Audio Video News

This may not look like much, but it is a quantum leap in television performance.

In this long-exposure image (note how bright the iPad is in the foreground), you're looking at something incredible.

That TV you see? That TV is on.

L<I>aserdisc. Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki, Kichijiro Ueda, Fumiko Homma. Directed by Akira Kurosawa. Aspect ratio 4:3. 87 minutes. 1950. CLV. The Voyager Company Criterion Collection CC1149L. Not rated. $49.95.</I>

A demonstration of digital television broadcasting in New York City last week may have laid to rest fears about the viability of the Advanced Television Standards Committee's transmission technology. The technique, known as 8-VSB, has been under attack from some quarters, particularly Sinclair Broadcasting, as being inadequate to prevent severe multipath distortion, which results from reflected signals arriving at a receiver slightly later than direct signals. In digital TV, multipath can cause a screen to go blank.

It's just about a month away: <A HREF="http://www.hifishow.com">HI-FI '98</A>, The Home Theater & Specialty Audio Show, will attract thousands of home-theater enthusiasts when it visits The Westin Los Angeles Airport Hotel in Los Angeles, California from Wednesday, June 10 to Sunday, June 14, 1998.

The iPad is cool for a lot of things, but does it work for music? Various opinions came from the SXSW Music Festival, and together they're an interesting follow-up to Michael Berk's earlier post here on the concept of the iPad Album.