With technology changing so fast these days, dropping more than a grand on an A/V receiver like Denon's AVR-2807 ($1,099) seems a risky proposition. But the HDTV powers appear to have pretty much settled on HDMI as the connector of the future, and this guy definitely has that covered.
Designed for the media professional on the move, Dell's Inspiron e1705 notebook ($2,165) comes with Windows XP Media Center Edition and has a high-performance Intel Core Duo processor to power it. Games and videos will live large on the 17-inch widescreen display, and the top-notch Nvidia graphics card makes sure quick motion won't give you any visual hiccups. No time to boot up?
Speaker engineers have turned to a lot of different materials over the years to make their creations sound better, but JVC's come up with a new one: sake. By soaking sheets of birch wood in Japanese rice wine, the labcoats at JVC were able to press them together to make wooden drivers, said to improve sound quality because of their natural acoustic properties.
Bob Chapek President, Buena Vista Home Entertainment Because of his position at Buena Vista, which is responsible for the home-video products for the various Walt Disney companies, Bob Chapek has been a tireless advocate for Blu-ray Disc.
Is getting a flat-panel set out of the box and onto the wall something you can do yourself, or do you need to hire a pro? Assuming you don't want to run any wires inside the wall, mounting a flat-panel is probably a "6" on the difficulty scale. So if you think you're up to the challenge, read on!
Right now is a great time to buy an HDTV. Why? Because prices have dropped to where many people can actually afford one. Another reason: the explosion of choices brought on by recent advances in technology. From compact flat-panel TVs with 20-inch screens to expansive rear-projection sets with 70-inch or larger displays, there's an HDTV out there custom-made for you. But which one?
Blue Man Group founders Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton, and Chris Wink (shown sans face paint at right) have been busy little performance artists since we talked to them for last April's "Blue Men Exposed," opening a spectacular surround sound-fil
Back in October 2004, we tested the ZVOX audio system, an all-in-one "virtual" surround option for those who want something better than built-in TV speakers. Now comes the $199 ZVOX mini audio system, a shrunk-down, portable version intended to provide sound for music players like the iPod or for TVs.