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Audio Video News
Blockbuster Wants Your Netflix Flaps
 |  Feb 22, 2007  |  First Published: Feb 23, 2007  |  0 comments

Blockbuster has a promotion that it apparently thinks is so good that it's worth doing twice. Last Sunday through Wednesday current Netflix subscribers that brought in the tear away flaps from a Netlfix movie rental envelope were given a free movie rental at Blockbuster. According the AP story on the promo, this is the second time Blockbuster has run this offer, the first being a two week stint in the Dallas area last December.

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Audio Video News
High Def for the Analog Set
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Feb 22, 2007  |  0 comments
For those who can't sleep at night worrying about the impending analog TV cutoff on February 17th, 2009, the AV Tool ATSC-100 HDTV Off-Air Receiver might be better than an Ambien or a Lunesta. (We're not endorsing specific medications, of course. We prefer to use late-night TV infomercials as sedatives.)
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Ears On
Video Games Steady Surgeon's Knife
Mark Fleischmann  |  Feb 22, 2007  |  0 comments
Sawbones who play video games regularly are 37 percent less likely to make a mistake when doing something in your gut with a pointed object, according to a survey of surgeons at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. Of 33 surgeons who participated in the study, nine had played video games for at least three hours in the preceding week, and 15 had never played them at all. Those nine were golden: Not only did they make fewer errors, they also performed 27 percent faster, and scored 42 percent higher in a surgical-skills test. The technique in question is laparoscopic surgery, in which a video camera on a stick is inserted into the patient's body, allowing for smaller incisions for the other sharp objects and less invasive procedures overall. "It's like tying your shoelaces with three-foot-long chopsticks," says the author of the study, Dr. James "Butch" Rosser. Yup, he's a gamer: "I use the same hand-eye coordination to play video games as I use for surgery." Maybe we shouldn't worry so much about video-game violence. This guy's itchy trigger finger is saving lives.
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Other Tech
Q&A - February/March, 2007
Ian G. Masters  |  Feb 21, 2007  |  0 comments

LCoS Limitations?

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Other Tech
Ask An Installer: HDMI 1.3 Cable Length Limit
 |  Feb 21, 2007  |  0 comments

Q. Does HDMI 1.3 improve on the rather anemic cable-run lengths that previous versions of HDMI supported? In my own case, I need a run of about 30 feet. Dave Ings Toronto, Ontario

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Ears On
FCC Says Congress Can Stem TV Violence
Mark Fleischmann  |  Feb 21, 2007  |  0 comments
A draft report circulating at the Federal Communications Commission claims Congress can regulate violent television content without violating the First Amendment. Interesting fact: Under the Constitution, it is the Supreme Court, not the FCC, that makes such judgments. According to chairperson Kevin Martin, "there is strong evidence that shows violent media can have an impact on children's behavior and there are some things that can be done about it." Sitting alongside Martin, a Republican, was ranking Democrat Michael Copps: "This is not a red state or a blue state issue," he said. Of the remaining three commissioners, one sides with Martin and Copps, and the other two haven't officially taken a position, giving the pro-censorship bloc a potential 3-2 majority. Even Tony Soprano may not be safe from these guys. Martin wants to exert influence on the cable and satellite networks as well. On the bright side, he wants to do it by giving consumers a chance to buy channels "a la carte," an idea the cable industry has long opposed.
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Fred Manteghian Blog
Possibly the Best Web Site in the World?
Fred Manteghian  |  Feb 20, 2007  |  5 comments

<a href="http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/Home.aspx" target="new">Wolfang's Vault</a> is a <i>pretty slick</i> web site where you can continue the journey of rediscovering your musical youth. The fellow that owns the site bought out nearly all of Bill Graham's stuff just before he croaked. This is Bill Graham, owner of the Fillmores, East and West, and other venues, concert promoter extraordinaire, not Billy Graham the evangelist, although, in the end, they're both dead.

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Geoffrey Morrison Blog
Pioneer 1080p
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Feb 20, 2007  |  10 comments
Well, better late then never. Here’s my review of Pioneer’s PRO-FHD1 1080p plasma. It’s probably the best looking flat panel you can by, at least for right now. It’s also $8,000… Impressive none the less. Read about it here.
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When Good Reviews Go Bad
Shane Buettner  |  Feb 20, 2007  |  4 comments

It's unfortunate but sometimes review products arrive DOA, or don't work properly right from the get go. And when this happens, it puts everyone in a bad spot. Our policy here at <I>UAV</I>, which is a good one, is that any product sent for review gets one, even if the product malfunctions. No one gets a break on a defective product. However, when a component is dead or defective from the get-go we can't even spend enough time with it to write a meaningful paragraph. And if four or five interesting and functional products are lined up behind it, it's easy to just move on to the other products and wait for a replacement.

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Audio Video News
XMius or Sir XM?
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Feb 20, 2007  |  0 comments
Satellite radio providers SIRIUS and XM have announced that, after years of talking smack about each other, they've agreed to merge the two companies.
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