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With just about everything being made in China these days—including high-end audio gear from companies based in other countries—it seems inevitable that native manufacturers would join the party. Founded in 1995, Shenzhen Danyigao Audio Equipment Limited uses the trademark Dared to brand its tube-based electronics, including the Flagship Series DV-805 and DV-845 single-ended monoblock amps, whose model numbers indicate the specific tube on which each is based.

Captain John J. Adams (Leslie Nielsen) leads a crew of 18 to the planet Altair to investigate the mysterious disappearance of some settlers. Upon arrival, the crew is warned not to land (which they ignore) and are greeted by Robby the Robot. The only two survivors left on the planet are Dr. Edward Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) and his beautiful daughter Altaira (Anne Francis), but what happened to the rest?

While the special effects are nothing special and the pacing is on the slow side, I found the story is entertaining. You can see how Gene Roddenberry was influenced by this and many other 1950s sci-fi films for Star Trek. While the human actors do an admirable job, Robby the Robot steals the show and went on to become one of the most famous robots in movie history appearing in an additional 20 movies and TV shows over the past 50 years.

CrunchGear's Devin Coldewey put up an interesting piece Tuesday on the state of 3D TVs. His main point is best summed up in the headline: "Get Used To "3D" TVs – They're Here To Stay." The reasoning is that adding 3D compatibility is trivial, and...

All for 1.4, and 1.4 for All?

In 2002, the video world was just getting comfortable with component analog video. HDTV and DVD were only starting to acquire mass-market status. We were using three separate video cables to connect our shiny new HDTVs to our best sources. Add to that up to six audio cables to our A/V receivers. This forest of cables wasn’t heaven (except to cable vendors), but it worked, and it provided most viewers with their first real taste of high-quality video. We also had DVI, a standard for digital video borrowed from the computer world. But because its clunky connector only carried video and not audio as well, it never achieved critical mass.