Audio Video News

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Audio Video News
Tweeter Home Entertainment Group Adds Four Stores
 |  Mar 25, 2001  | 

Audio and video retailer <A HREF="http://www.tweeter.com/">Tweeter Home Entertainment Group</A> announced last week that it has reached an agreement in principle to acquire Big Screen City, located in the greater San Diego and Temecula, CA areas. Big Screen City is a four-store specialty consumer electronics retailer with annual sales over $15 million, and has been in business in the San Diego market for 20 years. The companies say that they expect to complete the transaction on or about May 1, 2001.

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Audio Video News
Rediscovering the Carnival of Souls
Dan Yakir  |  Mar 25, 2001  | 

C<I>andace Hilligoss, Sidney Berger, Frances Feist, Art Ellison, Stan Levitt, Herk Harvey. Directed by Herk Harvey. Aspect ratio: 4:3 (full-screen). Dolby Digital mono. 78 minutes (original version), 83 minutes (director's cut). 1962. Criterion Collection 63. NR. $39.95.</I>

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Audio Video News
Video Recording of Over-the-Air Television Under Seige?
 |  Mar 25, 2001  | 

Last week, the <A HREF="http://www.hrrc.org">Home Recording Rights Coalition</A> (HRRC) issued a statement condemning the encryption of terrestrial broadcast television programming, which the organization says will threaten established home recording rights. The HRRC made its comments in a letter sent to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Michael Powell in response to issues raised in a letter sent to Chairman Powell last week from members of Congress. In its letter, the HRRC expressed concerns that television programming producers may decide to provide content only to channels with strong copy protections.

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Audio Video News
HDTV and DirecTV On the Cheap?
Jon Iverson  |  Mar 18, 2001  | 

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.thomson-multimedia.com">Thomson Multimedia</A> announced what the company terms "an aggressive new effort" designed to bring HDTV within reach of more American consumers. Thomson, which manufactures and markets the RCA brand of television and video products, says it will be trimming suggested retail prices of RCA HDTV sets by 20%, effective in April.

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Audio Video News
The Creature from the Black Lagoon
Gary Frisch  |  Mar 18, 2001  | 

R<I>ichard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning, Antonia Moreno. Directed by Jack Arnold. Aspect ratio: 4:3 (full-screen). Dolby Digital 2.0. 80 minutes. 1954. Universal Home Video 20760. NR. $29.98.</I>

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Audio Video News
EchoStar Reports Record Growth
Barry Willis  |  Mar 18, 2001  | 

Decreasing losses are often greeted as gladly as increased profits. <A HREF="http://www.echostar.com/">EchoStar Communications</A> has reported that its net operating loss decreased from $792.8 million in 1999 to $621.2 million in the year 2000. Total revenue for the year ended December 31 amounted to $2.7 billion, an increase of 70% over 1999's $1.6 billion. The direct broadcast satellite operator reported revenues of $805.1 million for the final quarter, up an impressive 56% from the same period in the previous year.

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Audio Video News
Mitsubishi Announces FireWire-Equipped HDTV Sets
Barry Willis  |  Mar 18, 2001  | 

Bucking a proposal by the film and television industries to incorporate a non-recordable digital transmission standard, <A HREF="http://www.mitsubishi-tv.com/">Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America</A> (MDEA) announced in mid-March that, later this year, it will introduce high-definition television sets equipped with IEEE 1394 ("FireWire") connectors. The official timetable for the delivery of the new products, and a schedule of projected retail prices, will be announced in May.

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Audio Video News
Target LRW Racks: Ideal for Video
HT Staff  |  Mar 17, 2001  | 
You've got a gorgeous new 16:9 CRT or plasma display. Sleek and modern, it looks totally at odds with your old wooden furniture. Now, you need some sturdy high-tech apparatus to put it on.
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Audio Video News
$900 JVC Player Does Hi-rez Audio, Progressive Video
HT Staff  |  Mar 16, 2001  | 
Not too long ago you couldn't find progressive video output on any DVD player for less than $2000. Ditto for 96kHz or 192kHz digital sampling rates in the audio section. Now you can have both for substantially less than a grand.
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Audio Video News
PSB Image Series Loudspeakers Offer Mix/Match Possibilities
HT Staff  |  Mar 16, 2001  | 
Loudspeaker designer Paul Barton of Canada's PSB Loudspeakers has been at his craft a long time. In his more than 25 years of research, a good part of it at the National Research Center, l he has reached some compelling conclusions about what sounds good. His latest creations, the Image Series, offer a solution for almost every home theater---from those created in old libraries with shelving on all the walls, to those custom-built from the ground up. No matter what size your room, some combination of Image loudspeakers is likely to work for you.
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Audio Video News
20th Century Fox: The First Fifty Years
Wes Phillips  |  Mar 11, 2001  | 

J<I>ames Coburn, Dana Andrews, Cary Grant, Gene Tierney, Henry Fonda, Bette Davis, Julie Andrews. Directed by Kevin Burns. Aspect ratio: 4:3 (full-screen). Dolby Digital stereo. 129 minutes. 2000. Image Entertainment ID767FSDVD. NR. $29.99.</I>

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Audio Video News
Blockbuster/Enron Entertainment-On-Demand Deal Falls Apart
Jon Iverson  |  Mar 11, 2001  | 

Both <A HREF="http://www.blockbuster.com">Blockbuster</A> and <A HREF="http://www.enron.net">Enron Broadband Services</A> announced last week that they have terminated the exclusive services agreement the companies launched only three months ago (see <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/shownews.cgi?894">previous story</A>). In spite of the setback, both companies claim that they will continue to develop "entertainment-on-demand" (EOD) services independently.

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Audio Video News
Simple DVD Descrambling Code Spreading Quickly, to MPAA's Dismay
Barry Willis  |  Mar 11, 2001  | 

Is computer code that allows a user to violate a copyright a protected form of free speech, or is it an "illegal device"? The <A HREF="http://www.mpaa.org/">Motion Picture Association of America</A> (MPAA) has aggressively pursued legal action against internet entrepreneurs, such as <A HREF="http://www.2600.com/"><I>2600, the Hacker Quarterly</I></A>, that promoted DeCSS, a 57-kilobyte code, invented in 1999 by 15-year-old Norwegian student Jon Lech Johansen, that allows DVDs to be copied onto computers' hard drives and then transmitted over the internet.

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Audio Video News
DWIN TransVision DLP Projector and Processor Take HT to the Next Level
HT Staff  |  Mar 06, 2001  | 
If thirteen thousand bucks doesn't sound too steep for a video projector and processor, DWIN Electronics has just what you're looking for. The Burbank, CA-based manufacturer has packed the most advanced features into its TransVision DLP projector and dedicated processor for what are claimed to be "film-like images."
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Audio Video News
Parasound 12-Channel Amp Solves Multi-Room Problems
HT Staff  |  Mar 06, 2001  | 
Parasound doesn't make a huge distinction between "Home Theater" and "Custom Installation." In most cases, if you have one, you have the other.
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