In America, Uncle Sam might help pay for home-entertainment systems providing taxpayers follow a few simple rules for deducting those expenses.

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April 7, 2008. Dolby and SIM2 demonstrated a prototype of their new high-end, 46-inch High Dynamic Range LCD to journalists in New York this week to positive notices. The companies said that the 1080p TV, which uses 1,838 LED bulbs, included proprietary designs to eliminate much of the washed out black levels typically associated with LCDs.

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April 7, 2008. Fueled by international trade, the consumer-electronics (CE) industry is poised to generate $1.4 trillion in direct business activity in 2008, while directly employing more than 4.4 million Americans, according to a new study released by CEA. Burgeoning international trade is helping to grow the sector, driving 14% of the CE industry's total output and 16% of its total employment. The study, conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, found that beyond its significant direct impact on the economy and job market, the CE industry also spurs billions of dollars in additional indirect economic benefits in the form of industry purchasing and consumer spending in related industries, supporting millions of additional jobs.

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April 1, 2008. Experts warn to be careful when giving that flat-screen TV and the rest of the home-entertainment system the once-over. This article provides 13 tips for keeping equipment spotless, but undamaged.

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April 1, 2008. Men are trailing women in the U.S. in the use of certain new technologies, such as streaming network-TV shows over the Internet, use of DVRs, visiting social-networking sites and casual gaming, a new research report says. The Solutions Research Group report found that 15% of women streamed a network-TV show during the month of February, which compared with 11% of men.

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March 27, 2008. The economic slowdown has failed to discourage sales of high-end A/V products, such as projector screens and flat-panel TVs, according to Runco dealers, who say middle-class customers in search of quality are also stepping up to buy expensive home systems. The dealers maintain that mass-market retailers can still drive sales to middle-class consumers by taking the time to explain the benefits of buying the high-end equipment.

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March 4, 2008. LCD and plasma TVs may be dropping in price, but projectors remain a viable option for some customers, and they, too, are becoming less expensive. They vary in size and price to fit customers' needs and budgets, according to one hardware reviewer.

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March 3, 2008. Toshiba's 46LX177 46-inch 1080p LCD, one of the high-performing HDTV sets in the company's Cinema Series, has a 120 Hz display component, ClearFrame, ColorBurst, 14-bit internal digital-video processing and PixelPure 3G. The set, which weighs in at 77 pounds, also features an Ethernet port that allows users to connect to a home's computer network. The Australian equivalent is due mid 2008.

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Sony Pictures Home Entertainment expects to release its first Blu-ray Disc titles April 8. The release of the BD-Live titles coincides with the rollout of Profile 2.0 enhancements to Sony's PlayStation 3, which will make the game console the first Blu-ray player that can connect to the Internet to access bonus features.

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Canton has added the Movie 80 CX and Movie 120 MX home-theater speakers that provide 5.1 surround sound to its offerings. Both systems feature four silver or black satellite speakers and a horizontal, center-channel speaker and subwoofer.

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Several products will help collectors of old, musty vinyl records listen to them and record them to computer hard drives. But they are not cheap, and they can be exasperating to use.

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Sony is bringing BD-Live to PlayStation 3 later this month that will make user experiences more interactive. Sony also will enable console owners to copy PS3 photo and music playlists to a PSP.

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Decreasing demand in North America for large-screen flat-panel TVs has forced Japanese companies to put more resources into producing smaller models, between 26 and 40 inches, they say.

The manufacturers largely blame the weak dollar and the global credit crunch for the falloff in sales.

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HDTV adoption will increase by 17 million homes to 47 million in the U.S. by the close of this year, according to Pike & Fischer, which predicts the number of U.S. households paying for some sort of HDTV service or equipment will skyrocket to 103 million by year-end 2012. Multichannel video providers will see revenue of $2.6 billion in the next four years.

