LATEST ADDITIONS

Ears On
JVC HA-NC100 Noise-Canceling Headphones
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 20, 2006  |  3 comments
Flying is brutal. And the cramped seat and substandard food aren't the only things that do you in. Noise is the unseen enemy. You may think you can merely adjust to it and ignore it—but that is physically impossible. Jet-turbine noise gives your eardrums and the other delicate parts of your inner ear a beating, and that messes up both your hearing and your sense of balance. That's why you often feel disoriented after a long flight. The wise traveler is therefore one who carries a good set of noise-canceling headphones or earbuds.
Continue Reading »
Other Tech
The Progressive Tradeoff
David Ranada  |  Jan 19, 2006  |  0 comments

Hardly a week passes when we don't receive one or more letters from readers who seem to be in a panic about the difference between 1080i and 1080p HDTVs. All of their concerns arise from the desire, sometimes bordering on the obsessive, to get the best possible resolution from their sets.

Continue Reading »
Other Tech
Apocalypse Coming Soon
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jan 19, 2006  |  0 comments

First, the good news: when you turn on your analog TV at 11:59 p.m. on April 6, 2009, you'll get pictures and sound. And now the bad news: at midnight and forever after, your TV will never receive a signal again.

Continue Reading »
Geoffrey Morrison Blog
Oops, my bad.
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Jan 19, 2006  |  11 comments
Sorry, I made a mistake in the February issue Face Off. In the opening and closing charts, I refer to the Toshiba as the 62MX195. We reviewed the 62HM195, which is what it says everywhere else in the text. Two letters in fifteen pages. I’m a failure, I know.
Continue Reading »
Ears On
Soderbergh Bursts the Release Bubble
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 19, 2006  |  0 comments
Steven Soderbergh's Bubble will soon become the first major movie to be simultaneously premiered in theaters and on satellite television. On January 27 the movie will be shown on HDNet while rolling out in theaters nationwide. The DVD release will follow on January 31. However the actual opening night was January 12, in Parkersville, West Virginia, where the tale of murder in a doll factory was shot with real-life people on high-definition video. Theater chains are crying foul, so it's uncertain if or when the movie will make it to your local cineplex.
Continue Reading »
Ears On
AT&T Enters TV-Over-IP Market
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 18, 2006  |  7 comments
AT&T has snuck into the television-delivery market on silent cat feet. Without fanfare, the company formerly known as SBC has begun providing TV-over-IP service to a lucky handful in its hometown of San Antonio, Texas. Ironically, that's the same state where arch-rival Verizon has premiered its own television service. Unlike Verizon's capital-intensive all-fiber-optic approach, which extends fiber directly into the home, AT&T is building fiber only as far as "nodes" in the neighborhood, then compressing the signal into copper lines for the final leg of the journey. AT&T's initial offerings include 200 channels, including all the major networks, and some on-demand programming. This is a huge story and I'll get back to it as soon as I know more.
Continue Reading »
A/V Veteran
"High Definition" Audio?
Thomas J. Norton  |  Jan 18, 2006  |  0 comments

If you're an old hand at this home theater audio business, you know that both Dolby Digital and DTS first appeared in theaters, then on laserdiscs, and finally moved on to DVD. Because of the limited data space for audio on all of these delivery systems, the audio had to be heavily compressed—not in dynamic range (a common misconception) but to reduce the space it takes up on the film or disc. Both DTS and Dolby Digital use sophisticated encoding schemes to allow them to save space by discarding data that are not deemed audible. This "perceptual coding," together with other clever tricks, allow full-bodied, powerful sound to be squeezed into that itty-bitty living space.

Continue Reading »
Geoffrey Morrison Blog
Tuesday is the new Friday
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Jan 17, 2006  |  4 comments
Ok, so Friday meant Tuesday. Here are two more items I saw at CES that were cool and a bit different.
Continue Reading »
Projector Reviews
Panasonic PT-AE900U LCD Projector
Adrienne Maxwell  |  Jan 17, 2006  |  0 comments
What's not to like?

This may very well be one of the easiest reviews I've ever done. Within five minutes of watching HDTV through Panasonic's new PT-AE900U LCD projector, I was hooked. I fully expected, as the review process progressed, to have to play the standard "on the one hand; on the other" game we play with most mid- or entry-level projectors: On the one hand, this projector has nice detail; on the other, its color points aren't very accurate. On the one hand, this projector has a surprisingly good black level; on the other, it's so dim, even the LEDs on your A/V gear will wash out the picture. Happily, the other hand never presented itself here.

Continue Reading »
HD DVD and Blu-ray at CES 2006
Shane Buettner  |  Jan 17, 2006  |  0 comments
Shane Buettner covered developments in the HD DVD and Blu-ray format wars at this year's CES. This is his report. And for our wrap-up of all the other goings-on at CES, watch this space for our final report on CES 2006 this coming week!—TJN
Continue Reading »

Pages

X