LATEST ADDITIONS

Ears On
Freebies Settle Rootkit Fiasco
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 31, 2006  |  First Published: Jun 01, 2006
Under a court settlement, Sony BMG has agreed to compensate consumers for exposing their computers to CD-borne security hazards. If you bought a title with the now infamous XCP rootkit, you get a replacement disc, $7.50 in cash, and a free download (or no cash and three downloads). Not too shabby! Wish I'd bought a few myself. Purchasers of titles contaminated with Suncomm MediaMax get only the downloads. You've got to hand it to Sony BMG. The label has done an awful lot to atone for its error. Details here.
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Other Tech
Alan Parsons on 5.1 Music Mixing, Live and Studio
Mike Mettler  |  May 31, 2006

In our previous installment, S&V traveled to Washington, DC, to sit in on the recording of Alan Parsons' groundbreaking installment of Artist Confidential in 5.1 for XM Satellite Radio back in March.

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Other Tech
Harmony 520 Universal Remote
John Sciacca  |  May 31, 2006

Ed. Note: This remote was also featured in our Ultimate Gift Guide

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Other Tech
Kameleon 6 Hybrid Remote
John Sciacca  |  May 31, 2006

Ed. Note: This remote was also featured in our Ultimate Gift Guide

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Other Tech
Kameleon 8 Remote
John Sciacca  |  May 31, 2006

Ed. Note: This remote was also featured in our Ultimate Gift Guide

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Other Tech
Feedback: Reader Letters, Extended Remix
 |  May 31, 2006

Format War Is Hell

After all the hype and hoopla over the last year or so about hi-def discs, I finally got to see a Toshiba HD DVD player for a couple of hours on both a 50-inch Pioneer plasma TV and a 72-inch Toshiba DLP set. The image on the supplied demo disc and The Last Samurai was incrementally better than a first-class upconversion of a high-quality standard DVD.

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Other Tech
Tommy Shaw's Summertime Playlist
Mike Mettler  |  May 31, 2006

Like the Rolling Stones, Styx continues to gather no moss. Singer/guitarist Tommy Shaw has been a member of these perennially successful road warriors - perhaps best known for enduring rock hits like "Renegade," "Come Sail Away," and "Too Much Time on My Hands" - for 30 years and counting.

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A/V Veteran
What's New!
Thomas J. Norton  |  May 31, 2006

Tomorrow I'm off to our 2006 Home Entertainment Show at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel near Los Angeles International Airport—LAX to the locals. We'll be blogging on line from the show, including gobs of photos and comments about all the new products we see. Check it out, starting tomorrow evening, Thursday, June 1.

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Ears On
Networks and Studios Sue Cablevision
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 31, 2006
Cablevision's digital video recorder has the movie studios and television networks up in arms. ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, Disney, Paramount, and Universal have sued over the nDVR, or network DVR, claiming copyright infringement. The nDVR stores up to 80 hours of programming on a remote server. Program it to record your favorite stuff in perpetuity and you have, in effect, a limited version of video on demand. Since the disc drive is not in your rack, you can operate it just using an dDVR-enabled cable box. Cablevision says the suit is "without merit." Analysts say the suit was expected, and if Cablevision prevails, cable ops will be able to deploy the dDVR on a larger scale and save big bucks in the process, both for consumers and themselves.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
U-571 HD DVD
Tom Norton  |  May 30, 2006  |  First Published: May 31, 2006

As submarine movies go, <I>U-571</I> is far from a classic. It includes scenes we've seen in countless other submarine films, and its history is warped (implying that the U.S. Navy and not the Royal Navy captured the Nazi Enigma machine and broke the German naval codes&mdash;though the end titles do correct the record).

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