They say a camel is a horse built by committee. That's how I see the whole format war debacle. The winner will be a camel, which, by any other name, still spits like a camel. When you break things down to a component level, each format has the ingredients for a winning recipe. But it's all in the cooking.
I'm a huge boxing fan since way back, and seldom miss a big fight any time for any reason. Last night I threw down $50 to watch the Migel-Cotto-Zab Judah showdown on HBO Pay-Per-View over Comcast digital cable. The fight card itself met or exceeded expectations with two of the four matches, including the headliner, being terrific scraps.
Sometimes there's more to be said about a reviewed product—information we've gleaned after the review is posted. It doesn't happen often; our schedule does not allow for leisurely, post-review ruminations. We have to move on to other gear. But sometimes we do learn new things. Or we need to follow up on something left hanging, perhaps after we've received a belated second sample. Often such updates are simply added to the existing review. But sometimes, particularly if the original review has scrolled off the home page and an important addition to it might be easily overlooked, the information will receive more attention elsewhere—such as in a blog.
On February 17, 2009, all analog TVs in America will go kaput. Turn on your trusty Zenith, and you'll get - static. Whack it as much as you want (and feel free to take out your frustrations), but it won't do any good. The TV set itself is still perfectly fine. It's the analog broadcast signal that's the problem. In particular, it won't be there anymore.
As much as I love projectors, most people feel they can’t live with one. Apparently, some people don’t like living in a completely light-controlled environment. Come on, caves are fun. Not convinced? Neither are most people. So enter a subcategory of the screen market—one that caters to those folks who want a big-screen image, without the cost of a flat panel and without the light requirements of a regular front-projection system. I wrote an article a few months ago on several screens that fit this niche. You can read that one here. Planar’s Xscreen takes a similar approach but adds a few different features.
The boundary between television and the internet blurred a little further on Monday, when Hearst-Argyle Television and YouTube announced a deal that would bring local news to the popular video-sharing service.
You pretty much can't read a review of a display or disc player here or anywhere without seeing references to the video processing test clips and patterns from Silicon Optix' <I>HQV Benchmark</I>. Now, the high-definiton <I>HD HQV Benchmark</I> is available to consumers on both Blu-ray and HD DVD for $20 each.
