Audio Video News

Starting April 1st that shiny HD DVD player might look a little shinier still. $100 to $200 shinier, to be exact. On that date Toshiba is dropping the price of its entry level HD-A2 HD DVD player to just $399 and cutting the upscale HD-XA2 from $999 to $799. The 1080p-capable HD-A20, which is to be released this Summer, gets an in vitro price drop too, going from $599 to $499. On top of that, if you buy any of these players by July 31st you can still send in a form to receive <A HREF="http://ultimateavmag.com/news/30807hddeals/">five free HD DVD movies</A>, according to TWICE.

Bose recently invited us by their Columbus Circle store in Manhattan to give a listen to their in-ear headphones. While not a new product per se, they wanted to discuss some new and upcoming enhancements that I'll touch on in a moment, but this was my first chance to really evaluate the 'phones and, as someone whose been using earbuds extensively for a decade now, I was genuinely impressed by the sound. While not noise-canceling or sound-isolating, they incorporate the same Bose Tri-Port technology as in their QuietComfort line: small ports in the earpieces that help in bass reproduction without adding great size, so they're a handy accessory to iPods et. al.

If you're a next-gen format with only three supporting studios total, and only one studio that's exclusive to your format, you could do worse than having that one exclusive studio be Universal. Following up on its promise to release over 100 HD DVD titles in 2007 Universal is releasing 13 catalog titles on the Toshiba-backed format this June. Count 'em- 13!

Earlier this week High-Def Digest reported that the Blu-ray release of the newest James Bond flick, <I>Casino Royale</I>, cracked the top ten DVD sales list at Amazon in its first day of release on Tuesday. Cracking the Amazon Top Ten is a first for either HD format, and surely a good sign of growing consumer acceptance of the next-gen formats.

If you have $349 and the need to switch between standard definition or high definition sources (component video) and scale them to resolutions up to 1080p, Gefen has the box for you.

There are some hot deals out there right now for new HD DVD owners and existing Blu-ray Disc player owners. Starting with the HD DVD camp,anyone buying any of Toshiba's HD DVD players between March 1 and July 31st can send a mail-in form to receive five free HD DVDs. On the Blu-ray side, if you're looking to build out your collection Amazon is unloading almost four dozen titles at 50% off of retail.