Audio Video News

The <A HREF="http://www.cema.org">Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association</A> and the <A HREF="http://www.nab.org">National Association of Broadcasters</A> have banded together to drive digital television and its prot&eacute;g&eacute;, HDTV, forward in the US. At a recent DTV summit in Dallas, 300 executives representing manufacturers, retailers, and broadcasters met to learn about DTV rollout plans, study research results, and discuss problems facing the industry.

T<I>he Beatles: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr. Directed by Richard Lester (</I>A Hard Day's Night<I>, </I>Help!<I>), The Beatles (</I>Magical Mystery Tour<I>). Aspect ratios: 4:3 pan&scan (</I>A Hard Day's Night<I>, </I>Help!<i>); 4:3 (</I>Magical Mystery Tour<I>). Dolby Digital Stereo. 90 minutes, 90 minutes, 50 minutes. 1964, 1965, 1967. MPI DVD 7082, 7081, 1538. Not rated. $24.95 each.</I>

Every few days, the convergence envelope gets pushed a little further. Last week, on July 15, <A HREF="http://www.bostonacoustics.com/">Boston Acoustics</A> announced its new DigitalTheater 6000 loudspeaker system, which the company describes as "a complete Dolby Digital 5.1 surround-sound system created specifically for use with computing and home theater systems." The five-satellites-plus-subwoofer system is being packaged by <A HREF="http://www.gateway.com/">Gateway</A> with its Destination computer systems.

You're finally on that plane to Tahiti, and you decide to check what's on for the in-flight movie. Oh-oh, they're running <I>Porky's: Part 12</I>, and you can barely even see the screen 23 rows ahead of you. Then you find the headphones---the type with two plastic tubes coming out of the armrest. Time to whip out some of your own DVDs, sit back with some high-quality headphones, and watch a couple of film versions of <I>Mutiny On The Bounty</I>---the Brando <I>and</I> Gibson varieties.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.nimbuscd.com">Nimbus CD International, Inc.</A> announced that it has produced a combined total of more than 3.5 million commercial DVD-Video and DVD-ROM discs since the launch of the format one year ago.

For the first few days in July, the engineering elite held forth at the posh Fairmont hotel in San Jose to discuss IEEE 1394. Also known as FireWire (Apple Computer), or I-Link (Sony), 1394 is being hailed as a "breakthrough technology for anyone in the world who uses a PC and a Television."

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's a concert video in which the camera angle changes every three seconds, and during the charango solo we're shown a close-up of the vocalist drinking bottled water offstage. More than once I've wanted to reach through the TV and throttle the film editor. But if a recent announcement pans out, it could put camera control into the viewer's hands and bring a whole new meaning to the term "interactive television."