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Audio Video News
Serving Up Music on Home Servers
SV Staff  |  Jul 21, 2008
I don't know about you, but my music collection is quite scattered. Half on a laptop, half on the desktop PC. Half of the CDs are in the living room, half in the home theater. All are a mess, and none are where I want them to be. I need someone,...
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Audio Video News
HD Radio Not Making Waves
SV Staff  |  Jul 21, 2008
HD Radio has been available for about four years in the United States, and is still struggling to make a dent in the marketplace. As XM Radio exceeds 9.6 million subscribers, consumer awareness of HD Radio is pathetically low. Prices of...
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Blu-ray Player Reviews
Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray Player
uavKim Wilson  |  Jul 21, 2008

The BD-P1500 is Samsung's fourth-generation Blu-ray player. Its elegant high-gloss, piano-black chassis is sure to stand out in any equipment rack. While dedicated Blu-ray players haven't reached rock-bottom prices yet, the BD-P1500 is Samsung's least expensive to date at $400, $150 less then the BD-P1400 that came out less than a year ago. The BD-P1500 is not the holy grail of Blu-ray players, but its feature set and lower price could be just what you've been waiting for.

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Projector Reviews
Epson PowerLite Pro Cinema 1080 UB LCD Projector
Thomas J. Norton  |  Jul 21, 2008
As with many projector manufacturers, Epson's product line is heavily oriented toward business applications. In that respect, the company is consistently at or near the top in worldwide sales. But Epson also occupies a significant and growing share of the home-theater market.
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Bookshelf Speaker Reviews
Outlaw LCR Speaker System
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jul 21, 2008
Woofer, tweeter, woofer, curve ball.

Outlaw Audio has tenaciously earned a reputation as a maker of well-thought-out surround electronics, speakers, subwoofers, and other products. The company offers a favorable performance/price ratio by selling directly to the consumer via the Internet. And once in a while, it gets downright iconoclastic, dramatically rethinking flawed product genres and pushing them unexpectedly forward. The Outlaw LCR loudspeaker is one of those.

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AV Receiver Reviews
Yamaha RX-V863 A/V Receiver
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jul 21, 2008
Making receivers easy. Well, easier.

The Consumer Electronics Association recently kicked off a “Convert Your Mom” campaign to advance the transition to digital television. One thing your mom will probably never want is a surround receiver. Sure, no home theater buff in her right mind would relegate audio functions to TV speakers. But, although the receiver is the nerve center for many systems, it’s also a stumbling block to many potential users. Receivers just do too many good things—entailing setup and adjustment hassles along the way. Make them simpler, and you lose capabilities. Make them full featured, and you get an instruction manual that’s like War and Peace (minus the literary merit).

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Audio Video News
Amazon Video on Demand Makes Debut
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jul 21, 2008
Amazon introduced a new Video on Demand store last week, one of two initiatives aimed at supplying online video to consumers, supplementing the hard-copy formats that are the basis of Amazon's huge mail-order business.
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Other Tech
Sony HDR-UX20 HD Camcorder
Al Griffin  |  Jul 20, 2008

There are plenty of high-def-capable camcorders available for under $1,000, but in my experience, it's not so easy to find one that meets all your expectations. Up to now, my problem with the new breed of HD cams has been fear of the AVCHD format.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Gone Baby Gone
Marc Horowitz  |  Jul 20, 2008
Miramax
Movie •••• Picture •••• Sound •••½Extras •••

Based on the book by Dennis Lehane (whose imagina

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Batman Begins
David Vaughn  |  Jul 18, 2008

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/batmanbegins.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>After his parents' murders, disillusioned heir Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) travels the world seeking the means to fight injustice. With the help of his trusted butler Alfred (Michael Cain) and Wayne Enterprises R&D wizard Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), Wayne returns to Gotham as his alter-ego—Batman.

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