video-magazine-1994-04

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FEATURES THX ON TRIAL ae Has Lucasfilm set the wrong sonic standards? THX and non-THX speakers testify. 40 By Brent Butterworth 44 48 VEGAS VICTORY PARTY Multimedia, home theater, digital surround energize a buoyant CES. PHANTOM FREQUENCIES Energy-saving lights can cause remote-control chaos in your home video system. By Tom Heald MY CUSTOM COCOON How one video buff used computer-aided design, careful planning and common sense to create his dream home theater. By Larry White TAPES & DISCS ©REVIEWS / Demolition Man, Gettysburg, Much Ado About Nothing, Menace II Society on laserdisc, more 52 EDITOR'S CHOICE / The return of Odorama. By Kenneth Korman 53 60 DIRECTORY / The latest releases on tape and disc 22 CAroeverT:HX speakers, he VIDEOTESTS $=) Sony Kv-27XBR955 27-INCH TY, JVC HR-VP700U VHS VCR, Samsung VR8903 VHS VCR, B&W's front-channel GE CG818A 8mm camcorder. By Berger-Braithwaite Labs model, best for explo- sive movie audio, while DEPARTMENTS CHANNEL ONE / Morphing toward the millennium conventional speakers, FEEDBACK / Letters from readers 4 __ like Energy's RVS-1, FAST FORWARD / Hitchcock gets cheap, Max Von Sydow, chaos video 6 are better for music? NEW PRODUCTS / A wide screen with a sweetener, plus a trio of VCRs Also pictured—Lexi- HOME THEATER / How separate amps can hot-rod your home theater 8 con's CP-3 Dolby Pro- CAMCORNER | The art and science of shooting music videos with consumer gear Q & A/ Technical queries answered 12 Logic decoder and OFF THE AIR / Video's greatest gripes—our third bi-annual reader survey 16 cdcanes 18 graph by Les Morsillo 20 Video Magazine 104 Volume XVIII Number 1 SPECIAL SECTION VIDEO PRO / For event, desktop, high-end consumer & small business videomakers VP-1 The VIDEO Magazine (ISSN 1044-7288) is published monthly by Reese Communications, Inc., 460 W. 34 St.. New York. NY 10001. Second-class postage paid at New York. NY and additional mailing office. © Audit Bureau 1994 Reese Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. © under Universal, International, and Pan American Copyright Conventions. Reproduction of editorial or pictorial content in any manner is prohibited Single copy price $2.95: $3,50 in Canada; £2.50 in U.K. One-year subscription (12 issues) $15.; Canada, $22.47 (includes GST 4R125938423) U.S.; foreign, air mail. $40 U S. Canadian international publication permit #546488. Address subscription orders, change of address. correspondence and inquiries to: VIDEO, Box 56293, Boulder. CO 80322-6293. or call toll-free 800-365-1008. Change of address takes 60 days to process: send old address label, new address, and zip code. All material listed in this magazine is subject to manufacturer's change without notice, and publisher assumes no responsibility for such change. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to VIDEO. Box 56293, Boulder. CO 80322-6293. For microform copies of issues or articles, write to: Serials Acquisition Dept.. University Microfilms, Inc.. 300 North Zeeb Rd.. Ann Arbor. MI 48106. APRIL 1994 VIDEO 3

AvG2Vv> ey ret vi sh-e7M 2eune it Morphing toward the millennium Not exactly magic...but As entertainment and information technologies move ahead at breakneck close. Multiplex HBO® & speeds, captains of industry are working furiously to identify new opportunities Cinemax®. A deal so good to help their companies prosper in home electronics’ new digital world order. you'll pinch yourself to make Naturally, these executives are trying to shape the future to fit their particular sure it’s real. More than just 2 visions and profit motives, but important points are being made amid the pos- channels, Multiplex delivers 8 turing and jockeying for position. different viewing choices: 5 of HBO and 3 of Cinemax. At this winter’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, for instance, That means you always get where digital video dominated new product hoopla in direct broadcast satel- 8 different programs to lites, CD-ROMs and interactive multimedia players, AT&T executive Robert choose from. But it’s only Kavner delivered a keynote address that cautioned against the potentially sti- available through satellite... fling effect the cable industry could have on development of the next generation of home entertainment and information systems. Cutting Edge Technology. If you’re looking for the very Notwithstanding the irony of an executive of what we used to call “The best, this is it. Home satellite Phone Company” branding someone else a monopolist, Kavner was right on systems deliver channels and target —free, open competition is vital to spark innovation and to assure uni- programming options (like versal access to the cornucopia of entertainment and data the future promises. Multiplex!) you can’t get else- where. Plus audio/video A little while later, we turned to C-Span to watch Vice President Gore’s reception quality you simply Technology Summit in Los Angeles, where a panel of industry bigwig—isn- have to see to believe. cluding top guns from Disney, Fox, Warner and two Baby Bel—lwasxed enthusiastic about what tomorrow will bring. It was good to see Mickey Check It Out! Get in on Schulhof, chairman of Sony USA, clearly articulating the advantages and all this great excitement. challenges inherent in an open marketplace, realities Sony, as a member of Shop around. Talk to your the hyper-competitive consumer electronics industry, knows as well as anyone. local satellite retailer...or give us a call for more The companies that make TVs and VCRs have been curiously absent details. We'd love to talk from the frenzied press coverage of the so-called information superhighway. It’s with you... a peculiar omission since the home video revolution has served as the ad- vance guard for the digital days to come, since home video manufacturers sold For Details, Call HBO Direct 36 million TVs and VCRs in the U.S. last year (to the tune of $11.6 billion), and since the color TV set remains the centerpiece of home entertainment 1-800-285-5621 systems and the final destination of anything traversing the electronic avenue. © 1993 HBO Direct. All rights reserved. HBO Direct and Another peculiar omission in many discussions is the role satellite delivery Design are trademarks of—and HBO and Cinemax are regis- may play in tomorrow’s electronic world. This month RCA begins selling its tered service marks of—~Time Warner Entertainment small-dish direct broadcast satellite system called DSS. By fall, it will be in Company, L.P. stores throughout the country, providing an alternative to fiber-optic and wire- based ways of connecting the nation electronically. If DSS fulfills its promises, Circle 2 on Reader Service Card. you will have a clear choice among several different delivery systems for high- quality home entertainment programs. That’s good news we hope the nation’s leaders factor into their planning for a national information infrastructure. That infrastructure is in a kind of amorphous state now— transforming itself pell mell from an analog to a digital being, like the morphing characters in T2 and other movies. It’s difficult to fathom what the final shape will be, but it’s important the creators of new sys- tems include these vital elements: open competitive markets, and home electronics and alternative delivery systems that spur innovation. Besides, this environment will continue the flow of exciting new products for video enthu- siasts. James M. Barry Editor 4 VIDEO APRIL 1994

Dave * 41149400 Backdraft *0559005 ion Dragon: * 1150705 The Silence Of 0805309 The Bruce Lee Story * 1150606 The Lambs * 1051309 * 1154905 Made In America * 1147008 Patriot Games 0000208 Sleepless In Seattle * 1108307 Alien 0360909 * 0104208 Aliens * 1042506 Sliver Alien 3 Benny & Joon * 1104900 *0976803 * 1142009 Robin Hood: Home Alone * 1127109 Prince Of Thieves * 0364901 Home Alone 2: * 0104307 The Hunt For *0825000 Lost In New York Red October * 0854307 Indecent Proposal 0630806 * 1102805 Point Of No Return * 0642702 Hook * 1051507 Predator * 0826008 Howards End Predator 2 0216804 Madonna: Truth Or Dare *0232900 * 1071604 Lethal Weapon Madonna: The 0983403 Lethal Weapon 2 0000802 Immaculate Collection 0001404 Lethal Weapon 3 * 1105907 DISCS National Lampoon’s 0211508 0211706 EA Animal House Ghost 1033109 * 0779108 Scarface (1983) @ The Last Boy Scout * 0202507 Sneakers 1014505 The Godfather PLUS 2MORE AT GREAT SAVINGS!ho)c)saDJMAW ees)s)K@\\iaN Chinatown 1005404 *0969808 0100008 The Wizard Of Oz SHIDES | (oe ” Fried Green Tomatoes 0297705 The Bodyguard * 0211409 Jaws The Blues Brothers Bugs Bunny Classics *0844209 _ My Cousin Vinny *0921304 *0497008 North By Northwest * 0220509 © Lawnmower Man *1078005 * 1046507 Conan The Barbarian *0085803 © Goodfellas * 0642504 * 1029909 The Man Who *0633206 > Back To The Future * 1077908 Would Be King * 1033208 0971507 © BackToThe Future ll * 1106301 The Empire Of The Sun 2 Back To The Future lll * 1104306 2 ALeague Of TheirOwn * 1084003 New Jack City * 1064005 i Far And Away * 0921502 & Batman (1989) * 1071406 Forever Young ® Batman Returns *0805200 9 Under Siege Boomerang 3 Basic Instinct *0233205 2 AFew Good Men *0003905 Always * 0881102 Unforgiven (1992) * 0367607 Star Trek— * 0203505 *0041806 The Motion Picture The Last Of The Mohicans (1992) Bladerunner: = Rising Sun BraDmracSutloak*er's Star Trek Il— * 0201301 Dances With Wolves The Director's Cut* 1174804 The Wrath Of Khan *0201608 1102904 Terminator 2: 1097906 Star Trek IIl— Judgment Day Tow @Rttse we The Sound Of Music The Search For Spock The Abyss Die Hard Star Trek IV— *0430603 The Voyage Home * 0448605 Die Hard 2: Die Harder *Letterbox Star Trek V— The Final Frontier 1154400 Cliffhanger* The mee Pt geBack* Star Trek VI—The Star Wars 1149301 Undiscovered Country * 1001007 2001: A Space Odyssey *0844308 Passenger 57 * 1087709 *0056408 Return Of The Jedi *0354704 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial 0681106 Here’s a great way to build a collection And you'll always have 14 days to Dept. CNQ, P.O. Box 1112, Terre Haute, Indiana 478 of your favorite movies—on laserdiscs! decide; if not, you may return the Just write in the numbers of the three selection at our expense. Yes, please enroll me under the terms outlined in this advertisement. As a member, | need laserdiscs you want for $1.00 each, buy only four more selections, at regular Club prices, within the next two years plus shipping and handling. What’s Money-Saving Bonus Plan. If you more, you can get two more laserdiscs continue your membership after Send me these3 laserdiscs for $1.00 each plus $1.50 each shipping/handling (total $7.50) for the low price of $14.95 each (see fulfilling your obligation, you'll be complete details in coupon). In eligible for our generous bonus plan. It Please Check How Paying: [9 My check is enclose A35/A6E/A6) exchange, you simply agree to buy four enables you to enjoy great savings on A36/A6F/A6K more laserdiscs in the next two years, the movies you want—for as long as (J Charge my introductory laserdiscs and any future Club purchases to at regular Club prices (currently as low you decide to remain a member! as $29.95, plus shipping/handling)— (MasterCard [)DinersClub [JAMEX [CIVISA (Discover and you may cancel membership at 10-Day Risk-Free Trial. We'll send any time after doing so. details of the Club’s operation with your Also send me a fourth laserdisc for $14.95 plus introductory package. If not satisfied, $1.50 shipping/handling which I’m adding to my $7.50 Free magazine sent every four weeks return everything within 10 days for a payment (that’s a total of $23.95 for all four laserdiscs). full refund and no further obligation. 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FEEDBACK -VIDEO magazine Cable scrambling and readers rambling Strike up the broadband under $15 (Dec. 93). This is what our President and Managing Director, interest in video is all about— creativity Jay Rosenfield I read with great interest your January and fun! Rodriguez is right. We all have Editor, James M. Barry 94 interview (“One on One”) with Ron 30 bad movies in our souls. Keep up the Katznelson of Multichannel Communi- excellent work. John Mack Flanagan Columa, California Managing Editor, Stan Pinkwas cation Sciences Inc. and its discussion of Technical Editor, Lancelot Braithwaite the broadband descrambler, which Senior Editors, Kenneth Korman, Brent Butterworth would deliver cable signals to the home Director : Assistant Editors, Brian Clark, Josef Krebs unscrambled. The broadband de- | Robert Contributing Editors: Bob Angus, Bob scrambler would also have the potential Rodriguez Barlow, Frank Beacham, Bruce Eder, M. Faust, Ron Goldberg, Corey Greenberg, Ty for a la carte services. It would likely Harrington, David Lachenbruch, Timothy cost a little more, but many would will- Liebe, George Mannes, Marianne Meyer, Cliff Roth, Tom Soter, Jonathan Takiff, ingly pay despite the general consensus Rich Warren, Stewart Wolpin, Roderick about high cable rates. Who wouldn’t Woodcock for full restoration of recording, channel indexing and PIP? The first cable system that adopts broadband descrambling along with a la carte service will rise well Art Director, Marshall Moseley Associate Art Director, Vera Naughton above the others in prestige as well as in Art Assistant, Luis Ramos Jr. Production Manager, Gary M. Krystofiak its level of profit. Ronald Rodwell Production Assistant, Kim Lau Norwood, New York Typesetting, Janct M. Holland Ageless video Take this disc and stuff it I cannot tell you in just a few words I’ve had it with Lucasfilm Ltd. and all Group aPeuCbSliGshere,amEriclyC.atSocmhwarmtezee Ne THX hype. I don’t own a THX disc, but CULCO what video means to me and my family. I'd bet my bottom dollar it’s not much Associate Publisher, Linda DeRogatis better. The studios wait until we spend I’m 77 years old and was married 55 all our hard-earned dollars on one ver- Vice President, Business Development, sion, then come out with another that’s years. My husband passed away six years supposed to sound better than every- Alan Deitch thing else. ago. We had six children. I now have 12 Editor and Publisher, Video Pro, Five years ago Dolby Surround grandchildren and 14 great grand- wasn’t on every movie jacket. Today it Marjorie Costello is. And now manufacturers will be put- children. When our children were small, ting THX on everything— after we’ve al- Circulation Director, Rodney Bell ready bought into surround sound. Well, Circulation Assistant, Rosemary Y. Paver we had a movie camera. My son, who they can stuff it\\ I'll just keep buying Newsstand Sales Director, Gerald Levine plain Dolby discs and tapes. now owns a video camera, put all our Marketing Director, Luanne Rao Melvin Wea old movies on videotapes. What a trea- St. Louis, Missouri Financial Officer, Mark C. Spector, C.P.A. sure this is. One film, one disc Business Manager, Janette Evans Last year he videotaped me telling of I think the people from Sony are right Assistant Business Manager, (“CD Cinema,” Oct. 93). CD video Lily Schwartzberg my grandparents, my parents and my movies should have better quality than VHS and come on one disc. Why not life. I’m blessed to have pictures of my make the discs double-sided, then use Advertising Coordinator, Karen Pellino Nimbus’ idea of double density to make great, great grandparents on both sides room for better picture quality and Assistant to the President, AC-3 surround sound? Michael Doe of the family. This will be a great help for sKveennnethNRBGell S— ENN TOL est aaa Rockford, Illinois the generations of my family yet to Corporate Offices, Editorial & Sales: Video Magazine welcomes ‘your comments. Annette Schnur, Christine Barbieri, come. I also have many videos of senior Address correspondence to Feedback, Video Magazine, 460 West 34 Street, New York, 460 West 34 St., New York, NY 10001; events like plays and square dances. I’m NY 10001. 212-947-6500, 212-947-6727 (fax) like George Jones—I might be old in West Coast Sales Office: Linda DeRogatis, Karolynn Humberd, Marc D. Minasian, years, but I’m not ready for a rocking chair. Barbara Crump 1453 Third Street, Suite 490, Santa Hudson, North Carolina Monica, CA 90401; 310-393-5057, 310-393-5538 (fax) Creativity and fun Chicago Sales Office: Milton Gerber, Kristene Richardson, Media Plus, Congratulations! Video Magazine is real- ly something to be proud of. I’ve read it 135 N. Arlington Heights Road, Suite 106, for many years, and bought my first vid- eo recorder in 1978 when they first came Buffalo Grove, IL 60089; 708-913-5400, on the market. It was a huge JVC with piano keys and blank tapes that were h708i-913a-5403 (fax)aS SEEN $20 each (ouch!). Editor-in-Chief, Art Levis (1936-1991) I really enjoyed the articles on El Mariachi’s Robert Rodriguez and tapes REESE COMMUNICATIONS @. INCORPORATED PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. 6 VIDEO APRIL 1994

quantum leap into\\a ew alan of:bass ; ntertainment system and you performance. Subwoofer technology so advanced, | itleaves.the competition light yearsbehind. — ~ al frontier: +. Add Energy ‘powered subwoofers 4Xe)your: sei Contact your Energy Dealer oo fora Sand arid. fe ling that will-elevate your listening experience \" inte a new. dimension. ae ae a CEe SY f ; Rete es e¢ Ro oe | = 7® eres oe Aine +. LOUDSPEAKER : ; Be ie RA See ak TRUTE . : . . . Circle 3 on Reader Service Card. For: assistance in locating Welt) gclosest Energy dealer, phane416- 321-1800 or tas416-321-1500.\"