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Microsoft says it's behind Blu-ray

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the company had already begun building device drivers for the Blu-ray DVD system. "I think the world moves on. Toshiba has moved on. We've moved on, and we'll support Blu-ray in ways that make sense," Ballmer said.

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Toshiba Chief Executive Officer Atsutoshi Nishida's decision to pull out of the HD DVD business surprised analysts who thought the format war would go on longer. In a Q-and-A with The Wall Street Journal, Nishida talks about why the timing of the pullout was right, the next generation of standard DVD players and the future of Toshiba. Wall Street Journal (free content)

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Toshiba's 46LX177 46-inch 1080p LCD, one of the high-performing HDTV sets in the company's Cinema Series, has a 120 Hz display component, ClearFrame, ColorBurst, 14-bit internal digital-video processing and PixelPure 3G. The set, which weighs in at 77 pounds, also features an Ethernet port that allows users to connect to a home's computer network.

click here to read more

Sales for installed home theaters and multiroom audio systems likely will double in the next five years, increasing from last year's $6 billion to more than $11 billion by 2012, according to a new report from Parks Associates. Much of the increase will come from low- to medium-income households as builders and installers adapt to technology that adds no new wires.

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Blu-ray's next battle: Internet downloads

Feb 25, 2008. Downloading high-definition films and other content will pose a serious threat to the Blu-ray disc as the next-generation technology to replace DVDs, according to market researchers iSuppli and Gartner. They said that physical distribution of media may become obsolete because of the ease of buying content through such services as iTunes and Amazon.com.

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Feb 21, 2008. Plasma sets lost ground to LCDs in December as flat-panel sales grew 27% during a month when the price tag on 17 of the top 20 best-selling models dipped at least 10%, according to Pacific Media Associates. The research firm said LCDs should continue to gain market share this year as new, larger-capacity models permeate the marketplace.

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Feb 19, 2008. Toshiba has decided to withdraw from the high-definition disc market, effectively ending a format war the company had been waging against rival Sony's Blu-ray technology. "This was a very difficult decision to make ... but when we thought about the trouble we would cause to consumers and our partners, we decided it was not right for us to keep going with such a small presence," Toshiba Chief Executive Officer Atsutoshi Nishida said.

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Sony Blu-ray gains backing in high-def DVD battle

Feb 18, 2008. Some retailers, movie studios and consumer-electronics companies recently announced a preference for the Sony Blu-ray DVD format over Toshiba's HD DVD, hoping their decisiveness will spur consumers to feel safe investing in a format.

While Blu-ray now has the edge with movie fans and video gamers (Sony's PlayStation 3 has a built-in Blu-ray player), Toshiba expressed confidence that two high-definition DVD formats could successfully coexist. click here for more info

Another great review on the HT380 projector

This model has really made an impact with the combination of the revolutionary UNISHAPE lamp and BrilliantColor technology producing a stunning picture.

This review is from the January issue of Empire magazine, a local film-buff's bible. click for more info

A surround-sound system without the speakers

Jan 2 , 2008. Denon's new DHT-FS3 home-theater system is designed for those who want surround sound without a handful of speakers in the room.

The soundbar sports six built-in speakers and features an on-screen menu and full-size remote click for more info

Pioneer Kuro Plasma Release

Dec 3, 2007. The Pioneer Kuro 8th generation Pioneer Plasma 1080P Display Panels offer unrivalled manufacturing quality, product quality and service support for the customer who is not willing to compromise.

Intelligent’ improvements mean the new televisions are even more user-friendly and simple to operate, including a new light sensor & ‘optimum mode’ that automatically adjusts the picture for optimum viewing conditions, HDMI control that helps your system work in unison and a USB input to display your favourite pictures. Now on show.

Audio Trends brochure: free postage for Victorian residents

That's right, we're happy to post our colourful and informative brochure to addresses in Victoria at no charge.

It's not often you can get something for nothing thesedays. Contact us and we'll be happy to send it out to you.

Apologies to our friends interstate and overseas, but you can always download it here.