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Ears On
Turn on The Tube
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 16, 2007
One of the cool things about digital television is the potential for creativity on the subchannels. Case in point: The Tube. It's carried in many markets by DTV stations owned by Raycom, Sinclair, Tribune, and others; and by Comcast, Time Warner, and other cable systems. The independently owned channel delivers nonstop rock and pop music videos with minimal channel IDs and no commercials. Programming races back and forth in time, from the 1960s to the present, mixing raw live footage with conventional promo music videos. Some items in heavy rotation are surprising--I would never have gone out of my way to add Queen concerts to my DVD stash, but wow, Freddie rocks! My only complaint is that heavy audio compression results in harsh, grainy sound with virtually no dynamic range. Even so, it's a great place to surf during commercial breaks on other channels, and repays longer spells of attention with a wide and ever-changing array of music. Check the Wiki to see if The Tube is available in your area. The channel also has an official site, an unofficial site, and a myspace presence.
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A/V Veteran
Pirates Go Blu
Thomas J. Norton  |  May 15, 2007

Come next Tuesday, two anxiously awaited titles will hit the video stores&mdash;<I>Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl</I> and <I>Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest</I>.

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Audio Video News
Mitsubishi Big On DLP And LCD
 |  May 15, 2007

Mitsubishi announced its 2007 lineup of DLP rear projection and LCD flat panel TVs before the gathered press Monday in New York. The message was clear- Mits is hanging its TV hat on premium LCD and large screen DLP rear projectors.

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Audio Video News
Cox Kills VOD Fast Forward
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 15, 2007
How would you feel about your video-on-demand service if you discovered the fast-forward function had been disabled? Viewers of the country's third-largest cable system will soon find out when they try in vain to skip ads on the VOD versions of ABC and ESPN.
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Audio Video News
HP to Sell High-Def Combi PCs
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 14, 2007
Want your next PC to handle both Blu-ray and HD DVD? Both high-def disc formats will be accommodated in select build-to-order models from Hewlett-Packard.
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Other Tech
Gift Ideas for Dads & Grads
 |  May 13, 2007

Gifts for Gearheads - The S&V Hot 100 Need a great gift for a great guy (or guys)? We're here to help. Click the links below to check out our techno-treat picks for 2007, courtesy of S&V contributor and gift-guider extraordinaire Pete Pachal.

For The Home

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Best of Show
Tom Norton  |  May 13, 2007

There was a definite shortage of home theater exhibits at this year's home entertainment show. But no shortage of interesting products. When faced with limited home theater presence, I go to plan B: look for loudspeakers. Speakers do of course, handle two types of program material in most homes: music and films. If they sound good on music that's more than half the battle. And if they don't, even Angelina Jolie can't help them.

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CinePro
Tom Norton  |  May 13, 2007

CinePro showed its new Mighty Powershelf two-way speaker ($3300/pair), together with the Mighty Center Channel ($2700), two jumbo 12" Dual isobaric subwoofers ($5000), and a rack full of CinePro electronics. The projector was from SIM2. The sound was punchy and dynamic, even though I did request a slightly lower playback level than those that CinePro usually favors.
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Also sharing the room with CinePro was VidaBox, a media center designed as a full-function server capable of storing music, television programming, and movies on its hard drive. It is also said to be capable of both Blu-ray and HD DVD playback. Shane Buetter has more to say about the VidaBox in an earlier blog entry (below)

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Soundmatters
Tom Norton  |  May 13, 2007

Two makers of one-box solutions for virtual surround sound were at the show. ZVOX was covered earlier in our show report (below). Soundmatters is the other. The Soundmatters SLIMstage40 Surround Console ($899, available in July), available in either silver or black (the silver version is shown in the photo, just under the flat panel set) uses four seven active drivers and eight internal amplifiers (170W total) to simulate a full surround sound experience. At 3.4" deep, it's designed to fit under a wall-mounted, flat panel television.

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Tower Speaker Reviews
The Tannoy Highline Arena 500 5.1-Channel Speaker System
Michael Fremer  |  May 13, 2007

Once upon a time loudspeakers were large, floor standing affairs, especially those designed to produce deep bass. Then came the acoustic suspension revolution and "bookshelf" loudspeakers were born, most of which ended up on stands in homes where sound quality counts. Many manufacturers specialized in one or the other, but a few offered both.

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