The FireBall DVDM-100 isn't a DVD player. It's not an AM/FM receiver or a power amplifier. In fact, without supporting equipment and an Internet connection, it's not good for much at all. But once it's connected, you may never want to go back to non-FireBall playback again.
The longtime E Street Band guitarist and Sopranos heavy (hello, Silvio) meets ME in Las Vegas to discuss his Sirius satellite radio gig and why CDs are "the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on the public.
Almost overshadowing the rich out cropping of standard-definition DVD recorders at this year's CES was the looming presence of several prototype high-definition disc players and recorders. Many of the manufacturers backing one of the two high-def disc systems bitterly contending to become the new international standard were displaying their first go at a machine.
Just ask anyone who's spent any amount of time watching a high-definition TV - it's addictive. Maybe it's the seductive picture or the cinemalike sound, but the half-dozen HDTV channels I had available until recently were about the only ones I regularly watched - even though there were hundreds of standard-definition channels I could have tuned in.
I'm hearing voices from outer space. Even stranger, I'm hearing different voices in different rooms. Susan Stamberg lectures me in the kitchen, Frank Sinatra croons at me in the bedroom, and Swollen Member is scratching in the den.
Fortunately, the saying "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" doesn't apply to CES. The technology introduced there quickly spreads to the rest of the world. This year, audio companies were especially anxious to have the show's magic rub off on their wares.
Photo by Tony Cordoza The trouble with storing a massive music library on your computer is obvious: it's on your computer! To hear those MP3 or WMA (Windows Media Audio) files on the killer sound system in your living room, you need to jump through hoops.
Napster is dead. Long live Napster 2.0. Out of the battle between the recording industry and the illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing services has emerged a new generation of legal online services that's rapidly changing the way people buy music.
Photo by Tony Cordoza Not long ago, the idea of ripping music onto a hard drive, where it is automatically sorted by artist, album, genre, and so on, and then having it streamed throughout our home was unimaginable.
Listings compiled by Peter Pachal Photo by Tony Cordoza Nothing's more frustrating than trying to fit a square peg into a round hole - except possibly trying to play a multichannel Super Audio CD on a DVD-Video player.