When a plasma TV isn't displaying an image, the stuff behind the name is just an inert gas - usually a mixture of neon and xenon - but it's a big part of what allows these TVs to measure just 3 to 6 inches thick.
Marantz introduced its DAvED (Digital Audio via Electrical Distribution) system at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, and I was immediately wowed by the concept of sending audio over a house's electrical wiring. So I jumped at the chance to play with a pre-production sample.
About six years ago, electronics-industry honchos started holding big powwows to discuss the feasibility of giving household power lines (the electrical wiring you plug all your stuff into) the ability to also carry communications signals - as in music, computer data, Internet access, episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
With all the glamorous gear associated with home theater (like big plasma TVs), it's hard to get worked up over a plain old power strip. Still, it's better to have one than not. My biggest frustration with typical strips is that they make it hard to plug in all of my gadgets. All it takes is two or three wall warts to render half of the strip useless.
05/02/2006 On April 21, our local National Public Radio outlet, WNYC, broadcast (and streamed over the Internet) an episode of the station's Radio Lab program. This slickly produced series combines aspects of NPR-style radio journalism with modern audio-studio production techniques that are the sonic equivalents of MTV-type visual effects.
Seven new products join the list this month. Thanks to our big shootout among budget HDTV front projectors, we've found four highly recommendable models from Samsung, Infocus, Panasonic, and Optoma. B&W's gorgeous XT speaker system also comes on, along with Vizio's highly affordable 42-inch plasma TV.
Q. I was a printer for many years, and in our business we always worked with the primary colors of red, blue, and yellow to derive other colors. Why does the television industry use red, green, and blue as its primary colors? Jack Phillippe Yeadon, PA
Apple's computers have always been audio- and video-friendly, but the company has mostly left the home entertainment part of the equation up to third-party developers. Although an Apple hard-disk video recorder or music server has seemed like an obvious thing for Steve Jobs to trot out, year after year there's been nothing but new (and very welcome) takes on the iPod.
When DVD appeared in early 1997, it didn't take much prodding for people to trash their collections of primitive VHS tapes and embrace the shiny new disc. The dramatic boost in picture and sound quality had a lot to do with it - when experienced on a widescreen TV along with 5.1-channel sound, watching a DVD was almost like sitting in a movie theater.
Here's the deal: It's late, the kid's in bed, the wife is reading, and I'm dying to watch the new Rob Zombie gorefest The Devil's Rejects on DVD. No chance of firing up the full surround sound rig under such conditions, but, hey, there's Dolby Headphone.
I don't fire up the big rig anymore. Oh, I lived for the day when I could afford a first-class stereo. I started off with a pink record player my father got at a bankruptcy sale. And graduated to Columbia all-in-ones we got through a family friend when CBS still owned the record label and made hardware.
Wish your satellite or digital cable-TV provider offered more high-definition channels, or maybe just a better picture? Take heart: now rolling out, VERIZON FiOS TV delivers more than 350 standard-def channels as well as 20-plus high-def ones. FiOS TV - that's Fiber Optic Service - is already available in parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, and Texas.
That's what a lot of people want to know when they buy a Sony DualDisc and notice that the DVD side offers Enhanced Stereo. As Clark Novak writes on QuadraphonicQuad.com, "What the hell does that mean anyway? 'Enhanced Stereo.' That's kind of like 'connoisseur's popcorn.' Means nothing. Grr."
