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  • HD DVD Hybrid disk

    Would you buy a DVD today that was also an HD DVD on the flip side? Would you spend any extra for the HD DVD feature? Warner Home Video is betting that even though you don't own an HD DVD player you might just spring for an HD DVD layer on your next DVD...
    04-28-2006, 11:10 AM by to Home Theater Focus 2567 Views
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  • Apple Chooses Samsung

    Yesterday Samsung announced it was awarded a huge contract from Apple Computers winning the bid to make chips for Apple's next generation of iPods. Sr. VP for technical marketing at Samsung Semiconductor Inc Jon Kang was so confident in his company's...
    04-27-2006, 12:08 PM by to Home Theater Focus 2830 Views
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  • Home Theater vs Movie Theater

    Home Theater vs Movie Theater I've never been one to promote the rivalry between the two as I think they both have their place. HD Beat ran its own " Why Home Theaters Rock " feature which is an interesting read. It's an interesting comparison to this...
    04-25-2006, 2:25 PM by to Home Theater Focus 4578 Views
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  • HD DVD Has Landed

    The format war began this week in earnest with the release of an HD DVD player and a handful of disks. The HD-A1 HD DVD player by Toshiba was the first to hit stores last Thursday. An RCA knock off should be coming shortly on May 18th. The HD-A1 has been...
    04-21-2006, 4:27 PM by to Home Theater Focus 2975 Views
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  • TiVo vs Dish Network

    TiVo wins a major victory in its long struggle with EchoStar. A Texas District Court awarded TiVo $73.9 million dollars for a longstanding patent infringement suit against EchoStar, parent company of Dish Network. The ten member jury only took two hours...
    04-18-2006, 11:01 AM by to Home Theater Focus 3103 Views
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  • Onkyo HT-S580: HTIB with a surprize

    Sure, I'm a hi-fi enthusiast and almost qualify as a hi-fi snob but I'll never tell you a quarter million bucks is required for perfect sound . Heck I'll take $5K worth of as-good-as-it-gets and die happy. But not so with you, yeah you John Q. Public....
    04-13-2006, 11:02 AM by to Home Theater Focus 4032 Views
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  • Leave the iPod at home

    Less is more Spring has returned. Waking to the sounds of ever more species of birds as the frost-line makes its seasonal ascends up northerly parallels I am reminded again of my love of acoustics. The world has a natural soundtrack that through mobile...
    04-11-2006, 1:16 PM by to Home Theater Focus 2672 Views
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  • Sony PS3 Pricing Confusion

    It's come to my attention that premature pricing information has become the new PS3 topic these days. Don't take these pricing estimates seriously. We already know the price will be just a tad higher than the Xbox360 and as soon as it hits the market...
    04-07-2006, 5:20 PM by to Home Theater Focus 3563 Views
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  • Blu-ray Delayed - Again

    Delays in consumer electronics roll-outs are as inevitable as death and taxes. Microsoft pulled an "on-paper" release of the Xbox360 late last year and the next game console is still as scarce as a straight answer from a presidential press secretary....
    04-05-2006, 9:42 AM by to Home Theater Focus 2469 Views
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  • Mitsubishi's Laser TV Breakthrough

    Mitsubishi will demonstrate a 52 inch version of its new laser rear projector technology this Friday. A new type of HDTV was was announced by the Japanese manufacturer last February and now they're ready to show it off. Laser projection TV uses the principal...
    04-04-2006, 4:06 PM by to Home Theater Focus 8526 Views
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  • Remote Storage Video Recorder

    It’s a concept that was inevitable given the nosedive prices have been taking on digital storage (hard disk space) and the increase in bandwidth Cable TV providers are able to offer subscribers. Remote Storage Video Recorder is a cross between On...
    03-28-2006, 4:44 PM by to Home Theater Focus 2433 Views
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  • Xbox 360 Killer App RPG: Elder Scrolls Oblivion

    Xbox360 is rolling with hits this moth with Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and now Elder Scrolls Oblivion. Make no mistake, this is the killer app for Xbox 360 and your home theater system. It’s a new fantasy role playing game that was released...
    03-27-2006, 11:33 AM by to Home Theater Focus 2517 Views
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  • Coming Soon: IPTV vs Cable TV

