LATEST ADDITIONS

Bang & Olufsen has come out with another electronics-with-style product - this time in the form of a 23-inch LCD TV. The Danish manufacturer says the new BeoCenter 6-23 incorporates a 23-inch 16:9 TFT LCD panel with an "anti-reflection coated and high-glare" screen that is designed to improve contrast and brightness - especially in day lit rooms. The new screen also offers a wider viewing angle, a feature that B&O says is especially important in a TV placed in a kitchen or hallway, which are typical locations for a home owner's secondary television.

Fox has announced its first wave of titles on the burgeoning Blu-ray Disc format, with an initial slate of catalog titles that "targets the early adopter" and a significant day-and-date release. November 14th will see the release of <I>Behind Enemy Lines</I>, <I>Fantastic Four</I>, <I>Kingdom of Heaven</I> (Director's Cut), <I>The Omen (666)</I>, <I>The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen</I>, <I>Speed</I>, and <I>The Transporter</I>. This wave will be followed on November 21st by the day-and-date Blu-ray and DVD release of <I>Ice Age: The Meltdown</I>.

"I love the sound of breaking glass," Nick Lowe once sang, and the Avdeco HR420 is just the TV stand for him. A member of the AV Science Forum relates: "I happened to be sitting in the next room, when I heard a tremendous crash. I thought that a plane had hit my house, and I ran into my bedroom to see what happened. The top shelf of the Avdeco stand EXPLODED sending shards of glass to every corner of my bedroom. Fortunately for me, I wasn't sleeping at the time, or I would have been hit by flying glass." The Panasonic 50PX500U plasma that had been sitting on the stand weighs 114 pounds, less than half of the stand's rated weight limit of 250. Neither Avdeco or the dealer that sold the stand, Threshold Concepts have responded to the consumer's complaints. The model is still listed on the Avdeco website. It's not on the Threshold Concepts site, though other Avdeco glass-rack models are, with the comment: "The simplistic lines are subdued, yet make a strong statement." Indeed. Other AVS members weighed in with useful pointers: (1) Tempered glass is designed to fragment into pebbles when broken, which is actually less scary than the angular shards of broken non-tempered glass. (2) It's been known to shatter in response to changes in temperature even when nothing is resting on it. (3) Manufacturers who make a quality product may disagree, but maybe glass of any type isn't the ideal material for a TV stand.