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Audio Video News
Hide-Away-Home-Theater Exposed
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Aug 30, 2004
Considering how focused they are on designing ways of incorporating high-performance home theater gear into the smallest amount of space possible, you might think that the folks at Ginni Designs spent their formative years growing up in one of the tinier regions of Munchkin Land. (Although they deny it, I suspect that Ginni Designs has at least one elf - or perhaps a couple of interior-design-oriented descendants of the Seven Dwarfs - secreted away in the back offices helping design their magical cabinetry. It's a "Small Eye for the Home Theater Guy" kind of thing.)
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Audio Video News
Home Theater Speaker Three-For-All
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Aug 30, 2004
Plasma, plasma, on the wall, who's the fairest speaker of them all? ("Fairest", of course, meaning "least visibly obnoxious while sitting next to one of those sleek, sexy, and usually silver-finish flat-panel TVs" with added elements of "gee, it'd be nice if it were easy to install - like maybe if the L, C, and R speakers were all one unit".) Boston Acoustics claims to have the answer with the new P400 slim theater speaker, a unique compound speaker unit that incorporates discrete left, center, and right front speakers in a single, thin chassis that's "designed to perfectly complement a 42-inch plasma or LCD television or monitor, a DLP rear-projection console, or a traditional screen."

Yes, Boston Acoustics knows all you plasma lovers out there hate speakers - or at least hate to look at speakers. (It's truly a love/hate relationship. You love to listen to good sound, but you hate to look at the speakers that are necessary to create it. My advice is that you should seek professional help about this, you know.)

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Definitive Technology BP7002 home theater speaker system
Rich Warren  |  Aug 29, 2004

Looking for a good test DVD for Definitive Technology's BP7002 system, I settled on the swashbuckling Master and Commander. The commander, Jack Aubrey, portrayed by Russell Crowe, set sail in 1805 in this adaptation of Patrick O'Brian's historically accurate novel, but the special effects and sound quality are definitely 21st century.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
House of Sand and Fog
uavKrissy Rushing  |  Aug 29, 2004

<I>Jennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley, Jonathan Ahdout, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Ron Eldard, Frances Fisher, Kim Dickens. Directed by Vadim Perelman. Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 (anamorphic). Dolby Digital 5.1. 126 minutes. 2003. DreamWorks 90977R. $26.99</I>.

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3 Faces of HDTV
Al Griffin  |  Aug 26, 2004

After half a decade of struggling to attract eyeballs, high-definition TV (HDTV) has turned the corner at last. A lot of people have moved beyond wondering if they should spring for an HDTV to asking themselves, "Which one should I buy?" If you've been pondering the same question, it's time to get a grip on the different types of big-screen HDTVs.

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Audio Video News
Pre-CEDIA New Products
Ultimate AV Staff  |  Aug 23, 2004  |  First Published: Aug 24, 2004

The annual CEDIA convention is only three weeks away, and equipment makers are generating plenty of pre-show excitement with new product announcements.

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Audio Video News
Added to the Archives This Week
Ultimate AV Staff  |  Aug 23, 2004

Thomas J. Norton evaluates the <A HREF="/directviewandptvtelevisions/704sony">Sony Grand Wega KF-50 WE610 LCD rear-projection television</A>, noting that the CRT is pretty much dead as new technologies take its place. TJN checks to see how this one measures up.

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Audio Video News
Coming Attractions
HT Staff  |  Aug 23, 2004
PSB Speakers
Nothing pleases us more than to hear that the manufacturer of a solid product has introduced a complement to said product. Such is the case with PSB's new SubSonic 9 subwoofer ($1,599), which the company designed to be the perfect complement to their Platinum Series speakers. The sub has dual 10-inch woofers in an opposing-woofer design. According to PSB, this design cancels the opposite directional force exerted by a single woofer so that less energy is lost as the two forces interact with the cabinet. The Class H amp delivers a rated 400 watts of continuous output. Look for the SubSonic 9 early in the fourth quarter.
PSB Speakers
(905) 831-6555
www.psbspeakers.com
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Audio Video News
Latest Software Reviews
HT Staff  |  Aug 23, 2004
DVD: The Girl Next Door—20th Century Fox
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 3
OK, I'll admit up front I'd give this movie a good review if Elisha Cuthbert sat for two hours reading the 9/ 11 Commission Report. But here we get to see Cuthbert—best known as Jack Bauer's daughter on 24—in the role she was born to play: a porn actress who's house-sitting next door to a sexually frustrated high school senior (Emile Hirsch). As such, she swims, teases, drips and, yes, strips, more than once. Ah, the joys of DVD, and the A-B repeat function.
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Audio Video News
Industry Roundup
Barry Willis  |  Aug 23, 2004

USDTV makes headway: Fledgling over-the-air pay TV service US Digital Television (USDTV) has signed more than 8000 subscribers in its six months in business, according to a <I>Broadcast Engineering</I> report August 16. The startup is the first terrestrial digital subscription TV service in the US to piggyback new digital broadcast channels of local television stations by leasing unused spectrum from participating broadcasters. Based in Salt Lake City, USDTV is also available in Albuquerque, NM and Las Vegas.

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