Speaking with reporters at the recent Western Cable Show, TBS/CNN founder and AOL Time Warner vice president Ted Turner opined that, within a year, consolidation in the cable industry could result in "only two or three" cable companies nationwide.
The concept of "plug and play" is a starry-eyed consumer-electronics fantasy. In my experience, almost all home entertainment devices - at least the kinds covered in this magazine - need some sort of setup to achieve optimum performance. Heck, even my first childhood record player had to have the volume adjusted.
A DVD player is already a terrific bargain - an inexpensive black box that can play discs full of razor-sharp images, immersive surround sound, and fascinating extras. But what if you could wed a DVD player with another popular entertainment device like, say, a TV, VCR, or game console? Well, it's already being done.
Digital surround receivers are by far the most complicated products we test. Not only do they have two primary modes of operation - two-channel stereo and multichannel surround sound - both using their digital inputs, but today they may also be called on to handle multichannel high-resolution analog signals from a DVD-Audio or Super Audio CD player.
Is your video system installed in a small room? If so, you've probably wrestled with the problem of generating great bass without crowding yourself out.
Lightweight video projectors are the hottest tickets in home theater. Marantz has taken the concept to a new level of performance with the HDTV-ready VP-12S1.
DVD, the most successful consumer electronics format ever, shows no signs of slowing down. Almost 11 million DVD players were shipped to dealers through the end of November, according to recent statistics from the <A HREF="http://www.ce.org">Consumer Electronics Association</A>.
<A HREF="http://www.threefive.com">Three-Five Systems</A> announced the first public demonstration of the company's recently developed Brillian 1920, a high-resolution, reflective, liquid crystal on silicon "microdisplay," which the company has created in addition to its more traditional LCD products. The demonstration took place at the 19th Annual Flat Information Displays Conference in Monterey, California last week.