> po EDITED BY KENNETH KORMAN Fast >> FORWARD be |ad >> a Color my world With the recent proliferation of HITCHIN’ A RIDE CD-based multimedia formats, it seems strange that audio/video and computer Our recent holiday gift guide (“$14.98 Fever,” Dec. '93) showed that enthusiasts are suddenly being innun- many all-time great movies have finally broken the $15 barrier on videocas- dated with books. Not the old-fashioned sette. But we were especially thrilled to hear that MCA/Universal has just de- kind with pages and such, but specifica- cided to drop the price of 15 prized titles from the master of intrigue and tion guides for digital formats that go suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. Now available for $14.98 are Psycho, Rear Win- under names like “Green Book.” It’s a dow, Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1955), Rope, Shadow of a Doubt, confusing collection of terms because Saboteur, The Trouble With Harry, The Birds, Marnie, Torn Curtain, Topaz, Fren- the colors selections seem arbitrary (the zy, Family Plot and The Best of Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Volume One, a com- choices come from the color of the note- pilation from Hitch’s beloved TV series. books used by various engineering teams during research). So to help you cut If you haven't seen the movies in a while, you may be surprised at how well through all the color noise we’ve put to- they stand up to repeat viewings. We suggest starting with Vertigo and Shadow gether our first guide to CD standards, of a Doubt (guests are subject to mandatory viewings at our house), then work including a couple of our own: your way through Rear Window, Psycho, Saboteur and for comic relief, The Trouble With Harry. That’s right, they don’t make ’em like they used to. —KK e Red Book: Audio CD e Yellow Book: CD-ROM on your own watch, lapel, perhaps inside e Orange Book: CD-ROM XA e Green Book: CD-I your glass eye or maybe even debut the |The Devil he knows e White Book: Video CD e Blue Book: Disc full of prices for ob- world’s first video tongpueoncaemerra. Clark Max Von Sydow has gone to the solete, dead-format multimedia players. e Black Book: Data CD with security ; Devil. The man who was Christ in The codes, optimized for storing those spe- cial, secret phone numbers. sary Greatest Story Ever Told has switched —Brent Butterworth “Gia watch cam. | <ides, portraying Leland Gaunt, the Flimflam cam Devil-in-the-flesh in Needful Things, the The one-of-a-kind video watch camera was created to show off the po- tential of the CMOS silicon chip that, along with a wide-angle lens, constitutes an entire video camera. Joe Winksy of Marshall Electronics (310-390-6608) told us the company simply replaced the watchworks with its printed circuit board, attached the lens and put the watch back together. The camera deliv- ers a black-and-white image to a video recorder either through a wire or an ac- cessory transmitter. Used mainly for sur- veillance and in robotics, the camera costs $249 —a small price to add some furtiveness to your videos. So mount it Stephen King horror flick just released on video by New Line. Von Sydow says doing the Devil is easier than God: “Playing Christ, you have to be con- scious of the opinions of the Catholics, the Protestants, the Jews, the Mormons, everybody. You can’t do a character that way. Playing the Devil, you just have to

j specializing in Spanish and Latin Ameri- Richard Darrow, :: can films. It includes new directors like President of Sunpak, j' Pedro Almodovar, old masters like Luis talks about camcorder : Bunuel and documentaries by and about batteries :q Latin American artists and issues. For i your free copy, write Facets Video, 1517 Most chargers provided with West Fullerton Avenue, Chicago, IL today’s camcorders can —MICHAEL CHAPMAN, 60614 or call 800-331-6197. recharge batteries in two hours or cinematographer, on the — less, depending upon battery capac- —Brian Clark ity. A 1200 mAh battery takes growing Hollywood practice of sending approximately one hour, while a videos of Oscar-nominated movies to Turn on, tune in, drop out 2400 mAh battery takes twice as voting Academy members in lieu long. Since each camcorder has dif- of theatrical screenings. If floods, fires, earthquakes and ferent power requirements, it is random violence don’t provide enough impossible to give an exact run satisfy the Devil.” of a feeling of chaos in your daily life, a time. On average, a 1200 mAh bat- new video production company has a tery provides 45-60 minutes of If playing both God and Satan is a recording time. videocassette for you. Images of Chaos, distinction, Von Sydow has another: He An Artwork for Television from Industrial Memory is an effect that Street Productions of West Hollywood is reduces the running time of bat- has acted for both Ingmar Bergman (in an hour-long video collection of ka- teries that are not fully discharged liedoscopic images including “fractals” before they are recharged. The Seventh Seal) and Bergman fan or fractions within a larger image re- Depending upon the design and flected in a small, similar image. quality of the battery, this can occur Woody Allen (in Hannah and Her Sis- after as few as five uses. Sounding like Timothy Leary in the ters). Von Sydow says the two men differ early ’60s, the company describes By purchasing batteries that are designed to prevent memory in their approach. Bergman “has such a Images as a “radical, hypnotic, cy- from occurring, such as Sunpak’s berspace cloud-gazing trip,” that Memory-Free RB-80U and RB-80UL strong personality. I learned so much can be watched as a movie, or left batteries, both of which have a life- playing for parties, friends or re- time guarantee to be Memory-F ree. about understanding characters as hu- laxation. Generated by chaos-the- ory mathematical formulas, the Nickel Cadmium (NICd) batter- man beings.” Allen is another story: “He ies have an expected lifespan of video features “surreal worlds 500-1000 recharge cycles. The actual didn’t say very much. But he had very and strange creatures that may number depends upon the quality of be discovered in the images.” the battery cells and the way batter- clear, preconceived ideas about what he ies are handled. Lead acid batteries Sounds like a normal Monday only have a lifespan of approximately wanted to do with the camera.” morning commute to us. 100 recharge cycles and must be recharged immediately after use to Allen usually rehearsed the camera avoid loss of power. NICd batteries may be recharged at any time. movements and the scenes with stand- APRIL 1994 VIDEO 9 ins, so “when the actors were called on the stage, the camera knew what to do and the stand-ins knew what to do, but you, as an actor, got a ‘glove’ that you had to fit into.” Von Sydow chuckles. “Which was a bit confusing to begin with.” —Tom Soter Cinema Latina Facets Multimedia, longtime source for hard-to-find independent and international cinema, has a free catalog

VIDEONICS able for $30 from the Commerce De- sions of Video Director include a cable is improving its partment. The printed version, that controls any LANC-equipped popular Title- however, costs ae camcorder or VCR for playback, and any infrared remote-controlled VCR Maker video PUSHING THE VHS ENVELOPE as the recorder. Expect a price of once again, JVC announced a 210- about $200 to $250. titler. The new | $599 TitleMak- e er 2000 offers | minute S-VHS tape for sale in Japan. IN LAST MONTH’S “HOME _ the same high- That's 10 hours, 30 minutes in EP, a Theater’ column, Paul Levy described the metal rods that tie his equipment quality titles as real boon for those who scoffed at the rack into the ceiling as protection the original paltry 10-hour recording of BASF's against the rack falling over in an TitleMaker, but doubles the number of T-200s. The tape nay for about $28. earthquake, and commented, “For- tunately, it’s never been tested.” Well, font and size combinations (including WE LOVED ZENITH’S INEXPEN- now it has—the recent L.A.-area script fonts), adds a monitor output so sive PV890X video projector (“Home earthquake shook Levy’s house pretty you can show one title while you're badly, but the oe still stands. composing another, produces more ad- Theater,” Mar. 93), but noted some vanced scrolling effects and allows im- ringing problems that created vertical AMERITECH HAS {TS EYE ON bars on the left side of the picture. video. The telecommunications giant mediate access to title pages. is launching a multibillion-dollar fiber- e optic upgrade of its phone network to THE COMMERCE DEPARTMENT Ohio Zenith dealer George Miller has make it possible for half its 12 million found a way to correct the problem customers to receive video signals by in Washington has published Presi- through modifications on the the year 2000. dent Clinton’s 1994 budget proposal PV890X, the PV851 and other projec- e on CD-ROM as well as on paper. tors that use the same chassis, like ADD SYLVANIA TO THE LIST We're glad to hear the administration some models by Runco, GE, Image (with Dumont, Westinghouse, Strom- is using the latest technology to get its Amplification, Pulsar and AmPro. The berg-Carlson and others) of venerable message across, but we are saddened mods totally eliminate the ringing television brands disappearing for to hear that the disc contains only | (we've tried them). Miller performs good..Philips will drop the Sylvania text. For future editions, we suggest aemodifications for $250 plus ship- name at the end of the year, spelling ng. For more information, call the end for a brand that has been on the use of audio/video highlights, now 6. 869-6229. TVs for a half a century. common on CD-ROMs. Just think: The President could make a personal appearance in the form of a Quick- GOLD DISK IS INTRODUCING A Time movie to explain his budget Macintosh version ofits popular Video choices. This year’s disc —in Windows, Director editing software and hard- PC and Macintosh formats — is avail- ware. The Windows and Amiga ver- with Gaston Bastiaens | : Bastiaens: |think the second half of the '90s. Its difficult to set an exact general |manager 2 A | date because we are building a new in- Personal Interactive cE _| dustry and we are doing this with major | partners like Toshiba, Sharp, Motorola, tet clog none and digit video among them. Video Magazi | | Panasonic and so on. We'll also see managing editor Stan Pinkwas 5] with him recently about the mergi communications combine with video video and ‘computing. ' - | broadcasting, so that video conferenc- Video: ScriptX, the new ing with PDA-type products becomes a media tool Apple is developin reality. Kaleida labs, will be out this yea for) Video: How will the TV induc Macintosh and Windows products. year or two, Apple’s EZTV cha . | try—hardware manufacturers and TV navigator will be ready. What willthese : make—rhsave to change? products mean? Bastiaens: A lot will get more in- Soy into their televis Aft _Bastiaens: all, the move to” 7 digital televisionis_ | coming. | Video: So | there'll be a wider | spectrumof TV | products? Bastiaens: | Yes, because ev- erything gets digi- tal and because of J : the fast integra- ynin micro- functionality at a low cost i chip that’s very expensive oday. 10 VIDEO APRIL 1994

P..nasonic introduces the WJ-AVE7 Digital Video Mixer. With Luminance Keying and over 100 special effects, it makes your videos especially effective. Think of the new Panasonic WJ-AVE7 Video Mixer as a way to turbo- charge your imagination. Dual PIP Its sophisticated technology lets you do almost anything you can imagine at a price that’s so afforda- ble it’s unimaginable. For instance, its Luminance Keying feature lets you alter reality by superimposing video images. Its auto take feature creates flawless transitions, auto- matically. Add dual picture-in-pic- ture, a color corrector, over 100 H digital effects, a built-in audio mixing board and the optional video titler, WJ-TTL5, and this Panasonic Video Mixer lets you do almost anything you can conceive. And sot unlike other sys- tems, the WJ-AVE7’s digital synchronizer lets you dissolve or wipe between any 2 NTSC signals. And our AV Mixer can do even more—to find out how much more, speak to your nearest Panasonic Dealer, at 1-800-365-1515, ext. 333. sd TV picture simulated. Video Titler Panasonic’ just slightly ahead of our time.®

CHERRY ON THE TOP NEWCAM (AND SIDES) The new top-of-the-line Sharp Viewcam is the VL-H400 Hi8 model ($2,199). New features in- RCA has a new 34-inch con- clude slow-motion playback, backlight sole version (model G34170) of compensation, 8x variable-speed zoom, and a its widescreen 16:9 TV. The 16:9 mode that places bars at the top and bot- cabinet has a cherry finish and tom of the screen. Carryover features include storage space for components. digital image stabilization and digital still snap- At $4,499, it also carries a low- shot. (For additional information, circle 103 on er price tag, down $500 from the Reader Service Card.) RCA's first widescreen set. In- cluded in the price, buyers may choose either $500 worth of la- serdiscs or an RCA LDR500 laserdisc player. (For additional information, circle 109 on the Reader Service Card.) PLUG IN, CHARGE UP COMPACT TVCR Aztec Video's (1-800-955-5505) Self-Charging Bat- Aiwa’s VX-S131 13-inch TVCR ($750) features a tery has retractable prongs that enable it to be Trinitron picture tube and a VHS hi-fi VCR. Front- panel audio/video inputs make it easy to view or plugged directly into a wall socket for recharging. It dub 8mm footage. Other features include onscreen VCR programming and digital auto tracking. A 20- is a substitute for 6-volt inch model will arrive in May. (For additional infor- mation, circle 104 on the Reader Service Card.) eS SS Se ee DY batteries that run Sony, Panasonic and Sharp 8mm and VHS-C models. Model AZ2000SC ($70) delivers a standard one- POSITH OWN, hour run time, while mod- VIDEOCASSETTE el AZ2200SC ($80) runs for 90 minutes. (For addi- tional information, circle ASSUME THE POSITION 108 on the Reader Service Card.) Fuji’s ME Position Hi8 tape is a metal particle tape that Fuji says matches the performance of metal evaporated tape while retaining the extra stability of metal particle tape. Fuji cites advances in its dou- ble coating technology as the prime factor. The tape will be available in 30-, 60- and 120-minute SUT lengths. Prices were not available at press time. (For additional information, circle 107 on the Read- er Service Card.) > 12 VIDEO APRIL 1994

Even Orson Welles A new reason to b fic, tt & dark. Crunching footsteps behind you. Laser beams shooting Pecierimmed DSPCDigital Signal Processing) modes over your head. Just a typical night at home with Adcom’s such as Concert Hall, Nightclub, Stadium and Five- home theater GTP-600 tuner/preamplifier. At Adcom’s Channel Stereo surround, let you create a variety of cus- level of critically acclaimed performance it doesn’t just tom-tailored, psychoacoustically correct listening environ- produce surround sound. It creates effects ments. that are out of this These features cou- world. ple ideally with the The award-winning GTP-600’s advanced, GTP-600 and an Adcom programmable remote power amplifier give which lets you com- you the control to create a sonic experience that surpasses mand up to eight addi- anything you’ve ever heard in a movie theater. tional system components for complete home theater control. Award-winning technology takes Surround yourself now at your Adcom dealer. you to the outer limits. Preview the new GTP-600 tuner/preamplifier at your Providing switching for up to four video sources authorized Adcom dealer today. But be careful, you might want to leave the lights on. and four audio sources, the GTP-600 gives you = the flexibility to customize your audio/video “Dolby” and “Pro Logic” are registered trade marks ofDolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation system for years to come. Composite or S-video connections provide a high definition signal path for maximum video quality. And with features like Adcom’s exclusive Cinema Surround circuitry and Dolby Pro Logic® decoding, the GTP-600 details you can hear @©1994ADcom 11 Elkins Road, East Brunswick, NJ 08816 U.S.A. (908) 390-1130. Distributed in Canada by PRO ACOUSTICS INC. Montréal, Québec (514) 344-1226 Circle 4 on Reader Service Card.

4 DUCK, IT’S A PREAMP CLUTTER BUSTER The VCRPRO 8 ($100) Toshiba's M-760 hi-fi stereo VHS VCR ($500) features a “flying preamp” design, which means the signal is amplified while still in the head cylinder. Toshiba claims this reduces video noise. For better EP recordings, is a universal remote that the deck has a pair of 19-micron heads. Additional features include VCR Plus with cable box control and a replaces up to eight re- universal remote that also controls a TV and a cable box. (For additional information, circle 112 on the motes, including those Reader Service Card.) for CD players and other > IN THE GAME Emerson's VCR4003 VHS VCR (price $240) uses audio equipment. Codes are preprogrammed, and four heads to produce clear still frames and slow a Key Magic feature lets motion. Features include 1-month/4-event onscreen programming, two-speed picture search and digital you assign a function to auto tracking. (For additional information, circle 101 on the Reader Service Card.) a specific key. The VCR programming feature turns on the needed equipment, even chang- ing channels on the cable box. The VCRPRO 8 is part of a complete line of remotes by Uni- versal Electronics of Twinsburg, Ohio. (For ad- ditional information, circle 111 on the Reader Service Card.) POWER MSTOPTA EJECT DA 4 HE‘AODNSCRHEiE-FNiP/ROMGTRSAMSSTEREO RECIITR —PLAY(X2) <THE PRICE IS RIGHT Lectern reincr ‘WIS HG Goldstar’s GVR-D468 four-head hi-fi VHS VCR is va or the top of the line of five new VCRs. It features VCR Plus programming with cable box contro! and GokdStar a front-panel audio/video input. The remote also controls around 30 different brands of TVs. Other features include double-speed play, freeze frame, frame advance and VHS index search. It’s priced at $450. (For additional information, circle 100 on the Reader Service Card.) v SLIM SHOOTER Panasonic's PV-910 full-size VHS camcorder ($899) is a point-and-shoot model with manual controls also available for focus and shutter speed. With its color viewfinder folded into a center storage position, the camcorder is just three inches wide. The PV-910 has a 12:1 variable-speed zoom lens, and comes with a 10-watt light. (For additional information, circle 113 on the Reader Service Card.) tape printer 4 MINI LABEL MAKER The Plus Tape Printer ($134) creates labels with up to 60 characters. The labels, suitable for videotapes and shells, can be printed in four ways, including justified and centered. The tiny hand-held unit is manufactured by the Plus Corporation of Allendale, New Jersey. (For additional information, circle 114 on the Reader Service Card.)

