Scott Wilkinson

The audio portion of the <I>47th Annual Grammy Awards</I>, held on Sunday, February 13, 2005, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, has been called the most complex of all the annual award shows, and with good reason: Virtually all music during the show was performed live. The only exceptions were the clips played as the nominees were announced and as the winners walked on and off the stage.

With all the hoopla surrounding digital rights management (DRM), which strives to protect A/V content from being illegally copied in the digital domain, there's been little attention paid to copies made from analog outputs. That could soon change if the recent agreements between Macrovision and Microsoft are any indication.

When I reviewed two of the Harmony universal remotes, then offered by Intrigue Technologies, in the "Cross Currents" column of UAV's July/August 2004 issue, I was thrilled with their many important innovations. However, I was less than thrilled with their design and button layout, which prevented my unreserved recommendation.

On Sunday, February 6, 2005, the 39th annual pigskin pig-out known as the Super Bowl is scheduled to kick off, with the Philadelphia Eagles against the New England Patriots in Jacksonville, FL. The game has become one of the biggest reasons that people buy an HDTV (and one of the biggest selling points for retailers), and those who have taken the plunge will not be disappointed&mdash;as long as they can receive the HD signal. This year, the Super Bowl will be broadcast in 720p on the Fox network via terrestrial and cable channels. DirecTV will also carry the high-def signal, but only in markets where the Fox HD station is owned and operated by Fox (for example, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia, but not San Francisco or Miami).