Audio Video News

Runco has made great strides in projector development recently. The Union City, CA–based company unveiled three new DLP projectors in Las Vegas, all of them sporting single 16:9 HD2 chips, DVI inputs, and 1280 x 720 resolution. The least expensive of the three, the Reflection CL-720, supports the primary varieties of NTSC, PAL, and SECAM, and can be ordered from the factory with a short throw or long throw lens, for images as small as 40" diagonally or up to as large as 300". Brightness is specified at 750 ANSI Lumens when the projector is calibrated for home theater; contrast ratio is a very respectable 1500:1. The CL-720 is said to be "HDTV ready," although the product sheet handed out at the LV Convention Center doesn't list any ATSC format among those supported.

On Thursday, the first <I>official</I> day of CES, attendees were treated to another day of warm, dry weather&mdash;and a mind-boggling array of new home theater products.

<I>Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor. Directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. Aspect ratio: 4:3. Dolby Digital 5.1 (English), Dolby Digital 2.0 (French). Two DVDs. 103 minutes. 1952. Warner Home Video 125695621 27. G. $26.99.</I>

LCD television sets are the next wave in trendy consumer electronics. The LCD TV market should grow from 1.3 million units in 2002 to more than 16.1 million units by 2006, according to industry research firm DisplaySearch.

Television broadcasters in New York City will receive approximately $8.2 million in federal assistance to rebuild antennas lost in the terrorist attack of September 11, according to a December 23 report in the <A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com"><I>New York Times</I></A>. Almost all of the city's broadcasters had their transmitters mounted on the top of the north tower of the World Trade Center, which collapsed after being struck by a hijacked airliner.

Travelers parked for the evening in their RVs and campers will never look at satellite TV or high-speed Internet access in quite the same way again, following the recent introduction of the TracVision S3 satellite TV antenna from <A HREF="http://www.kvh.com">KVH Industries</A>.

Madrigal has recalled approximately 1300 Revel Performa B15 subwoofers for repair of a potential shock hazard. A screw in the subwoofer's power amp section can cause a high-voltage short circuit, with risk of injury to consumers. To date, no injuries have been reported, but the company has received at least one report of someone getting shocked.