Audio Video News

Having earlier stubbed its toe in the personal computer market, <A HREF="http://www.gateway.com">Gateway</A> is on a consumer electronics roll. Around this time last year the company <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/news/11423/index.html">announced</A> its entry into the CE market with a sub-$3000 plasma TV. Then at the CEDIA Expo last month, <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/news/11633/index.html">Gateway announced</A> the KAS-303 "1000W", 6.1-channel home theater system with a progressive scan DVD player, attractively priced at $999.

Ever wonder what the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is doing these days to accurately gauge music sales at a time when CDs are all but dead and downloading has given way to the convenience of streaming from the likes of Pandora and Spotify?

General Electric Co. is re-entering the TV business after officially bowing out in 1987. (The name was licensed to Thomson until 2004.) With the digital transition looming, folks need TVs, but do we need yet another name brand? Thomas Edison's GE...

Housing. Transportation. Home theater. Your local bank offers loans for those first two things, but not for the third, surely one of the most pressing needs of human life. What's up with that? Aren't big-screen television and surround sound at least as important as a house or a car? The General Electric Money Bank says yes!

Rob Sabin, Home Theater's new editor, is this week's guest on the Home Theater Geeks podcast, where he talks about living on the real Jersey shore, his 25 years in the audio/video publication and installation business, his plans for the magazine and website, universal remote controls, 3D, streaming content versus Blu-ray, 4K displays, multichannel versus simulated surround, 3D-audio systems, and answers to chat-room questions. Check it out!

Last week, Gemstar International Group announced that its subsidiary, <A HREF="http://www.StarSight.com/">StarSight Telecast</A>, had filed a patent-infringement suit against <A HREF="http://www.tivo.com">TiVo</A> in Federal District Court, Northern District of California. According to Gemstar, the suit claims "that TiVo willfully infringed certain Gemstar intellectual property by virtue of TiVo's deployment, marketing, offers to sell, and sale of personalized video recorder devices containing an unlicensed interactive program guide." Gemstar, which markets VCR Plus+, says it is seeking an injunction and monetary damages.