LATEST ADDITIONS

Syriana—Warner Brothers
Adrienne Maxwell  |  Apr 24, 2007  |  First Published: Oct 24, 2006
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 2
“Syriana is one of the most relevant stories in the world today,” says the film’s executive producer, Jeff Skoll, in the “Make a Change, Make a Difference” featurette on Warner Brothers’ new DVD release. He’s absolutely right, as even a cursory glance at world and domestic news will confirm. The film paints an unflinching portrait of the world’s dependence on oil and the lengths to which politicians and businessmen will go to maintain the status quo in the global oil fields, even as that status quo contributes to the rise of Islamic extremism in countries where people are afforded few other options.
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Audio Video News
Broadcasters Rip Cable on DTV Dilution
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 24, 2007
Cable operators may discriminate against broadcasters by reducing both the quality and quantity of DTV channels, the head of the National Association of Broadcasters asserted last week in a keynote at the NAB's annual convention in Las Vegas.
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Bookshelf Speaker Reviews
HSU Research HB-1 Speaker System
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 23, 2007  |  First Published: Mar 23, 2007
Trappist ale on a beer budget.

I admired the HSU Research HB-1 horn-loaded loudspeaker when I first heard it at the Home Entertainment Show in Los Angeles in June 2006. Nearby demo rooms were stuffed with megabucks two-channel gear, much of which simply didn't approach the directness of this $125 budget wonder. I blogged my first response, and it's a good thing I still feel that way, because now it's printed right on the HB-1's carton: "This speaker may become the underground bestseller of 2006." Make that 2007. Aside from the year, I stand by my original impression.

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AV Receiver ReviewsOther Source Component ReviewsTower Speaker Reviews
Snell D7 Speaker System, Marantz SR9600 A/V Receiver, and Marantz DV9600 Disc Player
Steve Guttenberg  |  Apr 23, 2007  |  First Published: Mar 23, 2007
Together again for the first time.

As I unboxed this month's Spotlight System, I flashed on the innovative histories of Marantz and Snell Acoustics. Saul B. Marantz was a bona fide American audio pioneer in the 1950s and 1960s. His company's electronics not only sounded amazing, they were drop-dead gorgeous. Maybe that's why Marantz's early designs regularly sell on eBay for more than their original prices. Peter Snell was one of the brightest speaker designers to emerge in the mid-1970s. Back in the day, I owned a pair of his first speakers, the Type A, and had many conversations with Peter about music. In those simpler times, Saul Marantz and Peter Snell could launch their companies armed with not much more than a driving passion to produce great audio gear—and the inspired engineering to make the dream real. Best of all, both companies still adhere to their founders' perfectionistic traditions.

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Audio Video News
Sony to Replace Defective DVDs
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 23, 2007
Sony will offer replacements for 20 defective glitch-prone DVD titles. The cause of the defect is yet another digital rights management scheme that's gone wacky.
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A/V Veteran
Musings on HDMI Audio
Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 22, 2007

Previously, on this blog (see below), I discussed the upgrades that HDMI 1.3 offered for video. Most of them, in my opinion, were nice to have as a hedge against future improvements in sources and displays, but did not offer any real benefits with present and foreseeable video formats, both standard and high definition. As far as video is concerned, then, I saw no reason to toss out your present gear or hold off a purchase until there's a wide range of sources, switchers, and displays with HDMI 1.3. That will likely be a long wait.

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Mitsubishi WD-65831 65" DLP Rear Projection TV
Randy Tomlinson  |  Apr 22, 2007

Since I’d calibrated several Mitsubishi Diamond series sets for clients, I knew that while the WD-65831 might not win every category in an RPTV shootout, it would be a top contender in a few of the most important ones. And I knew for sure it could make an excellent HD picture. Several months ago, however, I received a Mitsubishi WD-65731 ($3,099) 65" DLP set to evaluate. This model is not in the Diamond line, and I wasn't impressed. Rather than spend more time on a product I knew I couldn't recommend, I opted to return it and test this $3,999 Diamond series set—the 65" 65831. I was particularly interested in this model since I knew it has far better blacks than the 731 (my biggest complaint about that set).

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Partying Like It's 1996: Broken Arrow, Chain Reaction And Speed On Blu-ray
Shane Buettner  |  Apr 21, 2007

They say there's nothing new under the sun, and nothing drives home that old adage like the birth of a new format or two. The first movies that come out on a new format invariably aren't the <I>Citizen Kanes</I>, or even the <I>Titanics</I> of film history. No, it's the star-studded action warhorses that are considered at least somewhat tried and true that are trotted out by the studios.

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Fred Manteghian Blog
Hot Lanta
Fred Manteghian  |  Apr 21, 2007

I've always had a thing for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's recordings. Their long standing relationship with Telarc is probably why. I've had a long standing relationship with Telarc too. Well before I was a reviewer, I was just a rabid stereophile (the avocation, not the magazine) and I read every issue of Stereophile (the magazine, not the avocation), cover to cover. Telarc and Delos recordings were always spinning on their reviewers' CD players. I bought a few, like <a href= "http://www.amazon.com/Respighi-Pines-Rome-Birds-Fountains/dp/B000003CT0/... target="new">Respighi's Pines of Rome </a>, Louis Lane conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and <a href=" http://www.amazon.com/Copland-Appalachian-Spring-Fanfare-Common/dp/B0000... target="new">Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring, Rodeo and Fanfare for the Common Man</a>, with Lane at the helm of the ASO once again. The recordings were excellent, No excellent is too tame a word. They were – they still are – exquisite. Expansive as the universe, as civilized as infinity, and punctuated with their trademark Tympani kicks that separated the boys from the men when it came to seeing whose audiophile tweaked system was better than whose.

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Next-Gen Interactivity: U-Control on Universal's Children of Men HD DVD.
Shane Buettner  |  Apr 20, 2007

We focus on picture and sound here at <I>UAV</I> more often than not, but enhanced interactivity is regarded as a major selling feature of the next-gen formats. And this is unequivocally where HD DVD is a mile ahead of Blu-ray, in spite of the latter's hype machine in favor of Java's superiority in this regard. Blu-ray might eventually catch HD DVD in interactivity, but at this point there isn't a single Blu-ray player in the market that has been verified to me as being spec'd to support the kind of Picture-In-Picture driven features you can find on a lot of HD DVDs in stores now. And these features can be accessed in full on every HD DVD player out there except LG's Multi-Blue.

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