In This eNewsletter:
• Cataloging by Thomas J. Norton
• This Year's Stocking Stuffer by Shane Buettner
• DVDs of the Month by Thomas J. Norton

By Thomas J. Norton

When I was a wee lad I cut my audio teeth (serious video was just a gleam in Henry Kloss' eye) on catalogs from Allied Radio, Lafayette Radio, and Radio Shack (back then it was only a shack or two and not the Wal-Mart of electronic parts). My parents were concerned. If Mulder and Scully had been in the X-Files business then, they probably would have called them in to check me out.

The miracle is that in today's Internet shopping age there are still companies that produce thick catalogs full of goodies for audio, video, and home theater fans. Catalogs that hold far more surprises per page than any retail website. Yes, you can enjoy surfing on their websites; some even include on-line versions of their catalogs, but I've never found these as easy to use as a good 150-page paper catalog. But you can order the print catalogs from the companies' websites.

These catalog vendors are particularly useful to enthusiasts who don't live in areas blessed with numerous high-end audio/video stores. But even here in LA it would take serious searching—and a lot of driving—to find contact cleaners, tube damping rings, and all sorts of vibration isolation devices including cable elevators (if you think I mean elevator cables, return to Square One).

You'll find all this, and dozens of other (mostly) audio gewgaws, in the Music Direct catalog (www.musicdirect.com). You'll also find a wide assortment of high-end components, accessories (including cables), equipment racks, and hard-to-find recordings.

But the Audio Advisor (www.audioadvisor.com) is the granddaddy of this sort of thing. I don't have their latest catalog handy, but judging from their website they still offer stiff competition to the likes of Music Direct.

Looking for a dizzying array of (largely) pro support gear like switchers, test equipment, impedance matchers, cable ties, ducts, and patch panels? Markertek Video Supply (www.markertek.com) will entertain you for hours with their catalog. I particularly like their selection of very affordable audio and video cables. They'll even make them up for you in custom lengths without charging a stiff price premium (at least they will for analog audio and video cables—I haven't checked to see what they're up to in DVI and HDMI lately). I can't vouch for the audio or video pedigree of these cables (Markertek makes no wild claims for their offerings, other than professionally competent design and construction), but with names like Belden and Canare, plus good prices, there's no real downside to trying them.

At last year's CES I picked up a catalog from a company called DBL Distributing Inc. It devotes over 700 pages to all manner of electronic stuff: digital cameras, video, personal and portable AV, Professional AV, home theater, custom installation—you name it. There's little in the way of high-end audio and video components here, but if you know what you're looking for (and know what to avoid), there's a lot to see and consider, including a particularly large section of cables. No custom lengths, like Markertek, but if modestly-priced, pre-terminated cables are your thing, you'll find plenty to choose from —including DVI and HDMI cables at surprising prices. How about a 6-meter HDMI cable for $34.99 from a company called NXG Technology? I've never heard of them, or tried them, so I can't vouch for the result, but I do plan to check out some of these cables in the near future. They also offer a good selection of AR cables, including the AR Master Series audio RCA cables (favorably reported on by Stereophile's Sam Tellig.

Are you into building your own speakers, or think you might be? There was a time when that was a serious hobby. And apparently it still is, though it's less visible in the mainstream audio market than it used to be. There are plenty of companies that supply raw drivers, parts, cabinets, and sometimes even kits. You really need a fair amount of knowledge, test gear, and, perhaps, even some woodworking skills to build speakers that compare with the best commercial designs and still save you enough money to make it worth the effort (though it can be done). But a lot of hobbyists get a kick out of the attempt. Who knows, you might turn out to be the hot new speaker designer of 2010!

Three good sources of information and great catalogs for DIY (Do It Yourself) speaker builders are Madisound (www.madisound.com), Zalytron (www.zalytron.com) and Parts Express (www.parts-express.com). The latter also has a significant selection of general AV-related items besides speaker building materials, as well as dozens of raw drivers from sources other than the usual suspects—such as Vifa, Seas, Audax, Morel, and Scan-Speak—usually found at such suppliers.

