Audio Video News

DVD: City by the Sea—Warner Brothers
Audio: 3
Video: 3
Extras: 2
Uniformly strong performances by the leads, notably Robert De Niro and James Franco, highlight and give added cache to a gritty drama that often looks and feels like an independent production. De Niro is a veteran New York detective who learns that his estranged, drug-addicted son is a murder suspect. Himself the son of a man who was executed for a botched kidnapping decades before, De Niro's Vincent La Marca is determined to save his child from prison and, later, "suicide by cop." But he must first reconstitute his relationship with the teenager in order to help him.

In the March 2003 issue, Pete Putnam discusses the ways to receive HDTV and refers to station allocation tables on various websites. These tables are admittedly difficult to find on these sites.

From the February issue, Peter Putman lights up the <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/showarchives.cgi?94">JVC DLA-G150CL D-ILA front projector</A>. DLP may be hot, but as Putman finds, "what hooks people on D-ILA projectors is their amazing rendering of colors."

Digital television is proving to be a huge boon to the Korean electronics industry.

Panasonic wants to make DVD-RAM the dominant video recording format in the near future.

Giclée Art World
What's an evening in your home theater without your favorite film-time treat? Nothing makes a home theater a home theater more than a big, freshly popped bowl of popcorn. Now, thanks to artist Clark Carroll's Pop Art, you can keep that feeling in your theater even when the popper is taking a well-deserved rest. Carroll has been an illustrator for 30 years and has been a member of the Society of Illustrators in New York (whose other members have included Norman Rockwell). Pop Art is available as a limited-edition giclée on Somerset paper, numbered and signed by the artist. The 15- by 20-inch version sells for $250, and the 30- by 40-inch size is $400. It might not fill your theater with that buttery aroma, but Pop Art may be the next best thing.
Giclée Art World
(610) 449-5560
www.gicleeartworld.com

From the January issue, Peter Putman lights up the <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/showarchives.cgi?92">Epson America PowerLite TW100 LCD front projector</A> to see if real home theater projectors exist at under five grand. As Putman notes, "Epson's entrance into the home-theater projector arena has long been anticipated."