Audio Video News

<B>Three Warner HD DVD Titles To "Launch" HD DVD</B>
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The HD DVD launch is beginning with a whimper. Warner Home Video, the only studio committed to supporting the March 28th debut of HD DVD hardware has officially announced it will not have software titles ready until April 18th, citing technical issues as cause. While more titles are to follow in subsequent weeks, exactly three titles are currently announced for the new April start date, <I>Million Dollar Baby</I>, <I>The Phantom of the Opera</I>, and <I>The Last Samurai</I>.

<B>V, Inc. Plasmas On Sale In Time For NCAA Tourney</B>
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V, Inc. broke into the industry with a bang a few years ago by not only offering an upconverting DVD player (the Bravo D1), but by making it scary good and very cheap. V, Inc.'s HD plasmas have been well received as bang-for-the-buck champs too, and V, Inc. is dropping the prices on its plasmas even lower, just in time for the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. The VIZIO P42HDTV and P50HDM will now sell for just $1499 and $2299, respectively.

<B>Program Your TiVo From Your Cel Phone</B>
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It was only a matter of time until someone rolled out this killer app: TiVo and Verizon have struck a deal that will allow TiVo subscribers to program their DVRs using a Verizon cel phone. Called TiVo Mobile, this service will be offered later this year. No pricing has been announced yet.

While the good news is that we now apparently know when Blu-ray is going to launch, a pair of news stories from last week dovetail to paint a fairly ugly picture for the Blu-ray Disc. If the reports of the <A HREF="http://ultimateavmag.com/news/022606ps3delay/"> delay of PlayStation3 </A> hold, that means there will not be a single BD player available at launch for less than $1000. Add to that the uninspiring list of titles announced to accompany Blu-ray’s May 23rd launch and you’ve got to wonder, who’s going to bother?

<B>Parasound's Zcustom Line Now Features Dedicated HDMI Switcher</B>
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The more things change, the more things stay the same. Several years ago as component video began to appear on more and more sources and displays, those living on the bleeding edge quickly accrued more component sources than their displays and/or surround processors and AVRs could effectively switch. Flash forward and the same thing is happening with HDMI sources now. Many users have a DVD player and an HD set-top box of some kind, and yet it's still shockingly rare to find a display with even two HDMI inputs. Well, Parasound has an answer for you.