Audio Video News

The video display market has been revolutionized in the last few years as plasma screens and video projectors have gained widespread acceptance. Smaller, lighter, and brighter projectors are translating into healthy market growth: Worldwide unit shipments are expected to reach 2.7 million in 2006, a 24.6% compound annual growth rate from 2002&ndash;2006, according to figures released by analyst <A HREF="http://www.idc.com">IDC</A>.

Size is definitely an advantage in commodity retailing. In an antitrust suit begun in mid-June, the7800-store chain <A HREF="http://www.blockbuster.com">Blockbuster, Inc.</A>&mdash;the world's largest video retailer&mdash;admitted that it has an advantage over its smaller competitors, but claimed no wrongdoing in the process of negotiating favorable revenue-sharing deals with Hollywood studios.

<A HREF="http://www.madrigal.com">Madrigal</A> has announced a new media console claimed "to establish new standards for connoisseurs of multichannel audio and video." If early publicity and its spec sheet are any indication, the $30,000 Mark Levinson No. 40 media console may, in fact, live up to the hype.

Russ Herschelmann (Stereophile Guide to Home Theater's "Home Theater Architect") will be conducting a special two-day intensive home theater workshop on Sat-Sun, June 29-30, 2002 in Napa, California. For more information on what will be covered during the two-part event, go to www.home-theater-guy.com and click on "Workshops".

Hitachi is back in the widescreen HDTV race. The company voluntarily pulled itself out of the integrated HDTV market last year, due to what executives called "premature market timing." The change is due to the growth in available over-the-air high-definition programming.

There is no doubt in home theater enthusiasts' minds that high definition television (HDTV) offers far superior picture quality compared to standard definition television (SDTV). So, apart from movie studio piracy concerns, why is it taking so long to roll out more HD content? In a word, bandwidth. HDTV requires substantially more bandwidth than SDTV, which forces broadcasters to consider cutting back SDTV content to make room for high-def.