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A/V Veteran
Big Blue Meets Big-blu
Thomas J. Norton  |  May 26, 2010  |  First Published: May 27, 2010

Movie studios don't miss a thing when it comes to keeping a tight watch on the effectiveness of Blu-ray copy protection. Recently, in an apparent attempt to close an assumed (I assume) breach, 20th Century Fox updated its BD+ copy codes in an effort to keep the door firmly locked. The first disc I noted a problem with was (surprise!) <I>Avatar</I>, which was so firmly locked it would not play. After an inordinately long loading cycle it decided it couldn't get along with an Oppo BDP-83 player, which I've admittedly been lax in updating. The same proved to be the case on another current but not updated model, the Pioneer BDP-320. Same long wait, same lack of a payoff. Or at least not a welcome one. All I got was a bright red screen telling me to update my player.

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Audio Video News
ESPN: 3D tech will beat DVRs by 2019
SV Staff  |  May 26, 2010
ESPN is serious in seeing 3D technology develop. The company is launching a dedicated 3D network, ESPN 3D, which will be available through Comcast and DirecTV starting June 11. ESPN is now planning to broadcast over 100 3D events over the next...
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Ask S&V
Oppo, Task Lights, Best Connections
Scott Wilkinson  |  May 26, 2010
Oppo vs. Oppo
What is the difference between the Oppo BDP-83 and BDP-83SE? I have HDMI capabilities, so should I go with the 83, considering the price difference?
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Audio Video News
Outdoor Speakers Discounted
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 26, 2010
Thinking of buying some outdoor speakers? Then look at the Boston Acoustics Voyager and Voyager Rock, which will be sold for 20 percent off through July 31, 2010. You can buy from a participating dealer or from the Boston Acoustics website.
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Home Theater Geeks Podcast
Podcast 22: Jon Iverson
Scott Wilkinson  |  May 25, 2010  |  First Published: May 26, 2010
Our own Jon Iverson—audiophile, recording musician, and web monkey for UltimateAVmag.com, HomeTheatermag.com, and Stereophile.com—discusses LPs vs. CDs, data and dynamic-range compression, music servers, digital-to-analog converters, objective measurements vs. subjective impressions in reviews, blind audio testing, and more.

Run Time: 1:12:11

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Audio Video News
EyeTV HD records TV and streams it to the iPad
SV Staff  |  May 25, 2010
It's been less than two months since the release of the iPad and already there's an iPad-specific Slingbox-style device available. The Elgado EyeTV HD is a set-top box that can capture 1080i video over a component connection and send it to a...
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3D Tech
3D News from DisplayWeek 2010
Scott Wilkinson  |  May 25, 2010

The Society for Information Display (SID) hosts an annual conference called DisplayWeek, during which the latest display technologies are unveiled, often long before they become available in actual products. At this year's show in Seattle, Washington, several 3D-related announcements have already been made, and it's only the first day.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Dear John (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  May 25, 2010

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/dearjohn.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Based on the bestselling novel from Nicholas Sparks ("The Notebook"), <i>Dear John</i> is the story of two young lovers, John (Channing Tatum) and Savannah (Amanda Seyfried), who are separated from each other two weeks after falling in love. They pass their time apart by writing a series of love letters until they can finally be together again. Complications arise after 9/11, when John reenlists in the military despite promising Savannah he would get out to be with her.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Alice in Wonderland
David Vaughn  |  May 25, 2010
Alice (Mia Wasikowska), now 19 years old, returns to the mysterious world she first entered as a child and embarks on a journey to discover her true destiny. Along the way, she meets the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the evil Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), and many others who help her complete her quest.

I'm a huge fan of director Tim Burton and was eager to see his take on the classic tale. The theatrical reviews were mixed, but the box-office take ($332 million) makes it Disney's fourth-highest-grossing film of all time. Despite the bizarre second act, it's very entertaining, and the amazing sets and costumes certainly helped draw me in. While not perfect, the 1080p encode boasts some amazingly detailed scenes, and the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack is just as impressive with a plethora of discrete effects.

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Projector Reviews
Vivitek H9080FD LED-Based DLP Projector
Shane Buettner  |  May 25, 2010
Price: $15,000 At A Glance: LEDs promise longevity, consistent performance • Excellent color • Good contrast mitigated by unrefined dynamic contrast performance

Get the LED In

The last few years have been a golden age for digital front projection in home theater applications. Today’s best projectors offer an absolutely stellar combination of price, convenience, essential features, and most importantly, performance. In virtually all of these respects, today’s digital projectors shatter any expectations we had a few years ago. But there is a rub. Digital projection as we’ve known it has been driven by analog lamps for illumination. These lamps, which generally cost $300 to $500 each, age and need to be replaced every couple of thousand hours. If you insist on the very best performanceyou may need to replace them even sooner. In addition to dropping light output, aging lamps also affect a projector’s color performance, gammaand gray-scale tracking. Inother words, the lamp-driven projector you buy today isn’t the same projector you’ll have after several hundred hours without a touch-up calibration.

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