RDL ROOM ACOUSTICS DESIGNED LOUDSPEAKERS from StereoReview Gulian Hirsch) “Both of these systems [the RDL F-1 and FS-1 speakers] are truly excellent, with a smoothness of response and low distortion that do credit to their lineage. “One of [RDU] principals, Edgar Villchur . . . was responsible for such seminal developments as the acoustic-suspension loudspeaker and the dome tweeter . . . Roy Allison was responsible for the design of a number of now legendary speakers, including the AR-3a and the AR-LST” from THE BAS SPEAKER THE PUBLICATION OF THE BOSTON AUDIO SOCIETY (David R. Moran) “All [RDL speakers] use Allison’s unsurpassed, strangely unimitated convex tweeter . . . its ultrawide radiation and airy imaging may be even more uniform than in previous implementations . . . in over a dozen measurements, the RDL tweeter consistently ran + 2 dB from 1-2 kHz to around 18 kHz.” fromthe LosAngelesReader (Laurence Vittes) “RDL Acoustics’ new line of speakers can bring an orchestra into your living room. . . [The FS-1’s have] amazing ability to reproduce demanding full orchestral sound without atrace of digital harshness.” from the Chicaga Cribune (Rich Warren) “Roy Allison. . . designed each speaker model for a specific placement . . . We placed the F-1 three inches from the back wall and played music with plenty of bass. It played naturally without boom or exaggerated bass. It sounded clear, crisp and tonally well balanced . . . In contrast, the FS-1 [is] smooth, well-balanced and natural when located at least two feet from the wall. “Most companies cheaply finish speakers in the F1/FS1 $549 per pair price range. RDL extravagantly finishes the speakers in a rich lacquered real cherry veneer.” The RDL F-1 speaker, one of five models priced from $198 to $549 a pair. Exclusive Designs by Roy Allison FACTORY-DIRECT SALES _ RDLspeakers are sold directly from our factory on a 30-day trial basis. There is no retail markup. We also sell Philips, Sherwood, and other brands of electron- ic products and accessories, as well as complete systems. FOR YOUR FREE CATALOG Call 1-800-227-0390 or Fax 1-800-227-9047 or RDL On-LINE (BBS) 1-800-227-0391 RDL Acoustics 26 Pearl Street No. 15, Bellingham, MA 02019 Circle 5 on Reader Service Card.

__BY COREY GREENBERG| 4 mi How separate amps 5) can hot-rod your a home theater Even though most home theaters are on hand would overheat whenever | There are several ways to go when | based around A/V receivers, you can get cranked the speakers to minimum rock- considering separate amps in a home | better sound by going the cool-man au- approved levels. This is an extreme ex- theater. You can purchase three regular diophile route, using separate amplifiers. ample, but most speakers on the market ol’ stereo amps and use them to drive do present a fairly challenging load, left, right, center and surround chan- Music lovers learned long ago that mu- making the choice of amplifier a very nels, leaving the extra amp channel un- sic sounds better when you use a sepa- used or perhaps using it to drive a important one. passive subwoofer. This can get pretty rate amplifier to drive your speakers instead of an all-in-one receiver. Now See, those impressive power specs expensive, though, considering that most good 100-watt stereo amps run that home-theater has plundered the au- listed with A/V receivers, like “100 watts from $700 to $2,000. Multiply that dio fortress, it’s high time that movie per channel U-betcha,” are derived from times three and you start asking people, lovers learned the same lesson. measuring how much speaker-drivin’ “Pardon me, but do you have any Grey pow—waettsr—the receiver can deliver What do you hear with separate am- when hooked up to an eight-ohm resis- Poupon?” plifiers versus a receiver? Less grit and tor, which is supposed to be a fair repre- A better way to go is with one of the congestion, for starters. Voices sound sentation of the average speaker’s load. much more natural and less like canned Except that it isn’t. The vast majority of bitchin’ new multichannel amps that TV voices, and subtle dialog is much speakers on the market present a much high-end audio companies are now com- easier to understand. Another dramatic more difficult load for an amplifier to ing out with. Offering multiple channels improvement is in the hig—hnatsural drive. And driving five speakers is a hell of clean, speaker-drivin’ power, these | sounds like birds in a forest will sound more lifelike, and less spitty and harsh. Amp Champ: Acurus’ powerful $1,299 200X3 provides three 200-watt channels of high-quality amplification. Now, there’s two kinds of home the- of a lot more taxing than driving two. amps offer exceptional value and, owing ater nuts — those who just wanna get by, “But I just bought a midpriced sur- to their single-box construction, much | and those who wanna get serious. The greater ease of installation than a gaggle | typical get-by guy’r’gal might have a round receiver!” I hear you, Cherished o’ stereo amps. Of the multichannel | bitchin’ video monitor, but the audio side of the equation is probably woefully Reader, scream at me from the bath- amps I've checked out, the most impres- | out of step. Worst-case, they’ve got room as you read this. “What am I sup- sive occupy both ends of the power spec- some piece-o-crud, resin-caked ’70s re- posed to do, DUMP it and start over?” trum— the six-channel, $699 NAD 906, ceiver that crackles when you turn the volume control up and down. Best case, That's a legit questi—obnut there’s and the three-channel, $1,299 Acurus a simple solution. Take a look at the 200X3. they've got a $500 foreign A/V re- back panel of your receiver. Many sur- ceiver, which is a fine way to get into the round receivers have line-level outputs The little 30-watt-per-channel NAD home theater experience, but hardly that let you bypass the receiver’s amp is perfectly suited to those who want where to look for the bestest, cleanest section, permitting you to send line-lev- high-quality sound but don’t listen at el audio signals to separate amplifiers. If lease-breakin’ volumes (like apartment sound. your receiver has such outputs, you can dwellers and the Amish). It sports the At the risk of getting too technoid, it still use it for Pro-Logic decoding, vol- equivalent of six fully independent am- | ume control, etc. all comes down to power. Power cor- continued on page 35 | rupts, but in a butt-kickin’ home theater tig, power should ERUPT! And to do that, your amplifiers have got to be seri- ous enough to drive five or more speak- ers simultaneously, often at high levels. Truth is, most A/V receivers don’t have very serious amplifier sections. Their printed specs might look impressive, but those crafty manufacturers have long known how to deliver gear that measures well without actually having to sound very good. Sound ridiculous? Here’s why it isn’t: All speakers present given loads to the amplifiers driving them. Call it imped- ance, call it Earl, a speaker has a charac- teristic load that it presents to the amplifier, and this load can range from quite easy to drive to forget-about-it. I recently reviewed a speaker that was so hard to drive that all the amplifiers I had 16 VIDEO APRIL 1994

The purity of separates. From the passion of Carver. The Carver name evokes an almost mystical no, stunningly — reproduces the dynamic following among serious music lovers. peaks of digital music and movie soundtracks. And justly so. Carver power amplifiers have Witness the superiority of Carver separates: generated critical acclaim-year after year, Flawless sound, low distortion, instant and model after model, with one — the TFM-35 — authoritative response to octave fluctuations in universally acknowledged as “one of the best the center channel. Note the abundance of audio amplifier values in the world.” Upgraded power: At 360 watts per channel @ 4 ohms to the TFM-35x, with high fidelity enhance- (triple that of a top receiver), merely one of ments so advanced, it also exceeded the strict the most powerful audio amplifiers available specifications of THX® home theater. for both music and home theater. One look, one listen, will confirm Carver’s With the infinite flexibility to accommodate passion for aural perfection. Gold plated system upgrades for years to come. input jacks, 5-way binding posts, dual analog Yet, this is but a preview. For a feature meters. Expansive headroom that faithfully — length brochure, contact Carver today. CARVER Powerful e Musical e Accurate CARVER CORPORATION, P.O. BOX 1237 LYNNWOOD, WA 98036 ® (206) 7751202 ¥ © 1994 Carver Corporation . Distributed in Canada by Evolution Audio, Oakville, Ontario (416) 847-8888 Made in THX is a registered trademark of Lucasfilm LTD. all rights reserved Circle 6 on Reader Service Card.

CAMCORNER BY CLIFF ROTH The art and science of shooting music videos with consumer gear ith the right equipment and strat- along. Unfortunately, the Hi8 and 8mm beaches, lakes, parks, animals, etc.), in- egy, a low budget music video can formats don’t have this capability—with dustry (smokestacks, assembly lines), be a creative and successful pro- these, you must record new sound and/or commerce (shopping strips, duction. But without proper plan- whenever you record a new picture. The ning and technical capabilities, it has the malls, stores), and use these where ap- potential to become a synchronization crucial video dub feature is found on and audio mixing nightmare. hobbyist S-VHS and VHS camcorder propriate. models, and their miniaturized VHS-C Besides the camcorder, you'll need a The simplest, fastest way to make a and S-VHS-C siblings. music video is to start with a pro- stereo system or a powered speaker, and fessional recording of the music. Rather Equipped with such a camcorder, adaptor cables to get the audio signal than attempt to record sound with your you should first copy the song onto the from the camcorder’s headphone or line videocassette you'll use in the camcord- output jack to the amplifier. This is how camcorder, use a high-quality demo tape er. The picture should be black (just the band will hear the recording they’re that was originally recorded on eight, 16 keep the camcorder’s lens cap on) so it lip-syncing to. Where amplified music is or 24 tracks, and mixed together using won’t be distracting if it accidentally ap- a problem, the singer can wear head- all the tricks of the trade. For the video, pears. Next, plan out the sequence of phones to lip-sync to the recording. the band will lip-sync to this shots that will be matched to the song. recording — the musicians will pretend Pay careful attention to points in the Go to your first location, play the to be playing and singing, listening to song where you may want to return to a tape, pause it at the spot where you the recording to stay in sync. previous location— these points can all want to begin recording an image, hit be shot during the same setup. The the video dub button, release from pause If you’re in the market to buy a new more locations you have, the more lush and begin shooting. If you make a mis- camcorder and want to make music vid- take, go back and do it again until you get it right. (Too many recordings over AUDIO CASSETTE DECK Step 1: the exact same spot will stretch the tape = Copy music from and create a glitch—you may want to make several copies of the audio track FS i | CAMCORDER an audio tape on a single tape, so you can move on toa (LENS CAPPED) onto a camcorder different one after five or six takes.) tape through the Rather than recording video in short mic or line input (cap the lens). bursts, you may prefer to start by shoot- ing a master shot of the entire song— POWERED SPEAKER Step 2: typically a wide shot showing the whole Use video dub to CAMCORDER record the per- band. Then, using the video dub feature formers lip- MUSICIANS again, you can record new pictures over syncing; monitor selected spots—such as close-ups, loca- the sound with a tions relating to the lyrics, etc. powered speaker. If you have access to two or more Video: Red and blue Step 3: camcorders, and a special-effects gener- Audio: Yellow Use video dub ator or a video mixer (like Panasonic’s again to add cut- CAMCORDER aways, titles and WJ-AVE5 or Sony’s XV-D1000) then other alternate you can produce a multicamera live vi- footage from a sual mix of the band, typically appearing VCR. onstage in a club or studio context. Making A Music Video: Record sound first, then video-dub performers lip-syncing, then add cut-aways. Without the video dub feature, you must record the entire music video in eos, the format you choose can make a the production will look, but the more one continuous take, by playing the big difference in what’s technically possi- time it will take. Select locations in con- mixed audio tape into the camcorder’s ble. Even if you already have a camcord- sultation with the band, and push your- er, it may be worth renting or borrowing selves to come up with clever visual microphone input (using an attenuating another one with video dub capability. ideas. Music videos have a rich tradition patch cable) while simultaneously of experimentation, visual poetry and an recording the picture either with a single Video dub lets you produce a music anything-goes attitude. Find dramatic camcorder, or multicamera using a video video in the camcorder, without the mixer. This is the only viable approach shots of natural beauty (sunsets, with Hi8 and 8mm gear. need to edit later. You edit as you go Working on a more professional lev- el, it's also possible to piece together the music video through editing, but the same constraints apply: You can shoot in Hi8 or 8mm, but it should be edited onto S-VHS or VHS to take advantage continued on page 35 18 VIDEO APRIL 1994

BOGEN 3169 CINE/VIDEO TRIPOD THE IDEAL CAMCORDER COMPANION Easy to use and Video Machine from FAST Electronics is a complete A/B roll editing system for PC § easy to handle, and Macintosh computers. With machine control, two frame synchronizers, hun- the 3169 dreds of editable DVE transitions, audio mixing and anti-aliased titling, and graph- ics with alpha channel, Video Machine provides all of the components necessary to combines Bogen create professional quality video productions on the desktop. 3001 Tripod Legs and a 3130 QR Micro Fluid Head with Quick Release Plate. The Bogen 3001 Tripod is the lightest (about 3 lbs.) and the smallest (folds to 20 1/2 in.), but is one of the most Video Machine and its VM-Studio companion software utilize an easy-to-use time- versatile tr ipods we offer. Stur dy, hard finish aluminum legs © line interface for editing, as well as tools for clip management and even the ability asis feature 3 click stop spread angles and each has a sure grip, 7 to create your own unique effects. Machine control is provided for Control-L and 5- iam quick-acting, non-fouling lever lock. The Bogen 3169 is Pin Edit Control, with optional RS-422 and RS-232 control available. Video just one ofawide choice of tripods fluid heads: doles ane ® Machine can always be expanded with a range of professional options including ue k5 © YUV input/output and nonlinear editing, ensuring that the system will grow to fit | your needs. See your dealer or write to Bogen Photo Corp., 565 East Formore information, callFAST at(800) 248-FAST. Crescent Avenue, Ramsey, N.J. 07446-0506; (201) 818-9500 | Need Some Technical Help? i =vetga BRYSTON’S : CEDIA (Custom Electronics Desion and ~7B4MONNRABURTAHLX® ” SHOP WITH Ala VIDEO SHOWCASE dealer isfor that ANMIPLIFIER turedinVideo Showcase orfind out where the nearest do the rest! get—_ crde adverti pieswithyour desired shopping option and we'll Bryston, well known for a their high-quality amplifiers, has Showcase #1 Showcase #3 ntroduced their most A. Send me literature A. Send me literature : 7B NRB THX®. NRB THX? is designed B. Send me dealer information B. Send me dealer information home theater system. Showcase #2 Showcase #4 i_ dAsdydmimnegtritocatl hcierceuitry, | A. Send me literature A. Send me literature alanced (XLR and1/4”) B. Send me dealer information B. Send me dealer information itallofworflexibility in Name hat lets the output stage |sonvenient feature 18 the Address nediel yr more information ryston’s other t Company. City

[ CAMCORNER BY CLIFF ROTH The art and science of shooting music videos with consumer gear ith the right equipment and strat- along. Unfortunately, the Hi8 and 8mm beaches, lakes, parks, animals, etc.), in- egy, a low budget music video can formats don’t have this capabili—twiyth dustry (smokestacks, assembly lines), be a creative and successful pro- these, you must record new sound duction. But without proper plan- whenever you record a new picture. The and/or commerce (shopping strips, ning and technical capabilities, it has the crucial video dub feature is found on malls, stores), and use these where ap- potential to become a synchronization hobbyist S-VHS and VHS camcorder and audio mixing nightmare. propriate. The simplest, fastest way to make a models, and their miniaturized VHS-C Besides the camcorder, you'll need a music video is to start with a pro- and S-VHS-C siblings. fessional recording of the music. Rather stereo system or a powered speaker, and than attempt to record sound with your Equipped with such a camcorder, camcorder, use a high-quality demo tape you should first copy the song onto the adaptor cables to get the audio signal that was originally recorded on eight, 16 videocassette you'll use in the camcord- from the camcorder’s headphone or line or 24 tracks, and mixed together using er. The picture should be black (just output jack to the amplifier. This is how all the tricks of the trade. For the video, keep the camcorder’s lens cap on) so it the band will lip-sync to this won't be distracting if it accidentally ap- the band will hear the recording they’re recording— the musicians will pretend pears. Next, plan out the sequence of lip-syncing to. Where amplified music is to be playing and singing, listening to shots that will be matched to the song. a problem, the singer can wear head- the recording to stay in sync. Pay careful attention to points in the phones to lip-sync to the recording. If you’re in the market to buy a new song where you may want to return to a camcorder and want to make music vid- previous locati—othense points can all Go to your first location, play the be shot during the same setup. The tape, pause it at the spot where you AUDIO CASSETTE DECK more locations you have, the more lush want to begin recording an image, hit the video dub button, release from pause 29:34 | CAMCORDER Step 1: and begin shooting. If you make a mis- (LENS CAPPED) Copy music from take, go back and do it again until you POWERED SPEAKER an audio tape .. onto a camcorder get it right. (Too many recordings over tape through the the exact same spot will stretch the tape mic or line input and create a glitch—you may want to (cap the lens). make several copies of the audio track on a single tape, so you can move on toa @a Sten 2 different one after five or six takes.) Rather than recording video in short bursts, you may prefer to start by shoot- ing a master shot of the entire song— typically a wide shot showing the whole band. Then, using the video dub feature again, vou can record new pictures over Video: Red and bhi VIDEO Audio: Yellow 460 West 34th Street Making A Music Videc New York, NY 10117-0460 eos, the format yc big difference in w PessDUMDocncoeDDescEMocsEDDocccbeedsVDeatbecatlaaal ble. Even if you al; er, it may be wortl another one with Video dub let; video in the car need to edit late 18 VIDEO APRIL 1994

