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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Moulin Rouge (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Oct 22, 2010
Satine (Nicole Kidman) is a seductive courtesan and star of a popular French nightclub that caters to society's decadent elite. When she unwittingly draws Christian (Ewan McGregor) into her spell, true love turns to tragedy.

Moulin Rouge is one of the most unique films of the 21st century featuring outstanding performances by the two leads, elaborate sets, and entertaining music and choreography. Kidman was rewarded with her first of two Oscar nominations (winning the following year for The Hours) and the film received seven additional nominations including Best Picture (winning two awards for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and Best Costume Design). Sadly, writer/director Baz Luhrmann was snubbed for Best Director although I feel he was more than deserving.

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Ears On
Practical Home Theater 10th Edition Hatched
Mark Fleischmann  |  Oct 21, 2010
An annual source of delight for readers everywhere is the updating of my book Practical Home Theater: A Guide to Video and Audio Systems (2011 Edition) from Quiet River Press. The latest edition is the 10th. Look out for the one with the spiffy green cover (yellow is so last year). In this year's edition you'll find a brand-new chapter on 3DTV with my own admittedly skeptical take on the subject. I've also consolidated the DVR and audio-server chapters into a new chapter on DVRs, streamers, and servers. It makes a lot more organizational sense. For the ISBN-minded, the ISBN-13 number is 9781932732122, and ISBN-10 is 1932732128. To ensure you order the right edition, click the links above and below. They'll take you to my website and that will take you to Amazon. You're also welcome to shop other online booksellers by searching the title on AddAll. Or, if you're the old-fashioned kind, walk through the door of your local bookstore and special-order the book. Just be sure to give the correct ISBN. This year's edition will be the first to be distributed in Europe, Canada, and Australia as well as U.S. and U.K. retail channels. The price remains $19.95 in the U.S., same as the first edition in 2002, a nice value in these hard times. Please buy my book so I won't have to beg in the street.
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Audio Video News
Marshall Headphones Debut November 15th
SV Staff  |  Oct 21, 2010
There's no shortage of headphones options out there at the moment, but starting on November 15th, legendary amp-maker Marshall will be entering the fray. There isn't a lot to talk about yet, since details on the familiar-looking cans is...
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Premiere Design
MSB 32/384 DAC, Disc Transport, ADC, and Monoblock
Scott Wilkinson  |  Oct 21, 2010
MSB Technology made a splash at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest last weekend with several new digital-audio products that can handle resolutions up to 32 bits and sampling rates as high as 384kHz. Also on hand was the company's newest monoblock power amp.
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Audio Video News
CEA Invites Consumers to Join
Mark Fleischmann  |  Oct 21, 2010
The Consumer Electronics Association, the CE industry's leading trade group, is inviting consumers to join. Until this point CEA members have been mainly manufacturers and industry insiders.
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Audio Video News
Netflix reports Q3 numbers: 16.9 million subscribers
SV Staff  |  Oct 20, 2010
Netflix has released its Q3 2010 numbers, and they show that the rent-by-mail, video streaming service is growing fast. At the end of the quarter, Netflix has 16.9 million subscribers, up 52% over the 11.1 million subscribers it had at the end of...
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Winter’s Bone—Lionsgate (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Oct 20, 2010
Video: 4/5
Audio: 3.5/5
Extras: 2.5/5
Seventeen-year-old Ree Dolly sets out to track down her father, who put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared. If she fails, Ree and her family will be turned out into the Ozark woods. Challenging her outlaw kin's code of silence and risking her life, Ree hacks through the lies, evasions and threats offered up by her relatives and begins to piece together the truth. Based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Moulin Rouge—20th Century Fox (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Oct 20, 2010
Video: 4/5
Audio: 4.5/5
Extras: 3.5/5
Set in a Paris nightclub that caters to society's decadent elite, the exhilarating "Moulin Rouge" follows the story of the ill-fated love affair between a stunning courtesan and a struggling young writer.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Rocky Horror Picture Show—20th Century Fox (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Oct 20, 2010
Video: 3.5/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 4.5/5
Fasten your garter belt and come up to the lab and see what's on the slab! It's "The Rocky Horror Picture Show Special Edition", a screamingly funny, sinfully twisted salute to sci-fi, horror, B-movies and rock music, all rolled into one deliciously decadent morsel. And now there's even more to make you shiver with antici...pation: two additional musical numbers, "Once In A While" and "Superheroes", never seen theatrically or available on video! The madcap, musical mayhem begins when rain-soaked Brad and Janet take refuge in the castle of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a transvestite mad scientist from outer space who is about to unveil his greatest creation - and have a bit of fun with his reluctant guests!
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Predators—20th Century Fox (Blu-ray)
Kris Deering  |  Oct 20, 2010
Video: 5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 3.5/5
Adrien Brody stars as Royce, a mercenary who reluctantly leads a group of elite warriors who come to realize they've been brought together on an alien planet... as prey. With the notable exception of a disgraced physician, they are all cold-blooded killers - mercenaries, Yakuza, convicts, death squad members - human "predators" that are now being systematically hunted and eliminated by a new breed of alien "Predators".
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