LATEST ADDITIONS

Steven Stone  |  Jun 29, 2003

A year ago, Texas Instruments' new HD2 chip for DLP projectors, with a native resolution of 1280x720, was little more than a promise. Today you can hardly walk into a home-theater dealer without being hit in the eye by a DLP projector based on the HD2. It's just too bad that most HD2-equipped projectors cost more than $12,000.

Tank Menzies  |  Jun 29, 2003

<I>Naomi Watts, David Dorfman, Martin Henderson, Brian Cox. Directed by Gore Verbinski. Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 (anamorphic widescreen). DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 (English, French), Dolby Digital 2.0. 115 minutes. 2002. DreamWorks 89980. R. $26.</I>

Daniel Kumin  |  Jun 28, 2003
Homepage photo, remotes, and back panels by Tony Cordoza Sure, when it comes to A/V receivers, the $4,000 flagships get most of the attention in our fantasy lives, and the $399 loss-leaders get most of the play in the Sunday-paper circulars.
HT Staff  |  Jun 28, 2003
DVD: Anastasia—20th Century Fox
Video: 3
Audio: 2
Extras: 3
They say that, in Hollywood's Golden Age, people didn't go to the movies to see movies; they went to see stars. I can only imagine that this was the case with Anastasia, a flop that stars Ingrid Bergman and Yul Brynner. A story as intriguing as that of the mysterious Romanov princess has so much potential, especially when you pair it with the prospect of a Pygmalion story in the vein of My Fair Lady. No such luck, though. Star power notwithstanding, Anastasia left me numb and, at one point, asleep.
HT Staff  |  Jun 27, 2003
MartinLogan
MartinLogan's Cinema i center-channel speaker builds on the same foundation as the company's Cinema center channel, but it incorporates some new technologies and a supercool industrial design. The speaker includes ClearSpar technology, which is said to enhance the Cinema i's transparent aesthetic and increase both efficiency and dynamics. MartinLogan's MicroPerf design is also aboard. In this design, the stator's individual holes are smaller, which allows for more open space compared with that of the traditional ESL transducer. This 37-pound speaker is ergonomically friendly, too. Using its included stand, you can mount it on your display, on the wall, on the ceiling, or even on the floor. Just use the incorporated handgrips to aim the speaker at the listening position. This versatile center channel costs $1,795.
MartinLogan
(785) 749-0133
www.martinlogan.com
Mike Wood  |  Jun 27, 2003  |  First Published: Jun 28, 2003
Samsung SIR-TS160, Zenith HD-SAT520, and Sony SAT-HD200 HD DirecTV Tuners: Connect to the future of digital TV.

Whether we like it or not, digital video connections are the way of the future. Growing consensus from manufacturers suggests that consumers who have HD-capable displays that only have analog (Y/Pb/Pr or RGB) high-definition connections won't be left out in the cold, which is good news. However, while Hollywood may allow legacy equipment to remain in service, they prefer the potential copyright protection that's available through digital signals. We enthusiasts like the opportunity to pass digital signals directly to the display without stopping along the way for an unnecessary conversion back to an analog signal. Finally, several manufacturers have come out with new HD-capable DirecTV tuners to accommodate the growing number of displays with digital connections.

Mark Elson  |  Jun 27, 2003  |  First Published: Jun 28, 2003
A little motorization can add a lot of enjoyment, both functionally and aesthetically.

Plasma TVs swing and pivot in midair with the help of articulating arms. Motorized speakers unhinge and then retract. Projectors and screens gracefully descend from ceilings and then magically disappear. TVs rise and fall with the help of hydraulic lowboys. Drapes open and close at will. Seats (and parts of your anatomy) move and shake. Think your equipment needs to stay still? Think you need to stay still? Think again.

Geoffrey Morrison  |  Jun 27, 2003  |  First Published: Jun 28, 2003
Four speaker systems. One verdict. Five hungry editors.

Two Californians, a Canadian, and an Israeli walk into a bar. No, wait. It was an apothecary. Two Californians, a Canadian, and an Israeli walk into an apothecary. They say, "Ow." No. They order a drink. No. They make speakers. Yes. That's it, they make speakers, and we've gathered their sub/sat systems together here: the PSB Alpha B from the great white north, the Morel Spiro from the other side of the planet, and NHT and M&K systems from what many people consider to be a different planet. They range in price from just under $1,400 to just over $1,900. To make things interesting in this land of reality TV shows, we will ceremoniously eat the loser of this Face Off. Next on Fox: When Hungry Editors Attack. Intrigued? So am I, and I already know how it ends.

Mike Wood  |  Jun 27, 2003  |  First Published: Jun 28, 2003
A light at the end of the connection tunnel.

The consumer electronics industry has a unique way of making a mess of things. Take HDTV, for example. Competing and completely different connection standards have made a mess of what should be a simple but substantial advancement in picture quality. Analog connections are fine, but they don't have the copy-protection capability to appease content providers. Then there's IEEE 1394, a copy-protected and network-enabled solution that only works with displays that have built-in HDTV decoders. Finally, you have the digital visual interface (DVI), a modified computer-display connection. DVI works well with satellite and cable systems that use interactive program guides, but it uses an expensive connection type that's difficult to run longer than 10 to 15 feet.

Thomas J. Norton  |  Jun 27, 2003

"Remarkable things are happening in the plasma-display market . . . a big, flat screen hanging on the wall has universal appeal."

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