<I>Dennis Quaid, Giovanni Ribisi, Tyrese Gibson, Miranda Otto, Hugh Laurie. Directed by John Moore. Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 (anamorphic). 113 minutes. 2004. Dolby Digital 5.1 and 5.1 DTS (English), Dolby Surround (French). 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. PG-13. $29.98.</I>
<I>Directed by David Hand. THX-certified. Aspect ratio: 1.33:1. Two discs. 5.1 Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix (English Dolby Digital 5.1), Dolby Digital 2.0 original mono theatrical mix, Dolby Digital 5.1 (French, Spanish). 67 minutes (film). 1942. Buena Vista Home Entertainment. G. $29.99.</I>
Focal-JMlab has been manufacturing speaker drivers and systems from its home base in Saint-Etienne, France, since 1980. They first became known to audiophiles in the US for their range of Focal drive units, particularly their inverted-dome tweeters. The latter were used by a number of makers of speaker systems. One of them, Wilson Audio Specialties, has likely been Focal's most loyal customer over the years, having used various Focal drivers in most of its models since the original Wilson Audio Tiny Tot, aka the WATT, was produced in the mid-1980s.
<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/headshot150.tjn.jpg" WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=194 HSPACE=6 VSPACE=4 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT><I>The Oscars are coming! The Oscars are coming! Which films are worthy contenders? Which will make good DVDs?</I>
<I>Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci. Directed by Peter Chelsom. Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 (anamorphic). 106 minutes. 2004. Dolby Digital 5.1 (English and French). Miramax 39202. PG-13. $29.99.</I>
Lawrence, Kansas, about an hour's drive west of Kansas City, is an
unlikely spot to start a loudspeaker company. But it's the home of
Kansas University, and in 1979, former KU students Gayle Martin
Sanders and Ron Logan Sutherland (now you know the origin of the
MartinLogan name) teamed up to design and build electrostatic
speakers.
Once upon a time, it was widely accepted that LCD projectors had two major weaknesses. First, in commonly available consumer models, the pixel structure could result in the infamous "screen door effect." That is, because the wiring driving each pixel had to be routed between the pixels, the pixel spacing, or pitch, was wide enough to make the pixel grid visible at close viewing distances.
According to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the organization that runs the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), 140,000 people attended this year’s annual confab in Las Vegas, NV. In past years, attendance has typically hovered around 100,000. But with the shrinkage of the normally even larger computer show, COMDEX, in 2003, followed by its cancellation this past November, the Intels, IBMs, Apples, Hewlett Packards, and other assorted bits-and-bytes vendors, and their customers, descended on CES with a vengeance.