Audio Video News

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Audio Video News
Software Reviews
HT Staff  |  May 22, 2003  | 
DVD: The Recruit—Buena Vista
Video: 3
Audio: 3
Extras: 3
Al Pacino and Colin Farrell star in The Recruit, an entertaining albeit predictable spy thriller about the supposed CIA training camp called the Farm. The chemistry between Pacino, Farrell, and female lead Bridget Moynahan is enjoyable, but the film's nothing-is-as-it-seems theme could have been borrowed from the Michael Douglas film The Game.
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Audio Video News
Coming This Summer: Self-Destructing DVDs
Barry Willis  |  May 19, 2003  | 

Hackers will need more than computer skills to work around the self-destructing DVDs soon to be released by Walt Disney Company's Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

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Audio Video News
Toshiba D-R1 DVD Recorder
 |  May 18, 2003  | 

If <A HREF="http://www.toshiba.com">Toshiba</A>'s D-R1 is any indication, consumers are in for a lot of fun with the coming generation of DVD recorders.

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Audio Video News
Added to the Archives This Week
 |  May 18, 2003  | 

Thomas J. Norton sets up the <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/showarchives.cgi?117">Sim2 Grand Cinema HT300 Plus DLP projector</A> in the main room and evaluates what the company is able to do with the popular latest generation HD2 DLP chip.

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Audio Video News
Film Biz Fights DVD Copy Industry
Barry Willis  |  May 18, 2003  | 

Attempting to prevent a "movie Napster," the film industry has launched major legal assaults on makers of DVD copying software, charging that it violates the law by circumventing the format's copy-protection technology.

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Audio Video News
Focus Enhancements and Good Guys
HT Staff  |  May 16, 2003  | 
West Coast electronics chain Good Guys has been enormously successful in its effort to remake itself into an upscale specialty retailer. The company's partnership with Focus Enhancements is its latest move into high-quality video.
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Audio Video News
Coming Attractions
HT Staff  |  May 15, 2003  | 
Bang & Olufsen
For a widescreen plasma display, B&O's BeoVision 5 might at first appear to be strangely shaped. Upon closer inspection, though, you'll see that its beautifully finished aluminum frame incorporates a 42-inch-wide, 16:9 plasma screen and a pair of magnetically shielded, front-firing speakers mounted below the screen. The BeoVision 5 measures 42 inches wide, 45.25 tall, and 6.75 deep, and it arrives with a stand, as well as a wall-mounting bracket. With a retail price of $19,500, the BeoVision 5 might not qualify as a budget plasma; however, its unique industrial design and your choice of a silver, red, black, blue, or green brushed-aluminum frame are sure to appeal to the décor-conscious theaterphile.
Bang & Olufsen
(847) 590-4900
www.bang-olufsen.com
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Audio Video News
Software Reviews
HT Staff  |  May 15, 2003  | 
DVD: 25th Hour—Buena Vista
Audio: 3
Video: 4
Extras: 3
I'll admit that 25th Hour seemed slow at first. Yet, as it went on, I noticed that, instead of Hollywood's usual mind-numbing blizzard of special effects, this film has something much rarer: a great script. Edward Norton plays Monty, a drug dealer who gets picked up by the cops and sentenced to seven years in prison. The film follows Monty for the 24 hours before he has to go in, raising many interesting questions, the most simple of which is: What do people think about right before they're locked up? Through strikingly realistic dialogue and a refusal to sugarcoat any issue, 25th Hour allows you a fascinating look into the mind of an ex-criminal, ending in a satisfying twist.
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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
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
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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