BOGEN 3169 The Studio CINE/VIDEO OnYour TRIPOD Desktop THE IDEAL Video Machine from FAST Electronics is a complete A/B roll editing system for PC and Macintosh computers. With machine control, two frame synchronizers, hun- CAMCORDER | dreds of editable DVE transitions, audio mixing and anti-aliased titling, and graph- COMPANION | ics with alpha channel, Video Machine provides all of the components necessary to | create professional quality video productions on the desktop. Easy to use and easy to handle, ; Video Machine and its VM-Studio companion software utilize an easy-to-use time- the 3169 line interface for editing, as well as tools for clip management and even the ability combines Bogen » | to create your own unique effects. Machine control is provided for Control-L and 5- Pin Edit Control, with optional RS-422 and RS-282 control available. Video 3001 Tripod Legs Machine can always be expanded with a range of professional options including and a 3130 QR Micro Fluid Head with Quick Release Plate. The Bogen 3001 Tripod is the lightest (about 3 lbs.) | YUV input/output and nonlinear editing, ensuring that the system will grow to fit and the smallest (folds to 20 1/2 in.), but is one of the most |your needs. versatile tripods we offer. Sturdy, hard finish aluminum legs feature 3 click stop spread angles and each has a sure grip, quick-acting, non-fouling lever lock. The Bogen 3169 is just one of a wide choice of tripods, fluid heads, dollies and accessories. See your dealer or write to Bogen Photo Corp., 565 East Crescent Avenue, Ramsey, N.J. 07446-0506; (201) 818-9500 | NeedNECuUMN SoAL me Techniectael Help? ou uy BRYSTON’S 5 CEDIA (Custom Electronics Design and 7B NRB THX® MONAURAL Installation Association) is an organization AMPLIFIER that can help you put together your dream j home theater system. They can provide you | with design information as well as referrals to Bryston, well known for | qualified A/V installers. For further informa- C¢ E DI A their high-quality amplifiers, has tion and referrals, call (800) 233-4230. AUDIOPHILES and videophiles consider- introduced their most ing major A/V purchases would do well to powerful home theater model to date — the 7B NRB THX®. lp] contact PARA (Professional Audio Video Optimized for use in a THX system, the 7B NRB THX? is designed Professional Retailers Association). To assure you of | to provide unlimited power reserves for any home theater system. AudioVideo qualified sales and service, they will put Retailers you in touch with your local PARA dealer. # | The 7B NRB THX? consists of all discrete and symmetrical circuitry, Association | ensuring signal linearity from input to output. Adding to the unit’s For further dealer information, call (816) © dynamic sonic performance are gold-plated balanced (XLR and 1/4”) 444-3500. and unbalanced (RCA) input connectors that allow for flexibility in setup and freedom from distortion. Another convenient feature is the s IF YOURE considering setting up a satellite home b 7B NRB THX’s back-panel “mode” switch that lets the output stage § theater or want to consult with the experts about to be configured in either a series or parallel mode. } your current system, you can turn to the SBCA § (Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Contact Bryston at (415) 751-1764 for more information on the 7B NRB THX? or on any of Bryston’s other Association of America) for help. Their national quality products. ie | information line is (800) 726-7222. ® THX is a registered trademark of LucasArts Entertainment Company. cat

BY RODERICK WOODCOCK | Hidden time code and the fate of S-VHS [i]:your October ’93 issue, a reader horizontal width of the screen. Given a standard test pattern, the higher resolu- claimed that he couldn’t find a Hi8 tion video formats, such as Hi8 and S-VHS, can record more of these lines camcorder with RC time code and im- on tape than low-res formats like VHS and 8mm. age stabilization. Well, there is one. It’s Thinking of the difference in other the Sony EVO-150TR, which is the terms may help. For example, if you photographed a landscape with an 8x10 same as the Sony CCD-TRIO1 but has a view camera, and took the exact same color viewfinder. I have one, and it’s picture with an inexpensive 35mm cam- era, the two views would match in terms great. Thomas Knaebel of composition. But the 8x10 would offer much more picture detail and sharpness. Jefferson City, Missouri It’s the same with TV. Every picture Introducing the Ae from a differently colored always contains the necessary elements case and a few accessories (two of 525 vertical lines, but the horizontal VOLUME STABILIZER™ resolution of the format or signal feeding NP77H batteries instead of one), the the TV may vary, and on some monitors that lets you hear the whispers Sony EVO-150TR is exactly the same as can actually exceed 525 lines. and stops you from the consumer TRI1O1. It’s just sold in professional venues. The only real differ- [i]:a recent issue of TV Guide, a cringing at the bangs. ence is the addition of a color view- reader asked, “What happened to finder. A similar consumer model, also It’s an innovative, low cost solu- S-VHS recorders?” to which the maga- tion to home video volume control with a color viewfinder, has been avail- zine replied, “The revolution is over and problems because it automatically able in Japan for some time. Both will S-VHS lost.” Am I foolish to continue increases the volume of the audio write RC time code to the tape while to shoot on Hi8 and then copy to source during soft passages and recording, but neither can play it back. S-VHS, or should I use ordinary 8mm reduces volume during loud pas- For that you need a Sony CCD-V801 and a good VHS tape? I would hate to sages. You'll hear every word of (now discontinued) or equivalent, a see my Hi8 go the way Beta went. dialogue and every bar of music VX3 camcorder or the CCD-V1000 while the VOLUME STABILIZER Marshall Johnson softens the sounds that are VDeck. normally too loud. While the 150’s manual points out its Bloomington, Minnesota Whether you use a satellite dish, time code writing capability, this feature a home theatre system, or just a is not mentioned in the TR101’s manual. VCR, you can put the remote con- You wouldn’t know it has it unless you trol aside. Prices start at $119.50. have a machine that can read time code. For more information call or write: [I]ssc is made up of 525 lines of A Guide went on to say that horizontal resolution, or is it 400, Brookline S-VHS “sales have been poor. Ap- 330, 250 or less? I understand that Hi8 Technologies and S-VHS deliver 400 lines, while parently most people would rather have broadcast resolution is about 330 and 2035 Carriage Hill Road regular VHS somewhere in the 180- a decent picture at a low price than a su- Allison Park, PA 15101-3350 to-250 range. What I don’t understand 800-366-9290 is how TV sets adjust to this. Do they perior picture at a high price.” just project fewer lines? Do they dupli- Circle 7 on Reader Service Card. cate some lines in order to fill the screen Gee, I wish I could afford to be so with 525 lines? If so, how do they decide which lines to duplicate? glib with my answers. While it’s true Rob Blaine that S-VHS sales have been disappoint- Austin, Texas ing in the consumer market, the format Ate problem is that the 525 lines has been enormously successful in the refers to the vertical resolution of industrial/professional area and it’s in no the NTSC scanning system. Each video frame consists of two 262-1/2-line fields, immediate jeopardy of “doing a Beta.” or complete top-to-bottom picture scans, interlaced with each other. In the mass market, VHS certainly Horizontal resolution, on the other dominates, but S-VHS still has its con- hand, refers to a different set of lines. Imagine a test pattern of vertical stripes, sumer devotees, especially with those alternating in black and white across the Hi8 camcorder users who want to maxi- mize picture quality when dubbing and editing. That’s why most brands contin- ue to offer at least one consumer S-VHS deck in their lines. Compared to VHS and 8mm, both Hi8 and S-VHS can be considered niche formats, for the afi- cionado, but neither can be considered a “loser” format. a 20 VIDEO APRIL 1994

It's What Which scares you more, a horror film with the sound turned off, or a horror show on the radio? The answer is easy because it is the movie's sound- track which carries the pathos and emotion. You can enjoy sound without pictures, but who wants pictures without sound? You Don’t. See That Counts. It doesn’t cost Itjust so happens that cables are the part of your system which can help or hurt the <a ~=6more to do it right! performance the most... and for the least money. Whether you have two-channel stereo or multi- > AudioQuest offers channel stereo, you have to have cables. You can’t completely fix a bad system with good cables, a full range of but you can seriously degrade a good system with cables, but the badly designed cables. biggest improve- ment you’ll hear You won’t see the cables and you won't see the is going from big sound — but you will experience the difference! fat stranded cable to the audioquest. least expensive cables from AudioQuest. For the complete story, please call or write for our Cable Design booklet — or better yet, visit an AudioQuest dealer and listen for yourself. P.O. Box 3060 San Clemente, CA 92674 USA TEL (714) 498-2770 FAX (714) 498-5112 Distributed in Canada by Audio Products International, 3641 McNicoll Ave., Scarborough, Ontario, M1X 1G5 Tel: 416-321-1800

a TR BERGER-BRAITHWAITE LABS 27 Heaven: Sony's KV-27XBR95S is one of the most ad- vanced 27-inch TVs you can buy, with a re- duced-curvature screen and dark-tint face plate. Below is its jack panel, which includes three S-video/video/stereo au- dio inputs. For our “27-inch fairly close second. With good software like the Benny & Joon laserdisc we often Super Bowl” TV use for testing, the picture takes on an SOs VeSeakuve almost 3-D look. 27XBR95S may be comparison test in the best Sony TV The only place the XBR? meets seri- we've tested. With last November’s a flatter screen and a darker faceplate ous competition is in color accuracy. than most Sonys, it offers enhanced issue, Sony sent us The color accuracy of this set is actually contrast and color saturation. Its better than that of other Sony consumer large, detachable speakers are almost its modestly like having a separate sound system. Its features include picture-in-pic- priced, $999 ture, several surround sound modes, SONY KV-27V55 instead sony Price: $1,899 amplifiers for surround speakers and of its top-of-the- a digital still frame that can be re- line, $1,899 KV-27XBR90S Weight & Size (h/w/d): 27-inch XBR2 TV TV 114.7 pounds, called. Picture, sound and overall 27-inch KV-27XBR95S speakers 11.1 pounds performance are all excellent. At XBR2 set. The each; TV without $1,899, it’s today’s costliest 27-inch speakers 22-1/8 x consumer TV, but if your pockets are TV KV-27V55 ran in 26-7/8 x 21 inches, TV deep, it’s worth the money. the middle of the with speakers 22-1/8 x 35-1/8 x 21 inches | pack, bested most notably by Pan- Screen Size: 27 inches asonic’s $1,299 CT-27XF40 and Pro- diagonal Scan’s $1,099 PS27152. Ever since, we've Speaker Size: two de- tachable speakers, wondered how a Sony XBR? model each with two 2-1/4- inch tweeters and one would stack up against these top sets. 5-1/8-inch woofers Now we know. Broadcast Tuning W, W+1 to W+58, A-5 (loop-through of input Let’s cut to the chase here —the Range: 2 to 13, 14 to to A-1, W+59 to W+84 3), Control S input and 69 output, RF input with XBR2 is a truly outstanding TV that Jacks: front—video/ loop-through input and Cable Tuning Range: stereo audio input (du- meets or beats anything in the 27-inch 125 channels—A-8, output for cable box, A-7, A-6, 2 to 13, A to plicate of video 3 on fixed- and variable-level field. In a side-by-side comparison with rear); rear—3 S-video/ stereo audio outputs video/stereo audio in- Mitsubishi’s CS-27701 (“Videotests,” puts, S-video/video/ External Speaker Mar. ‘94) and the Panasonic and Pro- Connectors: spring- stereo audio output (se- Scan models mentioned above, the lected source), video/ loaded clips for front and surround speakers XBR2 emerges as the clear standout in stereo audio output terms of detail and depth—this may be the most detailed NTSC picture we've seen, although the Panasonic comes in a MLPVEOHISRDOSETOITLGELRSOATPHS: 22 VIDEO APRIL 1994

For videophiles who want all the features of top S-VHS VCRs but don’t want to pay for the extra pic- ture quality, JVC’s $600 HR-VP700U may be the ticket. It carries VCR Plus with cable box control, and some sets we've tested. The color temperature WC JVCs top-of-the- | editing features, like VHS-line HR- a jog/shuttle dial, a at factory preset measures 6,200 Kelvin VHS VP700U offers flying erase head and at the low setting and, 6,500 (the NTSC VGR. something for ev- an eight-scene edit standard) at the high setting, both un- eryone. For home controller that works characteristically low (and accurate) for theater enthusi- with JVC VCRs. (An a Sony. However, despite the XBR2’s im- asts, it offers VCR optional remote lets pressive color accuracy, we prefer the the controller work color rendition of the ProScan se—tthe Plus with cable with almost any Sony seems to pump up the reds a bit box control, many VCR.) We rate the too much, making evening skies look forward and re- picture excellent, au- more like nuclear attacks, and adding a ss bo st butverse speeds, and dio very good to ex- flush cast to fleshtones. But the ProScan cellent and overall is a bit noisier and shows less detail (for a bass boost but- performance very more info, see “Videotests,” Jan. ‘94). good to excellent. sore, heene The distortion is also quite low, com- parable to that of the other sets, which eight-scene edit controller, a flying erase are nearly perfect. Also, the XBR? over- scans slightly less than the other sets, so head, video dub and a jog/shuttle dial. HR-VP700U has two—one on the re- you see maybe two percent more picture VCR Plus with cable box control lets mote, one on the deck. These also let on the sides. Overall, the XBR? strikes a you program both your VCR and cable you move forward frame-by-frame. Un- nice balan—cyeou can’t beat the detail box by entering a four- to seven-digit usually, and unfortunately, they don’t let and depth, and the color, despite a few code from TV Guide or your local TV you move backward frame-by-frame, so listings. The deck controls the cable box to find an edit point, you end up going very minor flaws, is pretty impressive. through a credit card-sized infrared re- past it, rewinding, then stepping for- Sony achieves this impressive pic- mote, which has buttons to select the ward. Overstepping your point means brand of cable box to be operated. The repeating the process, instead of simply ture using its Super Trinitron tube, remote connects to the HR-VP700U stepping back a frame as on most decks which offers reduced horizontal curva- with a wire; JVC supplies 1.5- and three- with jog/shuttle dials. ture for less reflection from room light. meter lengths. A hinged stand makes Editing enthusiasts will find the lim- (Like all Trinitrons, it’s flat vertically.) A the cable-box remote easy to position so ited jog/shuttle function a major incon- dark-tinted screen enhances the set’s that it aims at your VCR's infrared re- venience. However, they will like the contrast and color saturation. ceiver. This is a great feature if you use a insert function, which replaces the video cable box, but if your cable channels and the hi-fi audio, but retains the linear Like its 32-inch brother, the $2,599 don’t correspond to those in the listings, track audio—sort of like video dub plus KV-32XBR95S (‘“Videotests,” Jan. ‘93), you'll have to reprogram the channel as- the KV-27XBR95S uses Sony’s DSP signments through the HR-VP700U’s continued on page 30 Axis Sound system, which includes two onscreen menu system —an easy but continued on page 29 time-consuming chore. Of course, you'll Internal Audio standard setting still be able to use the VCR Plus by itself Amplifier Power: front 13 watts/channel Color Temperature: if you don’t use a cable box. Stereo, surround 6.5 switchable 6,500/6,200 watts/channel stereo Kelvin Speed control buttons on the remote Key Features: dual-tuner picture-in-pic- Accuracy of Colors: access five forward play/search speeds, ture, picture preset very good/excellent modes, digital still, six five forward slow-motion speeds and surround sound modes, Audio Frequency surround speaker Response: electronics three reverse play/search speeds. These amps, 8- or 16-picture 20 Hz-20 kHz, +0.4/-0.7 buttons are very convenient because Cable Commander: channel index dB; speakers 50 Hz-16 JVC's HR-VP700U kHz, -3 dB they let you lock onto any speed you uses a tiny wired infra- RESULTS wan—mtost decks require you to keep ted remote and VCR Audio S/N: 76.2 dB twisting the jog/shuttle dial. Plus circuitry to control Horizontal Resolution: a cable box. more than 700 lines Total Harmonic Speaking of jog/shuttle dials, the Distortion: electronics Picture S/N (dB): 0.2%, speakers 0.6% HVC luminance 56.2, video 54.7, chroma AM 64.4, RATINGS year mene Sex arid chroma PM 63.5 Picture: excellent Screen Brightness: 103.5 footlamberts at Audio: excellent Overall: excellent APRIL 1994 VIDEO 23

