Audio Video News

Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, Inc. is claiming bragging rights to being the first rear-projection HDTV maker to bring Texas Instruments' 1080p DLP technology to your corner TV store. Mitsubishi (sometimes called by customers shopping for big screens "Mister Bushi" - as in, "Let me see one of those Mister Bushi TVs" - seriously, I'm not making this up) says they'll claim their rightful place in the consumer-electronics history books when they begin shipping the 52-inch WD-52627 to certain lucky (or brown-nosing) Southern California retailers on June 30th. National distribution of the widescreen HDTV will commence in the following weeks. The suggested retail price of the WD-52627 is $3,699 (plus local taxes and applicable delivery charges).

In what is sure to be a big boost for the HD DVD format, Microsoft and Toshiba announced on Monday that they have formed a partnership to co-develop HD DVD players among other joint activities. Now that unification talks with the Blu-ray camp seem to have completely stalled, this sets the stage for a rip-roaring battle royale with Sony, Apple Computer, and the other Blu-ray supporters.

DVD: Elektra—20th Century Fox
While some fans lament the seemingly imploding film career of the latest prettier half of "Bennifer," what's really sad is that Hollywood has managed to take Elektra, the dark, driven creation of the great Frank Miller, and reinvent her as just another melodramatic heroine. As portrayed by the lithe, earnest Jennifer Garner, "E" is a conflicted killer with quirky habits (obsessive-compulsive disorder for a few quick laughs!), who squares off against a slew of overdone computer-generated special effects. Oh, and did I mention the precocious young sidekick and the hunky single dad next door? Had the filmmakers gone for gritty action and an R rating instead of the flashy fantasy nonsense, this movie could have been great instead of just OK. Even at a mere 96 minutes, it's a tad sluggish.

A new bill introduced by Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) entitled the "Spectrum Availability for Emergency-response and Law-enforcement to Improve Vital Emergency Services Act" - otherwise known as "The SAVE LIVES Act" - will, if passed, directly affect the on-going Digital TV transition and the impending analog broadcast cut-off date. The proposed legislation assigns a hard cut-off date of January 1, 2009 - the point in time when the nation's television over-the-air broadcasters will be required to begin using the digital TV spectrum which has been assigned to them and return the spectrum they've been using for analog broadcasts.

On June 14, Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT) introduced a bill that would set a hard cutoff date of January 1, 2009, for the shutdown of analog over-the-air (OTA) television broadcasting. The bill, formally S.1237, is also known as the SAVE LIVES Act of 2005. Someone worked pretty hard to come up with the words to fit that acronym: Spectrum Availability for Emergency-Response and Law-Enforcement to Improve Vital Emergency Services Act.

Late last week, D&M Holdings and Boston Acoustics announced that they have signed a definitive merger agreement in which D&M will purchase Boston Acoustics for $17.50 per share in cash for a total of approximately $76 million. The deal adds Boston Acoustics' premium speaker line (along with the Snell brand, which BA acquired within the last couple of years) to D&M's already impressive portfolio, including Denon, Marantz, and McIntosh, as well as the D&M Professional, ReplayTV, Rio, and Escient brands.