Audio Video News

Cool new A/V gear: A speaker/dock for the iPhone 5, a Sixties-style briefcase turntable (with USB), a movie-theater-caliber video projector, a tiny Bluetooth speaker that promises big sound, and more...

The 66th Cannes Film Festival kicks off with killer custom sound systems from JBL. Four JBL Synthesis systems, large-scale and according to JBL, ultra-high-end, are going to be installed in the theaters built in the Hotel Gray d'Albion to showcase...

Video displays just keep getting better and cheaper. <A HREF="http://www.net-tv.net/">NetTV</A> has announced four new advanced progressive scan digital displays, including the DTV36XW, their first "true high definition" CRT. The 36" diagonal unit features a flat screen and conventional component inputs for 480i broadcasts as well as high-resolution component inputs for 480p, 720p and 1080i high definition broadcast signals. A 15-pin RGB input supports computer resolutions up to 1024x768 pixels.

Five hundred channels of television will soon be available to <A HREF="http://www.echostar.com/">EchoStar</A>'s DISH Network subscribers. On July 19, EchoStar chairman Charlie Ergen demonstrated DISH 500, a pizza-sized dish antenna capable of receiving signals from satellites in two locations. The demo took place at the <A HREF="http://www.sbca.org/">Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association</A>'s national exposition in Las Vegas.

Plastic film may soon be coming to a home theater near you&mdash;not as a food wrap, but as a video screen. London-based <A HREF="http://www.cdtltd.co.uk/">Cambridge Display Technology</A> (CDT), in association with its Japanese partner, Seiko Epson, has announced a new development that bonds light-emitting polymers (LEPs) to such film. Properly charged, the red, blue, and green pixels will emit bright light while using very little power. Unlike liquid-crystal displays, LEPs require no backlight and have a wide dispersion pattern.

Most of this site's visitors enjoy home theater. Now, thanks to a huge boost in funding for <A HREF="http://www.Broadwayarchive.com/"> Broadway Digital Entertainment</A> (BDE), we'll be able to enjoy theater at home, too. BDE has just received $3 million to help put its archive of historic theatrical performances out on VHS tape.