VIDEQTESTS ® Universal TY Remote @ Cable Hox Control SAMSUNG Samsung’s Surprise: Samsung is known for budget VCRs, but its VR8903 offers advanced features like a jog/shuttle dial and VCR Plus with cable box control. Samsung’s rise to Plus with cable box control, a remote ing video snippets frame-by-frame. Timeshifting enthusiasts will appre- the top ranks of that also controls most brands of cable ciate the inclusion of VCR Plus with ca- electronics com- boxes and TVs, and variable-speed, bidi- ble box control. To use this feature, just enter a four- to seven-digit code from panies has gone rectional slow motion. TV Guide or the local listings, and both your deck and the cable box will be pro- largely unnoticed You can access the deck’s many play- grammed to record the desired show. The VR8903 controls a cable box by videophiles, back speeds using the jog/shuttle dials through an emitter on the deck’s right front top. You have to place the cable mainly because on the deck and the remote. Forward the company has speeds include 1/15x and 1/7x slow mo- continued on page 31 SAVVMHOSSURNG concentrated on tion, play, double-speed play, and 5x and building price- The VR8903 is leader VCRs with 9x visible search modes. The reverse the finest VCR speeds are the same, with the deletion of Samsung has yet ra| onfew of the features produced. It offers double-speed. Using the jog dial, you such advanced features as jog/shuttle dials on both the deck and the re- can step through a video frame-by-frame mote, VCR Plus with cable box con- | trol, variable-speed slow motion and in either direction. a second set of audio outputs. Thoughtful control layouts make it sung’s now trying to overhaul its image The inclusion of a jog/shuttle dial is very user-friendly. We rate the pic- ture, audio and overall performance by introducing higher-priced, advanced surprising, given that the VR8903 has good to very good. There are other products: camcorders, TVs with S-video no other editing features. For editing, decks listing for $600 that have more features and outperform this one at inputs, hi-fi VCRs and laserdisc players. you really need a flying erase head to the SP speed. But if ergonomics or EP recording quality are important to The company’s approach can be prevent glitches between scenes, as well you, this deck is worth a look. seen in its newest top-of-the-line VCR, as video dub and audio dub, none of the VR8903. Its front jog/shuttle dial— which are found on the VR8903. How- the most obvious mark of a high-end ever, home theater enthusiasts will enjoy VCR—immediately catches your eye, using the jog/shuttle dials to examine and a look at the specs uncovers VCR movie special effects and other interest- Samsung 120-min. tape Timer: 8-event/1-year and EP; chroma PM Linear Audio S/N: 39.8 SP, 36.5 LP, 36.8 42 dB VR8903 VHS VER Jacks: front—video/ Clock/Timer Battery EP stereo audio input; Backup: 6 hours Audio Distortion: hi-fi Price: $600 rear—video/stereo au- Audio Frequency 0.3%, linear 0.9% dio input and output, Key Features: Response: hi-fi 40 RATINGS Weight & Size (h/w/d): stereo output for driving VCR Plus with cable Hz-20 kHz, +0.4/-3 dB, 10.1 Ibs., 3-1/2 x15-5/8 hi-fi system, RF input box control, jog/shuttle -4 dB at 20 Hz; linear Picture: x 12-1/2 inches and output on VCR and remote, (-3 dB) 80 Hz-11 kHz good/very good skip search SP. 80 Hz-4.5 kHz LP Tape Speeds: Edit Protocol: none and EP Audio: good/very good SP, LP, EP RESULTS Program Start Loca- Hi-Fi Dynamic Range: Overall: Video Heads: 4 tor/index/Cue: index Horizontal Resolution: 84.8 dB good/very good with auto marking 240-250 lines SP, Cue & Review Search: 220 EP (locking) 5x SP and LP, Audio: linear mono, 7x EP; (nonlocking) 9x hi-fi AFM stereo S/N Ratios (dB): SP 27x EP unweighted video 45,4 Cable Tuning Range: SP, LP and EP; weight- Fast Forward/Rewind 2 to 13, A to |,J to W, ed video 50.7 SP, 50.2 Time: 2-3/4 min. for W+1 to W+58, W+59 to LP, 50.4 EP; chroma W+84, A-1 to A-5, 5A AM 43.8 SP, 42.2 LP 24 VIDEO APRIL 1994

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VIDEOTESTS Simple Shootin’: Except for zoom, focus and a couple of auto exposure modes, GE’s CG818A offers no man- ual control over camera functions. Four years ago, er for only $649, GE’s CG818A. At a list price of VIDEOTEST the only camcord- We can’t remember ever testing a $649, the GE ers listing for less camcorder this inexpensive, certainly CG8I18A is one of 728 than $700 were not one that offers full functionality. For the least expen- marginal ma- $649, you get the advantages of 8mm (small size, long recording time), with an sive camcorders you can buy. It offers chines with “pea- electronic CRT-type viewfinder, an 8x no manual control of iris, shutter zoom lens with manual and automatic speed, white balance or backlight GE shooter” optical focusing, auto macro focusing at wide compensation, instead supplying five tube viewfinders auto exposure modes (plus full auto and no playback angle, a full set of playback controls and operation) to adjust for unusual facility. The only date/time imprinting. The CG818A has shooting situations. Unlike some very 8mm true subcompact only one zoom speed — slo—wbut it does inexpensive camcorders, it has auto- camcorder camcorder, Sony’s have a headphone jack and an accessory focus and an 8x zoom lens. With no 8mm CCD-TRS, shoe, both of which are conspicuously fader, mic jack, stereo sound, titling absent even from many Hi8 camcorders. or edit control provisions, this cam- listed for $1,500. corder is definitely not for serious Instead of manual controls, the cam- videographers. But the picture and We've come a long way since then—you audio quality are only a small notch below those of more expensive cam- can now get a fully functional camcord- corders, so at a price $350 below that of a typical 8mm camcorder, this is a GE CGBIBA Lens: f/1.8, 8x White Balance: Cue & Review Search: 8mm Camcorder (6-48 mm) zoom auto only forward 9x. reverse 7x steal for fun family video. Filter Diameter: 37mm Fast Forward/Rewind Time: 6-1/4 min. for Minimum Focusing Viewfinder: RESULTS Hi-Fi Dynamic Range: Distance: 1 inch in electronic CRT 120-min. tape Horizontal Resolution: 76.7 dB wide-angle Microphone: mono Edit Protocol: none 250 lines ‘ electret condenser Autofocus: TTL S/N Ratios (dB): Audio Distortion: unweighted video 36.4, 0.5% Price: $649 Iris: Jacks: Audio: hi-fi AFM mono weighted video 44.5, auto/programmed AE video/audio out, DC out chroma AM 37.8, Approx. Battery Life: for RF convertor, ear- Clock/Timer Battery chroma PM 34.8 76 min. (man. focus/no Weight & Size (h/w/d): Shutter Speeds (sec.): phone Backup: 1 year 1.7 Ibs, without battery Minimum Illumination: zoom) or cassette, 4-5/8 x 1/60 (normal), sports Tape Speeds: Key Features: five 4.8 lux for 50 IRE 4-5/8 x 10-1/4 inches 1/60 to 1/250, high- SP, LP (play only) auto exposure modes, RATINGS flying erase head Audio Frequency Image Sensor: speed 1/250 to Video Heads: 2 Response: 70 Hz-20 Picture: good 1/3-inch CCD 1/10,000, close-up 1/60, kHz, +0.07/-3 dB, -16.4 low light 1/60, foreign dB at 20 Hz Audio: good lighting 1/100 Overall: good 26 VIDEO APRIL 1994

pea 1Fa-m8i0l0y-P3ho0t9o-&7V4i6de8o)SHOP Ws! CONFIDENCE DECNUSE YOUTIAVE RYFNTENDIIN UcleiAIEY AV GANLEY PrIOU OeVIDEO) JP AP3YO,0iPOUg, Ra.ne 1-L8O0G0AE-N4Y0, 5-L7IN4E68 BUSINESS) HOURS: MON-THURS M- 8:30PM. FRI 9:30-6:30PM. SUN10AM-7PM. CLOSED SATURDAY 1-718-645-1298 igitaSlpecialfects 3 oN Ee Pe LaserDis Player ace ceaepeanescosioae “18 Pay “oesue Two SidedPlay == *‘DuCalD DeAcuktSoyRnecvherrose ¢Random Play PD-M552CD.. CLD-D502 LASER DISC...449.99 CLDL-ASEVRKA7RAOK4E...0509.99 VSX-402 RECEIVER wera 189. PD-M502 CD... CLD-V720 LASERKARAOKE..514,99 Dalyog ws Dolby PrLooic w/DPS PD-1M2 CD.. 294.99 CT-WM62R CASSETT VSX-D2S RECEIVER +130Watser Clam #125 WattsPer Channel PD-DM902 CD. .9 CT-W602R CASSETTE VSX-D9025 RECEIVER.....669.99 VSX-D6025 RECEIVER 419.99 VSX-502 RECEIVER vssss .9 PD-DM80C2D. .9 _CT-W502R CASSETTE .... VSX-D702S RECEIVER ...489,99._VSX-5125 RECEIVER .sss324.99 VSX-452 RECEIVER vsrsns219.99 PD-M7C0D2su 9 *Color ’ Me Vewinder Image Stabilizer is f T+HBi;BCanSdhuBtme ‘+N3aLiisnee RDeidguitcatliqon “ccnp toy |ae CCCCCCCCCCCCDDDDDD------FFTFTTXXRXRR545332220100000000........v.....vvseseroe-1099. 9 ~~329a.99EVEEE.VVV-.-$ACC35410000000888M8MMMM.M,.....mer.......12“EC6ACL9:A9CLRL.rSSMGLTDV-tR-PHD$-F-r5610030e561801Mi,LMBAE/rSTTEAVRe.....rDISC... CCD-FX620.. 9‘99 CSLCVD-.4SCCD.0CCD0-5FXV713H0'.SColor Mon....669.99919.. once ial STRD.711 3SSLLVV--97050 VVHHSS.. ‘9 SLV4 STATE leva: «“+S2Ct0oaxlbtoirliDDizigagitititaoalnlZFoaodme +‘“#C1VoailLdouerxoZVLiieewsnder SVHSC rrra,metame a 1h —Uh —speci $+1S:LVuHxS j : 94, ‘ IQ *Stabilzation es ; r SF“TEiUEnOeLPBERaLeOLLdINFOEOWR+ C #360,000 Pixels “Super VHS Heaps #20x1 Digital Zoom +Hi FiStereo PV-332 PV-362 +12x1 Zoom Hidam ¢S-VHS VCR Plus +180 Flexi-Grip +Cable Box Control ‘Title Scroll Display *10xt Zoom +‘D4i1g0i,t0a0l0SpPiexceilsal ec 1x1 Z ; UC-+1... «“FlRyeinngEerCasoeHteoad VVR-R664EHF UC-20.. van E-700.... PRO-830 8MM VCR PRO-840 8MM PRO-883 8MM .. VR-658HF VCR PRO-930 8MM. VR-601HF VCR VR-537HF VCR Gite), |RICOH VR-526A VCR.. CITIZEN mT See irees=ceym ais “Ser SanMdixer toc cae +Variable Wide & Fade Jog ‘ 329 is: Controlled *Time Base Correction M-329 oo Monitor 3.x Le. M-329 wow CALL 889.99 sandes FX ED/t4 179.99) NNON YASHICACAMCORDERS AG-195 AT GUARANTEED LOW PRICES MX- @ HITACHI +VCR “ii 8mm Rewinder.. +Hi FiStereo VHS Rewinder... Beta Rewinder.... HS-U82 HS-U69, eaeh LLMO CALL FAMILY VIDEO & GET 9UJ6B“1Odep9lIp1eAB1dIe9OyS AT GUARANTEED LOW PRICES GUARANTEED LOW PRICES CompanyPolicyAllmerchandise brandnewandfactorpacked,We acceptllMajorCreditCard& COD.MoneyOrdershouldbeentto1961CONEYISLANDAVE,BKLYN.NY. 11223.Allow4 weesforPersonalChecks.MerchandiseRetumtalewithin7dayfs orefundorexchange.All retumesmustbenorignalmintconditionwthfactoryboxpackaging {allpaperwork.Refundsgivelnes5% RestockingFeandlesShipping& HandingCharges.Priceas regoofoprhoneandmailorderony.ProductsofferedcayIntemational Warrantyunessatedotherwise. USAProductsvariyncostallo. NotResponsiblefotrypographicaleros,PRICESVALIDUNTILEND OFMONTHLYKSUE, DCA¥0898874

corder offers five auto exposure modes able-speed zoom, no LANC jack for edit CG8I18A is identical to the more expen- plus full auto operation. The modes can control, no recording from line sources, be accessed by pushing a button on the no titling, no fader and, most important, sive RCA Pro808, which is supplied with camcorder’s side. A display in the view- a remote and a different accessory pack. no manual control of iris, shutter speed, finder shows which mode is activated, backlight compensation or white bal- What do you give up in picture qual- and an auto lock switch on the side of ance. For most Video Magazine readers, ity with a $650 camcorder? Not as much the camcorder prevents activation of those are important features. But most as we expected. We rate the picture the AE modes. The manual describes of the non-videophiles we know would the modes thoroughly. never use any of those features! quality good, comparable to what we’ve seen in typical 8mms. From a measure- Two appear to set white balance to With so few controls, the CG818A is ment standpoint (because the CG818A outdoor, while engaging the high-speed extremely easy to use. The battery is the doesn’t record from line sources, we shutter— the sports mode uses the high- standard NP-55 type used on many Sony est shutter speed practical between 1/60- models, so spares will be inexpensive used a test tape made in a Sony EV- and 1/250-second, the high-speed shutter and easy to find. Although the lens cap $3000 Hi8 VCR), the results are below mode uses speeds between 1/250- and is a cheap-looking plastic job attached average for 8mm camcorders. But 1/10,000-second. The close-up mode au- with a tiny molded plastic strap, it is per- recordings through the lens produced haps the most useable cap we've better (and more relevant) results. tomatically zooms out for macro shots, found —it fits very securely to the lens, and uses the 1/60-second shutter speed. and snaps firmly to the side of the cam- The problems we noticed include a The low light setting appears to boost corder for shooting. One possible nega- slight amount of chroma AM and PM gain by a couple of decibels, resulting in noise, resulting in barely perceptible a slight improvement in brightness of tive result of the low price, however, is flickering of red and purple fields, and a low-light recordings, with a concomitant the transport mechanism, which doesn’t very slight decrease in detail compared increase in noise. Last, there’s a foreign look as substantial as those on more ex- to the best 8mm camcorders. Color sat- lighting mode for shooting in fluorescent pensive 8mm camcorders. uration was just a hair lower than we'd light in countries with 50-Hertz power. have liked. But there’s none of the nas- Too bad there are no modes for back-lit GE doesn’t supply a remote control, ty-looking noise and artifacts you get or front-lit scenes. but there is a remote sensor above the with many expensive camcorders that lens. The camcorder responds to infra- use digital signal processsing. (Digital ar- If you’re interested in doing serious red commands from RCA camcorder re- tifacts don’t show up in lab measure- video, stay away —there’s no micro- motes and the VCR 2 commands of ments.) Overall, this is a respectable phone jack, no stereo sound, no vari- showing for any 8mm camcorder, and RCA universal remotes. In fact, the remarkable for one priced at $649. PANASONIC PB80/88 orig. PAN .. RAPID CHARGERS SONY NP77H 2400 mah........ SONY 8mm 1500 mah.......... 6V, 7.2V, 9.6V from house or auto - | hr. time CANON 8mm 2000 mah......... for Sony, Canon, Panasonic, RCA/Hitachi PALMCORDER 2000 mah........ Charges | battery $49 Charges 2 batteries $87 JVC GR-C9 1500 mah........... SHARP BT 21/22 NEW External will give you a minimum of 5 to 7 hours of recording time. Powerpac+ includes: Batteries 6 volt @ 10 Amps iy Ss Adaptor sealed lead acid battery Memory-Free Guaranteed Heavy duty pouch and belt A charger for charging at home (optional °85charging cord for car, boat or plane). An adaptor of your choice. 28-25 215 PLACE, BAYSIDE, N.Y. 11360 ¢ FAX 718-631-5117 800-442-4275 Bn Circle 10 on Reader Service Card. 28 VIDEO APRIL 1994