    Internet Protocol Television or what AT&T calls “infinite channel TV” is high quality (including HDTV) audio / video streamed through a subscriber’s internet line. It’s how the phone company plans on selling you TV in the near...
    03-23-2006, 11:38 AM by to Home Theater Focus 6852 Views
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  • Xbox 360: Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter

    The first Xbox 360 game to inspired me to write about here is GR – Advanced Warfighter. So here I am anxiously waiting for Oblivion to rock my world. Then I see a little blip on the www.metacritic.com radar … a new Ghost Recon game for 360....
    03-21-2006, 10:38 AM by to Home Theater Focus 2594 Views
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  • DRM Sucks Battery

    A recent Cnet article reveals just how much extra processing power is used by your MP3 player in decoding DRM (Digital Rights Management). It’s just another reason to rage against the DRM ! It seems that playing back MP3s encoded with a DRM can...
    03-20-2006, 3:35 PM by to Home Theater Focus 2704 Views
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  • V for Vendetta and History of Violence

    It's comic to film week! This week two graphic novels are being presented to two different film media History of Violence and V for Vendetta. The first one we saw was released Tuesday to DVD. History of Violence stars Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris, it...
    03-17-2006, 10:07 AM by to Home Theater Focus 2730 Views
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  • LG for Nobel Peace prize

    LG should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for ending the format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray, or at least making it irrelevant. Last Tuesday the Korean electronics manufacturer made it official, they will try to begin manufacturing a combination...
    03-16-2006, 3:01 PM by to Home Theater Focus 2595 Views
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  • Sony Announces PlayStation3 Delays, Reveals More Specs

    A major paper out of Japan got the scoop first on PS3’s delay until November . Initially the paper said Sony was to release the PS3 in November to Japan which incurred speculation that a North American release would be sometime after, probably in...
    03-15-2006, 10:58 AM by to Home Theater Focus 2591 Views
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  • Toshiba / Canon Announce SED Production Date

    In a joint venture Toshiba and Canon developed the upcoming SED display technology I reported on a little while back. It had been initially presented to the public back in September 2004 at CEATEC which is a Japanese consumer electronics trade show. The...
    03-14-2006, 11:47 AM by to Home Theater Focus 2493 Views
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  • Watch Satellite TV on your Phone

    It’s not really home theater but it’s definitely mobile theater. There is an event going on right now called CeBIT 2006. It’s a digital trade summit being held in Hanover Germany . One of the most interesting stories out of CeBIT so...
    03-09-2006, 4:13 PM by to Home Theater Focus 2913 Views
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  • Hollywood Begs For Theater Attendance

    I don’t watch the Oscars. I love movies but I don’t care for the elitism and fanfare so the whole Oscars thing makes me want to gag. I would enjoy movies far less if I fully realized what pompous twits most people involved in movies are, so...
    03-08-2006, 10:09 AM by to Home Theater Focus 2695 Views
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  • Is LG working on a Blu-Ray / HD DVD combo player?

    A bomb was dropped on the HD optical format war late last week. In a memo to LG dealers from the companies VP of CE Sales, Bob Perry who gave the best evidence yet that the ongoing format war between HD DVD and Blu-Ray is all but over. Apparently, LG...
    03-06-2006, 12:17 PM by to Home Theater Focus 2628 Views
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  • Olive Opus music server

    Music servers are becoming more popular but still pricey. You could always go the way of the home made PC and just wire it to your audio system, but it sounds like crap. There are budget ways to stream digital media to your HT system that don't include...
    03-03-2006, 9:57 AM by to Home Theater Focus 4098 Views
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  • Sony sets Blu-Ray release date

    Sony Pictures has put down a release date of May 23 rd for its first Blu-Ray discs . The first cluster of movies will be from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment with one from MGM: 50 First Dates (SPHE) The Fifth Element (SPHE) Hitch (SPHE) House of Flying...
    03-01-2006, 10:16 AM by to Home Theater Focus 2642 Views
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  • Sony / NEC Form Alliance

    Sony and NEC have finalized a merger of both company's optical storage operations. This will form a new company called Sony NEC Optiarc Inc. The combined optical storage operations will focus primarily on manufacturing drives for the PC. It’s an...
    02-28-2006, 9:57 AM by to Home Theater Focus 3089 Views
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