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Audio Video News
Congress May Rescue Net Radio
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 30, 2007  | 
Internet radio broadcasters may get a reprieve from Congress. A bill surfaced last week that would reverse the recent royalty rate hike that net radio outfits say would have doomed them to extinction.
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Audio Video News
HD Disc Sales On The Rise
 |  Apr 29, 2007  | 

The PR machines for both competing HD formats are relentless. And I have to admit that the impetus for this story was the Blu-ray Disc Association's recent announcement that Blu-ray beat its rival by getting to one million discs sold to consumers first. But what's more fascinating to me is that the HD DVD isn't far behind, in spite of the fact that consumers are allegedly staying away from both formats in droves because of the format war.

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Audio Video News
Onkyo's New AVR Does DTS and Dolby Lossless for just $599
 |  Apr 26, 2007  |  First Published: Apr 27, 2007  | 

A "statement" component is usually a top of the line, no holds barred, expensive flagship. Onkyo has just unveiled a different kind of statement product. While it didn't surprise me at all that Onkyo would release an AVR equipped with HDMI 1.3 and onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, I am taken aback that the first AVR to boast these new features is the $599 TX-SR605. <I>That's</I> a statement!

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Audio Video News
Harman International Goes Private
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 27, 2007  | 
One of the few major audio manufacturers to function as a public company will be taken private. Kohlbert Kravis Roberts and GS Capital Partners bought Harman International in a deal worth $8.3 billion.
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Audio Video News
TWC Axes Analog
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 26, 2007  | 
At least one major cable operator is pruning analog channels in advance of the end of analog broadcasting, slated for February 17, 2009. Time Warner Cable's Staten Island Project will provide 100 new channels of HDTV to the southernmost borough of New York City.
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Audio Video News
Broadcasters Rip Cable on DTV Dilution
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 24, 2007  | 
Cable operators may discriminate against broadcasters by reducing both the quality and quantity of DTV channels, the head of the National Association of Broadcasters asserted last week in a keynote at the NAB's annual convention in Las Vegas.
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Audio Video News
Sony to Replace Defective DVDs
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 23, 2007  | 
Sony will offer replacements for 20 defective glitch-prone DVD titles. The cause of the defect is yet another digital rights management scheme that's gone wacky.
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Audio Video News
Musicians Taste Sweet Revenge
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 20, 2007  | 
The latest challenge to the music industry comes from musicians themselves. Some of them are re-recording their hits to capture licensing revenue that otherwise would go to their record companies.
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Audio Video News
Is Internet Radio Doomed?
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 19, 2007  | 
The federal government's Copyright Royalty Board refused this week to reconsider an earlier decision to impose a massive rate hike on Internet radio broadcasters starting May 15. Depending on whom you ask, this is either a victory for recording artists or the finally tolling of the bell for net radio.
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Audio Video News
HD DVD Rising
 |  Apr 19, 2007  | 

HD DVD seized command of HD sales news this week, beating Blu-ray to a significant milestone by topping 100,000 standalone players sold in the US, and also setting an Amazon HD sales record.

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Audio Video News
Circuit City Struggles for Survival
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 18, 2007  | 
Recent doings at Circuit City may be of interest in the wake of the mass firings reported here and elsewhere. The story became a Primedia trifecta--covered here, on the Stereophile site, and on the Ultimate AV site--in addition to wide coverage elsewhere including a stern editorial in the New York Times.
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Audio Video News
Will iPod Go Wireless?
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 17, 2007  | 
The iPod may about to go wireless, if reports from Taiwanese component makers are to be believed.
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Audio Video News
Samsung to Unleash HD Combi
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 16, 2007  | 
Don't know who to support in the format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD? Those who have firmly decided not to decide got another option Friday as Samsung announced the long-rumored BD-UP5000 combi player. That makes Samsung the second manufacturer to market a high-def combi, following LG.
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Audio Video News
Another Blu-ray/HD DVD Combi Player On The Way
 |  Apr 15, 2007  | 

Late last week stories began to circulate that Samsung will introduce a dual format Blu-ray/HD DVD later this year. The BD-UP5000, dubbed the "Duo HD," will be in stores in time for the holidays and it's been reported that the player will support the full suite of interactivity functionality used on both formats.

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Audio Video News
OLED Coming This Year
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 13, 2007  | 
The long wait for OLED may be over before the end of the year. Sony says it will begin selling these next-generation flat panel TVs in late 2007 and other manufacturers are readying them for 2009.
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