Minimum illumination is good at 4.8 (although any Dolby Pro-Logic system All your tapes would produce superior results). can look... lux for 50 IRE. The autofocus, however, As you’d expect for $1,899, the set Video Simulation is only fair—it tends to hunt a bit even offers a good helping of features. These include a flexible, dual-tuner picture-in- as Clear as Day! in good light, and in medium to low picture system with digital memory, al- lowing two inset picture sizes and all of Video Staten light, we found it best just to switch it off the usual PIP features. Because the set has two tuners, you can watch two with INTELESTAR and use manual focus. channels at once using PIP. To do this on a set with a single tuner, you have to e Connects easily to any VCR Audio, too, shows some disagree- hook up a VCR and use its tuner for the e Durable metal casing second. picture. e Gold-plated cables ment between lab measurements and e 2-Year Long-lasting Battery There’s also a digital memo button ¢ Copy Any Tape hands-on tests. The bass response just that grabs a still frame of whatever you're watchi—nigt’s extremely useful The Intelestar VS-400 defeats copyguard ain't ther—eit’s down 16.4 dB at 20 Hz. when you have to copy a phone number technology to give you crystal-clear copies of or recipe from the screen. The memo your favorite pre-recorded tapes. But who’s going to use a $649 camcorder display button brings you back to the normal viewing mode; pushing memo (especially one with no mic jack) for se- display again recalls the stored frame. rious audio recording? For the audio ma- A channel index feature lets you cover the screen with still frames from terial most people record with a 16 channels, or cover the bottom and tight side of the screen (in an L-shaped camcorder— voices, voices and voices— pattern) with stills from eight channels. The set also has all the features com- the CG818A works quite well. The monly found in today’s better TVs, like sound of the mic is warm, not the tinny, channel lockout, channel labeling, a junky sound you'd expect from an inex- sleep timer, an on/off timer with three memories, and a memory for seven fa- pensive mic. There's virtually no leakage vorite channels, which lets you access of transport or zoom motor noise into the channels using the menu system rocker control instead of the channel se- the mic, either. (Far too many very ex- lection rocker. pensive camcorders have real problems The KV-27XBR95S offers more in- puts and outputs than most people will in this area.) We rate the audio good ever use, including three S-video/video/ overall. stereo audio inputs on the rear, a video/ stereo audio input on the front, two Obviously, fans of Canon’s L1 and video/stereo audio outputs (one with Sony’s CCD-TRIOI won’t be seduced by S-video) and two auxiliary audio out- puts. It also has a loop for connecting a the CG818A. But if you’re just looking cable box, to avoid the cumbersome splitter/A-B switch arrangement you for an inexpensive camcorder to dink usually need to use PIP with cable. around with, or if you’re looking for one The set’s universal remote is one of to give as a gift for someone who's not a the most versatile we’ve seen with a TV set. It controls three VCRs, one laser- video nut, the CG818A is a fine choice. disc player and a cable box, all of vir- tually any brand you already own. To set We found no bothersome quirks in its the codes for your equipment, you can use the remote’s preprogrammed code performance, and for a $649 camcorder, sets (codes for major brands are listed in that’s a minor miracle. a the manual), or use its learn function to 27-INCH TV teach it specific commands from anoth- er remote. continued from page 23 The remote offers dedicated controls large, detachable speakers, each pow- for accessing the menu system. One is a 95 “BUsa4}/dOaPDIplIAelIIaDOyS ered by a beefy (for a TV) 13-watt amp. menu button, the other is a rocker that 5 plus S & H. It has amps for surround speakers, al- also acts as a pushbutton switch. Using though surround speakers are not in- these controls, navigating the menu sys- The INTELESTAR VS-400 will allow cluded. Surround mode options include tem is a snap. However, there are sever- you to make legitimate copies of pre- Dolby Surround, Hughes SRS, jazz club, recorded cassettes using leading edge dance club, live concert and simulated al submenus, and many choices on some technology. In Addition, the stereo. of those, so making a simple adjustment INTELESTAR will purify your video sig- like changing the surround mode often nal by removing undesirable, distorted The sound system is so good, you requires a dozen or so button punches. images caused by the copy guard on might be fooled into thinking you were your pre-recorded tapes. Unauthorized The big problem we found with the hearing a inexpensive rack system in- duplication of copyrighted material is prohibited. stead of a TV. The Dalby Surround mode produced a big, room-filling sound Order Now! with surround speakers. It reproduces stereo pans in movie soundtracks well, 800-829-7746 but doesn’t offer the front-to-back sep- aration required to produce convincing Master Card, Visa, Money Orders. Se Habla Espanol. front-to-surround pans, like the fly- S&H Extra and non-refundable. We check for sto- overs common to Star Trek TV shows len credit cards. and movies. Vista International, Inc We didn’t care all that much for the 1971 E. 5th St., #101 * Tempe, AZ 85281 music surround modes (we seldom do), but you might like using them when you watch MTV. Clearly, though, this is the best sound system ever designed into a 27-inch TV. If sound isn’t all that impor- tant to you, or you’re using the TV in your bedroom, you could even blow off using a separate surround sound system APRIL 1994 VIDEO 29

menu system concerns picture adjust- ketball players, we’d buy it without hesi- The deck features JVC’s R.A. (Ran- ment. The set offers custom, preset pic- tation. But if we had to spend our own dom Assemble) Edit, which is an edit ture modes for standard viewing, bucks, some of our editors would opt for controller that lets you mark the start movies, sports, news, music videos and the Panasonic or the ProScan. So give and end points of up to eight scenes, videogames. Some people may like using all the sets a good look, and be sure to then sit back while it automatically edits these, but we found the color setting adjust them yourself—don’t trust the the selected scenes onto a tape in anoth- way too high on all of them. If you buy store to do it. = er VCR. This feature works with other the set, pull the color down immediately JVC VCRs that have remote pause or and leave it there! R.A. Edit jacks—just connect the two decks with a cable. JVC offers an option- JVC VCRWe think it’s a better idea to skip factory settings and calibrate TVs with al universal remote (model RM-V403U) color bars and aybiue filter. Of course, continued from page 23 that plugs into the HR-VP700U’s cable you can do that with this set, but if you box/R.A. Edit jack. It lets you use any engage any of the preset picture modes, audio. Insert is very useful for editing, infrared remote-controllable VCR as the your settings are lost. We wish Sony had especially if you want to cut to the beat recorder in an R.A. Edit setup. We didn’t have a chance to try the provided a memory (or two or three) for of music. Just monitor the linear track, user-preferred settings, as found on most start recording and hit pause on the HR-VP700U with the RM-V403U, but high-end TVs. Also, sound adjustments beat. We’re surprised, though, that JVC we tried the same setup on JVC’s S-VHS are spread through three submenus, in- did not include audio dub to the linear HR-S6900 and achieved edits that were stead of being grouped entirely on the track, which would allow replacing the from three to 70 frames (2-1/3 seconds) late. That might be okay for a thrown- audio menu, which makes them hard to audio without affecting the video. find. The Hyper Bass button on the front together vacation video, but it’s not In summary, this is easily one of the of the deck boosts the bass of hi-fi audio good enough for anyone who’s serious finest TVs we have tested. The set most tracks by about 10 decibels at 20 Hertz. about editing. The deck also has what JVC calls a similar to it is the Panasonic The boost gradually decreases at higher CT-27XF40, which lists for $600 less. frequencies, dying out completely at “family message center.” This feature We field many questions from readers about 1 kilohertz. You might find this lets you leave messages that appear on asking which set we would buy, and still useful if your TV has speakers with the TV screen when someone turns on haven’t come up with a solid answer. wimpy bass, or if you simply want a little the VCR. You can choose from canned Overall, we prefer the Sony, and if we extra rumble once in a while from your phrases like ‘Happy Birthday” and were stockbrokers or professional bas- home theater system. phrases you add text to, like “Meet Me Last year, 10pro football games went into sudden deat Unfortunately, s 1,789,347 camco 3 What agony, missing the thrill of victory because yi The cause of this unfortunate event is called “me: fully drained, the more it “remembers” it’s taking less think it’s got plenty of power, it’s actually on its las NoMEM™ Battery from If you want to be sure you’re not cut out o Ilcharge every time, any time. Lenmar. The original memory free battery. ANol Plus, it’s 100% compatible with your current bat er. For fresh power you can always cou kyour Lenmar dealer for NoMEM Batteries. And catch all the action without your battery suddenly calling “time out.” For your nearest Lenmar Battery dealer, and a catalog of our Camcorder Performance Products call: 800/424-2703 ©1994 Lenmar Enterprises, Inc. CAMCORDER PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS Circle 12 on Reader Service Card.

dV HA-VP7O0U recordings confirmed what the instru- KKKKKK VS VER Key Features: flying ments told us. One slight caveat is that es Price: $600 erase head, VCR Plus ECRCOR. TPikTfsE(ees Weight & Size (h/w/d): with cable box control, the still frame is unusually jittery. But 10 Ibs., 3-3/4 x 15 x jog/shuttle (no reverse LARGEST 12-1/4 inches Jog) on VCR and te- overall, we can't imagine anyone would LaserDisc Tape Speeds: SP, LP mote, integral edit (play only), EP controller (multibrand be disappointed with the HR-VP700U’s Store Video Heads: 4 with optional controller), In The family message center, pictur—ewe rate it excellent. Universe bass boost, auto head cleaner, video dub The sound is also quite good. The 2514 Cobb Parkway Smyrna, GA 30080 RESULTS hi-fi tracks offer very even response Ph 1-404-955-8909 throughout the audio range. The mono Fx 1-404-984-2173 linear track falls off below 100 Hz, so you VISA - MASTERCARD - DISCOVER C.0.D. - CHECKS lose a bit of bass response compared to 10:00 - 7:00 EST MON - FRI Horizontal Resolution: many other top VHS decks, which 240-250 lines * CONTINENTAL ONLY - UPS GROUND Rapid Search: sometimes offer -3 dB response down to (locking) 7x SP, 21x EP S/N Ratios (dB): KKKKKK unweighted video 44.5 75 Hz. However, the linear-track fre- Cue & Review Search: SP, 41.8 EP; weighted variable to 7x SP, 21x video 48.2 SP, 46.5 quency response at the other end is un- EP EP; chroma AM 46.2 SP, 41.4 EP; chroma usually high, extending to 12.5 kHz. The Fast Forward/Rewind PM 41.6 SP, 37.8 EP Time: less than 5 min. HR-VP700U's audio is almost as good as for 120-min. tape that of the best VHS decks we’ve test- | ed—we rate it very good to excellent. Jacks: front—video/ Audio Frequency Overall, we rate the HR-VP700U stereo audio input; Response: hi-fi 20 very good to excellent. As a home thea- tear—video/stereo au- Hz-20 kHz, +1.1/-1.8 ter deck, the terrific picture and VCR dio input and output, dB; linear 100 Hz-12.5 Plus with cable box control make it ide- RF input and output, a SP, 100 Hz-5 kHz AN CompuLink (remote al. As an editing deck, it has a few short- control command relay comings, all of which are due to a few from other JVC equip- Hi-Fi Dynamic Range: features it lacks, not its performance, ment), cable box/R.A. | 87.66 dB which is outstanding. It’s certainly one Edit Linear Audio S/N: of the most attractive options in top-of- Edit Protocol: JVC 43.8 dB the-line VHS VCRs. a| R.A. Edit Audio Distortion: hi-fi Audio: linear mono, 0.3%, linear 1.1% hi-fi AFM stereo RATINGS Cable Tuning Range: Picture: very good continued from page 24 113 channels Timer: 8-event/1-year Audio: very good/ box on top of the VCR to make this fea- excellent ture work; depending on how your sys- tem is arranged, you might prefer a Clock/Timer Battery Overall: very good/ Backup: none wired, remote emitter. excellent If you use a cable box, you should At:” or create your own message of up to definitely buy a VCR with cable box °= 20 characters. control. If you don’t, the VCR Plus cir- cuitry in the VR8903 will still work fine g The front panel has a full set of con- for you. Be forewarned, thoug—hifyour trols for the menu system, so you can op- cable channels don’t match those in the o erate all of the deck’s features without listings, you'll have to reprogram the VR8903’s channel assignments. It’s an —_ the remote control. Unfortunately, this easy but tedious process. a layout is rather uniq—uweith most of today’s VCRs, you need the remote con- The deck also has a multibrand re- ° trol to do anything but play and record. mote that controls most brands of cable One minor problem with the buttons is aP3y that they’re designed for looks, rather boxes and TVs; skip search, which than function. The buttons are all the quickly advances through one minute of © same shape, and they’re not placed in tape every time you push the button iy the kind of logical groupings Samsung (ideal for skipping commercials on tapes used for the VR8903 also reviewed in of TV shows); an extra set of audio out- ga this issue. Thus, it can be difficult to op- puts for connecting the VCR to a stereo erate the deck by feel or in dim light. hi-fi system; and menus in English, © French or Spanish. The only common The picture quality of the HR- feature it lacks (outside of the ones list- n VP700U is terrific, about as good as ed above) is an automatic head cleaner. VHS gets. It’s smooth, clean and sharp, @2. with little visible noise. Measurements Samsung’s designers gave the VR8903 a couple of nice touches that tr] revealed video signal-to-noise ratios that make the deck a dream to use. The transport buttons on the front panel are »°@@ are only a little above average, not as arranged and shaped very logically—the stellar as we expected after witnessing rewind button is an arrow pointing to =~ the outstanding picture. However, the the left, fast forward is an arrow pointing chroma AM (color saturation) and to the right, play is in between and stop chroma PM (color accuracy) measure- ments were very impressive, and here, visual checks of color-bar and red-field APRIL 1994 VIDEO 31

VMG 4-94 © omput Ability PanasonicSince 1982 Consumer Electronics Broadcast & Television Systems Company present the 2-hour S-VHS Camcorder and S-VHS Video Hi-Fi Cassette Recorder! S-VHS with amorphous video head 12X power zoom lens (2-speed) Hi-fi audio with stereo zoom mic Built-in VITC generator Manual white balance set Manual iris control Digital effect Digital gain-up Digital zoom (24X or 100X) Strobe, still, tracer, wipe, mix Low light capability (scene illumination | lux) ¢ Super-VHS and amorphous video heads _ ¢ 2 line digital time base correc- § tor for less color interference ¢ Improved transport system ¢ Optional AG-A%6 editing controller ¢ Hi-fi stereo sound system with a : dynamic range of over 90dB ¢ Jog and shuttle search (jog and shuttle operations feature a remarkable smooth, quick response form still playback to high-speed search

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WS a NLION T4BAeTtIaEitRY foe is below. This is more-or-less the stand- however, the picture looks grainy, with- ard VCR control layout, and we wish all out the smooth quality we noticed in manufacturers would use it. The shapes JVC’s HR-VP700. Also, the color noise and positions of the buttons make the is a bit higher than we would like. Solid- / BATTERIES... color areas tend to vary a bit in intensity 7O7MPSAAONNNY 1600mah........ 27.97 |e deck easy to use even in dim light. and hue, although not to a greater de- | gree than with most VHS decks. All new VHS-C...... 3787 i Likewise, the VR8903’s remote adopts the convenient transport control told, we rate picture quality good to very ]CANON new 8mm....27.97 |i layout now used on many other decks: The transport controls are in a circle, ‘| good, in the middle range of VHS decks. RCA/HITACHI/MIN....27.97}] with an indent in the center to make it Videophiles who demand the ultimate PAN BP80/88............ 39.97 easy for your thumb to find the right in picture quality will want to look else- button. And on both the remote and the where, but timeshifting enthusiasts who There is no camcorder battery we do not deck, there’s a full set of transport con- do a lot of EP recording may find the have, or cannot get! From No-Memory trols plus a jog/shuttle. We like this be- VR8903’s exceptional performance at batteries, to extended play...call the cause we’ve never gotten used to using the EP speed enticing. Specialists! Nothing too far out of the ordinary to report in the way of audio. The ..-AND MORE!*all fully guaranteed!!* the jog/shuttle to activate fast forward measurements indicated a good to very wZSMwyowuLnNwe4%ynSses aSnd LIights.................::00+ and rewind, as one has to do with the JVC HR-VP700 reviewed on page 23. good rating, mainly because the re- Cellular Telephone ee Te sponse of the hi-fi tracks is down 4 dB at CRS1Coi4eanrracdv3dl.iecCreomputer and Laptop Batteries..CALL! The video performance of the 20 Hertz. However, this is really aca- VR8903 is most unusual in that the un- ZQChOargers, Battery Belts, Car Cords, weighted video signal-to-noise ratios are demic, because it’s not a drastic roll-off, and the only speakers that have usable GHEReEIREiEdentical at all three speeds. This is the first time we've seen this phenomenon. response at 20 Hz are extremely expen- sive full-range speakers (like Thiel’s 1-800-275-2879 The weighted video S/N, which puts less | $10,000 CS5s) and very good sub- AN NYC OR OUTSIDE THE US (212)768-7595 emphasis on noise the eye is less likely to woofers. perceive, is almost as well matched, Z#1 BATTERY SPECIALISTS varying by only 0.5 decibel. Performance Overall, the VR8903 deserves a in the color measureme—nchtrosma good to very good rating. Those who 74 W. 38th ST. 2nd Floor AM and PM S/N —varies more, but is value user-friendliness and/or good- still pretty close. New York, NY 10018 FAX (212) 768-9530 quality EP recording will enjoy it. s Despite the good measurements, Returns within 30 days in new condition. Shipping, in- surance. return shipping are not refundable. Above brand Z Y names are copyrighted. Prices subject to oe AAMAAMAAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA UNOMWMM LLL aul ANNyyNAN speakers are Factory-direct Wrap it up available in pricefor threefinishes. complete While reading your article “Dews and system.* Don'ts for Shooting in the Tropics” Not available (“Camcorner,” Dec. ’93), I realized I had the same problem in Hong Kong in stores. and Bali. What worked for me was this: After shooting all day in the city and SDoolubnydPPrrioce BrseiackStuhrrroouugnhd! beach area, as soon as I came back to the hotel I wrapped the camcorder in a We believe this to be the country’s best value heavy towel to keep the outside air in formance DolbySUTUTE PO lameOur lowest price ever on a hi and the air-conditioned air out. Then I gic home theater sound system. stored it in the closet to keep the cold FREE AUDIO hotel air from blowing on the package. I We don’t know of any Pro Logic system of CATALOG just used this same method in Australia this quality near this price. Hook it up to your TV and stereo VCR to create a home theater. Components by Pioneer, Sony, Kenmore, New Yorkand it worked perfectly. Rikers Raff C1RSCoi5eanrracdvdl.ieecre This system uses our new Model Six loud- Philips, Denon, Cambridge speaker by Henry Kloss as the main speakers. SoundWorks and others. Contact cleaning Stereo Review magazine says “Model Six is truly a high quality speaker...it has an ‘all 1-800-FOR-HIFI Avoid denatured alcohols for cleaning there’ quality that belies its amazingly low contacts. The denaturing is just an addi- price...an exceptional value.” CAMBRIDGE tive to make the product taste bad so it Center and surround speakers are our Model won't be consumed, but the additive can Ten-A. The Sony receiver includes Dolby Sur- SOUNDWORKS leave a film on surfaces. Try brake clean- round Pro Logic, 5 channels (50/50/10/10/10 er when you need super clean metal sur- watts/ch.) and a system remote. The Sony CD Suite 130, 154 California Street Cet0 sal faces. But test it first since it may be player sounds great. Newton, MA 02158 Fax 617-332-9229 unfriendly to some plastics and finishes, and keep it away from open flames! * Not including shipping. Dolby is a trademark of Dolby Labs. K.C. Van Winkle Rancho San Diego, California 34 VIDEO APRIL 1994

