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Backtalk: Jeff Daniels
 |  Apr 01, 2006  |  0 comments

How did a nice Midwestern guy like you end up playing an urban Jewish professor in The Squid and the Whale? Hmmm. The short answer is I guess I understood the part - I could see the comedy in it. When I expressed that to [writer/director] Noah [Baumbach], he said, "You're one of the first people to tell me they think it's funny.

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A/V Veteran
Stop Press
Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 01, 2006  |  2 comments

The Blu-ray group has just announced that it is merging with the HD-DVD consortium to produce a consolidated format for high definition on a packaged disc.

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Headphone Reviews
5.1 for Your Noggin
Chris Chiarella  |  Mar 31, 2006  |  0 comments
Who says you need speakers for discrete surround sound?

Listen To Believe (LTB) offers an assortment of discrete 5.1 headphone systems for just about every home theater or gaming scenario, depending upon your tastes and budget. Three transducers within their own independent speaker chambers are positioned inside each ear cup to render a true 5.1-channel experience, including dedicated delivery of center-channel and subwoofer information. Because they can work with both the optical and coaxial digital audio outputs of a source component, most headphone models can serve as a secondary audio solution, in addition to whatever speakers we might be using. Is the optical audio output from your DVD player already running to the receiver? No problem, since most DVD decks also offer a coaxial output. LTB's optical input also makes it a great match for PlayStation 2, Xbox, or Xbox 360.

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The S&V Interview
The Ed Sullivan Theater Gets a Really Wide Shoe
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 31, 2006  |  0 comments
HT goes inside the Late Show with David Letterman's HD transition.
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A/V Veteran
King Plasma
Thomas J. Norton  |  Mar 31, 2006  |  0 comments

During a gala event last night at Ken Cranes Home Entertainment on the tony west side of Los Angeles, LG Electronics hosted the launch of its long-awaited 71-inch plasma display, the MW-71PY10. As the press handout states, it's the first plasma you can speak of in feet, not inches (they should have made it an even six feet—what's an itty bitty inch among friends).

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Audio Video News
First HD DVD Players Released for Sale
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Mar 31, 2006  |  0 comments
HD DVD may be delayed here in North America, but that hasn't stopped Toshiba from rolling out the first commerically available HD DVD player to the Japanese market today.
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Ears On
Consumer Ears Go Hungry
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 31, 2006  |  0 comments
Why are component audio sales lagging portables? "More than 56 percent of potential audio buyers say they have never even heard what they'd consider a great sounding audio system," says a press release from the Consumer Electronics Association. For those of us who have both heard and felt soul-stirring sound, that is nothing short of horrific. "The good news for retailers is that many consumers are leaving the door of opportunity cracked open through their willingness to interact with a sales person and to receive a demonstration of better audio equipment," says Sean Wargo, CEA's director of industry analysis. CEA recently released a training DVD for dealers, "The Specialty Audio/Video Difference," showing how to conduct effective demos and supply good customer service. If you're a consumer, as opposed to a dealer, maybe it's time to walk into an a/v specialty store and say "play me something good!" It just might change your life. To find a store in your area with some real class, click here. (Today's poster boy is Tycho the Wonder Dog, courtesy of www.nomoon.org.)
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Audio Video News
Panasonic Digital Lifestyles Show
Peter Putman  |  Mar 30, 2006  |  0 comments

On March 28 at BB King's Blues Club and Grille in New York City, Panasonic announced several new models in their plasma line. In addition to upgraded 42-inch and 50-inch products, Panasonic took the wraps off a pair of 58-inch plasma TVs, announced a ship date and retail price for their 65-inch 1080p plasma, and claimed their 103-inch model, shown at CES, would be at retail by the end of this year.

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Geoffrey Morrison Blog
You can have any color...as long as it's black
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Mar 30, 2006  |  5 comments
I have a question for you all. In the April issue we had a Premiere Designs with a possible new look for some of HP’s RPTVs. A crappy picture of it is what you see here. According to HP, they’re not going to be making it, as their marketing department tells them that silver, black, and gray, are still the most likely colors to sell. So my question is this;
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Ears On
Portables Surpass Component Audio Sales
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 30, 2006  |  2 comments
High-performance audio's long, slow decline is officially a crisis. The latest figures from the Consumer Electronics Association say that portable audio devices now outsell components—"for the first time in history," as This Week In Consumer Electronics reported. Put portable, home, and car audio together and the audio industry grew a total of 29 percent in 2005. But that includes an 85 percent hike in sales of portables, four percent growth in car audio, and a decline of 16 percent in the good-sounding stuff that sits on your rack, if you still have a rack. You can blame paradigm shifts, generational changes, i-everything, blabbity blabbity blah, but there's a smoking gun here, and I'll talk about it tomorrow.
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