LATEST ADDITIONS

HP PL5060N Plasma HDTV
Thomas J. Norton  |  Mar 03, 2007  |  1 comments

When you think of Hewlett-Packard you don't think first of test gear or televisions. But HP began life as a manufacturer of specialized test and medical equipment. Today, however, it's the world's largest seller of home and business computers.

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Fred Manteghian Blog
Let Me See Your Business Plan
Fred Manteghian  |  Mar 03, 2007  |  0 comments

I never thought picking out 50 songs to download from emusic.com's website would be so difficult. I never thought it would take the full two weeks time I was allotted. Any more than two weeks, and I would have ipso facto agreed to begin having $10 or so deducted from my credit card on a monthly basis, in return for which I'd be entitled to download another 30 songs a month.

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An update on the Toshiba HD-XA2.
 |  Mar 02, 2007  |  2 comments

<B>[Please note that all the discussion below applies only the upconverted DVD playback in the Toshiba HD-XA2]</B>

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Other Source Component ReviewsBlu-ray Player Reviews
LG BH100 Blu-ray/HD DVD Player
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Mar 02, 2007  |  0 comments
Blu-ray and HD DVD in one box.

Well, no one saw this coming. We’re not that far into the format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray, and LG has come out with the BH100, a player that plays both formats. So, is that it? Format war over? Hardly.

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Ears On
Lawyers Strangle SED
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 02, 2007  |  15 comments
A promising new video display technology suffered a potentially fatal setback last week. SED stands for Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display. Whether marketers would come up with a sexier name for the ultra-flat tube technology is something we won't find out in the near future because a federal judge has ruled that Nano-Proprietary, the licensor, can wiggle out of its agreement with Canon. The agreement dates from 1999. Subsequently Canon brought Toshiba into a joint venture that would have brought SED to market. That made sense--if you want to sell TVs, you work with a TV company. Meanwhile, with an eye on the burgeoning market for flat panels, N-P apparently became unhappy with the arrangement. So the company argued that by bringing in Toshiba, Canon had violated the licensing agreement. N-P refused to call off its legal pit bulls even after Toshiba sold its stake to Canon and cancelled plans to show an SED prototype at the Consumer Electronics Show two months ago. If N-P wins the appeals, Canon will have to negotiate a whole new licensing agreement with N-P, if it chooses, possibly in competition with Samsung. Fun facts:
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVD Review: Little Miss Sunshine
Rad Bennett  |  Mar 01, 2007  |  0 comments
20th Century Fox
Movie •••½ Picture •••½ Sound ••• Extras •••
How can this pleasant
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Ears On
How Fair Is Fair Use Act?
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 01, 2007  |  0 comments
A bipartisan group is pushing new federal legislation that would chip away at the worst abuses of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act--the law often cited by the Recording Industry Antichrist of America in its "legal" campaign against consumers. The Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship Act, also known as the Fair Use Act, is sponsored by Reps. Rick Boucher (D-VA) and John Doolittle (R-CA). It would allow audiovisual compilations for classroom use, commercial skipping, home networking, library archiving, and access to works in the public domain or those "of substantial public interest solely for purposes of criticism, comment, news, reporting, scholarship, or research." It would also give manufacturers some wiggle room, eliminating statutory damages for those who unwittingly aid others who commit copyright infringement, and shoring up the 1984 Betamax Decision by sanctioning devices "capable of substantial, commercially-significant non-infringing use." Critics say the bill does not go as far as Boucher's attempts in previous legislative seasons. They point out that while the acts listed above are sanctioned, the tools that perform them are not. The RIAA condemned the bill claiming it would "repeal the DMCA and legalize hacking." And the Consumer Electronics Association praised it, saying it would "reinforce the historical fair use protections" of existing law.
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Geoffrey Morrison Blog
Sony Line Show
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Feb 28, 2007  |  7 comments
Sony had their line show on Tuesday. Continuing the sick joke from previous years, it was in Las wasn't-I-here-last-month Vegas. Instead of Caesars, it was at Paris.
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Audio Video News
New, Cheaper Blu-ray Player Leads Sony's Charge Into 2007
Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 28, 2007  |  0 comments

With the 2007 CES barely a memory, it seems far too soon for a 2007 line show from a major manufacturer. But Sony opened its annual product showcase for the press today at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas.

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Ears On
Are MP3's Days Numbered?
Mark Fleischmann  |  Feb 28, 2007  |  0 comments
An unexpected legal snafu may have makers of music players and ripping software shelling out bigtime for MP3 or possibly even abandoning the popular audio codec. At the heart of the storm is Alcatel-Lucent, a networking-equipment company and heir to the legacy of Bell Labs. Alcatel claims that Bell brought two key patents to the table when Bell joined the Fraunhofer Institute of Germany and Thomson of France in developing the MP3 format as the audio soundtrack of the now-forgotten MPEG-1 video standard. This claim is a surefire money maker. Alcatel has already persuaded the federal district court of San Diego to hit Microsoft with $1.52 billion in damages for the use of MP3 in the Windows Media Player. That's half a percentage point of the value of all Windows PCs sold. Ironically, WMP didn't begin supporting MP3 till 2004 with Version 10; before that MP3 ripping was a third-party plug-in. Microsoft will appeal, arguing that one of the two disputed patents does not apply to WMP and the other was covered when Gates & Co. paid Fraunhofer $16 million to license MP3. Before you get all giggly and anti-Redmondian, consider the fact that iTunes also offers MP3 ripping, and that iTunes purchases in AAC account for only a tiny percentage of all iPod-stored content. If Steve Jobs wants to keep his gravy train rolling, he'll have to fork over too. As will every purchaser of every MP3-compatible product. Pray for Microsoft.
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