Audio Video News

The Home Entertainment 2004 Show (HE2004) is coming to NYC May 20–23, 2004 at the Hilton New York Hotel & Towers. HE2004 is open to the public—consumers will not only have the opportunity to see, hear, and demo the finest high-performance products consumer electronics has to offer, they can also attend a dozen free educational seminars on a variety of topics and enjoy live music daily from jazz and blues artists during relaxing breaks for lunch. The educational seminars and music luncheons will be offered all three days of the Show. Seminars will be moderated by some of the consumer electronics industry's most respected editors, manufacturers, and custom-installation professionals.

Scott Wilkinson takes a look at the <A HREF="/dvdplayers/204pioneer">Pioneer Elite DVR-57H DVR/DVD recorder</A> and taps into the new religion he calls TiVoism. As SW notes, "If you watch TV at all, a DVR can dramatically change your life, as it did mine."

Sony has made good on its promise to deliver a new line of home entertainment products intended for the upscale market.

Netflix ups rates: DVD rental firm Netflix Inc. will boost its monthly fees by 10.2%, effective mid-June. The news caused a 16.9% drop in the value of Netflix stock, which closed Friday April 16 at $30.75/share. The Los Gatos, CA&ndash;based operation reported a loss for the first fiscal quarter ended March 31 due to expensive TV advertising.

Fred Manteghian gets his paws on the <A HREF="/speakersystems/204dynaudio">Dynaudio Contour S5.4, SC, S1.4 suround speaker system</A> and carefully places each of them within his room. FM notes "At first I thought the Contours were at somewhat of a price disadvantage being manufactured across the Atlantic." But then he listened.

Focal-JMlab
Hang on to your socks; Focal-JMlab's new Sub Utopia Be subwoofer could quite possibly blow them right off your feet. This sub delivers a true 20 hertz with 120 decibels of sound pressure, the company reports. The 16-inch sandwich composite cone offers more than 10 times the rigidity of other materials, while the alloy basket supports a multi-ferrite magnet assembly that includes 18 magnets, measures 3 inches thick, and weighs more than 17.6 pounds. The Kapton voice coil is ventilated to limit the dynamic compression from the heat that the 1,000-watt BASH amplifier generates. For $6,000, this sub will rattle your bones.
Focal-JMlab
(800) 663-9352
www.audioplusservices.com

TDK and Blu-ray: Blank-media giant TDK has officially endorsed Blu-ray technology, according to an April 5 report out of the CeBIT technology show in Hanover, Germany. TDK is the latest to join the Blu-ray contingent, following Hewlett-Packard and Dell Computer. The 50-gigabyte capacity of Blu-ray discs will accommodate feature-length high-definition video programming and recording. TDK's contribution will make the 5" discs more user-friendly by eliminating a proposed "disc caddy."