Audio Video News

Home-theater fans who hope to add a DVD version of <I>Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace</I> to their collections when the videotape hits the streets in April will have a very long wait. Possibly as long as five years, according to publicity from <A HREF="http://www.lucasfilm.com/">Lucasfilm</A>, which says director George Lucas wants to do "something special" with the DVD release, a project he probably won't get to until 2005, after he has finished the next two chapters in the "prequel" series.

A war of words has broken out between television networks <A HREF="http://www.nbc.com/">NBC</A> and <A HREF="http://cbs.com/">CBS</A> over the use of digital effects that altered the background during CBS coverage of New Year's Eve festivities in New York's Times Square. "Shocked and outraged" is one of the milder phrases used by NBC executives over the use of digital effects by CBS technicians to block a huge NBC video sign visible behind newsman Dan Rather during the broadcast. A CBS logo was inserted in its place.

NAD showcased a DVD player and an A/V receiver, both new at this year's CES. NAD's first DVD machine is called the T550 and will retail at $799. In addition to built-in Dolby Digital is a feature sure to please audiophiles using the machine as a music source: separate high-quality audio outputs when used with a 24/96 source. The T760 receiver includes both Dolby Digital and DTS and is modestly rated at 60W for all five channels. (NAD is known for conservative power ratings.) The T760 will retail for $999.

Despite the apparent eagerness of consumer electronics manufacturers to bring out new, improved, and much cheaper high-definition television equipment, the situation behind the scenes is anything but rosy. Satellite services are coming on board with the new format at an encouraging rate, but cable companies, who deliver most of the television signals to most American viewers, have been dragging their feet for years. Reluctance to adapt digital transmission because of its bandwidth demands has hindered the rollout of the new system by as much as five years, according to some estimates.

When the phase-out of NTSC analog television finally comes to pass, the viewing public may welcome its disappearance, especially if the decline in prices evident at this year's Consumer Electronics Show continues at the present rate. Display hardware is beginning to come down in price as services begin to blossom&mdash;a trend that should continue long into the future. The development bodes well for sofa spuds everywhere.

Last week, Audio Line Source announced a new product it calls Richard Gray's Power Company. ALS claims the Power Company reinvents power by delivering high current on demand via a "reactive electronic interface device," that it is the only product of its kind on the market, and that an entire system can be plugged into it.

A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge has denied a request for a temporary restraining order against 72 computer enthusiasts brought by the DVD Copy Control Association. The computer folk were accused of distributing a string of code, called DeCSS, that enables them to play DVD movies on Linux-based machines and thereby violate intellectual property laws. Linux is user-developed software widely perceived as a possible competitor to Microsoft's Windows.