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Audio Video News
HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc 2006: An In-Depth Report
Ultimate AV Staff  |  May 01, 2006
HD DVD is here, sort of, and Blu-ray Disc is to follow early this summer. While there are a still a lot of ifs, ands, or buts that will only be answered once we've seen a good deal of hardware and software, now is as good a time as any to tell you what we know about the two formats so far.
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Ears On
Amazon Does 'DVD on Demand'
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 01, 2006
You order a DVD, then it's custom-made and shipped. That's the beauty of the new DVD on Demand service from Amazon, partnering with CustomFlix. Producers send DVD or tape masters, which are then placed on a secure server for ordering from the Amazon or CustomFlix sites. "Customers receive professional-quality DVDs in overwrapped, Amaray-style cases with full-color covers and lacquer-coated disc faces," says CustomFlix. There are two levels of distribution service: Independent Media Gateway for indies with fewer than 50 titles, and Enterprise Media Gateway for the big guns. The latter include NBC, PBS, A&E, the History Channel, and the Biography Channel. You'll be able to order Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show from NBC and Nova from PBS, among other announced titles. Current releases are standard-def but in the future CustomFlix will support HD DVD, Blu-ray, and WMV-HD DVD. On-demand distribution systems generally trade a greater manufacturing cost per copy for the flexibility of replicating one unit at a time, so they're most suitable for small projects, like DWL Video's lovely epic on the 17 Year Cicada. A parallel cottage industry has grown up around on-demand book printing, including both my home theater guide and my restaurant guide.
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Audio Video News
HD DVD Release News With Dates
 |  Apr 30, 2006

HD DVDs are going to continue to trickle into stores over the next few months from Warner and Universal in particular, and French distributor Studiocanal has announced it will release 20 movies on the format this year. There's a surprising lack of coordination on the part of studios and retailers regarding the release dates of the titles.

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Other Source Component Reviews
Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD Player
Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 30, 2006

It's here, but only just. On April 18th Toshiba launched the HD DVD format with the release of the $499 HD-A1 player. On the same day Warner released The Last Samurai and The Phantom of the Opera on HD DVD, and those two titles were joined by Universal's Serenity. Warner's Million Dollar Baby, also scheduled for the launch, was delayed initially but is in stores now. These were joined on April 25th by additional titles, including what is the easily best film released on the format so far, Apollo 13.

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Fred Manteghian Blog
A Royal Screwing – Part II!
Fred Manteghian  |  Apr 29, 2006

Last Sunday I blasted Philips for their technology initiatives to confute the human instinct for avoiding unpleasantness in all its forms (i.e. lame TV commercials) in my blog called
<a href="http://blog.ultimateavmag.com/fredmanteghian/042306Philips/" target=new>The Perfect Philips Screwdriver</a>. Apparently, the company did have a statement on their website that I had not been able to find that sought to "clarify" the issue from Philips point of view (thank you Gary Kaye of rave.com for finding it). I don't know about you, but I'm sick of companies and politicians trying to cover up their poo in fragrant roses. I'm going take a few minutes to rub their noses in it.

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Geoffrey Morrison Blog
Lab Redux
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Apr 28, 2006
While the flood last week wasn’t nearly as bad as the one in October, we decided to do what we should have done that time: The carpets in our testing lab were ripped out, and the floor painted a lovely shade of gray. So the lab looks a whole lot better, and there isn’t the worry about mold and such. The downside, all the computers, test equipment, phone lines, Ethernet lines, and the myriad of other cables that connected gear to gear and gear to stuff, all still need to be run and plugged back in. The bottom picture is our temporary storage (as in, the listening room). Despite the mess, that was only half the amount of stuff in the lab. Spring cleaning indeed.
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Audio Video News
AT&T, Akimbo To Offer VOD Over DSL
 |  Apr 28, 2006

The battle of the TV telcos has barely just begun and we're starting to see the telecommunications giants jockey for position. As a prelude to an offering that will eventually compete with Verizon's FiOS TV service, AT&T and will this summer rollout a "triple play" offering of voice, video and data called Homezone. The service will combine Yahoo High Speed Internet, DISH Network TV via satellite for live TV, and broadband on-demand offerings from <A HREF="http://ultimateavmag.com/news/040906akimboHD">Akimbo</A> and <A HREF="http://ultimateavmag.com/news/040606industrynews">Movielink</A>.

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Ears On
CEA's Shapiro Defends Home Recording Rights
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 28, 2006
Gary Shapiro of the Consumer Electronics Association—who often looks like he needs a shave but is otherwise a perfectly respectable individual—is making a renewed push for HR1201. The Digital Media Consumers' Right Act of 2005 was introduced by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) more than a year ago. The bill would directly write into law the Supreme Court's 1984 landmark Betamax Decision, which sanctioned recording for personal use. "For innovation and for consumer freedom, the doctrine originally announced in the Betamax case is the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence rolled into one," Shapiro declared in a press release from the Home Recording Rights Coalition. In a CEA press release based on Shapiro's remarks to a Cato Institute meeting, he also took some interesting shots at the presumed sacredness of copyright: "The content community has undertaken a slick public relations and positioning campaign to distort the law of copyright to make it seem as if it is a subset of the law of real property. What they totally ignore is that the United States Constitution accorded patents and copyrights a different treatment allowing Congress to grant patent and copyright terms for limited times.... It is not only intellectually disingenuous to treat copyright as a real property, it distorts the debate so that fair use becomes less relevant and consumer rights...become marginalized to the point of vanishing." If you'd like to put your oar in the water, please do.
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This Week's Report: JVC SU-DH1 Headphone Surround Adapter
 |  Apr 27, 2006

Report for 04/28/06:

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This Week's Report: HD Projector Shootout
 |  Apr 27, 2006

Report for 04/28/06:

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