Audio Video News

CDs are arguably on the way out. Cassette tapes are extinct. Vinyl albums are generally used only by audiophiles and other extreme music enthusiasts. Over the last decade, we've seen digital distribution become one of the most popular ways to...

You've probably read elsewhere that Norio Ohga died last week at 81. As chairman of Sony from 1982-95, he got the company into the motion picture and music businesses. An accomplished musician and music lover, Ohga was the guy who insisted the Compact Disc format should hold at least 74 minutes to accommodate Beethoven's Ninth Symphony without flipping. See obituary.

Perhaps the person best suited to reminiscing about Ohga would be the one who wooed him away from his career as a performing musician, Sony's legendary founder Akio Morita, who died in 1999. Following are some passages from his 1986 book Made in Japan. He starts by describing Ohga as "the young music student who asked so many audacious questions of our salesmen in 1947 that they finally brought him around to the company to talk to the engineers."

Sony has always seemed a fortress in the electronics world - unshakable, until recently.  Sony is expected to post a loss of about $1.1 billion for 2007 and 2008 -- the first loss posted by the corporation in 14 years. Ouch.  What...

Hot on the feels of Logitech's Google TV announcement, Sony is gearing up to release its own Google TV product. Unlike Logitech's Revue set-top box, Sony is working on HDTVs incorporating Google TV directly into the display. Technical details for...

A picture density four times higher than standard 480i images and a resolution of 2500x2000 pixels are specifications worth bragging about. That's exactly what <A HREF="http://www.sel.sony.com/">Sony Electronics</A> is doing with its new CRT graphics projector, the VPH-G90U. The projector features new high-resolution, electromagnetically focused 9-inch CRTs and brightness up to 350 ANSI lumens. Sony is calling the VPH-G90U "the projector of choice for installation in large and medium venues, conference rooms, home theaters, and virtual-reality applications." Sporting a list price of $35,000, the new projector will make its debut at selected dealers next month.

Sony is now shipping the BDP-S350, a next-generation Blu-ray player that is far slimmer than its predecessor and even comes in a much smaller box. It uses a third less packing material, and what it does use is biodegradable paper. And due to the lightness of both the product and its packaging, shipping it will involve 43 percent less diesel use and other carbon emissions. Proof, were any needed, that I'll do anything for a novel lead.