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HDTV SetupHDTV Tech
In-Your-Face Football
Peter Putman  |  May 12, 2003  |  First Published: May 13, 2003
One man's quest for the ultimate Super Bowl party included HDTV in every room.

It started out innocently enough, back in January 2000. ABC had concluded a season of Monday Night Football broadcasts in their 720p HDTV format and was putting the icing on the cake with an HD telecast of Super Bowl XXXIV from Atlanta, Georgia. Since I had watched a few of the MNF games in HD, I decided to set up a front projector and an HD monitor and invite some friends and neighbors over to give 'em a taste of sports in high definition. The game turned out to be a big hit. Over 30 folks attended and marveled at the widescreen images from my Sony VPL-VW10HT projector and Princeton AF3.0HD monitor. Never mind that I had to jury-rig an antenna on my rear deck and run coaxial cable into my basement to feed a single Panasonic set-top tuner, then use a video-distribution amplifier to run two component video feeds into my living room and my basement theater. Everyone was amazed at the picture quality and gorged themselves on a feast of wings, subs, pizza, chips, dip, and assorted desserts.

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Audio Video News
Added to the Archives This Week
 |  May 11, 2003

Joel Brinkley dials in the <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/showarchives.cgi?115">Sony SAT-HD200 and Zenith HD-SAT520 DirecTV/digital television receivers</A> finding that, although he still hasn't found the perfect DTV box, these two nearly identical units get close.

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Audio Video News
Coming Soon: High-Def Terminator
Barry Willis  |  May 11, 2003

Computer geeks and sci-fi action thrillers go together like peanut butter and jelly. It's therefore no accident that the first-ever high definition DVD will feature Arnold Swarzenegger's monosyllabic cyborg on a disc playable on computers only.

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Audio Video News
Free Music!
 |  May 11, 2003

A ticket to Home Entertainment 2003&mdash;The Hi-Fi and Home Theater event, to be held June 5-8, 2003 at San Francisco's Westin&ndash;St. Francis Hotel will offer attendees a chance to hear over a dozen live musical performances from great artists performing contemporary jazz, blues, rock, and classical music.

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Audio Video News
Industry News Roundup
Barry Willis  |  May 11, 2003

"Stunning artifact-free picture quality" is the sort of promotional hype that always accompanies the release of any new video product. In the case of <A HREF="http://www.vinc.com">V Inc.</A>'s new Bravo D1, it may be more than hot air. On May 9, the Fountain Valley, CA technology company announced the D1, described as the first DVD player equipped with MPEG-4 playback capability and a digital video interface. The D1 outputs both interlaced and progressive signals, and can scale its output to 480p/720p/1080i.

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Audio Video News
Free Music!
HT Staff  |  May 11, 2003
Los Angeles, CA—May 2003—A ticket to Home Entertainment 2003—The Hi-Fi and Home Theater event, to be held June 5-8, 2003 at the Westin-St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, will offer attendees a chance to hear more than a dozen live musical performances from some of the great artists of contemporary jazz, blues, rock and classical music.
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Audio Video News
Coming Attractions
HT Staff  |  May 08, 2003
Luxeon
Luxeon proves that a DLP projector doesn't have to be big to be good. Their portable D520P projector weighs only 5.9 pounds and has just about every feature a theaterphile would expect from a DLP. Foremost among these features is Texas Instruments' Double Data Rate (DDR) technology, which is said to produce quicker micromirror movement and thus a higher-quality image. The D520P's light output is rated at 2,000 ANSI lumens, and it has a 1,500:1 contrast ratio and a native resolution of 1,024:768. Other tricks include a picture-in-picture function, manual zoom and focus, and vertical and horizontal digital keystone correction. For the asking price of $3,899, Luxeon also throws in a soft carrying case and a remote.
Luxeon
(866) 458-9366
www.luxeonusa.com
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Audio Video News
Software Reviews
HT Staff  |  May 08, 2003
DVD: The Mission—Warner Brothers (Web Exclusive)
Video: 2
Audio: 3
Extras: 2
Despite its ambitious intentions, Roland Joffe's treatise on sin and redemption in the South American rain forest falls well short of epic proportions, the main problem being a script (penned by David Lean collaborator Robert Bolt) that fails to rouse any strong emotions. The film is beautifully photographed, though. While its picture clarity is on the soft side, Argentina's lush greenery and awe-inspiring waterfalls are pleasing to the eye in this 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer. The audio is sufficiently powerful, whether the newly mastered Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack delivers the rush of cascading water, the whiz of arrows, or Ennio Morricone's simultaneously mournful and hopeful score.
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Music Reviews
Your Garage or Mine?
Ken Richardson  |  May 05, 2003
Click here to read the article in PDF form
Other Tech
Digital Radio Comes Down to Earth
Ivan Berger  |  May 05, 2003

(Homepage illustration by Dan Vasconcellos) You've been on a long drive, but you're now close enough to home to receive your favorite hometown station, right on time for the local news and then some music. A couple of miles after you tune it in, the sound suddenly blossoms, and the radio's display starts showing you what's playing and who's performing it.

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