Audio Video News

"Better and cheaper" seems to be the mantra in the product development department at V, Inc. The Costa Mesa, CA-based video display maker has announced two new high-performance products - a DVD player and an HDTV receiver - certain to tweak the interest of budget-conscious home theater fans.

Live music from popular recording artists is on tap for attendees at the Home Entertainment Show coming to NYC May 20—23, 2004 at the Hilton New York Hotel. And best of all—all performances are FREE to all Show attendees!

From the March/April issue, Steven Stone sits himself in the middle of the <A HREF="/speakersystems/304genesis">Genesis 6.1 surround speaker system</A> and files his report. SS was curious what he would hear; this 5.1 system "represents the company's first dedicated multichannel music and home theater product."

It's expensive to acquire new satellite TV subscribers. Both DirecTV and EchoStar added hundreds of thousands of new subscribers in the most recent quarter, but both posted financial losses in the process.

More Marilyn . . . Well, sort of. It's been over 50 years since this quartet of modestly sophisticated comedy/dramas hit the silver screen to entertain post-WWII America. In those early years of the soon-to-be-booming 1950s, audiences might have had inklings that a certain young, blonde starlet might have a big decade ahead of her. More likely, ticket buyers were eager to see Claudette Colbert (Let's Make It Legal), Ginger Rogers and Fred Allen (We're Not Married), Monty Woolley and Thelma Ritter (As Young as You Feel), or June Haver and William Lundigan (Love Nest). You'd have no way of knowing that, however, from 20th Century Fox's packaging of these cinematic time capsules that capture an intriguing era of Hollywood movie-making that's forever gone. Marilyn Monroe's second-tier presence in this foursome of flicks is clearly the marketing angle that 20th Century Fox feels will mint new cash from old celluloid.

Thomas J. Norton reviews the <A HREF="/speakersystems/204psb">PSB Platinum M2 surround speaker system</A>, admitting, "I've had a soft spot for PSB speakers ever since I reviewed the first Stratus Gold for <I>Stereophile</I> back in 1991." TJN explains how over a decade of improvements since then has paid off.

"Local into local" renewed: Direct broadcast satellite (DBS) services can continue to beam local stations to their subscribers, thanks to a renewal of the Satellite Home Viewer Enhancement and Reauthorization Act (SHVERA) by the US House of Representatives Telecommunications Subcommittee on Wednesday, April 28.