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Coming Attractions
HT Staff  |  Sep 20, 2004
Kaleidescape
Keeping track of all your DVDs is a tough feat. Kaleidescape makes the task much easier with their new K2500 Digital Movie Player. To make things even better, the K2500 can deliver DVD and HD movies in digital form from source to display without analog conversion. The unit connects via a switched Ethernet network to a Kaleidescape server ($27,000) and provides an HDMI output to connect A/V processors and displays. It can output HD video in 720p or 1080i, as well as the 480i and 480p NTSC formats. With its onscreen user interface, you can browse your entire DVD collection, create collections, and mark or play your favorite scenes with Kaleidescape's bookmark technology. The K2500 is $4,000.
Kaleidescape
(650) 625-6101
www.kaleidescape.com
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Audio Video News
Latest Software Reviews
HT Staff  |  Sep 20, 2004
DVD: Walking Tall—MGM/UA
Video: 3
Audio: 3
Extras: 3
It's hard to fathom why a DVD for a movie that runs a scant 73 minutes, not counting credits, would even have deleted scenes. After all, it's not like there wasn't room in the film. Still, we find three of them on the disc for Walking Tall, a silly but rather guilty pleasure for anyone wanting to see a good (fact-based) revenge story or the Rock whup some ass with a four-by-four cedar stick. You don't get to know any of the characters, and others are forgotten about altogether, but the fight scenes are well executed, and there are a few explosive moments.
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Audio Video News
Industry Roundup
Ultimate AV Staff  |  Sep 20, 2004

Shaw's HD DVR: Calgary, Alberta telecommunications firm Shaw Communications has announced its new "High Definition (HD) plus Personal Video Recorder (PVR) Digital Terminal." Available to Shaw cable customers in Canada, the new HD + PVR Digital Terminal is said to offer them unprecedented control over their viewing, including the ability to control live TV with pause, rewind and fast-forward functions and record a variety of programming directly on their digital terminal.

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Audio Video News
TVs Leap Ahead
Ultimate AV Staff  |  Sep 20, 2004

TVs have long been the centerpieces of most American homes. New developments will make that position permanent.

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Audio Video News
Sony HD Camcorder
Barry Willis  |  Sep 20, 2004

High-definition video isn't just for professionals anymore. It could soon be in the hands of hobbyists and amateur filmmakers everywhere.

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Audio Video News
Added to the Archives This Week
Ultimate AV Staff  |  Sep 20, 2004

Robert Deutsch provides an in-depth analysis of the <A HREF="/surroundsoundpreampprocessors/704rotel">Rotel RSP-1068 surround-sound processor</A> noting that it's an "evolution of the RSP-1066 that incorporates more advanced digital technology, even more features, and additional refinements of analog circuitry."

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Audio Video News
Glass, Class, and Two Rooms of Home Entertainment
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Sep 20, 2004
Is it the seductively cool blueness of the analog-style wattmeters on the amplifiers or the allure of the full-front impervious-to-wear glass panels? Maybe it's the classic, great sound quality. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I've always had a soft spot in my heart for gear from American-born-and-bred McIntosh Laboratory, Inc. So it's no surprise that the unveiling of a trio of new home theater components from the Binghamton, NY-based company would cause the drool to start forming at the edges of my mouth.
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Audio Video News
Hertz So Good
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Sep 20, 2004
Seeing as how we tend to focus on "home" theater gear - hence the name "Home Theater Magazine" - it's not likely that you've ever heard us mention a twenty-some-year-old company called JL Audio. Although JL Audio has certainly a bigwig of boom for quite a while, they've existed pretty much under our radar because their main focus has been on car audio. (Unfortunately, the powers that be who write our checks won't let us cover events such as the Funkmaster Flex 2004 Celebrity Car Tour of which JL Audio is an official sponsor.) But all that is about to change.
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Audio Video News
Klipsch Horns in on Flat-Panel TVs
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Sep 15, 2004
If you're old enough to remember the extremely popular (and still produced!) Klipsch Heresy speaker, you'll probably be a bit surprised by the look and feel of some of the latest Klipsch loudspeaker introductions. On the other hand, if you're young enough that the first thing you think of when you hear the name "Klipsch" is one of their svelte ProMedia personal audio systems, then you'll probably just say, "Cool!" Either way, you can't fault the venerable 58-year-old company for focusing its engineering efforts on keeping up with the times.
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Audio Video News
The World's Most Gifted Home Theater Receiver?
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Sep 15, 2004
Denon calls it their "flagship" receiver; but if you want to fully carry out the nautical metaphor, you'd have to refer to the new Denon AVR-5805 as the biggest, baddest, boldest combination battleship/aircraft carrier/submarine/destroyer/frigate/(throw in some secret stealth technology reference here) ever to have floated on the home theater seven seas. Denon claims it's "the world's first A/V receiver with 10 built-in amplifiers and 16-channel output...[and] unprecedented multi-source and zone capabilities with perhaps the most comprehensive analog and digital audio/video switching configurations ever offered."
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Audio Video News
Realta Chip from Silicon Optix
Ultimate AV Staff  |  Sep 13, 2004  |  First Published: Sep 14, 2004

Nothing less than "a new standard in video quality" was promised this month by <A HREF="http://www.siliconoptix.com">Silicon Optix</A> in announcing its new Realta single-chip video processor.

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Audio Video News
Panasonic "Onyx" HDTVs
Ultimate AV Staff  |  Sep 13, 2004  |  First Published: Sep 14, 2004

At last weekend's CEDIA show, <A HREF=€�http://www.panasonic.com€�>Panasonic</A> unveiled a new series of high-performance plasma displays (PDPs) whose bold hardware-free minimalist look is a big departure from the competition. With their only exposed surface a single sheet of glass, images on the company's Onyx XVS series of plasma sets appear to float in mid-air. With no visible hardware, "all you see are crisp, clear, deep images,€� said Panasonic Display Group vice president Ed Wolff.

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Audio Video News
DirecTV's New Satellites
Barry Willis  |  Sep 13, 2004  |  First Published: Sep 14, 2004

The near future looks mighty promising for HDTV fans. On September 8, <A HREF="http://www.directv.com">DirecTV</A> announced an ambitious plan to launch its next generation of satellites, a move that could dramatically expand the availability of high-definition programming. The development comes in the wake of DirecTV's acquisition earlier this year by News Corp., which now owns an 82% stake in the direct broadcast satellite operator.

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Audio Video News
Added to the Archives This Week
Ultimate AV Staff  |  Sep 13, 2004

Keith Yates decided to do the definitive subwoofer survey and <I>UAV</I> published the results. We start with the first two parts of the three part series: <A HREF="/features/604way">Way Down Deep, Part One</A>, and <A HREF="/features/704way">Way Down Deep, Part Two</A>.

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Audio Video News
The Star Wars Trilogy DVDs
Chris Chiarella  |  Sep 08, 2004
1. These are the essentially the 1997 Special Edition versions of all three films. Sort of. Yes, this means that Greedo still fires first in the notoriously rethought Star Wars cantina scene and modern special effects are everywhere, but further modifications have been made, and not just visual tweaks: The Return Of The Jedi Emperor now appears in The Empire Strikes Back for example, bringing new dialogue with him, and young Anakin from Revenge Of The Sith also replaces old Anakin in the finale of Jedi.
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