HOME THEATER Video dubbing only works with the continued from page 16 linear audio track. The higher quality plifiers inside its chassis, and the cool hi-fi audio tracks get erased and re-re- thing is you can configure these six channels to suit your needs. For exam- corded whenever you record new video. ple, you can have six 30-watt channels of amplification; bridge each stereo pair Unfortunately, most consumer camcord- together, and you have three 90-watt channels; bridge only two channels to- ers have monaural linear track audio, al- gether, and you have one 90-watt amp and four 30s; and and and and.... though a few older portable VCRs and It’s this kind of flexibility, backed by many industrial models offer stereo lin- NAD’s reputation for audiophile-grade ear audio. To convert a stereo audio sig- sound at real-world prices, that makes the 906 such a cool little amp for those nal to mono, use a small mixer or the who don’t need he-man sound pressure levels—like those of you who watch mono button on a home stereo receiver. nothing farther out than those wimpy British tea’n’crumpets garden party Do not use a Y-connector to combine snooze-fests like Howard’s End and Room signals, as it will create distortion. Al- With A View (a view to hell, in my book). ways use the faster SP speed—not the For those of us who do need he-man levels, there’s no better multichannel budget EP (SLP) spe—ebecdause it pro- amp than the mighty Acurus 200X3. Ba- sically one and a half of Acurus’ popular duces vastly better linear-track audio A250 stereo amp, the 200X3 packs three channels of 200-watt power into a recordings. chassis no larger than most regular ster- eo amplifiers. What if the band you’re recording Why three channels instead of six? doesn’t already have a professionally Say you’ve got a surround receiver with line outputs—you could send the line mixed demo tape? Your best bet is to outputs for left, right and center chan- rent them six hours of time at a small nels to the Acurus for the best possible sound, and use the receiver's own amps eight-track studio facility, for about $25 to drive the surround speakers, which usually need far less power than the an hour, and have them make a demo Acutus delivers. Or, of course, you can use two 200X3s for six channels of 200- tape. If you must record live sound, Avpio/VipE0 watt sound—and you'll be all ready and CATALOG set to handle Dolby’s new 5.1-channel rather than work from a recording, digital sound format, Dolby Surround You'll find the components and the Digital, when it comes to market in early you'll need a professional mixing console information you’re looking for in the 95. Crutchfield catalog. and at least four or five microphones. Upgrading to one of these high-qual- Hundreds of the latest audio, video ity, multichannel amps is one of the big- In a concert hall or a night club, and home theater components gest improvements you can make to Sony, Kenwood, Pioneer, Carver, your home theater. Take a page out of take a feed from the house mixing con- Bose, Advent, Infinity and more the audiophile book and try driving your surround speaker system with separate sole, rather than doing the mixing your- Exclusive comparison charts ‘amp—syou may be surprised to hear all the cool stuff you’ve been missing. m= self. Attempting to record music using Low, discount prices the camcorder’s microphone will usually Computers and car stereo, too result in very muddy, garbled recordings, Over 140 pages! Get yours on its way to you today because of the zillions of echoes and re- Call Now! verberations created by the walls of the 1-800-955-9009 room you're recording in. That’s why or mail this coupon professionals record music using micro- phones located very close to each instru- ment and vocalist. Recording and mixing live music is a difficult, demand- ing art form unto itself, requiring a sepa- rate person’s skill and attention. When making a music video, the more you can concentrate on the video, and not have to worry about the sound, the better your finished production will be. 8 AMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALS Infrared diagnostics Drop your remote control on the floor? “BJu9P2aO}9A1p1B0e1DUa9ayS continued from page 18 Are the batteries dead? Is it working? Name Don’t look in the tiny transmitter win- of video dubbing. Address Apt. # The more common audio dub fea- dow—humans can’t see infrared light. Here’s an easy yes/no infrared remote City ture will not get you very far with music videos. Attempts to piece together a test: Point the remote toward the lens of State Zip song with snippets of sound will result in jerky, poorly timed transitions in which your camcorder and look through the CRUTCHFIELD’ the musical beat will be lost, unless your viewfinder. CCD cameras are sensitive equipment can edit with perfect frame to infrared and the camera can see the L 1 Crutchfield Park, Dept. FI, Charlottesville, VA 22906 accuracy. light being emitted from the remote control unit. Jerry Crock RVTC Productions Mt. Holly, New Jersey

OW TRL>\" » _——4 ables Lucasfilm set the wrong sonic standards? THX and non-THX speakers testify. BY BRENT BUTTERWORTH Movieene THX speakers like M&K’s subwoofer and front satellite work wonders for movie sound. f January’s Consumer Electronics Show was any indication, home thea- ter may soon make its way onto Hard Copy. As the field matures, and splits into differing camps of opinion, a heated controversy has emerged in which all sides seem absolutely convinced they’re tight. For reviewers, who have access to a variety of gear at no cost, these are ex- citing times. But for consumers who can’t afford to make mistakes when buy- ing equipment, the controversies are confusing and maddening. For the moment, most of home thea- ter’s war of words is being argued in the court of audio. The defendant: Lu- casfilm, the company that positions its THX licensing program as the answer to home entertainment’s problems. The plaintiffs: manufacturers and audi- ophiles who charge that Lucasfilm’s THX standards limit speakers to medi- ocre performance, especially for music. On the surface, both sides make a 36 VIDEO APRIL 1994

pretty good case. Both will happily pro- Music Masters: duce reams of technical data to support B&W’s Matrix 803s (be- their stands, and both have conducted low right) and Mirage’s convincing demonstrations of their MC-si (right) and products and philosophies. But which M-5sis (below left) approach is best for the average home sound great with any theater enthusiast? The only way to find type of music. out is to listen. And listen is what we’ve done. Over the past several months, our jury of Vid- eo Magazine staffers has collected a vari- ety of THX and non-THX speaker systems, and listened to them with a wide variety of material: music from Bach organ sonatas to Kiss’ Double Plat- inum, and movies from Witness for the Prosecution to Demolition Man. By the time the gavel fell—after countless hours of serious listening and delibera- tion — we came to a verdict we think will help you pick out a speaker system you'll enjoy for years to come. We started with THX speaker sys- and B&W. The M&K system uses the tical, but with cosmetics slightly altered tems from B&W, M&K and JBL. Each same THX subwoofers and surround for horizontal use. includes three matched front speakers speakers, but substitutes S-90 speakers designed for narrow vertical dispersion for the front three channels. The $795/ The system came with two AS-180 and wide horizontal dispers—isoounnd front-firing powered subwoofers ($750 travels from them in a horizontal, fan- pair S-90s are designed for situations each) and two $550/pair RVSS sur- shaped pattern, rather than a cone- where M&Kk’s THX speakers are too rounds. The RVSSs are similar to a THX shaped pattern. This minimizes sound large or expensive. They use single woof- surround speaker, except that their reflections from the floor and the ceil- ers and tweeters— the same drivers as in halves operate out of phase above 400 ing, the intent to make dialog more in- the THX speakers —and are less than Hertz, and in phase below 400 Hz. API telligible. half the height and half the cost. says this prevents the bass cancellation that occurs with dipolar speakers. The JBL and M&K front speakers he B&W non-THX system we each use two tweeters flanked by two chose consists of two $3,000/pair The Mirage system we tried is based woofers, all lined up vertically.. The Matrix 803 Series 2 speakers for left on two $1,800/pair M-5si bipolar speak- and right channels and an $800 B&Ws have the same configuration, but Matrix 805 for the center. (At CES, ers for left and right (see our “Home use three tweeters. All three speakers— B&W showed a flatter version of the Theater” column, Nov.’93),a $500 MC- left, center and right— must be posi- 805 intended for center-channel use). si center speaker and the two Energy tioned straight up. We used BQW’s THX surrounds with these, because B&W doesn’t make a surrounds, which API will probably also THX systems use two dipolar sur- dedicated surround speaker. market under the Mirage brand. Bipolar round speakers. These are somewhat We also tried two non-THX systems speakers are similar to dipolar speakers, like two speakers facing opposite direc- made by Audio Products International, except that both halves operate in tions, glued together at the back and one under the Mirage brand, the other phase. wired out of phase. Lucasfilm’s intention is that no sound reaches the listener di- an Energy system. The Energy RVSI1 A few particulars on our trial pro- rectly from the surround speaker; in- front speakers ($700/pair) each use two cedures: We conducted most of our lis- stead, it’s all reflected from the walls and woofers flanking a tweeter; the $350 the ceiling. According to Lucasfilm, this RVS2 center speaker appears to be iden- tening in our 5,500-cubic-foot, creates a more natural, enveloping sur- acoustically treated home theater room, round effect. with laserdiscs and CDs played in a Pi- oneer CLD-97 combi player. Our sur- Lucasfilm specifies two subwoofers for each THX system. JBL and B&W use traditional, front-firing passive de- signs (you provide the amp). M&K uses an unusual, 400-watt powered design with one front-firing driver and a second that fires into the cabinet. Sound com- ing from the back of the second driver actually radiates into the room. The complete systems cost $3,000 for the JBL, $7,000 for the B&W and $8,690 for the M&K. To judge the effect Lucasfilm’s specs have on speaker design, we also bor- rowed non-THX systems from M&K APRIL 1994 VIDEO 37

oF Power Straggle FourTHXAmps Ve.ANon-THX Contender BY BRENT BUTTERWORTH round processors were THX-approved Although Lucasfilm’s THX speakers foster heated debate, the company’s amp- models from Lexicon and Audio Design lifier specifications have caused hardly a stir. That's because the specs (which include standards for power delivery, headroom, distortion and other Associates (ADA); our amps were THX performance parameters) don’t seem to demand drastic changes in design. models from ADA and Marantz. We placed each center speaker atop a Pan- We recently tried four THX amps: Marantz’s $299 MA-500 mono amp, asonic PT-5OWXF5 rear-projection TV. Kenwood’s $899 KM-XI six-channel amp, and Audio Design Associates’ For movie listening, we calibrated all $6,195 MPA-500 five-channel amp and $2,095 BPA-500 subwoofer amp. the systems to THX standards, so that a pink noise signal 20 decibels below max- Then we compared them to a popular non-THX amp, Rotel’s RBX-980BX. imum level read 85 dB on our sound In audio circles, there are two amp camps. One says there are significant pressure level meter. (This is the same sonic differences between amplifiers; the other says there aren’t. We fall in level used to mix movie soundtracks, the former camp, although we’ll admit you won't find us spending $8,000 for and is thus the correct level for play- a stereo amp. There are slight tonal differences in amps, but we feel they're less important than the sense of ease you get with a powerful amp that has back.) When we used music for direct a robust power supply (many inexpensive amps, in our opinion, do not). comparisons between speakers, we set- Cynics will sneer at ADA’s $6,195 amp, but one listen will turn their tled on a level 3 dB lower. Finally, we wired with Monster THX speaker cables sneers into smiles —this has got to be the best five-channel amp made. The and interconnects, which use a new col- MPA-500 incorporates two chassis, one for the power supply, one for the or-coding scheme created just for home five 250-watt amps. The massive cable that connects the two looks like it theater. These made our frequent sys- came off a turbine at Hoover Dam. Jumbo level meters on the amp’s front tem reconfigurations much easier. give it a powerful look I loved, but our other staffers said they'd put electri- AUDIBLE EVIDENCE cal tape over them. The MPA-500’s sound is wonderfully clear, clean and detailed, never As you'd expect, the speakers we lis- tened to sounded very different. At these strained. That comes as no surpris—ea Lucasfilm rep told me that the ADA prices, sounding bad would be a major of- amp can't clip, because household wall current is limited to 20 amperes, and fense — of which, for- the MPA-500 needs more than that to reach its power ceiling. The sub- tunately, none of the woofer amp offers a similarly slamming level of performance, but I wish speakers were guilty. Our jury thought all the speak- ADA had put two sets of binding ers sounded pretty good, but that all had strengths posts on it instead of one. Of course, and weaknesses. We'll sep- arate these into eight ar- the total system price of $8,290 is eas: imaging, neutrality, ambience, voice intel- more than most people will ever be ligibility, timbre-matching, able to afford for an amp, but hey, if surround soundfield, sub- woofers and cosmetics. I win the lottery, one of my first calls e Imaging and sound- will be to ADA. staging. The big, colossal, overwhelming differences You'll need at least five of Mar- between these speakers are in imaging and soundstag- antz’s 100-watt MA-500s for a home ing. Imaging is the sonic il- lusion of real instruments theater, plus one or two more if you being played in front of you; soundstaging is the use subwoofers. (You can also con- left-to-right, back-to-front placement of those instru- nect two together to double the ments between, behind, to power.) The mono design means you the sides of and sometimes in front of the speakers. The two very of- don’t waste money on unused chan- ten go hand-in-—hsapenakders that im- age well often throw pretty convincing nels— most THX systems use seven soundstages, the differences in soundstag- ing then boiling down to dimensions. channels of amplification, and with To put it plain and simple, THX stereo amps you get either six or speakers don’t offer much in the way of eight. Unfortunately, it also means you have five to seven amps to turn on and off. The MA-500s have a circuit that turns them on automatically, but it only works with Marantz’s AV-500 surround processor. Despite the extra buttons to push, we’ve come to love the MA-500s as afford- Tower of Power: From top, two Marantz ably priced, capable home theater MA-500s, Rotel’s RBX-980BX, Kenwood’s KM- amps. They don’t deliver the ulti- X1 and ADA’s MPA-500 amp and power supply. mate sound quality and power of the ADA amp, but they’re a superb choice for any real-world home theater system. Kenwood’s.KM-X1 is more-or-less intended for use with its KC-X1 THX continued on page 88 ae 38 VIDEO APRIL 1994

