Audio Video News

High definition television will soon be getting a major push from <A HREF="http://www.discovery.com">Discovery Communications</A>.

Digital television is in a period of rapid growth that will continue for years to come, according to a study released in late March by Informa Media Group, a London-based research firm. As many as 96.7 million households worldwide could be enjoying digital television by the end of the 2003, according to projections cited by the authors of <I> TV International Sourcebook 2003</I>.

Scott Wilkinson unpacks the <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/showarchives.cgi?103">Yamaha RX-Z1 A/V receiver</A> and wires it into his system, stating, "It was with eager anticipation that I agreed to review the company's current flagship receiver."

The next generation of video projectors will be several magnitudes better than the best ones available now. A hint of things to come was unveiled by Sony Electronics earlier in March, with a public demonstration of its Silicon Crystal Reflective (SXRD) technology. At the heart of SXRD is a high-density fixed-pixel micro display generating over 2 million pixels (1920 x 1080 pixels) of picture data from a 0.78"-diagonal panel with a pixel pitch of 9mm each and an inter-pixel spacing of just 0.35mm.

Personal video recorders (PVRs) may be hot technology, but <A HREF="http://www.sonicblue.com">SONICblue</A>'s business is as cold as Lake Superior in February. On March 19, the Santa Clara, CA owner of the ReplayTV, Go Video, and Rio brands announced it was mulling Chapter 11 reorganization. For its fourth fiscal quarter, SONICblue posted a $33.4 million net loss, with a 16% drop in sales, a total of $66.99 million.