between a projector's image elements and the holes in a perforated screen.
Barry Willis  |  Feb 23, 2004  | 

If you were thinking about buying a copy of <A HREF="http://www.321studios.com">321Studios</A>' DVD-backup software, you'd better hurry. On Friday, February 20, a San Francisco federal judge ruled that the company's popular "DVD X Copy" software is illegal, and ordered a halt to its distribution within seven days.

Barry Willis  |  Feb 23, 2004  | 

Warren Lieberfarb's "sell through" agenda for DVD pricing has had some unintended consequences. The former head of Warner Home Entertainment pushed hard for an industry-wide pricing policy that made movies on DVD one of the greatest bargains in the history of entertainment. For compact disc prices, movie fans can own archival copies of films that cost tens of millions to produce&mdash;a strategy that has had serious consequences for the video rental business.

 |  Feb 23, 2004  | 

In a home theater world filled with knobs, buttons and flashing lights, Michael Fremer finds the <A HREF="/surroundsoundpreampprocessors/1203arcam">Arcam FMJ AV8 7-channel preamp-processor & FMJ P7 7-channel amplifier</A> "sleek, refreshingly simple, and clean looking." As to its performance, MF provides the complete rundown.

 |  Feb 16, 2004  | 

Something that legions of science fiction fans have long hoped for will become a reality this September: the release of a four-disc set of George Lucas's <I>Star Wars</I> trilogy.

 |  Feb 16, 2004  | 

You've got great components, but how to make them easy for everyone to use? Scott Wilkinson examines the <A HREF="/accessories/1203remote">Universal Remote Control Home Theater Master MX-800</A> and finds that it has one feature that may make it better than anything else in its price range.

 |  Feb 16, 2004  | 

The Home Recording Rights Coalition (<A HREF="http://www.hrrc.org">HRRC</A>) supports the interests of all home theater fans&mdash;especially those early adopters who bought high-def displays prior to proposals to insert "broadcast flags" in data streams to prevent unauthorized recording of copyrighted material. Such flags are part of last year's so-called "plug'n'play" agreement between equipment makers and cable providers.

 |  Feb 16, 2004  | 

<A HREF="http://www.jvc.com">JVC</A> should soon release its CU-VH1, a portable high-definition player/recorder intended to complement the company's GR-HD1 and JY-HD10 HDTV camcorders.

HT Staff  |  Feb 13, 2004  | 
Pioneer
Fresh from CES comes the VSX-D814, one of Pioneer's new A/V receivers. This receiver features Pioneer's multichannel acoustic calibration, which lets you easily and accurately set up your speakers based on your room. The VSX-D814 delivers a rated 100 watts of power to each channel and offers component and S-video switching to allow both progressive and interlaced NTSC and HDTV signals to pass to your TV or monitor. It features the standard array of Dolby and DTS processing modes. The included remote features Quick Setup to produce easy, accurate sound depending on the size of your room and the number of speakers. You can have all this for $365; just set aside a dollar a day.
Pioneer
(800) PIONEER
www.pioneerelectronics.com
HT Staff  |  Feb 13, 2004  | 
DVD: The Great Gatsby—Paramount
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 1
A great book does not necessarily make a great movie, as anyone who ever seen Demi Moore's version of The Scarlet Letter will certainly attest to. There have been three big-screen adaptations of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby since 1926; if any of them had the most potential, it was the 1974 version starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow. The script was written by Francis Ford Coppola (fresh off The Godfather), and the studio spared no expense on the budget required to reproduce the lavish Roaring 20s Long Island lifestyle. Unfortunately, this version of The Great Gatsby is pretentious, boring, and utterly lifeless—in other words, it's a lot like the elite socialites who make up most of the cast of characters.
HT Staff  |  Feb 10, 2004  | 
Sanyo isn't a name most Americans associate with home theater gear. That could change this year if the company's expansion plans come to fruition.
Barry Willis  |  Feb 09, 2004  | 

Pioneer buying NEC Plasma: NEC announced Friday Feb 6 that it would sell its plasma display panel (PDP) manufacturing business to Pioneer. NEC plans to concentrate its efforts on "network solutions and semiconductors," according to the announcement. The deal, estimated by Japanese analysts at about $379 million, could make Pioneer the dominant player in the hot plasma display market. The company projects that its PDP market share will rise from 14% to 22% as a result.

Barry Willis  |  Feb 09, 2004  | 

"Targeted marketing" is one of the most powerful buzz-phrases in the advertising lexicon. In its most benign form, it means simply offering information about products and services to those most likely to want them. In a more malevolent form, it means prying into private citizens' activities to discover what really captivates them.

 |  Feb 09, 2004  | 

Omnipolar? Thomas Norton performs a careful analysis of the <A HREF="/speakersystems/1203mirage">Mirage Omni 250 surround speaker system</A> to get to the bottom of the company's revolutionary design that points a tweeter at your ceiling. "Attempts to produce the ideal omnidirectional speaker continue," notes Norton.

 |  Feb 02, 2004  | 

Scott Wilkinson casts his critical gaze at the <A HREF="/dvdplayers/1203v">V, Inc. Bravo D1 DVD player</A> to find out just how good a DVI connection can be on a machine that sells for around $200. "The D1 is by no means perfect, but it occupies a unique place in the vanguard of the digital future, and so deserves a serious look," says SW.

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