LATEST ADDITIONS

Last week, I was invited to visit Vizio's offices in Irvine, California, to provide any feedback I might have regarding its upcoming LED-backlit LCD, the 55-inch VF551XVT, which is in the final tweaking stages before its release in early September. This is a very exciting product: an LCD TV with LED local dimming for—get this—$2000!

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/seabiscuit.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>The little horse that could debuts on Blu-ray with a fantastic VC-1 encode and an encompassing DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack. It was difficult to pick only three scenes to highlight here, since virtually the entire film is filled with worthy scenes. For example, any of the racing sequences will give you the illusion of riding a horse in the middle of a high-stakes race with the animals' labored breathing and pounding hooves. The same can be said of the video and its impeccable attention to detail. Each of the three scenes below will give you a general idea of why this disc deserves the title of "Ultimate Demo."

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/com.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>In the year 2027, the human race is on the brink of extinction due to mass infertility, and life on Earth has descended into chaos. Is Darwinism the culprit? Does the human race deserve to survive? Theo (Clive Owen), a dissatisfied government worker, becomes the unlikely potential savior of the species when he's asked by his former lover (Julianne Moore) to escort a miraculously pregnant girl out of the country to keep her safe.