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Blue Note
John Higgins  |  Dec 30, 2006  |  First Published: Dec 03, 2006
Making your computer feel Blu(-ray).

The big news in 2006 has been the emergence of two new high-def DVD formats—Blu-ray and HD DVD. With greater storage capacity than a traditional DVD, we can now get higher-quality audio and video on the small screen. Depending on the compression used, each release can contain a whole slew of extras—or you can fit entire seasons of television shows, in SD, on one disc. Now, with the introduction of some internal drives for the home computer, you can back up vast amounts of information with a single disc. My personal iTunes music library, which contains the majority of my CDs, encoded as AAC files at 192 kilobits per second (stereo), could almost all fit on one Blu-ray disc. That's three-and-a-half months of continuous music. Add the ability to play Blu-ray titles, and it's the perfect time to move that home computer into the home theater for some high-def goodness. Before you get too excited and run out to buy a new drive, there are a few things that you need to consider first.

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The S&V Interview
HT Talks To . . . Dennis Muren
Chris Chiarella  |  Dec 30, 2006  |  First Published: Dec 03, 2006
Special Effects Guru Dennis Muren talks to HT about computer graphics, the equinox, and owning his own tux.
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Bookshelf Speaker Reviews
Pioneer HTS-GS1 Speaker System for Xbox 360
Chris Chiarella  |  Dec 30, 2006  |  First Published: Dec 03, 2006
Think of it as a cheat code to unlock your 360's hidden sonic levels.

The high-definition video capabilities of the Xbox 360, like those of the imminent Sony PlayStation 3, have put a renewed emphasis on the importance of the video display. And, indeed, consumers young and old continue to bring HDTVs into their homes in record numbers. But no one was more shocked than I was to discover that there are still some gamers out there with current- and next-generation consoles in their living rooms who aren't hooked up to discrete 5.1-channel audio systems. Rather than record a Sally Struthers–style public-service announcement to elicit help for these poor, unfortunate souls, I chose to investigate the options—and I came up with Pioneer's officially licensed Xbox 360 sound solution, the HTS-GS1.

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Portable Player Reviews
SanDisk Sansa e280 Portable Media Player
Mark Fleischmann  |  Dec 30, 2006  |  First Published: Dec 03, 2006
The company that made Steve sweat.

SanDisk has been building on their position as a Flash memory-card manufacturer to offer music players. Search Amazon.com, and you'll find that the company's solid-state players come up as often as their highly rated SD cards, putting them at the forefront of iPod competition. The Sansa e280's main attraction—a compelling one—is 8 gigabytes of storage, making it one of the most capacious memory-based players out there.

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LCD TV Reviews
JVC LT-37X987 LCD HDTV
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Dec 30, 2006  |  First Published: Nov 13, 2006
60? Who needs 60?

As I've mentioned in the past, one of my least favorite artifacts in the video world is the motion blur that flat-panel LCDs exhibit. Not everyone is as allergic to this as I am, and that's fine. I tend not to be bothered by DLP rainbows; some are. So, we all have our things.

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Ears On
Philips: 'Have We Gone Too Far?'
Mark Fleischmann  |  Dec 29, 2006
The CEO of Philips Electronics North America seems to be having a midlife crisis. Or at least, his company is. Asks Paul Zeven: "Have we gone too far? Are we in step with the needs of today's American consumer?" Philips research suggests that manufacturers have gone astray. "My company has studied the relationship between technology's complexity and consumers' attitudes and found that two out of three Americans have lost interest in a technology product because it seemed too complex to set up or operate. We also found that only 13 percent of Americans believe technology products in general are easy to use. The study concluded that only one in four consumers reports using the full range of features on most new technology products. If these findings aren't enough of a wake-up call, the study also found that more than half of Americans believe manufacturers are trying to satisfy perceived consumer needs that may not be real." It's telling that Zeven looks not to the hardware sector for a new role model, but to the likes of Google and Craigslist. The solution, he says, is "design, manageability and functionality."
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Superman: The Movie, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut—HD DVD
Thomas J. Norton  |  Dec 28, 2006  |  First Published: Dec 29, 2006

The 1978 story of the comic hero Superman was far from the first live action realization of that character, but it has become a classic. Christopher Reeve, in the title role, was an appealing actor. While he was never a great one, he was a good choice for the Man of Steel. It's no accident that Brandon Routh, a Reeve near look-alike, was chosen for the lead role in the new Superman Returns.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Wild—Blu-ray
Thomas J. Norton  |  Dec 28, 2006  |  First Published: Dec 29, 2006

Stop me if you've heard this one. Wild animal breaks out of a New York zoo to return to the wild. Other animal friends follow to bring him back. They travel by boat to a strange, jungle environment.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Corpse Bride—Blu-ray
Thomas J. Norton  |  Dec 28, 2006  |  First Published: Dec 29, 2006

Tim Burton loves the bizarre, and his Corpse Bride (he shares director credit here with Mike Johnson) is nothing if not that.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Black Hawk Down —Blu-ray
Thomas J. Norton  |  Dec 28, 2006  |  First Published: Dec 29, 2006

The story of a well-intentioned but ultimately failed U.S. 1993 military mission in Somalia, where American Rangers and Delta Force troops tried to capture a savage warlord who was ravaging and starving his own people into submission, is not a pretty one. Nor is Black Hawk Down an easy film to watch. But while it's often gritty, depressing, and filled with violent, bloody imagery, it also paints a very positive, uplifting image of American troops and what they're willing to risk for the mission and for each other. It's hard to imagine mainstream Hollywood producing such a film today, five event-filled years after Black Hawk Down first hit the screens.

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