Audio Video News

Audio and home theater dealers will tell you that the biggest obstacle to getting a sound system into customers' homes is overcoming their objections about the size of the speakers. Big boxes, no matter how stylish, are simply unacceptable to some people. If you are one of them, Anthony Gallo Acoustics has just what you're looking for.

Just don’t tell Ken Pohlmann. Having recently proclaimed that Cassettes Are Not Making a Comeback, he’ll just laugh.

When it comes to persuasive reasons to purchase an HDTV, nothing beats having compelling content—and lots of it. Add one more notch to the content totals: Discovery Communications announced last week that it will launch Discovery HD Theater. The company describes HD Theater as a new 24-hour network "which will transmit high-definition content in all the popular categories of entertainment offered by Discovery" including nature, history, world cultures, geographic explorations, science, education, travel, and a wealth of children's and how-to programming.

As promised <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/shownews.cgi?1273">last April</A>, Discovery Communications launched their new 24-hour 1080i high definition television (HDTV) network, called Discovery HD Theater, last week. The network has been launched on HD platforms recently rolled out by EchoStar Communications on its Dish Network satellite TV service nationwide, AT&T Broadband's greater Chicago market (where plans are set to launch HDTV service later this summer), and in numerous other markets serviced by cable providers Charter and Cox.

It should come as no surprise that nearly three quarters (73%) of Americans age 12 and up are “actively consuming movies and TV shows for home viewing,” according to Nielsen statistics. What may surprise you is that only 12% of consumers are “digital-only consumers of entertainment.”

Has streaming killed the shiny disc? The NPD Group says otherwise. A typical household spends 78 percent of its home video budget to purchase and rent DVD and Blu-ray. The 77 percent of consumers who report watching a movie on disc is unchanged from last year.

NPD's "Entertainment Trends in America" report puts streaming at 15 percent, with VOD and PPV comprising the remaining 8 percent. Spending on home video overall has dropped by 2 percent.

Some Dish Network and DirecTV high-def subscribers may not see local channels in HD until 2013 due to a ruling this week by the Federal Communications Commission. The satellite carriers insisted they didn't have the capacity to carry all the local...