Audio Video News

The dark-rumped petrel was responsible for a milestone in DTV history last week. To avoid disrupting the nesting patterns of this endangered bird species, Hawaii became the first state in the union to turn off analog television signals, thus entering the age of DTV at least a month earlier than the deadline for the other 49 states.

Hard times just got a little harder. Circuit City, the second largest consumer electronics retailer in the U.S., will close all stores and liquidate assets, according to a press release. This is the end for Circuit, which had already filed for bankruptcy in November 2008.

Announcing the death of a format can be tricky business. After all, a lot of them live on in our hearts, minds, racks, and libraries--and at least one "dead" format, the LP, never really died. But if the manufacture of hardware is a major criterion, then the laserdisc format has died. Pioneer has discontinued its last three laserdisc player models, according to a brief announcement in Akihabara News.

Acting in response to consumer-group complaints, the Obama transition team has asked the Federal Communications to delay the DTV transition.

Just in time for the holidays, the Recording Industry Association of America has announced that it will no longer launch mass lawsuits against wayward consumers for illegally sharing music files on the internet. What a lovely present!

Recently we reported that Blu-ray has been hacked. Well, now it's been unhacked, though the victory was short-lived.