Audio Video News

<I>William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Majel Barrett, Persis Khambatta, Steven Collins. Directed by Robert Wise. Aspect ratio: 2.35 (anamorphic). Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround 2.0. 136 minutes. 1979. Paramount Home Video 08858. PG. $29.99.</I>

It appears that almost nobody in government thinks a single direct broadcast satellite system is a good idea.

All is not well in entertainment land. Of the music industry's Big Five, only Universal Music managed to report a profit last year. That was a curious development in view of parent company <A HREF="http://www.vivendi.fr">Vivendi Universal SA</A>'s recent report of a net loss for 2001 in the amount of 13.6 billion euros, or $15.63 billion. Vivendi is also the parent company of Universal Pictures, its film unit.

It looked good on paper and at the demo: Digital Television and HDTV would revive the video market and create a wave of demand for new sets and playback equipment. Then there were the <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/shownews.cgi?785">8VSB versus COFDM</A> and <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/shownews.cgi?1237">copy protection</A> flaps, leading to shifting connection standards and uncertainty both on the manufacturing end and in the marketplace.

Just a week after a consortium of electronics companies announced its commitment to a new <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/shownews.cgi?1228">high-capacity DVD</A>, the DVD Forum voted to approve the use of low-bit-rate compression for high-definition DVD. The vote was approved by 11 of the Forum's 17 members, with Matsushita, JVC, and Philips abstaining.

Can direct broadcast satellite services make good on their promises? Representatives of EchoStar and Hughes Electronics Corporation (owner of DirecTV) have promised federal lawmakers that if their merger is approved, they will roll out broadband digital services, retransmit local television signals, and generally saturate the nation with satellite television&mdash;all within three years.