Audio Video News

In a move that will keep union members working for at least the next three years, negotiators for the <A HREF="http://www.wga.org">Writers Guild of America</A> agreed to a new contract on May 4, three days beyond the date of a threatened strike. The WGA had agreed to let its members keep working as discussions continued beyond the renewal date for the old contract, which expired May 1.

Poly-OLED. Add this new acronym to your technophile lexicon. It's short for "polymer organic light emitting diode," a type of display technology developed by Wilmington, Delaware&ndash;based <A HREF="http://www.ritekdisplay.com/in_English/index_English.htm">RiTEK Display Technology Company</A>, the beneficiary of a recent investment by <A HREF="http://www.dupont.com/displays">DuPont Displays</A>, a unit of DuPont iTechnologies of the DuPont chemical conglomerate. Poly-OLED is said to be considerably better than the traditional liquid crystal display (LCD) because of its greater brightness, better contrast, and lower manufacturing costs.

Far too many home entertainment products are obsolete six months after they are introduced. A new variation on surround sound or video processing comes out, and you have to buy a new processor to take advantage of it.

The idea of watermarking high-resolution audio signals has riled audiophiles for months, ever since Verance announced that the controversial tracking signals would be incorporated into DVD-Audio discs. Now videophiles can get in on the action: last week, <A HREF="http://www.digimarc.com">Digimarc</A> announced that it is partnering with Hitachi, Macrovision, NEC, Philips, Pioneer, and Sony to form the Video Watermarking Group (VWM Group) to provide video copy prevention and play control solutions for digital recording devices.

G<I>eorge Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly, Diane Lane, William Fichtner, John Hawkes. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 (anamorphic). Dolby Digital 5.1. 130 minutes. 2000. Warner Home Video 18584. PG-13. $24.98.</I>

Prediction: film industry attorneys and executives will experience unprecedented high blood pressure this summer. The reason: the arrival of DVD recorders from Swiss manufacturer Vivastar.

Sensory Science is upping the ante in the video processor game. On April 12, the Scottsdale, AR-based electronics firm introduced the new CL-2500 Video Processor from its California Audio Labs division. The processor is "a videophile-quality home theater component functioning as both an HDTV-ready video switcher as well as video processor," according to the announcement, and is claimed to "raise the standard in home theater performance and operation."