Weekly Site Roundup (12/15/03)
ARTICLE SPOTLIGHT
Holiday Special - Budget Mini/Micro Audio Systems
The end of the holiday shopping season is approaching fast, but you still haven't finished your gift buying and you are starting to max out your budget. If this applies to you, you might consider buying a modestly priced budget mini/micro audio system as a gift. These units can provide great entertainment value and can be used in a variety of settings, such as a bedroom, kitchen, office, or college dorm. Check out some of my favorites.
HOME ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY NEWS HEADLINES
Sony & BMG Tie The Knot (Stereophile)
Sony To Build LCD TV Plant In Korea (Chosunilbo - English Edition)
Hard disks Add Muscle To DVD Recorder Growth (Reuters)
Flat-Panel Frenzy (Home Theater Magazine)
DTV-Like Audio Arrives For Analog TV (TWICE)
Blockbuster Chief: End Regional Codes, Thwart Pirates (The Hollywood Reporter)
Large Screen TV Shortages May Hamper Holiday (TWICE)
PRODUCT OF THE WEEK
Sony CDP-CX355 CD Changer
Is your CD collection crowding your bookcases? If so, check out this 300-CD Megachanger from Sony. In addition to storing your entire CD collection, this player is also compatible with CD-R/RW and Text Discs. There is even a PS/2 Keyboard connection to enable you to connect a PC-keyboard to assist in organizing and cataloguing your collection. Of course, the CDs sound great too. This is a great holiday gift idea.
FEATURED LINKS THIS WEEK
Screen Reasearch
Check out the innovative video projector screens from screen research, featuring screens that are acoustically transparent for optimum sound quality for installations that require speakers mounted behind the video screen.
FROM THE HOME THEATER FORUM
HD-DVD Player?
From DON5328:
I saw a Samsung DVD HD931 at Best Buy. The box said it would upconvert standard DVD to 720p or 1080i. Anyone familiar with this machine? Thanks for any info.
Join in on the above discussion to find out the answer! - Your Guide
ELSEWHERE ON ABOUT.COM
About Home Video and DVD
DVDs make great gifts for the holiday season, check out all the latest DVD movie releases, which descriptions of features and reviews, from Ivan Redwine, About Home Video/DVD Guide.
FROM THE MAILBOX
From J:
Just to comment on your article regarding DVD Regions and Code Free DVDs, you said that if Hollywood released movies everywhere at once, and price-fixing wasnt involved, then the need for code-free players would be eliminated, I have to disagree. I live in Region 1, and one would assume that I have no need for a Code-Free DVD player based on your article. However, I have had many problems with DVDs I really want only being released as Region 2 Discs. They're never going to be released as region 1. Japanese concerts, movies, ect. that never get released in Region 1 form. For this purpose, I too would need a code-free player. Or, a region 2 player.
From Your Guide:
This is a very good comment -- in fact, that is why one of my DVD players is a code free unit -- just so I can watch Japanese, Chinese, and European region 2 and region 3 films on DVD. In addition, my code free player also has a PAL/NTSC converter for the Chinese and European PAL system DVDs.
My article on region coding tries to give an overview of region coding -- and states specially that region 1 DVD players can only play region one discs as quoted from the article (I capitalized the relevant sentence for illustration):
"The DVD world is basically divided into six regions. To keep it simple, this means that DVD players and DVDs are labeled for operation on within a specific geographical region in the world. For example, the U.S. is in region 1. This means that all DVD players sold in the U.S. are made to region 1 specifications. AS A RESULT, REGION1 PLAYERS CAN ONLY PLAY REGION 1 DISCS. That's right, the DVDs themselves are encoded for a specific region. On the back of each DVD package, you will a find a region number (1 thru 6)."
The above paragraph basically illustrates the need for owners of region 1 players to have a code-free player if they need to view discs from other regions. For a full text of the article: http://hometheater.about.com/library/weekly/aa071601a.htm
However, you may be overlooking the larger picture on the topic of Region Coding.
Although it is true that many films for overseas studios are also region coded, there are also sizable number of overseas releases that are region 0 or region ALL coded DVDs that will play in almost all DVD players (limited only by whether the DVDs are in PAL or NTSC). On the other hand, there are very few (percentage wise) region 0 or region ALL DVDs release by U.S. studios, except for some public domain films (out of copyright).
Basically, although there is a growing demand for foreign films on DVD in the U.S., this demand is very small when compared to the demand for Hollywood films overseas -- where such demand often times outstrips the demand for most country's homegrown films.
As a result of this situation, Region Coding is a major factor in the release and distribution of Hollywood Films overseas. The whole region coding scheme is under the influence of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association Of America). In fact, region coding is so controversial overseas that several court cases have been filed not resolved.
In addition, because of the extent of region coding and consumer demand, the Code Free DVD player market demand in countries outside the U.S. is heavy. In an attempt to counteract this, some U.S., studios have actually instituted a new layer of region coding on recent U.S. DVD releases called RCE (region code enhancement) that prevents older code-free DVD players from playing the affected discs -- however, the newer code free units have RCE overide.
In essence, the MPAA and the Hollywood Studios (with the passive co-operation of the major DVD player makers) exert an almost "cartel-like" influence over the DVD landscape - If this "cartel" all of a sudden dropped the whole region code scheme, region coding would just fall by the wayside as the foreign studios would probably drop the region coding system as well. In addition, without the intimidation by the hollywood studios, the DVD player manufacturers would also drop region coding from players -- they wouldn't need to incur the additional expense making and shipping the same players to different countries with different region code chips.
Thank you for reading my article and send me your comments. I update my articles periodically and if this issue needs more clarification, I will take your comments into consideration.
I hope both the article and this email have helped you with this issue.
SPECIAL FOR THE HOLIDAYS:
Holiday Shopping Resource Index
The winter holiday shopping crunch is now upon us. Buying decisions need to be made. Where do you start? Before heading out the door with newspapter AD in hand, check out my Holiday Shopping Resource Index. The index includes several important resources for a successful holiday shopping experience, includng: Shopping Survival Guide, What's Hot and Not, Before You Buy information for a variety of products, and Home Theater Top Product Picks. This resource in the perfect jumping off point for every Home Theater or Gadget Holiday Shopper.
FINAL WORDS
Submit your own product review to home theater! Just use the new handy form and your review and name will be posted on my site!
Special Announcement: My homepage has a new look with daily news postings in addition to my weekly article postings. Be sure to check out the new look at: About Home Theater
If you need more great info on home theater and audio, with an emphasis on the higher end, be sure to check out About.com's related partner sites:
Audio Video Interiors.
Home Theater Magazine.
Stereophile Guide To Home Theater.
Stereophile Magazine.
Lastly, I would like your feedback on this Weekly Site Update Page. If you have any comments, either positve or negative, just let me know.
A Special Reminder: Although I update this site regularly, sometimes I miss broken links, this is especially a concern as old product listings expire and new ones have different link addresses. If you encounter any broken links in my articles or listings, just bring it to my attention so I can correct the address or delete it from the site if it has expired and can no longer be accessed.
For a look at earlier Home Theater Nooz and Vewz Weekly Updates, CLICK HERE
Feel free to email me at hometheater.guide@about.com
with your questions and/or comments.