Old Colony Sound Lab (www.audioxpress.com) has a small but useful catalog offering a small selection of parts and a large selection of books, test software, and test CDs, not only to help you build AV stuff, but to help you better understand (and get the best performance out of) the stuff you already have.

Finally, don't overlook the occasional off-the-subject catalog for ideas. Rockler (www.rockler) is a woodworking and hardware catalog with such useful devices as media storage accessories (like the plastic thingies that are built into cabinets to separate and hold CDs and DVDs). It also has hard-to-find supplies for the ambitious enthusiast who wants to build his or her own custom entertainment center.

And if you're near an IKEA store, you'll find a large assortment of AV racks and TV stands in their substantial catalog. Just be sure and check out their weight capacity before you buy!

This is hardly an exhaustive list, just the catalogs I'm most familiar with. If you know of others, drop me a note at tom.norton@primedia.com. If I receive enough new entries, I'll do a sequel to this piece, either in a future edition of this newsletter or on my blog at www.ultimateAVmag.com.

By Shane Buettner

Apple's iconic portable was probably already poised to be the stocking stuffer of the year- even if you've already got an iPod, who wouldn't want a cute, tiny little iPod nano? The thing's hardly larger than the credit card you'd plunk down to pay for it!

In October Apple announced the availability of the nano and the video iPod, and announced that the company had entered into agreements that would allow it to sell music videos, Pixar shorts, and shows from ABC and the Disney Channel through its online iTunes store for download and viewing. $1.99 per show or video, with the new TV shows available the day after the original airing.

Before the coolness of that had fully settled in, TiVo announced that future enhancements of its Series 2 DVRs will allow syncing with home-networked PCs and, you guessed it, downloading of recorded programs to video iPods and Sony PlayStation Portable media players. The only fly in the ointment here for Apple geeks like me is that the TiVo ToGo software that drives this feature is available for Windows machines, and not for Macs yet.

Never one so sit still, let alone rest on its laurels, earlier this month Apple announced that it had nailed down deals with NBC, Sci-fi Channel, and USA Network to sell their shows through the iTunes store. Same deal- $1.99 per download with new shows available one day after the original air date. In addition to hot prime time shows like Law and Order, The Office, and Editor Tom Norton's favorite Battlestar Galactica, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Conan O'Brien are also available. If new shows aren't your thing you can also download and watch classics like Adam 12, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, or camp classics like Knight Rider.

With a 2.5-inch, 320x240 screen the video iPod isn't a gourmet video experience by any stretch, but with this kind of content it doesn't have to be either. (Au Contrare! I'll take my Knight Rider in 1080p, if you please.—TJN. An iPod is worth owning on the merits of being a portable music player, and something you can download digital photos to without dragging around a laptop, so the video is just gravy. Since the new video models cost the same as their lower capacity predecessors and are smaller to boot, why not catch up on some Leno while you're riding the bus, working out at the gym, or even taking a short plane flight?

I already own a 40GB non-video iPod and have primarily used it for downloading digital photos and making big chunks of my own music library portable (at high quality using Apple Lossless coding). I won't take back a video iPod if one shows up in my stocking this year! And a growing number of AV receivers and distributed audio products for the home are showing up with docking devices that will allow you to serve your iPod's tunes to your system and to the rest of your house. The iPod nano costs $199 for the 2GB version and $249 for the 4GB versions, rated to store 500 and 1000 songs each, respectively. The video iPod is available in 30Gb and 60GB models, priced respectively at $299 and $399.

