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Barry Willis  |  Sep 06, 2004  |  First Published: Sep 07, 2004

This week's CEDIA Expo 2004 in Indianapolis is certain to offer a few head-turning new products, among them <A HREF="http://www.bostonacoustics.com/">Boston Acoustics</A>'s Avidea 610 integrated home theater system and NAD Electronics' new NetCap network receiver.

Ultimate AV Staff  |  Sep 06, 2004

Fred Manteghian goes flat out to review the <A HREF="/speakersystems/704magnepan">Magnepan MG 3.6, MG 1.6, and CC3 surround speaker system</A>. FM ponders, "A long-gone pair of Maggies was my first true audio love. But could these new Maggies sustain me?"

HT Staff  |  Sep 06, 2004
DVD: Soul Plane Mile-High Edition—MGM/UA
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 3
If the Zucker brothers had made Airplane with bling, this comedy about the maiden voyage of a black-owned airline might have been the result. But don't confuse Soul Plane with that 1980 classic. While some of the visual jokes score, most of the humor is of the raunchy, make-you-wince variety. Nonetheless, the cast members, including Snoop Dogg, Method Man, Kevin Hart, and Tom Arnold as the token white guy, all got game; as a result, the film reaches a steady cruising altitude, even if it doesn't quite earn its wings.
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Aug 30, 2004
Plasma, plasma, on the wall, who's the fairest speaker of them all? ("Fairest", of course, meaning "least visibly obnoxious while sitting next to one of those sleek, sexy, and usually silver-finish flat-panel TVs" with added elements of "gee, it'd be nice if it were easy to install - like maybe if the L, C, and R speakers were all one unit".) Boston Acoustics claims to have the answer with the new P400 slim theater speaker, a unique compound speaker unit that incorporates discrete left, center, and right front speakers in a single, thin chassis that's "designed to perfectly complement a 42-inch plasma or LCD television or monitor, a DLP rear-projection console, or a traditional screen."

Yes, Boston Acoustics knows all you plasma lovers out there hate speakers - or at least hate to look at speakers. (It's truly a love/hate relationship. You love to listen to good sound, but you hate to look at the speakers that are necessary to create it. My advice is that you should seek professional help about this, you know.)

Darryl Wilkinson  |  Aug 30, 2004
Considering how focused they are on designing ways of incorporating high-performance home theater gear into the smallest amount of space possible, you might think that the folks at Ginni Designs spent their formative years growing up in one of the tinier regions of Munchkin Land. (Although they deny it, I suspect that Ginni Designs has at least one elf - or perhaps a couple of interior-design-oriented descendants of the Seven Dwarfs - secreted away in the back offices helping design their magical cabinetry. It's a "Small Eye for the Home Theater Guy" kind of thing.)
Ultimate AV Staff  |  Aug 30, 2004

Thomas J. Norton evaluates the <A HREF="/accessories/704avia">Avia Pro multi-disc test suite</A>, remarking, "it wouldn't surprise me to see more than one enthusiast invest in the package&mdash;especially after seeing just how much it offers."

Ultimate AV Staff  |  Aug 30, 2004

All bodes well for those who've waited for flat-panel display prices to drop.

Ultimate AV Staff  |  Aug 30, 2004

For the second time, the Motion Picture Association of America (<A HREF="http://www.mpaa.org">MPAA</A>) has sued chipmakers for selling chips to makers of DVD players capable of violating industry-wide copy-protection rules.

HT Staff  |  Aug 30, 2004
DVD: Dallas: The Complete First and Second Seasons—Warner Brothers
Video: 3
Audio: 2
Extras: 2
Dallas' premiere in 1978 helped to usher in a new television genre: the prime-time soap opera. It had been tried before, but the amazing success of Dallas spawned an instant wave of imitators. Flamingo Road, Falcon Crest, and Dynasty all soon hit the airwaves in an attempt to cash in on the craze. The attentive viewer will notice something similar about these shows: All of the characters are filthy rich. Yes, it seems that America loves to watch shows about miserable wealthy people. They say that money can't buy happiness, but I bet you'll have some trouble convincing Aaron Spelling of that fact.
HT Staff  |  Aug 30, 2004
AViC
Now that everyone's jumping aboard the DVD and high-definition bandwagons, it's time to start thinking about the necessary cables for your system. At the top of your short list are component video cables, no doubt. AViC has what you need with their CV3002 RCA-to-RCA component video cable. The company says that upgrading to this cable will give you brighter colors and more-vivid detail from your DVD player or HDTV receiver. The color-coded connectors make installation trouble-free, and the 3.3-gigahertz bandwidth capacity supports all ATSC signals with room to spare. Two meters are available now for $130.
AviC
(215) 825-5310
www.aviccables.com
Ultimate AV Staff  |  Aug 23, 2004  |  First Published: Aug 24, 2004

The annual CEDIA convention is only three weeks away, and equipment makers are generating plenty of pre-show excitement with new product announcements.

Darryl Wilkinson  |  Aug 23, 2004
Snell Acoustics is tightening the grilles and polishing the dust caps on three new upgraded speakers which they'll introduce to the world during the CEDIA Expo in Indianapolis on September 7th. But you don't have to wait to hear about these new THX Ultra 2 Certified models, because we're going to spill the beans here before anyone else does. (Besides, unless you're a dealer or custom installer - or unemployable writer-type like most of us here - you wouldn't be able to crash the heavily armed security at the CEDIA Expo anyway. Just be thankful you've got us working for you. We sure are.)
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Aug 23, 2004
Having nothing better to do with their time after installing FlatTVs with Ambilight technology in George Clooney's (and other cast members') Hotel de Russie hotel room so he (and they) could live better than the average bear while filming the new "Ocean's Twelve", the friendly folks at Philips commissioned Harris Interactive to ask pointed questions about home entertainment of consumers in 13 countries. (Sorry, Iraq wasn't included.) The results of the Philip's Global Home Entertainment Survey are sure to be studied by generations of historians to come for the deep insights they provide into the shallow nature of humans all over the globe.
Barry Willis  |  Aug 23, 2004

USDTV makes headway: Fledgling over-the-air pay TV service US Digital Television (USDTV) has signed more than 8000 subscribers in its six months in business, according to a <I>Broadcast Engineering</I> report August 16. The startup is the first terrestrial digital subscription TV service in the US to piggyback new digital broadcast channels of local television stations by leasing unused spectrum from participating broadcasters. Based in Salt Lake City, USDTV is also available in Albuquerque, NM and Las Vegas.

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