LATEST ADDITIONS

Tower Speaker Reviews
System Audio SA1750 Speaker System
Jerry Kindela  |  Aug 19, 2004  |  First Published: Aug 01, 2004
This home theater system only seems like the new kid on the block.

In 1984, Ole Witthoft found the state of the speaker art wanting. To his ears, most speakers suffered in two fundamentally intertwined ways: One, they didn't present the details of sound in a way that, two, led you to sense the music's feeling and passion. So, like so many entrepreneurs who try to fill the void in a marketplace based on their own perceptions, Witthoft launched System Audio, using these composite criteria as his mission statement.

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Mitsubishi PD-6130 Plasma HD Monitor and HD-5000A HDTV Receiver/Controller
Gary Merson  |  Aug 19, 2004  |  First Published: Aug 01, 2004
The big picture.

The 60-inch-plus plasma is the big kahuna of flat-screen designs. If you want to go really big and really flat (under 5 inches), plasma is the only technology that will get you there. Mitsubishi has adopted the two-box approach for their new plasmas. On its own, the PD-6130 is a 61-inch HD monitor. Add the HD-5000A controller, and it functionally becomes an integrated HDTV.

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AV Receiver Reviews
Value-Packed Receivers
Daniel Kumin  |  Aug 17, 2004

A short stack of Jacksons: four hundred dollars, more or less. Used to be a lot of money. Today, it'll buy one piece of chrome for your Hog, a box of average Cubans, or a decadent dinner for two in New York City. On the other hand, you might use a similar sum to buy an impressively powerful and flexible A/V receiver, setting the foundations for a serious home theater.

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Audio Video News
Coming Attractions
HT Staff  |  Aug 16, 2004
LG Electronics
LG's new plasma is available in three different sizes—42, 50, and 60 inches—to suit theaters of any size. The 50-inch DU-50PY10 is fully integrated, with ATSC/NTSC/QAM tuners and a built-in CableCARD slot. The television also features a 1,366 by 768p resolution and a rated 3,000:1 contrast ratio. The TV uses LG's proprietary XD Engine, which, according to the company, minimizes distortion, improves brightness, and enhances the overall picture quality. Inputs are plentiful, including HDMI, DVI with HDCP, RGB, and IEEE 1394. Pricing wasn't available at press time.
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Audio Video News
Latest Software Reviews
HT Staff  |  Aug 16, 2004
DVD: Purple Rain 20th-Anniversary Edition—Warner Brothers
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 4
The artist currently (and formerly) known as Prince experienced quite the career resurrection in 2004. The year began with his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and he followed that up with his biggest album and tour in ages. With the purple one's place atop the pop world once again secure, Warner Brothers has found the perfect time to release the 20th-anniversary, special-edition DVD of Purple Rain.
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Audio Video News
Cable Stagnant, Satellite Booming
Barry Willis  |  Aug 16, 2004

Cable TV may be nearing the end of a long growth season, yielding subscribers to competition from satellite services like DirecTV and EchoStar's Dish Network. Recently published figures from Kagan Research LLC show that the cable industry overall has lost 900,000 subscribers over the past two years.

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Audio Video News
Industry Roundup
Ultimate AV Staff  |  Aug 16, 2004

DirecTV in the north: On August 13, DirecTV Group Inc. has received clearance from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to move one of its satellites into an orbital slot controlled by Telesat Canada, a move that will expand DirecTV's reach to an additional 24 markets. The El Sugundo, CA–based satellite service should soon be serving as many as 130 markets, and could add as many as 7 million new customers to its existing base of 13 million. The company's new Canadian service should be in full operation by early October.

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Audio Video News
Added to the Archives This Week
Ultimate AV Staff  |  Aug 16, 2004

Thomas J. Norton warms up the <A HREF="/directviewandptvtelevisions/704rca">RCA Scenium HDLP50W151 DLP rear-projection television</A> and settles in for an appraisal, noting, "After a brief flirtation with LCoS, Thomson has chosen TI's DLP for their high-end RCA Scenium line."

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Audio Video News
Wider-Fi
Chris Chiarella  |  Aug 16, 2004
Wi-Fi is certainly one of buzzier hyphenated words I hear each week, and while my experiences have generally been positive, seldom are they jaw-dropping either. That all changed earlier this month when the team from Belkin Corp. demonstrated their newest products, the Wireless Pre-N Router (F5D8230-4, $179.99) and Wireless Pre-N Notebook Network Card (F5D8010, $129.99). "Pre-N" means that these products are arriving in advance of the upcoming 802.11n standard, but are Wi-Fi certified under the 802.11g standard and are intended to perform closer to the theoretical levels promised in Wi-Fi literature.
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Audio Video News
IT (In-ceiling Theater) Came From Above
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Aug 16, 2004
Unlike the editors of Home Theater Magazine who live in palatial estates written off their taxes as "business expenses" (note to the IRS: multiroom mansions are a job requirement for product testing purposes; no audits are necessary, really), not everyone is fortunate enough to live in a home with enough floor space to devote to a pair of (or five, six, or seven) perfectly positioned home theater speakers. (You poor, poor, pitiful people, you...) There are even some folks out there who refuse to see the beauty inherent in big, bulky, behemoth speakers dominating the visuals (and the available square footage) of the average living room. (I could mention the standard sexist question about the wearing of pants in the family; but since I'm in the process of installing in-walls throughout the Wilkinson abode, we'll just move on, shall we?) Some people don't even have available wall space for in-wall speakers. Atlantic Technology's two new in-ceiling speakers are the sonic salvation for situations such as these.
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