LATEST ADDITIONS

Audio Video News
Sony 2009 Open House
Thomas J. Norton  |  Mar 04, 2009
Every year, Sony holds a late-winter Open House (aka line show). As in years past, it was located at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. The current financial situation, not to mention bad weather back east, kept most of the consumer-electronics press at home, but I was there from sunny southern California, camera in hand, to bring you the latest scoop.
Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Player Reviews
Sony BDP-S5000ES Blu-ray Player
Kris Deering  |  Mar 04, 2009
Price: $2,000 At A Glance: BD-Live, storage included • Outstanding build quality • Great DVD playback • Full advanced audio decoding • Limited HD video processing • Average load times

Elevating the Blu-ray Standard?

Sony’s Elevated Standard (ES) products have long been at the respected upper end of the company’s product line. I remember Sony’s early ES DVD players were the cat’s meow in terms of solid video performance and features. If you wanted reference-quality DVD playback early on in the format, you wanted an ES player. Now Sony has delivered two ES branded Blu-ray players. For this review, I’m going to look at its new flagship, the BDP-S5000ES.

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Virgin sacrifice: all U.S. stores to close
SV Staff  |  Mar 04, 2009
Another chain bites the dust. The Virgin Entertainment Group has announced that it will be shutting down all six of its remaining Virgin Megastores. Instead of simply packing up, it seems that Virgin will be moving its Megastore assets into real...
Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Kaleidescape's new Mini System offers a more compact way to serve up your DVDs and albums
SV Staff  |  Mar 04, 2009
Two years ago, we reviewed the Kaleidescape Movie & Music Server, a rack-mounted home theater beast that could store all of your albums and DVDs on its hard drives. It was big and expensive, but did its job really well, to the extent that we gave...
Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Circuit's Loss Is Best Buy's Gain
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 04, 2009
One door closes and another opens. Where will Circuit City customers take their business after the mega-chain's swan dive? To Best Buy, 55 percent of them told NPD Group researchers.
Continue Reading »
Music Reviews
U2: No Line on the Horizon
Brett Milano  |  Mar 03, 2009
Interscope
Music •••• Sound •••••
If you read the album title a certain way, No Line on the Horizon sounds pretty funny: Wouldn't that be the
Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
LG is sticking with plasma
SV Staff  |  Mar 03, 2009
Speculation about LG abandoning plasma screen technology seems to be unfounded, according to a statement the company released last week and reaffirmed by John Taylor, LG Electronics USA's Vice President of Public Affairs. The release reaffirms...
Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Seeing Watchmen on IMAX? The end is nigh, the popcorn is free
SV Staff  |  Mar 03, 2009
Watchmen is shaping up to be one of the biggest movies of the season, and it's almost certainly going to be one of the biggest to hit IMAX. This Friday, the film hits both the big screen and the bigger screen, and if you choose to see it on the...
Continue Reading »
LCD TV Reviews
Sharp Aquos LC-46D85U LCD HDTV
Thomas J. Norton  |  Mar 03, 2009
Price: $1,800 At A Glance: Superb color and resolution • First-rate standard-def video processing • Mediocre blacks and shadow detail

From Sharp Minds

Sharp is a prime mover and shaker in the flat-panel business. The company has been dedicated to LCD technology from the beginning of the beginning—all the way back to the earliest LCD pocket calculators.

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
FCC Wades into DTV Royalty Dispute
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 03, 2009
Is price gouging on patents inflating the prices of DTVs? A lobbying group says DTV patent holders are imposing onerous terms when licensing their technologies to competing manufacturers. And the Federal Communications Commission has promised to investigate.
Continue Reading »

Pages

X