LATEST ADDITIONS

Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 06, 2011  |  0 comments
Troubled Blockbuster Inc. has recently been in bankruptcy court and on the block. Now it has a new owner, the Dish Network. The satellite TV operator won the video rental chain with a bid of $320 million including $228 million in cash.

Dish takes over what remains the country's largest brick-and-mortar video rental chain, though it has shut down thousands of stores to reach the current total of 1700. One factor in its downfall was the huge debt load it took on when Viacom spun off the company in 2004. As recently as 2009, Blockbuster was confident (if not actually robust) enough to bid a cool billion for Circuit City. Now its share price has dropped so low, it's been delisted from the NYSE.

Michael Berk  |  Apr 06, 2011  |  0 comments

DISH Network today made the winning $320 million bid for the bankrupt Blockbuster, the onetime leader in brick-and-mortar physical movie rentals left reeling by the rise of Netflix and the more recent explosion of streaming services.

David Vaughn  |  Apr 06, 2011  |  0 comments
After his brother-in-law ruins his marriage with his philandering ways, Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) is his father-in-law's (Robert DeNiro) last hope to assume the role as the family patriarch (aka, "The Godfocker"). When a beautiful pharmaceutical rep (Jessica Alba) enters the scene, Greg must repel her sexual advances in order to keep his marriage sacred and not lose the new found admiration from the family patriarch.

After being skewered by critics in its theatrical run, I had extremely low expectations for the third installment of the trials and tribulations of Greg Focker. While it doesn't measure up to the first film (or the second), there are quite a few laughs, especially when Stiller and DeNiro share the screen together. Unfortunately the screenplay doesn't flow very well and I expected to see more of the kids given the title of the film, but their time on screen is very limited.

Scott Wilkinson  |  Apr 05, 2011  |  3 comments
Converting 2D content to 3D is controversial at best, but when George Lucas wants to do it to Star Wars, that's big news. Following an exhaustive testing process, Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic have selected Prime Focus to convert Episode I: The Phantom Menace to 3D for theatrical release on February 10, 2012.
Michael Berk  |  Apr 05, 2011  |  0 comments

Altec Lansing's newly announced Octiv 650 iPhone/iPod Touch dock makes your mobile companion the centerpiece of your living room.

Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 05, 2011  |  1 comments
Price: $1,307 At A Glance: Horn-loaded tweeter draws on long Klipsch tradition • Tweeter surround allows more piston-like movement • High sensitivity suits any A/V receiver

Toot Your Horn

Surround sound is an indispensable part of home theater. But some people still have difficulty making the leap from two-channel to 5.1-channel-plus. One question that comes up is: Doesn’t going from two speakers to five or more place a strain on the amplifier? After all, an amp driven into clipping suffers from harshness and compression, and that’s never pleasant to listen to.

Mike Mettler  |  Apr 05, 2011  |  0 comments

“It’s a timeless record with so much detail,” says surround-sound remix guru Richard Chycki about Rush’s 1981 masterpiece, Moving Pictures. “I’m glad you’ve clued into all of the nuances.” Chycki is referring to what I said to him last week about the PCM 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixes he did for MP’s 30th anniversary reissue. Today marks the release of the CD+DVD version, something certainly worth getting if you’re not equipped for Blu-ray — but the much preferred Holy Grail CD+BD version won’t be out until May 3.

Scott Wilkinson  |  Apr 05, 2011  |  1 comments
So far in this report on my experience with the Runco D-73d 3D projector, I've covered its features in Part 1 and Part 2 and my calibration and measurements in Part 3. Now, it's finally time to watch some movies.
Rob Sabin  |  Apr 05, 2011  |  1 comments
Moving Pictures is finally on Blu-ray—not the kind of pictures you watch, but Moving Pictures, the seminal Rush album that went quadruple platinum in the U.S. and will be released April 5th in a new, fully remastered audiophile edition.

The new 30th anniversary Deluxe Edition reissue from Universal Music comes in a dual-disc package, combining a digitally remastered version of the original CD mated with either a DVD or Blu-ray Disc. Both the DVD and Blu-ray include high-resolution 96kHz/24-bit stereo taken from the original analog master, as well as 96/24 5.1-channel PCM surround audio mixed down from the original multitrack assets under the careful supervision of Rush lead guitarist Alex Lifeson.

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