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Audio Video News
Dolby Labs Acquires New Building in Downtown San Francisco
Barry Willis  |  Mar 29, 1998  |  0 comments

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.dolby.com">Dolby Laboratories</A> won a bidding war for a four-storey office building near its Potrero Hill headquarters in downtown San Francisco. Dolby president Bill Jasper plunked down $18.25 million in cashier's checks for the glass-block building, which had fallen into bankruptcy after it had been used as a diamond-cutting and distribution center linked to both the De Beers cartel and the Russian government.

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Audio Video News
Best February Video Sales Ever Recorded
 |  Mar 22, 1998  |  0 comments

According to the latest <A HREF="http://www.cema.org">Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association</A> (CEMA) statistics, released March 16, overall video-product sales had their best showing ever for the first eight weeks of a calendar year, with sales up 7%, to 6 million units. Video products also enjoyed their best February performance ever, with overall sales up 7%, to 3.2 million units. Leading an impressive set of video-hardware sales, large-screen and projection TVs were up 8% and 14%, respectively, in the year to date for 1998.

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Audio Video News
CableLabs Specifies FireWire for OpenCable Digital Set-Top Boxes
 |  Mar 22, 1998  |  0 comments

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.cablelabs.com">Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.</A> specified an existing high-speed serial protocol called IEEE 1394 (also known as FireWire) as the link between OpenCable digital set-top boxes and devices such as television sets and DVD players. <A HREF="http://www.opencable.com">OpenCable</A> is a CableLabs-sponsored initiative aimed at developing key interface specifications in order to foster interoperability among digital set-top boxes built by multiple vendors and used in broadband, two-way cable networks.

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Audio Video News
Congressional Subcommittee Declares War on VCRs and PCs
 |  Mar 22, 1998  |  0 comments

Recently, <A HREF="http://www.hrrc.org">The Home Recording Rights Coalition</A> (HRRC) sounded an alert to consumers and all other users of home VCRs and personal computers. In passing legislation to implement copyright treaties, a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee rejected an amendment that would have preserved consumers' rights to buy and use digital VCRs and PCs capable of making home recordings.

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Audio Video News
Advice on How to Deal with Mother
Steven Stone  |  Mar 22, 1998  |  0 comments

A<I>lbert Brooks, Debbie Reynolds, Rob Morrow. Directed by Albert Brooks. Aspect ratio: 1:85:1. Dolby Surround. Two Sides. 104 minutes. 1996. Pioneer Entertainment LV 332473-W. Rated PG-13. $39.95.</I>

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Audio Video News
Dallas HDTV Test Disrupts Heart Monitors
Barry Willis  |  Mar 15, 1998  |  0 comments

Last week, Dallas broadcaster WFFA turned on its new HDTV transmitter for the first time. Surprisingly, the transmission overwhelmed heart monitors at Baylor University Medical Center, which were operating at the same frequency. Nurses and doctors were temporarily unable to monitor their patients' heartbeats. When the cause of the problem was discovered, WFFA turned the transmitter off.

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Audio Video News
Walls of Sand Becomes First Modern Feature Film Available for Internet Viewing
Jon Iverson  |  Mar 15, 1998  |  0 comments

In early March, <A HREF="http://www.thesync.com">The Sync</A>, an Internet audio/video broadcasting company, announced that history has been made with the first modern feature film to be offered for viewing on the World Wide Web: American director Erica Jordan's acclaimed 1994 independent film, <I>Walls of Sand</I>. This important debut ushers in a new era in entertainment: video on demand from your PC, with feature films available at any hour of the day. Net surfers can watch <I>Walls of Sand</I> for free in the RealVideo format on The Sync's "<A HREF="http://thesync.com/ondemand">ondemand</A>" page.

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Audio Video News
Review: Scorsese's Casino on DVD
Barry Willis  |  Mar 15, 1998  |  2 comments

R<I>obert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, James Woods. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Aspect ratio: 1.85:1. Dolby Digital 5.1. 179 minutes. Univeral 20159. Rated R. $26.98.</I>

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Audio Video News
Stereo VCR, Projection TV Sales Jump a Little in January
 |  Mar 15, 1998  |  0 comments

This year began with a strong performance in the video market, confirming previous forecasts of a vibrant holiday season. According to data released by the <A HREF="http://www.cema.org">Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association</A> (CEMA), total January video shipments to US hardware dealers rose 8% to nearly 2.8 million units. Color televisions represented more than half that volume, sporting a 20% rise. In fact, color TVs enjoyed their best January sales since 1993.

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Audio Video News
Pioneer DVD-Recordable Drive Now Available for Your PC
 |  Mar 15, 1998  |  0 comments

On March 9, <A HREF="http://www.pioneerusa.com">Pioneer New Media Technologies</A> announced the availability of its first DVD-Recordable (DVD-R) drive, the DVR-S101, bundled with DVD mastering software from Prassi Software USA and five blank DVD-R discs. Aimed at the professional desktop DVD market, Pioneer's SCSI-2 DVD-R drive lists for $16,995 and provides a data-transfer rate of 1.428 megabits per second, a data-buffer capacity of 4 MB, and a tray-loading system. Together with the mastering software, this products constitutes the first fully functional DVD-R drive to be offered for sale that allows users to create a disc image file and record on the desktop. "The Pioneer/Prassi bundle provides the DVD-mastering market with the only DVD-R solution available," says Paul Dempsey, senior vice president of marketing and sales at Pioneer New Media Technologies. "This is a powerful product offering that is incredibly easy to use."

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