To test your display's performance, you'll need not only specialized test generators and measurement devices, but also actual video material. After all, just because a display measures well doesn't mean it's anything you want to look at. For that matter, there are no objective measurements for things like scaling and deinterlacing. For consistency, we try to use the same or similar test DVDs (and now HD DVDs) for our testing in each display review and in our video Face Offs. If you want to see how your TV stacks up—or you wonder what we're talking about every month—here are most of the test discs we use and why we use them.
There are some hot deals out there right now for new HD DVD owners and existing Blu-ray Disc player owners. Starting with the HD DVD camp,anyone buying any of Toshiba's HD DVD players between March 1 and July 31st can send a mail-in form to receive five free HD DVDs. On the Blu-ray side, if you're looking to build out your collection Amazon is unloading almost four dozen titles at 50% off of retail.
Talk about rare treats. Spielberg and Lucas became notorious for holding their titles from the DVD market until there was a sufficient install base for them to do killer sales numbers on release. This meant it was years into the format until we saw <I>Star Wars</I>, <I>Indiana Jones</I>, etc. This pattern is holding true on Blu-ray and HD DVD- they're both Lucas and Spielberg free so far.
Are you an AT&T Homezone customer? If so, the set-top box you're using to access video-on-demand has learned a new trick: cellphone-activated DVR programming. There's no charge except for the existing Homezone charge of $9.99/month. AT&T hopes that will keep you happy until U-verse, its fiber/copper hybrid IP-over-TV service, reaches more areas. If you're a Verizon customer, you needn't feel left out. A long promised arrangement with TiVo will come to fruition soon. The charge will be $1.99/month. Sprint is getting into the act too, in association with Comcast and Time Warner. A Jupiter Research survey quoted by Reuters said fewer than 10 percent of respondents were excited about cell-driven DVR recording. Then again, none of them had had a chance to try it.
NHT says it's shipping the company's new speakers that are designed to hang on the wall, or sit on a table/shelf, next to a high-definition flat-panel display. NHT makes note that the speakers are "visually elegant, simple to use and affordable." (Wow! Speakers designed to go with plasma TVs? What a concept...)
Let's say you spot a bargain on the Best Buy website. You go to the local Best Buy to buy the product. Sorry, says the salesperson, that's not the correct price for that product. How can that be?, you ask. The salesperson boots up the site and shows you and then you feel like a ninny. But you're not a ninny--you've merely been robbed. Best Buy has confirmed to Connecticut state investigators that it maintains a second site, an intranet site, with different prices. I'll let "Consumer Watchdog" George Gombossy of the Hartford Courant tell the rest of the story: "State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal ordered the investigation into Best Buy's practices on Feb. 9 after my column disclosed the website and showed how employees at two Connecticut stores used it to deny customers a $150 discount on a computer advertised on BestBuy.com. Blumenthal said Wednesday that Best Buy has also confirmed to his office the existence of the intranet site, but has so far failed to give clear answers about its purpose and use. 'Their responses seem to raise as many questions as they answer,' Blumenthal said." Best Buy's serpentine response is to blame its employees: "We are reminding our employees how to access the external BestBuy.com web site to ensure customers are receiving the best possible product price."
