Audio Video News

Sort By:  Post Date TitlePublish Date
Audio Video News
Too rich? Nah...but never too thin.
Michael Berk  |  May 16, 2011  | 

The folks at Irish cable designers RedMere agree with us (and our longtime contributor Geoffrey Morrison) that there's no real call for avphile HDMI cables - a bit's a bit, and so long as a good portion of the same ones that came outta your gozoutas end up at your desired gozinatas,

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Will iPad 3 Go 3D?
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 16, 2011  | 
Unnamed sources cited by a little-known publication assert that Apple's iPad 3 will be 3D capable. It would be totally irresponsible to pass on this kind of unsubstantiated rumor.

Mea culpa.

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here to Make 5.1 Debut
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 13, 2011  | 
You already may have heard about the massive "Why Pink Floyd...?" reissue series scheduled to hit in September 2011. But the most artistically significant aspect of it has been grossly under-reported. The series will include the first release of the 1975 album Wish You Were Here in a 5.1-channel high-res medium.

There will be two ways to get it. One is the six-disc "Immersion" boxed set, which will include both new 5.1-channel and old quad mixes, not to mention stereo mixes, in multiple formats. One disc will be a DVD with lossy codecs (we're guessing Dolby Digital). The other—be still, our hearts—will be a Blu-ray disc with both 5.1 and stereo mixes in 96/24. You can read about the numerous other extras on Amazon.

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
CES 2011 Boasts Record Attendance
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 12, 2011  | 
The economic recovery, though spotty, seems to have reached the consumer electronics industry, if the latest numbers from its biggest trade show are any indication. The January 2011 Consumer Electronics Show boasted audited attendance of 149,529 people, a new record.

No wonder the line for box lunches was so long.

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
The Cave of Forgotten 3D Dreams
Michael Berk  |  May 11, 2011  | 

While 3D makes immediate and perfect sense in certain contexts (games, horror), there have been a few dissenters as the revamped medium has slowly taken over big and small screens everywhere.

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Boxee rolls out 1.1 update
Michael Berk  |  May 11, 2011  | 

We took a look at the Boxee Box (and some of its competitors in the connected-set-top box universe) earlier this week, and today the company announced an OS update (set to roll out over the next few da

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Music by Google Will Store, Not Sell
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 11, 2011  | 
Music by Google, a.k.a. Google Music, launched in beta yesterday. Surprise: The new service will not sell music. However, it will let you store up to 20,000 songs in the cloud, making it similar to Amazon's just-launched Cloud Drive and Player.

In its haste to launch the site, Google fell into the same trap as Amazon: It hasn't managed to negotiate sales terms with the music industry. So no store, just storage. Like Amazon's Cloud Player, Music by Google will also play stored music directly from the web.

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Pink Floyd on the wing, again
Michael Berk  |  May 10, 2011  | 

Big news from the Pink Floyd camp today (a new site with full info should be relaunching today, so check back over the course of the afternoon).

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Momentum...mobile...and more from the Googleplex
Michael Berk  |  May 10, 2011  | 

Following yesterday's YouTube announcement, Google should have even more big news today - the Google I/O developer conference kicks off today at noon, with the license-free

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Hollywood's Netflix Anxiety Subsiding
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 10, 2011  | 
Netflix, previously the bane of content owners, is now wearing a halo of approval. What changed? Netflix is now willing to part with more of its burgeoning revenue for content acquisition.

One notable example is Time Warner, whose CEO Jeff Bewkes once referred to Netflix as the Albanian army. As in: "Is the Albanian army going to take over the world?" Then Netflix paid Time Warner $200,000 per episode for 100 episodes of Nip/Tuck. Now Bewkes refers to Netflix with "fondness."

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
YouTube begins movie rentals
Michael Berk  |  May 09, 2011  | 

Following up on a post earlier today by YouTube head Salar Kamangar, the company formally announced the launch of its movie

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Samsung ups the ante on immersive TV
Michael Berk  |  May 09, 2011  | 

Samsung today unveiled the biggest 3D set to come to market (that's just the Korean market for now) thus far.

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
CEA Unveils Spectrum Crunch Clock
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 09, 2011  | 
Should the spectrum allocated during the DTV transition be left alone? Or should some of it be reallocated to wireless broadband? The Consumer Electronics Association leans to the latter side and is dramatizing its position with the Spectrum Crunch Clock.

The SCC, as it explains itself, "tracks the lost opportunity costs to the U.S. economy and consumers with every minute we delay responsibly managing our nation's spectrum resources. The Spectrum Crunch Clock estimates that we have been losing $14,444 per minute since the clock started ticking on March 16, 2010, when the FCC introduced the National Broadband Plan."

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Cutting the Cord?
Michael Berk  |  May 06, 2011  | 

Two recent surveys have come to different conclusions on whether or not American consumers are abandoning cable in favor of Web-based on-demand and streaming media.

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Star Wars Saga Blus Coming in September
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 06, 2011  | 
The Blu-ray release of Star Wars: The Complete Saga is coming September 16, 2011 in the U.S. and four days earlier internationally. LucasFilm made the announcement this week, on May 4, Star Wars Day.

The versions used will be the ones released theatrically in 1997 and restored for the 2004 DVD release, George Lucas told The New York Times. The press release does not list resolution but we're guessing it's 1080p. The audio codec is listed as "6.1 DTS Surround Sound." It is not known whether that's DTS-HD Master Audio or lossy DTS 5.1. However, Fox has supported Master Audio in many other BD releases.

Continue Reading »

Pages

X