Jon Iverson

Last week, online video retailer <A HREF="http://Videoflicks.com/">Videoflicks.com</A> announced that it has opened Videoflicks.com Auctions "to help people find, discover, buy&mdash;and now sell&mdash;virtually any video online." The company says that its customers are able to bid immediately in more than eight categories of "rare and unusual" videos.

While watching <I>Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me</I>, one can't help but notice the groovy car driven by Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham): a 1965 red-white-and-blue Corvette Stingray convertible. Wouldn't it be nice to have one of your own? And what about the silver suit worn by Doctor Evil---wouldn't it be cool to have the original for the ultimate Halloween costume this year?

Last week saw several IEEE 1394 announcements in anticipation of the third annual 1394 Developers Conference coming up June 2 in San Jose, California. (See <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/shownews.cgi?189">previous report</A>.) IEEE 1394, also known as FireWire, is a high-bandwidth local-area network (LAN) technology gaining considerable interest from consumer-electronics and computer manufacturers. IEEE 1394 can link a virtually unlimited number of home-entertainment devices with a single cable, and manufacturers hope to lower the cost of goods through a reduced number of necessary jacks, cables, and circuits.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.timewarnercable.com">Time Warner Cable</A> said that it has successfully tested distribution of a high-definition TV feed from Home Box Office and will soon begin delivering it in the upgraded areas of its Tampa, Florida cable operation using equipment from <A HREF="http://www.sciatl.com">Scientific-Atlanta, Inc.</A> According to Time Warner, this marks the first time HBO's HDTV signal has been made available to cable customers using a form of signal-modulation technology known as QAM, which allows two HDTV channels to be delivered in the same bandwidth needed for one off-air HDTV channel.