The new 50PY2DR plasma HDTV from LG comes with a bright yellow insert explaining in all caps that the set's CableCARD and TV Guide On Screen electronic program guide eliminate the need to rent an outboard box from your cable company.
Welcome to the List, where Sound & Vision's editors share their recommendations on the best home-entertainment gear. Everything appearing on The List has been reviewed by our expert staff and has stood out for performance or value. Watch our test reports for the "S&V Approved" icon (above) designating that a product has been added to The List.
Who do you think benefits most from corporate investments in technological research and development: so-called "early adopters" or average consumers? After I reviewed Infinity's top-of-the-line, high-performance Prelude MTS speakers a few years ago for <I>Stereophile</I> (Joel Brinkley reviewed the 5.1 version in <I>The Stereophile Guide to Home Theater</I>), I would have concluded "early adopters." But after spending a few months with the relatively inexpensive Beta ensemble, which is based on the driver technology developed for the Prelude MTS, I think mainstream consumers gain the most and they get it at near Wal-Mart prices.
<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/headshot150.mf.jpg" WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=180 HSPACE=6 VSPACE=4 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>I lose my appetite viewing pie charts. Bar graphs leave me tipsy. But even a chronic mathlexic like me can see where the display business is heading, and it's not a pretty picture.
Prior to the upcoming CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association) EXPO in early September, SpeakerCraft decided to jump the gun and make a couple of in-ceiling speaker announcements.
Veoh Networks, Inc., the first Internet television peercasting network, last week announced it has completed a Series A round of financing led by Shelter Capital Partners. The company's goal is to create a new category of television networks that take advantage of existing broadband infrastructure to deliver standard-definition, full-screen video programming directly from producers to consumers.
DVD: Essential Steve McQueen Collection—Warner Bros
In the simplest possible terms, Steve McQueen had "It." Truly, women wanted him, and men wanted to be him. Maybe it was the eyes, the sense of intensity he conjured, or the impression that he knew something we didn't. Or perhaps it was his physicality, the grace with which he performed his own stunts, combined with his ease and outright glee with props. Warner has assembled some hard evidence of the actor's elusive mystique in their recent Essential Steve McQueen Collection, a grouping of souped-up reissues and new-to-DVD titles.
After releasing a study pounding the misperception that plasma TVs aren't perfect - at least the notion that they're not as good as other non-CRT based TVs - Pioneer announced two new high-def plasmas in addition to a couple of newfangled Pioneer Elite plasma HDTVs.