Next Year's Stocking Stuffer- I'd Buy That For a Dollar!
The word on the street continues to indicate that Sony's much-anticipated, and Blu-ray powered PlayStation3 game console will indeed make its Spring of 2006 launch date. While it's been known for some time that the game console would be based on the next-generation high-definition Blu-ray Disc format, we didn't know for sure if that feature would price the new console out of the game for some. Now we know- it won't.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter in November new Sony CEO Howard Stringer called PS3 a "subsidized Blu-ray player" that will be priced between $300 and $400. Going further, he stated that Sony is willing to sell PS3 consoles "at a loss for the first six months to a year just to get Blu-ray players out in the market." While this seems risky, if Blu-ray succeeds in becoming the next generation optical disc format the gamble will pay off handsomely in royalties. And at that price Sony think it might sell 20 million PS3s in 2006 alone, making for a nice install base of Blu-ray players by itself.

Clearing the way for Sony to make its Spring of '06 PS3 launch date was the Blu-ray Disc Group's refusal to adopt the iHD interactivity layer used in the competing HD DVD format. Computer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard had officially requested that the Blu-ray Group adopt mandatory managed copy and iHD, two key technologies that had sparked Microsoft and Intel to thus far pledge loyalty to the HD DVD group. Although managed copy was adopted as part of the Blu-ray standard, iHD, which is regarded as cheaper and less complex than Blu-ray's Java-based interactivity platform, was rejected at least in part because of the inevitable delays (including PS3's launch) that would be caused by incorporating it into the Blu-ray standard.

Talking PS3 and Blu-ray also gave Stringer an opportunity to outline Sony's compelling position in the high-definition future. In addition to owning the entire MGM and Columbia Pictures movie libraries, Sony expects to see more films produced using Sony's high-definition digital video cameras and is field-testing 4K resolution SXRD digital cinema projectors as we speak. Sony sees movies being produced on their cameras and shown theatrically using their SXRD-based projectors. What a compelling sales pitch it will be then to offer these movies to consumers on Blu-ray Disc in high-definition to be watched on a Sony SXRD-based front or rear projection television in the home.

As an aside, while not many filmmakers are yet embracing the idea of shooting their movies on digital video cameras, the advantages are even greater than they seem. It's obvious that there are advantages in editing and the use of computer-generated special effects. But watching the documentary "Within a Minute" on disc two of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith also showed me how much of an advantage it is to have edited digital "dailies," with sound, available quickly to the entire production crew. And filming digitally might hold more obvious presentation performance advantages to filmmakers when the playback chain in theaters goes digital as well.

On official hard dates for Blu-ray and PS3 launches, we're expecting to hear about both at CES 2006 in Las Vegas early next month, so stay tuned to UAV's show coverage to catch the latest.

'Tis the Season . . .

. . .To line up some great movies for the old home theater. But not just any movies will do. If you want to be depressed during the holidays, you can always get your fill at the multiplex. It's Oscar-watch season, after all. But most of us want to feel good this time of year, and if the movies I've chosen don't do it for you, well, you're just a Grinch.

The Big Ape Thing
Nearly all of the films here are family friendly, but the recently re-mastered 1933 King Kong includes a few violent scenes (some restored from earlier edits) that may be a little too intense for the younger set. There's also a bit of monkey business as the big guy peels off a few shreds of damsel-in-distress Fay Wray's dress.

The movie is as corny as they come to today's eyes and ears, and the special effects, while astonishing for the era, will definitely have younger viewers wondering what all the excitement was about. The new version from The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, opening this week, will likely eclipse this one in everything but nostalgia and the sheer wonder at what filmmakers of the era were able to do with limited resources.

Despite these limitations, King Kong is still a thrill to watch. And when you consider the fine transfer on this disc, plus the hours of extra features, including a re-creation of the lost spider-pit scene (included with the extra features, not edited into the classic film itself—memo to George Lucas)—you get your money's worth and then some.

Just don't expect this to look like a new film, even a black and white one. There are plenty of ways I could criticize the image, including heavy grain in some scenes, but the problems can all be traced to the film's age and the inevitable limitations of 1933 technology. As presented on the DVD and played back on a top quality display, the image probably looks better than it did on 1933 projection equipment—and as good as it's likely to ever look. (I doubt if there's enough "there" there to produce much of an improvement with an HD presentation.)

