Audio Video News

Makers of personal video recorders (PVRs) like <A HREF="http://www.tivo.com/">TiVo</A> and <A HREF="http://www.replaytv.com/">ReplayTV</A> have been fighting an uphill battle to get consumers to understand and purchase their products. This reluctance has caused some marketing executives to question whether there is much of a market for personal video services. But consumer apathy toward unknown technology shouldn't be confused with the potential for such services, according to a recently released report from market analysts <A HREF="http://www.techtrends.net/">TechTrends</A>.

It's the dream of home-theater fans and TV addicts everywhere: Video-On-Demand, better known as VOD. The concept is simple: Viewers pick movies or shows from a list and watch them via their cable, satellite, or Internet connection when they want to&mdash;no waiting for the program to start at the top of the hour, or recording something that is broadcast only while you're on vacation. But getting VOD to work, especially in anything approaching DVD quality, is another issue altogether, and has become something of a Holy Grail for VOD developers in the broadcast industry.

Locally broadcast high-definition television <I>won't</I> be coming to a home theater near you anytime soon. That's the consensus of participants and observers at congressional hearings on the subject in late July, when long-simmering disagreement over a technical standard for terrestrial transmission finally got its day in court.

West Coast&ndash;based consumer-electronics chain <A HREF="http://www.goodguys.com/">Good Guys</A> will be one of the first retailers in the nation to carry <A HREF="http://www.panasonic.com/">Panasonic</A>'s new video recorder. The DMR-E10, capable of recording Dolby Digital 2-track audio and MPEG-2 video, will arrive in all 79 Good Guys locations beginning in late September.

Build it and they will come&mdash;to take it apart. Modifying original equipment has long been one of the most popular activities among electronics hobbyists. Hard-disk video recorders from <A HREF="http://www.tivo.com/">TiVo</A> are the latest consumer-electronics products to go under the hacker's knife and emerge with upgraded capabilities.