HTPCs are hot among home theater cognoscenti. Using a personal computer to anchor an audio/video system has boomed in recent years due to the availability of high quality video processing software, Dolby Digital and DTS decoding support, and DVD transports. HTPCs (<A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/news/11166/">home theater personal computers</A>) also thrive in part because of the tinkering gene shared by many enthusiasts.
The quest to secretly track music fans continues: <A HREF="http://www.philips.com">Royal Philips Electronics</A> and <A HREF="http://www.digimarc.com">Digimarc</A> announced last week that they have signed a new agreement that extends the licensing of Digimarc's digital watermarking patents to include audio applications as well as a broader range of video applications.
Start policing your employees' use of file sharing networks or we sue you. That was the threat from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to Fortune 1000 companies last week as the organizations announced the publication and distribution of a guide "to assist US companies in preventing copyright abuse on their computers and networks."
The Swedes have found a new way to kill time on those long, cold Scandinavian winter nights. On February 7, <A HREF="http://www.sr.se">Swedish Radio</A> (SR) announced that it had begun multichannel test transmissions from the Sirius 2 satellite, utilizing <A HREF="http://www.dtsonline.com">DTS</A>'s Coherent Acoustics compression/ decompression algorithm. The tests are intended to run until the end of April 2003.
One area where DVD-Audio so far has an advantage over SACD is on the computer. To date there are no SACD-compatible personal computers on the consumer market, allowing the playback of a single-layer stereo or multichannel DSD format disc. One can, however, play a DVD-Audio disc on a PC using, for example, a <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11454/">Sound Blaster Audigy 2 sound card</A>.
Having a great product at a fair price is mandatory practice in the ever-competitive audio business. But getting the word out and placing those products in front of the customer is just as critical—some might argue, even more important. If this is true, then Canadian speaker company Athena has just made the score of a lifetime.
Heads up RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America): those music dollars skittering away in all directions probably have very little to do with online file trading. That was the message last week as members of two important trade organizations challenged the conventional RIAA view that blames peer-to-peer networks for the record industry's third dismal year in a row.
Those who spurn audio discs with built-in restriction technologies should take note: <A HREF="http://www.sunncomm.com">SunnComm Technologies</A> announced last week that its MediaMax CD-3 technology has been utilized to restrict the content on Ike and Tina Turner's new compilation CD entitled <I>The Early Sessions</I>.
<A HREF="http://www.liquidaudio.com">Liquid Audio</A> has been under attack for most of its short life, first from competitors and then from <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11144/">its own shareholders</A> and corporate raiders. But the tumultuous journey may finally be coming to an end as the company reports that it is settling some of its lawsuits and shareholder claims while selling its remaining assets.
The past year has been a busy one for Hilary Rosen, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She suffered a <A HREF="http://tirian.magd.ox.ac.uk/~nick/UnionDebate/">humiliating defeat</A> at England's <A HREF="http://www.oxford-union.org">Oxford Union Debates</A>, celebrated <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11548/">new agreements</A> with Silicon Valley companies, and led her organization in the attack on file-sharing service Kazaa. Rosen and the RIAA have also attacked college kids and put pressure on universities to police their students.