Chris Feickert (the Dr. Feickert behind turntable and turntable alignment tool) designer Dr. Feickert Analogue) has been working on Adjust+-an interesting hardware/software test suite for turntable adjustment-for a couple of years now.
While 3DTV has captured the imaginations of some consumers, most are unmoved, an online poll by Vision Critical shows. Only five percent of Americans, two percent of Britons, and one percent of Canadians have a 3DTV set at home.
Moreover, the skeptics are not likely to turn into purchasers within the next six months. They include 81 percent of Americans and Britons, and 95 percent of Canadians. This is despite high levels of awareness, with more than four out of five consumers in each nation familiar with the technology.
What can be done about TV channels that stretch 4:3 images to 16:9? How do I switch between two AVRs to power one pair of speakers? How do I optimize the picture on my new TV?
Erik Aadahl, sound designer and supervising sound editor on such movies as Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs. Aliens, I, Robot, Superman Returns, Valkyrie, and Transformers, talks about the importance of sound in storytelling and the process of sound design, and he shares anecdotes from some of the movies he's worked on. He also takes us on a tour of the Kim Novak Theater at Sony Pictures Studios, where he's working on a blockbuster due to be released this summer, though he couldn't reveal the title.
Troubled Blockbuster Inc. has recently been in bankruptcy court and on the block. Now it has a new owner, the Dish Network. The satellite TV operator won the video rental chain with a bid of $320 million including $228 million in cash.
Dish takes over what remains the country's largest brick-and-mortar video rental chain, though it has shut down thousands of stores to reach the current total of 1700. One factor in its downfall was the huge debt load it took on when Viacom spun off the company in 2004. As recently as 2009, Blockbuster was confident (if not actually robust) enough to bid a cool billion for Circuit City. Now its share price has dropped so low, it's been delisted from the NYSE.