Audio Video News

The duplication of VHS onto DVD is nothing new, but a single-component solution is clearly the way to go, and the aggressive pricing we've seen over the past year surely helps as well. While upon close inspection the Lite-On LVC-9006 does appear more streamlined than the Lite-On LVW-5005 DVD Recorder I reviewed in the December 2004 issue of Home Theater—the front-panel inputs (digital video, composite video, analog stereo) are now exposed, and the optical audio output is gone altogether—I cannot overlook the obvious, namely the addition of an excellent four-head Hi-Fi stereo VHS VCR. Yes, it might finally be time to retire your old VCR to Miami (or at least the kids' room), or take it put back behind the woodshed and put a bullet between its fast-forward and rewind buttons. Chief among the LVC-9006's strengths remains the "All-Write" technology which enables it to recognize and record onto most popular blank media types: DVD+/-R, rewritable DVD+/-RW, and even more affordable CD-R/RW. Choose whatever works best for you, if you know for example that a friend's DVD player doesn't support DVD+RW. It is that compatibility, combined with the Easy Guider menus (now seamlessly enhanced for its increased functionality) which virtually hold our hand every step of the way, that make Lite-On recorders such a particular pleasure to use.

In the era of DVD, videotape gets no respect—some might say deservedly so. But according to the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) VidTrac program, considered by some to be the most accurate video rental point-of-sale tracking technology, the 2001 year-end rental revenue market share for VHS was 83.4% while DVD accounted for 16.6%. This variance means that VHS rental spending outpaced that for DVDs by $5.6 billion.

FCC commissioner Michael Copps has promised to look into dozens of complaints that have flooded his office in the wake of promotional spots for the November 15 airing of <I>The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show</I> on the Walt Disney Company-owned ABC television network.

Vidabox LLC recently announced an interesting entry into the next-gen HD disc format war in the form of two lines of "dual HD" Media Center PCs that will playback both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. In addition to playing standard DVDs, Vidabox's LUX and MAX dual HD systems analog and dual HDTV tuners allowing users to record as many as four TV programs at once, obviating the need for a DVR.