The early '30s mono sound is dated and scratchy (no surprise there), but it serves the film well. After your ears become acclimated from a few minutes in the Way-Back machine, it's never a distraction.

The title is available either by itself or in two different boxed sets; mine came with Son of Kong, an inferior but historically interesting sequel, and 1949's Mighty Joe Young. The latter, from the same stop-motion animators who gave us Kong (Willis O'Brien, along with Ray Harryhausen), is fun and considered a lesser classic in its own right. Whichever version you choose, all of them contain the same two-disc King Kong set—including the film and all the extra features.

Fun with computers
Polar Express is limited by its creepy-looking, supposedly photo-realistic human characters, and would have been better as a mixture of live-action and computer animation. It's dramatically challenged in many ways, but the DVD imagery is gorgeous-looking (even if those humanoid characters often look much softer than everything else in the film) with some spectacular demo sequences. Some of these were clearly produced with the film's 3-D IMAX presentations in mind (many IMAX theaters are running the movie again this year). The music score (not the lame songs) is superb, but doesn't that main theme sound like it was dropped in from Edward Scissorhands?

Robots offers spectacular animation. Its visuals are bright, clean, and strikingly crisp and three-dimensional throughout. The soundtrack is top-notch. The story isn't particularly compelling (look hard enough, however, and you'll find more than a few parallels to The Wizard of Oz). But any film with Robin Williams doing his voice-over shtick is never dull.

Madagascar is a brilliant confection for its first hour, though some of the best jokes may go over the heads of viewers not familiar with New York. It can't quite maintain the same inventive level after our heroes, animals from the Central Park Zoo, end up in the wild, but it still manages to pounce to a fun conclusion. Kids will enjoy the action-heavy, plot-light goings-on, grown-ups the witty dialogue, and everyone the crisp, detailed, brilliantly colored animation. Of the three animated films here, this is the most spectacular looking. It also has the best soundtrack, though nothing here matches the demo-quality train ride across the ice in Polar Express. None of these three movies approach the overall thrills, fun, and inventiveness of The Incredibles or either of the Shrek films, but if I could only watch one of these three I'd choose Madagascar.

Other fun
Sky High ended up getting expelled this past summer, but it wasn't really all that bad. In fact, apart from a production design that looks a little cheap and stagy, this tale of teen superhero angst is actually something of a guilty pleasure. A New York Times film critic called it a hybrid of Harry Potter and The Incredibles. I wouldn't go that far, but it's enough fun for a snowy, pre-Christmas afternoon to provide a good excuse to put off hanging the lights on the front porch.

Everyone knows, of course, that The March of the Penguins was the best movie of the year. Seriously, while it isn't quite that good, it's a fascinating film that only a curmudgeon could hate. The DVD transfer is good (though marred here and there by softness overlaid with some edge enhancement), and while the soundtrack consists mostly of music and Morgan Freeman's narration, both are first-rate and very well recorded (the outstanding music score, in particular). And if you get an urge for more French-produced nature films after seeing this one, check out Winged Migration and Microcosmos as well.

A couple of years back Columbia Pictures released a live-action version of Peter Pan. It's been out on DVD for some time, but hasn't attracted a lot of attention. It definitely it. It's a beautifully produced, directed, acted, and photographed version of the story, with Freudian overtones that the kids will miss but you won't. While the DVD is just a shade short of the best in video transfer quality, only a grumpy video critic would notice. And the sound is often brilliant—particularly in the terrific cave sequence.

There are hidden treasures in older releases as well. Going way back (though not as far as King Kong), if you've never seen The Court Jester, the 1956 Danny Kaye comic feast, you need to check it out. Photographed in brilliant Technicolor (clearly evident on this DVD—it's softer than it should be, but a recent HD broadcast of the film was equally squishy), it's perfect holiday fare and full of classic bits. Just remember, the pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle.