Audio Video News

As I mention in <A href="http://www.ultimateavmag.com/scottwilkinson/505sw/">my current column</A>, streaming high-quality A/V content in real time over the Internet is not practical due in part to bandwidth limitations. Currently, DSL and cable modems top out at about 3 megabits per second downstream (into the home), while DVDs typically consume 4-7Mbps of bandwidth, and standard MPEG-2 HDTV requires over 19Mbps.

Despite the ongoing rumors of back-room talks aimed at averting a format war over the next generation of blue-laser optical discs, each camp is continuing to develop its own standard. In our <A href="http://www.ultimateavmag.com/news/051605HDDVD/">last report</A> on this game, Toshiba had announced a 3-layer HD DVD with 45GB of storage capacity. Now, TDK has upped the ante again by announcing that they've developed a 4-layer Blu-ray Disc (BD) prototype with a total capacity of 100GB; each layer holds 25GB, just as in single- and dual-layer BDs.

At the Society for Information Display (SID) 2005 International Symposium, Seminar, and Exhibition this week in Boston, MA, Samsung is highlighting a number of important developments. Their 82-inch LCD panel, the largest in the world, is being exhibited for the first time in the Americas. The prototype is said to have a horizontal and vertical viewing angle of 180&#186;, reproduce 92% of the NTSC color gamut, and exhibit a response time of 8ms or less.

Normally, <I>UAV</I> wouldn't pay much attention to the Electronic Entertainment Expo, otherwise known as E3, being held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, May 17-20, 2005. But at this year's show, there were some announcements that perked up my ears a bit: new game consoles from the Big Three (Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo), at least some of which will have high-def capabilities, making them much more interesting to home theater buffs.

It was a night like any other Hollywood premier: lavish parties, hundreds of fans crowding police barricades surrounding the theater, stars sauntering down the red carpet, paparazzi yelling at them: "Turn to the right! No, <I>my</I> right!" But few premiers feature Imperial Storm Troopers, Wookies, and Darth Vader himself working the crowd.

In what must be considered a major victory for consumers, on May 6, 2005, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in favor of the American Library Association and others who filed suit against the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to block implementation of the so-called "broadcast flag," a digital signature that would have severely limited the circumstances under which consumers could copy DTV programs. As a result, over-the-air DTV signals may be freely recorded and copied for personal, non-commercial purposes as outlined by the principles of fair use (as unclear as those principles may be).