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Audio Video News
Canadians Blame Themselves for HD Ignorance
SV Staff  |  Mar 14, 2008
Oh, Canada. Your enthusiasm and honesty knows no bounds. You're ready to leap head-first into new technologies without bothering with minor details like how these technologies work. In a study commissioned by Sharp Electronics, only 5% of...
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Audio Video News
DTV Broadcasts to Get Field Testing
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 14, 2008
Remember that private study predicting that the transition to digital television broadcasting would cause some viewers to lose some channels? It's caused quite a flurry. In fact, the Federal Communications Commission has agreed to a new set of field tests to gauge exactly what will happen to antenna-dependent viewers in February 2009. That's when analog broadcasting is scheduled to end and digital signals will be the only ones winging their way across the sky.
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Audio Video News
SXSW, Day 1: Wednesday, 3/12
SV Staff  |  Mar 13, 2008
Hey, here's an official SXSW logo! As you may have seen from the S&V home page, our Web man Rob Medich was able to grab one (those computer guys are, y'know, adept). So, inspired by his adeptness, I finally found one, too. No more ripping off...
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Audio Video News
$1 Billion Charge to Format-War Loser: Did Toshiba Get Off Easy?
SV Staff  |  Mar 13, 2008
To design a consumer electronics product and ramp up its production costs lots and lots of money. To shut down the conveyor belts after marketing is already in full swing costs even more. Still, it sure hurt: Japanese business paper The Nikkei...
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Audio Video News
Even More Flat-Panel TVs Go Sharp
SV Staff  |  Mar 13, 2008
In yet another move towards the total generic-ization of flat-screen TVs, LG said this week that it would buy 32-inch and 52-inch LCD panels from Sharp. Sony, Toshiba and Panasonic have all recently gotten on the Sharp LCD bandwagon as well. LG's...
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Audio Video News
Blu-ray Buyers: Early Bird Catches the Bargain
SV Staff  |  Mar 13, 2008
Data from shopping site Pricegrabber.com showing that Blu-ray player prices have increased since the beginning of the year hammers home the sting of the early-adopter trade-off: Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. For savvy buyers of Blu-ray...
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AV Receiver Reviews
Pioneer Elite VSX-94TXH A/V Receiver
Kim Wilson  |  Mar 13, 2008
If a Pioneer A/V receiver is given the distinguished Elite status, you can bet it's going to provide top-level features and performance. So it is with the Pioneer Elite VSX-94TXH, a 7.1-channel, THX Select2-certified AVR that employs Pioneer's proprietary Advanced MCACC (Multi-Channel ACoustic Calibration) speaker and EQ configuration along with a Faroudja DCDi video scaler. It also features Pioneer's Home Media Gallery, which lets you access audio files from PCs and receive Internet radio stations.
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Audio Video News
Panasonic 2008 Line Show
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 13, 2008
At a late winter press event, Panasonic Corporation of North America rolled out its complete 2008 line of 21 plasma and LCD flat paneltelevisions, all branded VIERA for the first time in North America. A Panasonic spokesperson explained that VIERA stands for "Visual Era," and for "exceptional picture, connectivity and customer service and satisfaction" [But the latter didn't make such a spiffy acronym!-Ed.].
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Audio Video News
R.E.M. Pulls a Radiohead
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 13, 2008
Following in the footsteps of Radiohead, R.E.M. will offer its new album Accelerate free on the internet for a limited period before official CD and download release.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Rookie
David Vaughn  |  Mar 12, 2008

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/403rookie.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>When high-school baseball coach Jim Morris (Dennis Quaid) was looking for a way to inspire his perennially losing team to win, he decided to issue a challenge they couldn't refuse. If they made it to the district playoffs, he would try out for a major-league baseball team. Fortunately for Morris, his team fulfilled their part of the bargain, and he went to the tryout in which his fast ball was clocked at 98 mph! It wasn't long before Jim found himself pitching for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays as a 35-year-old rookie. The best part of the story is that it actually happened in 1999.

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