It baffles me that the digital video recorder hasn't caught on with mainstream consumers. Everyone I know who's spent 10 minutes with one of these gems is instantly addicted. It has a VCR's functionality, a digital cable box's user-friendliness, and a computer's brain. As far as I can tell, only two things are preventing the DVR from making it big: price and permanent storage.
I blame myself. Two years ago, I was strapped into a 767 surrounded by screaming babies, seat-kicking toddlers, and former senior technical editor Mike Wood. We were on our way to CEDIA, and Primedia was nice enough to book us first class. No wait, that's a lie. We were in steerage. At one point, I innocently turned to Mike and mentioned that we had several rear-projection TVs at our Woodland Hills studio and maybe we should have a Face Off. I recognized the look that crept onto Mike's face. I tried to bolt, but there's only so far you can get when there's a seatback 3 inches from your kneecaps. (Sorry to whomever was sitting in front of me.)
KEF
What if you could get the same digital surround sound from a speaker system without running all of those wires across the floor of your home theater? If that's your wish, then KEF's new Instant Theatre, or KIT100, is right up your alley. The system—which features two compact front speakers, a hideaway subwoofer, and a DVD/receiver unit with an AM/FM tuner—utilizes NXT's flat-panel technology to produce surround sound from just two speakers. Each die-cast aluminum speaker is designed to minimize cabinet vibrations and features a 4-inch Uni-Q driver array with a 0.6-inch tweeter. It's nearly impossible to mess up the setup process, as the four supplied cables are shaped for their respective fittings. The progressive-scan DVD player is compatible with CD-Rs/-RWs and MP3-encoded CDs, and the unit includes Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II, and DTS decoding. The Instant Theatre is all yours for $1,500.
KEF
(732) 683-2356 www.kef.com
DVD: Uptown Girls—MGM/UA
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 3
Eight-year-old Ray (Dakota Fanning), the daughter of a wealthy but inattentive mom and a father on his deathbed, never had a proper childhood. Molly (Brittany Murphy), the suddenly penniless daughter of a deceased rock icon, seems to have never entered adulthood. When Molly is recruited as a nanny to the obsessively clean, wise-beyond-her-years girl, they both learn how to act their ages.
HT Staff | Jan 28, 2004 | First Published: Jan 29, 2004
The remote control is one of the great inventions of the 20th century but one in severe need of refinement. Many consumer polls have demonstrated that remotes remain among the most confusing and frustrating devices in common use.
JVC hopes to make a major splash in the video market this year. The company has announced plans to release a variety of new products in the coming months, including plasma displays, LCD TVs, DVD recorders, and big-screen rear projection HDTVs using displays its "Digital Light Amplification" (D-ILA) technology.
Readers are often surprised by what our Top 10 lists include and exclude. That's a given for any Top 10 list. But this year, we should explain why a certain album doesn't get one of our annual S&V Entertainment Awards - and why a certain movie gets a second one.
Photos by Tony Cordoza To break an awkward silence at a business dinner a while back, somebody went around the table with the question, "What's the one thing you'd want if you were stranded on a desert island?" When my turn came, I replied, "A plasma TV." Everybody was incredulous, but I had my reasons.
Most of the early marketing studies done on the potential of interactive TV demonstrated that most consumers wanted nothing more than to order movies and possibly pizza. Most of the interactive features currently available to cable subscribers are low-key offerings like local movie schedules.
Home theater products continue to get better and cheaper. One example is <A HREF="http://www.panasonic.com">Panasonic</A>'s new PT-AE500, a high-definition widescreen LCD projector. The PT-AE500 incorporates several advances, including integrated cinema quality circuitry, full 10-bit digital processing and gamma correction, and new "smooth screen technology." Many of these advances derive from research and development and collaborative work done at the Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory in Hollywood, California, with top Hollywood studio colorists who helped ensure the projector's color fidelity.