Audio Video News

Panasonic has announced the introduction of its next generation Blu-ray player, the $499 DMP-BD30. It is claimed to be the first Blu-ray player to support the Blu-ray Final Standard Profile (BD-ROM Profile 1.1). This will enable it to access and play streaming picture-in-picture special features in upcoming Blu-ray titles, as well as audio mixing enabling switching between main- and sub-windows.

Apartment tenants and owners are about to get new video-delivery options, thanks to the Federal Communications Commission.

Looks like Harman International won't be making the transition from public to private company after all. The buyout is on the rocks.

I held a garage sale recently and had hundreds of CDs on display. One of the shoppers asked me why I was dumping all my CDs. I wasn't getting rid of all my discs. I was just filtering out those that I bought for maybe a song or two (Journey's...

In the beginning, there was Napster, and it was good, albeit illegal. Over the years the file-sharing pioneer went legit and became a subscription service. Now Napster is looking to improve its game by untethering its 770,000 subscribers from its proprietary software. Soon Napsterites will be able to access a library of five million tracks from any net-connected computer without downloading the Napster application itself. Welcome to Napster 4.0.

Porcupine Tree mastermind Steven Wilson (holding down the middle position and leaning on the center channel in the accompanying photo) dropped by the S&V offices yesterday for a 2-hour surround-sound listening session with yours truly (at right)...

It was a lesson in perspective this week in Baja California, Mexico, where Sharp Electronics officially cut the ribbon on a $300 million LCD manufacturing plant in Rosarito. While American journalists were busy scribbling notes about screen sizes...