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Audio Video News
Sirius XM Radio: Merged On-Air
SV Staff  |  Nov 18, 2008
It's official. The merger of XM and Sirius is a done deal, and the new system is up and on-the-air. How do you think they've handled the transition?I was the first to complain (okay, among the first) online about the new XM channel...
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Audio Video News
Sony Offers Green Glove Service
Mark Fleischmann  |  Nov 18, 2008
The arrival of a new TV is always a moment of joy in any household. But it also raises a problem: What to do with the old one? Thanks to Sony's new Green Glove service, you'll no longer have to worry about this.
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Audio Video News
Memorex Blu-ray Dips Below Magic Price Point
SV Staff  |  Nov 17, 2008
A full week before Black Friday, we're seeing a Memorex Blu-ray player for a mere $139.99, plus a flat $5.00 shipping fee. Do you go shopping now?Depends on what you're looking for in a Blu-ray player. This is a Profile 1.1 "picture...
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Audio Video News
Vudu: More HD than Anyone Else
SV Staff  |  Nov 17, 2008
The on-demand movie business is alive and well and living in the set-top box business. And competition is fierce. Climbing above the fray, Vudu is claiming to have more HD movies than anyone else. More than Netflix, Xbox 360, Apple TV, and...
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Audio Video News
TiVo + Domino's Pizza; Never Leave the Couch. Ever.
SV Staff  |  Nov 17, 2008
Oh happy day. We reported last week that lucky Aussie's were getting pizza through their TiVos. But, starting today, TiVo broadband subscribers can order Domino's Pizza, right from an on-screen widget on their TiVo menu. The service is...
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Bookshelf Speaker Reviews
Energy RC-Micro Speaker System
Mark Fleischmann  |  Nov 17, 2008
Price: $999 At A Glance: Tweeter isolated in separate chamber • Aluminum drivers in satellites • Hand-applied piano black lacquer finish

Building a Better Satellite

Energy has always taken satellite/subwoofer sets seriously. The Canadian speaker brand, recently acquired by American-owned Klipsch, got into the sat/sub game early with the now legendary Take Five package. As successive Take products became steady bestsellers and proceeded through multiple generations, Energy established itself as a major name in sats and subs. It also helped turn the sat/sub set into a respectable product category. This especially applies to décor-conscious households that like to have surround sound but balk at the prospect of five to seven bulky speakers hogging a room.

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Blu-ray Player Reviews
Sony BDP-S350 Blu-ray Player
Kris Deering  |  Nov 17, 2008
Price: $400 At A Glance: Affordable BD-Live performance • Great DVD playback performance • Lacks multichannel analog audio support

More Blu for Your Budget

The BDP-S350 is Sony’s follow-up to the popular BDP-S300. One of the most inexpensive standalone players on the market, the BDP-S350 includes some great new features that the BDP-S300 design didn’t have. Sony overhauled its form factor, with a case that’s nearly half the size of the company’s earlier players. The player also employs a sleek new interface that uses Sony’s popular Xross Media Bar. While player prices have not headed farther south yet, the bang-for-the-buck factor is going up, as players at the lower end of the market add more essential features. Sony’s $400 player is BD-Live ready (firmware update pending), Bonus View PiP capable, and includes bitstream support for the next-gen lossless audio formats from Dolby and DTS.

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Audio Video News
Movielink.com Closing, Absorbed By Blockbuster
SV Staff  |  Nov 17, 2008
Movielink has been part of Blockbuster for months now, but their own website was still up and running. Well, until now, that it. Movielink.com is officially closing on December 15, 2008. No more downloads through them, but all those movies will...
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LCD TV Reviews
Samsung LN55A950 LCD TV
Lawrence E. Ullman  |  Nov 17, 2008

Samsung's LN55A950 seems destined to generate controversy among the videophile community. Some will insist that it's the best-looking LCD TV on the market; others will say, well, otherwise. Both arguments are likely to revolve around the LED-backlighting technology that differentiates this high-end model from nearly all other currently available LCD TVs.

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Audio Video News
FCC Green-Lights DTV Range Fix
Mark Fleischmann  |  Nov 17, 2008
As the DTV transition looms in February 2009, some TV stations are worrying that their signal dispersion pattern may shrink or change shape. To deal with that potential problem, the Federal Communications Commission has green-lighted distributed transmission systems (DTS). This is essentially a fix that would allow the usual single broadcast tower to be supplemented with additional transmitters.
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