(Photos by Tony Cordoza) Let me tell you about my very first hard-disk drive. It was about the size of a VCR and made as much noise as a small refrigerator. It cost about as much as a refrigerator, too-but who cared?
(Photo Illustration on home page by Dan Vasconcellos. Photos in story by Terry Schmitt.) SANTA CLARA, CA-As the Invertigo roller coaster at Paramount's Great America pulls you 138 feet above the flat Silicon Valley floor, the brown Diablo Mountain Range looms to the east and the green Santa Cruz Mountains to the west.
Hollywood studios are throwing more weight behind the Digital VHS format. Several new titles will appear as high-rez videotapes in the coming weeks, including <I>Gosford Park</I> and <I>Basic Instinct</I>.
Thomas J. Norton surveyed the field, talked with the reviewers, and carefully selected the best home theater equipment released over the last year in order to come up with the <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/showarchives.cgi?82">2003 Editors Choice Awards</A>. As Norton notes, "The Platinum Award is for price-no-object performance. The Gold Award weighs both performance and cost."
A <A HREF="http://www.ce.org">Consumer Electronics Association</A> (CEA) technical subcommittee has announced that it is adopting a standard method for measuring the performance of DVD-Video players. The new standard will make it easier for manufacturers, reviewers, and consumers to compare the functionality of DVD players, the trade group believes.
At this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the <I>Stereophile Guide to Home Theater</I> hosted a ceremony and breakfast for the 2003 Editors' Choice award winners. The winners are pictured below with Editor Thomas J. Norton.
Last year, during <A HREF="http://www.echostar.com">EchoStar Communications</A>’ prolonged and unsuccessful campaign to acquire Hughes Electronics’ DirecTV, EchoStar CEO Charlie Ergen promised that if the merger weren’t approved, subscription fees would almost certainly increase.
At the end of January, San Francisco-based Parasound will begin shipping its highly anticipated Halo C1 audio/video controller. The Halo C1 and its sibling, the Halo C 2, are said to allow audiophiles to control their acoustic environment in ways never before possible with consumer products. The two new models are THX Ultra2-certified, multichannel A/V controllers with sophisticated DSP engines, and are claimed to deliver "previously unattainable levels of performance and control, while remaining exceptionally easy to set up and operate."
As you read this, winter has set in and indoor diversions, including home theater, have taken center stage. Is it really that time of year again? The time <I>Stereophile Guide to Home Theater</I> announces its annual Editors' Choice awards from among the dozens of products we've reviewed in the past year? The time we agonize over our choices? The time the editor makes his first-cut nominations and discusses them with the other writers, carefully factoring in their opinions?