Audio Video News

This morning I picked out the weekly Best Buy flyer from my Sunday paper and saw a DirecTV HD TiVo on special for $399 after mail-in rebate. My initial thought was, "cool! Looks like the new MPEG4 compatible HD DVR is finally out!" This thought died of loneliness seconds later as I realized the HD DVR in the ad is the trusty HR10-250 that sits in my own equipment rack. A terrific machine, but not compatible with the new MPEG4 compressed HD channels that DirecTV has very quietly rolled out in the last several months.

HD DVD launched in retail stores with something between a whimper and minor bang earlier this week. Although there were only two HD DVD titles from Warner available in most stores, <I>The Last Samurai</I> and <I>Phantom of the Opera</I>, Toshiba's initial, admittedly smallish run of players was sold out after just two days of availability.

ScreenTek, a company that sells laptop replacement screens (who knew there even was such a thing as a laptop replacement screen? I thought you were simply out of luck...), has developed a cleaning solution for LCD screens that are not in need of being replaced. Called PixelClean, the new screen cleaner was developed for high-gloss LCD screens like Sony XBRITE and Toshiba TruBrite - although the formulation is supposed to work as well on other types of flat-panel screens, such as less-advanced laptops, plasma TVs, and LCD TVs.

<B>DirecTV And TiVo Partnered Into 2010</B>
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DirecTV and TiVo have extended their partnership for three years, allowing DirecTV to continue to offer TiVo's DVR services to its subscribers, and preserving an advertising relationship between the two companies. The partnership, set in the original agreement to expire in February of 2007, will now run through February of 2010.

Last week Mitsubishi launched its 2006-2007 line of big screen televisions. The broad lineup consists of no fewer than fifteen models using a variety of technologies, including DLP rear projectors and LCDs in both flat panel and rear projection configurations.

Despite the fact that the laser was invented in 1958 - or so claim Bell Labs and Mssrs. Schawlow and Townes - "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation" devices can still wow even the most jaded technophile (especially when they're used to burn holes in things or otherwise cause spectacular, glowing destruction). Now Mitsubishi wants to harness the power of lasers for less destructive but still highly entertaining purposes.