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Audio Video News
Simple Solution for Russian Piracy
Leonid Korostyshevski  |  Apr 12, 2004  |  0 comments

<I>Editor's note: On April 7, the <A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/07/movies/07PIRA.html"></I>New York Times<I></A> reported that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) was planning to battle widespread DVD piracy in Russia on the only front that counts with consumers: pricing. In the report, Erin E. Arvedlund notes, Sony's "Columbia TriStar would price DVDs at no more than 299 rubles, or just over $10 . . . Warner Home Video has cut its DVD prices in Russia to the equivalent of $15."

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Audio Video News
Coming Attractions
HT Staff  |  Apr 12, 2004  |  0 comments
JBL
Getting 7.1-channel sound in your home theater is easy with JBL's new SCS300 7.1-channel loudspeaker package. The satellite and center-channel models offer dual 3.5-inch PolyPlas woofers and 0.75-inch titanium-laminate tweeters. The system's sub utilizes a high-excursion 10-inch woofer and 200-watt amp in a tuned-port enclosure. The sub's back panel features volume control, LFE and line-level inputs, and speaker-level ins and outs. An auto power-on/-off function automatically turns the sub on when an audio signal is present and switches the sub to standby when there's no signal. For $650, you'll get the sub, the center, six satellites (with mounting brackets), and the necessary cables.
JBL
(516) 496-3400
www.jbl.com
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Audio Video News
Latest Software Reviews
HT Staff  |  Apr 12, 2004  |  0 comments
DVD: The Cat in the Hat—Universal
Video: 5
Audio: 5
Extras: 2
It's always dangerous to remake a classic, yet director Bo Welch and company evidently had little fear of (or much respect for) the original Dr. Seuss tale in which a mischievous cat with a mysterious-but-colorful hat magically enters the lives of a brother and sister who need a lesson about balance in their lives. Although the DVD case claims that "the Classic Book Comes to Life," sadly, the childlike wonder and simple beauty of Suess' well-hewn prose and intriguingly alluring drawings are regularly shortchanged in favor of Mike Myers' antics and strangely out-of-place, off-color humor.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Alien Quadrilogy
Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 11, 2004  |  0 comments

<I><B>Alien: Director's Cut</B></I>
<BR>
<I>Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto. Directed by Ridley Scott. Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 (anamorphic). 5.1 Dolby Digital, DTS (English), Mono (Spanish). 116 minutes. 1979.</I>
<BR>
Picture ***1/2
<BR>
Sound **1/2
<BR>
Film ****

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Projector Reviews
InFocus ScreenPlay 5700 DLP Projector
Steven Stone  |  Apr 11, 2004  |  3 comments

Every time I go to a party and people find out I write about home theater, they ask me about flat-screen plasma TVs. No one asks me about DLP projectors. Perhaps folks don't realize that, for the same money they'd spend on a 40-inch plasma display, they could have a DLP projector capable of producing a 90-inch picture. If they compared the ease of installing a 10-pound projector on their ceiling with the drudgery of attaching a 150-pound plasma set to their wall, I think more folks would be excited by projectors.

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Other Tech
Street Talk: Little Steven Van Zandt
Mike Mettler  |  Apr 09, 2004  |  0 comments

The longtime E Street Band guitarist and Sopranos heavy (hello, Silvio) meets ME in Las Vegas to discuss his Sirius satellite radio gig and why CDs are "the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on the public.

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The Custom Installer: How to Install an IR Repeater
John Sciacca  |  Apr 06, 2004  |  0 comments

The simplest things in life often yield the most pleasure. A cold beer after a hard day working in the yard. A parking space with time left on the meter. A funny fortune cookie at the end of a Chinese dinner.

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Audio Video News
Industry Roundup
Barry Willis  |  Apr 05, 2004  |  0 comments

Retailers on the rise: Best Buy and Circuit City, North America's largest and second-largest electronics chains, both reported surges in profits for the fourth fiscal quarter ended February 28. Best Buy's profits rose 51% to $469 million on strong sales of flat-panel TVs, digital cameras, and computers, while Circuit City posted a net income of $89.6 million, a 26% increase in profits over last year's fourth-quarter $70.9 million, after making cost-cutting efforts.

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Audio Video News
New Products. Price Drops
 |  Apr 05, 2004  |  0 comments

This month, <A HREF="http://www.integraresearch.com">Integra Research</A> should begin delivering the RDV-1.1, a high-performance universal disc player announced in January at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The THX Ultra-certified RDV-1.1 not only plays every current optical disc format, including DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, CD, and SACD, but includes a video scaler that upconverts ordinary DVDs to 720p or 1080i. The internal "O-Plus FlexScale" video scaler also works with external video sources connected to the RDV-1.1's unit's rear-panel component, composite, and S-video inputs.

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Audio Video News
Added to the Archives This Week
 |  Apr 05, 2004  |  0 comments

Back in 1997, Scott Wilkinson put a two-part article together on color and vision as they pertain to video displays. Video display technology has changed radically since then, and so we've updated <A HREF="/features/204eye">An Eye for Color, Part 1</A> for 2004. Part 2 of this updated article is now available in the May 2004 issue of <I>Stereophile Guide to Home Theater</I>.

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