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Camelot Technology Round Table DVD player
Michael Fremer  |  May 11, 2001

I remember a Toshiba press conference at which two new DVD players were introduced whose prices were only $50 apart. That's how tight things are in the mainstream marketplace, where niches are filled by price and by features far more often than they are by performance, or by what an individual might like to see brought to market "just because."

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Audio Video News
Shapiro Kicks off HE 2001 with Upbeat Message
Barry Willis  |  May 10, 2001

The home of the future will have a "Digital Nerve Center" at its core&mdash;a center that incorporates audio, video, information, and computer functions that control the house and link it to the world outside. That's the vision of <A HREF="http://www.ce.org/"><B>Consumer Electronics Association</B></A> president Gary Shapiro and the hundreds of manufacturers who comprise his organization.

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Audio Video News
Titan A.E. Finds New Life
Thomas J. Norton  |  May 06, 2001

<I>Voices of Matt Damon, Bill Pullman, John Leguizamo, Nathan Lane, Janeane Garofalo, Drew Barrymore. Directed by Don Bluth, Gary Goldman. Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 (anamorphic). Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS (English), Dolby Surround 2.0 (English, French). 95 minutes. 2000. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment 2000924. PG. $26.98.</I>

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Audio Video News
New Contract with Writers' Guild Bodes Well for SAG, AFTRA Negotiations
Barry Willis  |  May 06, 2001

In a move that will keep union members working for at least the next three years, negotiators for the <A HREF="http://www.wga.org">Writers Guild of America</A> agreed to a new contract on May 4, three days beyond the date of a threatened strike. The WGA had agreed to let its members keep working as discussions continued beyond the renewal date for the old contract, which expired May 1.

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Audio Video News
New Deal Gives HDTV on the PC a Boost
Jon Iverson  |  May 06, 2001

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.ravisent.com">Ravisent Technologies</A> announced a technology partnership with <A HREF="http://www.oren.com">Oren Semiconductor</A>, which sells DSP-based digital television demodulator ICs to manufacturers such as Sony, Hughes, and Global Telemann Systems for use in TVs, VCRs, PC cards, and set-top boxes. Ravisent and Oren say they will jointly develop complete broadcast reception and playback solutions for delivering HDTV broadcasts to consumers using the current generation of personal computers.

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Audio Video News
Next-Gen Video Displays May Result from DuPont Agreement with RiTEK
 |  May 06, 2001

Poly-OLED. Add this new acronym to your technophile lexicon. It's short for "polymer organic light emitting diode," a type of display technology developed by Wilmington, Delaware&ndash;based <A HREF="http://www.ritekdisplay.com/in_English/index_English.htm">RiTEK Display Technology Company</A>, the beneficiary of a recent investment by <A HREF="http://www.dupont.com/displays">DuPont Displays</A>, a unit of DuPont iTechnologies of the DuPont chemical conglomerate. Poly-OLED is said to be considerably better than the traditional liquid crystal display (LCD) because of its greater brightness, better contrast, and lower manufacturing costs.

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Audio Video News
New Components at Home Entertainment 2001
 |  May 06, 2001

Home Entertainment 2001 arrives at the Hilton Hotel & Towers in New York this week for three days, May 11-13. There will be more than 80 rooms stuffed with the latest high end audio and video gear, including dozens of brand new products. For more information about the show, go to the <A HREF="http://www.homeentertainment-expo.com">HE 2001 website</A>.

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Audio Video News
New Components at Home Entertainment 2001
HT Staff  |  May 06, 2001
Home Entertainment 2001 arrives in New York this week for three days, May 11-13, at the Hilton Hotel & Towers. There will be more than 80 rooms stuffed with the latest high end audio and video gear, including dozens of brand new products. For more information about the show, go to the HE 2001 web site.
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Accessory Reviews
Clark Synthesis Platinum 1 Transducer
Geoffrey Morrison  |  May 02, 2001  |  First Published: May 03, 2001
The fifth sense.

From the time movies first emerged as a pastime, filmmakers and theater owners have tried to come up with ways to make the movie experience more and more realistic. The picture (other than size) couldn't change, so they tried other ways. Some, like the Smellorama, didn't work. Others, like multichannel sound, did. Moving from one channel to six or eight channels, most people would think, "I'm surrounded by sound. What else is there?" What all, or at least most, systems lack is the ability to touch you—to literally touch you. Clark Synthesis' line of transducers aims to change that with tactile sound.

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AV GlossaryHDTV TechOther Tech
Progressive-Scan or Progressive Scam?
Mike Wood  |  May 02, 2001  |  First Published: May 03, 2001
The truth behind progressive-scan DVD players.

Conspiracy theories are like computer problems—almost everyone has one. From JFK's assassination to the demise of TWA flight 800, it's rare that everyone will accept the simplest explanation as the truth. Consumer electronics has its fair share of conspiracy theories, as well. They may not be as complex as a Louisiana district attorney's triangulated-bullet-trajectory theory, but they exist, nonetheless. What do you expect to happen when a large number of obsessive-compulsive personalities have too much free time and join a chat room?

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