Controversial Characters: Four participants in our THX vs. non-THX trial—top left, JBL’s HT series THX slight harshness in the front speakers and subwoofer; top center, Energy’s RVS1 main speaker (vertical, with grille off) and RVS2 highs. All of the music center speaker (horizontal); top right, M&K’s S-90; and above, B&W's complete THX system. speakers produced notice- able colorations in the imaging or soundstaging. Anti- THX the THX speakers we tried.) sound, emphasizing some types say this is because of the speakers’ e Neutrality. The THX speakers score ranges (especially the tre- limited vertical dispersion. Lucasfilm ble) and de-emphasizing counters that electrostatic speakers— big here —all sound more neutral than others. But subjectively, many of which have won raves from au- the non-THX speakers. Here, the B&W such colorations sometimes diophiles— share this dispersion pattern. THX system is champ—these are proba- create a more enjoyable bly the most uncolored-sounding speak- sound. As you’d expect, Whichever side you believe, the fact ers we've tried. Voices are full and the more affordable Energy remains that for stereo music listening, all smooth without sounding chesty or over- of the THX speakers we tried paled in ly resonant, and instruments suffer no speakers were less neutral than the noteworthy colorations anywhere in the comparison with the B&W 803s and the BSW and Mirage non-THX models— Mirage M-5sis. “No THX system gives audio band. But without imaging, some of good-sounding, but a bit bright for our the realism is lost. As one listener put it, taste, although not to a level we found you the depth that many good, inexpen- “It sounds great, but it’s like a big blob of unpleasant or fatiguing. sive music speakers give you,” one lis- sound.” tener on our jury remarked. (Indeed, as I In the high-end audio world, there write this article, I’m listening to NHT’s The JBLs also turned in a good per- are those who value neutrality above all formance in this area, with the M&K else and care little about imaging, and $230/pair Super Zeros create sonic im- THX system coming in behind due to a those who'll sacrifice a little neutrality ages much more convincing than any of for better imaging. (Ideally, a speaker sacrifices neither, but such speakers are rare and usually very pricey.) Whichever camp you fall into is okay, but we fall into the second. e Ambience. With their severely lim- ited vertical dispersion, THX speakers fall flat in this area. This gives them a sound diametrically opposed to that of the Mirage bipolar speakers, which cre- ate a big, ambient, “airy” sound. Some audiophiles deride the bipolar sound as artificial, and we can’t argue on that point. But we enjoy the artifice! The En- ergy and B&W 803/805 systems also score well here. The M&K S-90s, how- ever, produce only a bit more ambience than the THX speakers we tried. Ambience adds a lot to both music and movies. Obviously, it makes music recordings sound more like live perfor- mances in real spaces. It does the same thing for the music in movie sound- tracks, and for foley effects. For exam- ‘ple, in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, when Indy and his dad are running through the zeppelin to board the bi- plane, the footsteps on the metal cat- walk sound more realistic through, say, the B&W 803/805 system than through the THX systems. This is the one area in which non-THX speakers have an ad- vantage for movie sound. e Voice intelligibility. THX gets the nod here —all of the systems did a good job. However, it’s not like voices are un- intelligible with other systems. In particu- continued on page 70 APRIL 1994 VIDEO 39

Multimedia, home theater, digital surround energize a buoyant CES ike a blast from the past, the Con- sumer Electronics Show returned to Las Vegas in January with record- breaking numbers and a bounty of new technology and products. Recent shows have seemed as muted as the economy, but this time business was brisk, cab lines were long and product previews were impressive. More than 92,000 visitors trawled for products and deals across more than a million square feet of exhibition space as CES over- flowed the city Convention Center into a score of major hotels, with many com- panies displaying in private suites away from the show floor. Computers led the way, powering a broad array of innovative multimedia applications. New home theater compo- nents and technologies like Dolby Sur- round Digital were also big draws, as were RCA’s direct broadcast satellite system, and a few new TVs and VCR enhancements. New | Celebrity Central: camcorders were scarce, | Steven Spielberg but interesting editing | (far left) triesa peripherals and video B camcorder at Pan- gadgets were plentiful. asonic's exhibit. | Elsewhere at CES, INTERACTIVE rocker Alice Coo- =PPOINn ThIi;sECRES keynote Spehre,ppmusGiocrdpornoduacnedr actor Michael Dou. address, Robert Kavner, glas (left) compare AT&T's CEO for multi- notes. media products, pre- dicted a near-future filled with sleek interactive services, eas- ily accessed through “intelligent termi- nals” in American homes. Though no one is sure what forms multimedia will eventually take, the show’s great variety of interactive exhibits made Kavner This story was written by Jim Barry, Lan- celot Braithwaite, Brent Butterworth, Ken- neth Korman and Stan Pinkwas. 40 VIDEO APRIL 1994

look very smart indeed. For the first PRODIGY V Mixed Media: time in CES history, interactive multi- ia Dual-deck 8mm/VHS Business A\\/ VCR by GoldStar media stole the spotlight from tradition- f (top left), the view on | Prodigy’s prototype for al audio/video products. an interactive cable TV system (far left), and The 3DO and CD-I systems each The Key by Lonestar (left), a guitar-like in- had a major presence. Trip Hawkins, Strument that comes | with a coded videotape 3DO president, again promised a banner to simplify playing. year for the fledgling format. He an- The Wide Ones: Toshiba’s first wide- nounced three companies would join screen TV (left) is a 56- inch rear-projection con- Panasonic in manufacturing 3DO hard- sole that includes two tuners, Dolby Pro-Logic ware this year, including Sanyo and decoding and a pair of rear speakers. Sharp ATGT, and projected that 100 new 3DO and Proton also take the widescreen plunge this titles would ship this year. An MPEG year with direct-view models. full-motion video cartridge for 3DO, APRIL 1994 VIDEO 41 compatible with a new White Book standard for Video CD, should be avail- able by summer, to be followed by major video titles on five-inch 3DO discs. Genesis Anew: Genesis CDX, Sega’s Philips announced a new CD-I play- compact, portable new game machine plays er with a five-disc changer, due later this Sega cartidges and CDs as well as audio year, and two new controllers, a $29.95 CDs. It’s priced at touchpad and a sleek infrared remote, $399. both designed to help CD-I compete as a gaming system. Philips also let dealers preview plans for a $299 CD-I player in- tended to look more like a game ma- chine than an A/V component. Goldstar and Samsung announced the first CD-I players not made by Philips. The company previewed several new multimedia titles incorporating full-mo- tion MPEG video, including Bob Marley: Every Song’s A Sign, a bio disc with vin- tage video clips, and the comprehensive Titanic, the first disc we’ve seen to work both with and without a video adapter. Both CD-I and 3DO seem to have de- cided that the multimedia battle will be won or lost in the software arena, and emphasized their unique titles accor- dingly. Philips also announced a deal with MGM/UA to digitize 30 films for release as full-motion CD-I videos in 94. The titles will probably include such MGM classics as The Wizard of Oz and the James Bond films. Technics, Sanyo, Samsung, GoldStar and newcomer Virtual Video showed prototype Video CD players that could handle these and other CD movies. Al- though Video CD players were generally downplayed, GoldStar said its model will definitely appear in the U.S. this year, and Samsung said its player probably will appear. >

Snaps and Zaps: device that will al- The VideoSnap by San- low two people in dif- ferent locales to play Sega sui (left) produces Genesis games together in real Polaroid prints of time via standard phone lines. screen shots from Prodigy showed a prototype for an el- standard video sources, egant cable TV system that will offer ac- while Arista’s Commer- cess to interactive services along with cial Brake (above) lets traditional TV programs. your VCR record TV One of the hottest sources of multi- shows with the ads media excitement was Lonestar Tech- masked out. nologies’ The Key, an extraordinary guitar-shaped instrument that can in- stantly turn anyone into a practicing musician. Specially encoded video- cassettes feed digital data to The Key, enabling first-time musicians to accom- pany their favorite videos without hit- ting bum notes. Others features allow advanced musicians greater leeway while playing along or creating original music. (Look for a hands-on test in Vid- eo Magazine as soon as The Key is avail- able.) The show’s Presti-digitation: Get ready for a revolution in home Multimedia Studio Magic's $499 theater sound. It’s called Dolby Sur- Pavillion featured round Digital, and it was the talk of a vast array of board and software let nearly every audio nut at CES. Dolby Surround Digital used Dolby’s 5.1-chan- CD-ROM soft- your PC do mixes, nel AC-3 digital encoding format to pro- ware. Microsoft vide separate signals for left, center, exhibited at CES wipes and dissolves. right, left surround and right surround for the first time, ware, culled from about 80 titles already speakers as well as a subwoofer (that’s and displayed released overseas, looked very impres- what the “1” stands for). In audio jargon, multimedia discs like its Cinemania mov- sive. Like other new CD-ROM-based it’s simply called “5.1.” ie guide and Encarta encylopedia. Compton’s New Media previewed sever- machines, the CD32 will accept an Pioneer demonstrated AC-3 sound MPEG adapter for full-motion video. al new titles, including an MPEG-en- recorded on one of the FM analog coded version of its Multimedia Sega, which now owns more than soundtracks of a laserdisc. This required Encyclopedia with full-screen video seg- half the lucrative game market, showed using a modified laserdisc player to ex- ments. (You'll need a $400 MPEG board a $399 portable version of its Genesis tract the digital signal, which was fed game system that will soon have kids in into a prototype AC-3 decoder. The im- for your PC to run it.) a major uproar. The compact Genesis CDX plays Genesis cartridges, Sega CD pressive demo included clips from mov- Throughout CES, major media com- titles and standard audio CDs, just ies like Bram Stoker's Dracula and The panies sought to bring already successful about everything a teenager needs to Fugitive. The stereo surround channels programs into the multimedia realm. lead a happy '90s existence. Sega also are what makes the differe—ntocdaey’s Paramount Interactive privately showed hinted at the future with mentions of Dolby Pro-Logic surround sound sys- Star Trek: The Next Generation CD- Sega Saturn, a 64-bit CD system it will tems produce only a mono surround sig- ROMs, while Viacom New Media pre- introduce in Japan this fall. Look for it nal. Denon also demonstrated AC-3, viewed next fall’s Beavis and Butt-head here in 95. Atari displayed Jaguar, a 64- played from a computer hard drive Super Nintendo cartridge. bit cartridge game system it claims can through Zoran’s new AC-3 decoding outperform 3DO. Commodore debuted its $399 Ami- chip. ga CD32, another CD-ROM-based mul- Some multimedia products took Dolby Surround Digital for the timedia/game machine. Already a smash completely unfamiliar forms. AT&T in Europe where Commodore says it sold showed Edge-16, a specialized modem home may be available later this year or, 100,000 units in three months, the more likely, next. Consumers will proba- CD32 features a 32-bit processor and a bly have to invest in one of a new breed double-speed drive. Commodore's soft- of laserdisc player with digital output 42 VIDEO APRIL 1994

from one analog soundtrack, as well as a (The setup was intended only to simu- sound can achieve unprecedented real- new surround decoder. (All Dolby Sur- late AC-3, not as a practical home sys- ism. The bottom line for the audio in- round Digital decoders will also do Pro- tem.) Program material included music dustry: Stereo is dead, long live 5.1. Logic decoding, so you won't have to re- recorded live with a separate mic for place your entire laserdisc collection) each channel. We've often criticized the Lucasfilm also made news by creat- The system could use S-VHS VCRs sound of THX systems for stereo music, ing new specifications for A/V receivers with digital audio, but these are not but in this application the sound was as and integrated amps. The company says available in the U.S. The bottom line for lifelike as the best stereo recordings and the specs don’t compromise sound be- consumers: Great sound, major cash sound systems, maybe more so. cause channel allocation is fixed in a re- outlay. ceiver. Stand-alone THX amps must The scene from Jurassic Park in deliver enough voltage for any channel Lucasfilm got in on the 5.1 act with which a herd of running dinosaurs over- of ahome theater sound system, includ- the show’s most compelling demo. It runs Sam Elliot and the two kids con- ing the subwoofer. But because THX in- used an ADAT deck (a digital multi- firmed our impressions. Halfway tegrated products are intended for use through, Lucasfilm faded the picture to with a powered THX subwoofer (or a track audio recorder) slaved via SMPTE black, but kept the sound running, and time code to a Betacam VCR, playing the effect was overwhelming. THX amp and a passive subwoofer), through a B&W THX speaker system. they can deliver less voltage, allowing The demo by Brad Miller of Mobile companies to use the smaller amps dic- Fidelity really brought the point home. tated by a receiver’s chassis while still Miller played digital four-channel meeting THX specs. Two preproduction THX receivers made their debut at recordings made with his own quad CES: Technics’ $1,200 SA-TX1000 and microphone. Most were environmen- Onkyo’s $1,999 TS-XV919THX. tal—tree limbs breaking under the Leading the list of new home theater weight of ice, a passing train, a transducers is a new version of NHT’s Space Shuttle launch. In every VT-1 video speaker, this one with a case, the “you are there” effect switch that contours the sound for video was chilling: Close your eyes or audio. The switch alters the crossover and you'd almost believe you parameters, changing the frequencies at were in the middle of a for- which the woofers and tweeters operate. est. Miller’s point is that It really works! by using natural miking, instead of the el-fake-o Atlantic Technology showed a pro- panning techniques totype of a THX system with a horizon- film mixers rely on, tal center speaker, making it the first digital surround THX system that will look unobtrusive in a typical living room. Atlantic also Sounding Better: showed a larger version of its Pattern Unity Audio’s new cen- speaker system, with a center speaker that has midrange and treble controls ter-channel speaker, and for easy matching to any main speakers Panasonic's LX-K750 la- you choose. ser karaoke player, which can correct and Unity Audio presented revolution- evaluate the quality of ary center and surround speaker designs. your singing. Its center speaker has front- and rear- mounted tweeters, and three sets of binding posts—one for the center-chan- continued on page 92 Se a a ee a APRIL 1994 VIDEO 43

Does your TV have a mind of its own? Energy-saving lights can cause remote control chaos in home video systems. BY TOM HEALD For the first two months my new univer- apzP—I sal remote control worked flawlessly. I called my cable company, Falcon ming all the codes for the Scientific At- Then, for no apparent reason, it simply Cable TV in Gilroy, California, and lanta cable box from Falcon. Nothing stopped controlling my cable box, al- spoke with Robert, a customer service helped. though it continued to work fine with Neither company had any idea what my TV and VCR. One afternoon I representative. “Tt’s those universal re- motes,” he said. “They’re always causing was causing the problem, although each problems with our boxes. If you rent one assured me it couldn’t possibly be its unit. Three cable boxes and two remotes later, the problem still persisted. In a A Matter of Codes: typical incident, the cable box, appar- ently unhappy with the movie we were Although similar, watching, started jumping randomly Osram’s Dulux EL from channel to channel. The remote bulb (far right) glitched our sys- control had no effect at all. tem’s VCR while It can’t be all three cable boxes, | GE's Energy mused. Something must be interfering Choice (center) with the remote’s signal to the box. Or and Soft White maybe it’s the signal from the cable. Ev- bulbs (right) had erything seemed to work fine during the day, but not in the morning or the eve- no effect. All are ning. What was different? Feeling a bit electronically bal- foolish I turned off all the lights. To my lasted. delight, the remote worked again. Turn- ing the lights on one at a time narrowed the problem down to the new energy- saving fluorescent lights we had installed several months earlier in mid-summer, when we weren’t watching much TV. Apparently, the new fluorescents produced a broader spectrum of light than the standard incandescent bulbs they replaced. They seemed to be pro- bought a couple of new batteries. Eure- ; of our remotes, it'll work just fine.” ducing an infrared signal that blinded ka, the remote worked —for two hours. Not quite satisfied with Robert’s ex- our cable box and occasionally mim- icked the remote control’s signals. In- Then the gremlins returned, with planation, I called Universal Electron- deed, if you are experiencing ics, maker of my One For All remote. unexplained operating glitches with truly weird results. One fall evening, “Do you know what could be causing your own video equipment, take a good, the problem?” | asked after describing hard look at your room lights. while we were entertaining friends, the cable box switched on by itself. We the symptoms. “I haven't heard of it,’ Energy-efficient fluorescent lights watched as it searched through several said Tammy, a customer service rep from are manufactured by lighting specialists channels then turned itself off. Nobody Universal. “But it could be the code for like FEIT and FTC, as well as by com- was near the remote control. Nobody the cable box.” She gave me detailed in- panies —like Philips, Panasonic and touched the box. What was going on? structions for resetting the cable portion GE—that also make consumer video What kind of ghost had gotten into my of the remote, and we tried reprogram- machine? 44 VIDEO APRIL 1994

equipment. I contacted several leading didn’t make any difference. Both tried the same test. The remote didn’t manufacturers and all acknowledged the lig—heigtht-sinch circular tubes from problem. Though it may be widespread, Lights of America and FTC —caused fail at all. In fact, I could shine the light remote control interference caused by the same failures. directly into the infrared receiver on the fluorescent lights is so unpredictable and cable box from a few inches away with- intermittent that no one I spoke with To prove it was the fluorescent light out any problems. Both fluorescent could indicate how many homes or com- being emitted and not electrical inter- tubes caused problems in the electron- ponents might be affected. ference on the line, I placed the lamp in ically ballasted lamp, but not in the a large cardboard box in the middle of magnetically ballasted one. What was “Yes, we have had some com- the difference? It had to be something in plaints,” Scott Mack, a spokesman for the room. Sure enough, with the lamp the way the, electronically»ballasted Philips Lighting, told me. On the audio/ turned on inside a closed box my equip- lamp wotks. ment worked fine. As soon as I opened video side, Don Lowry, director of engi- the box, the problem returned. Traditional fluorescent lights use a neering for Matsushita Electronics (par- heavy magnetic ballast to limit the cur- GREMLIN HUNTING ent of Panasonics, Quasar and Technics) tent flow of standard 60-cycle power also acknowledged that “we have had Undaunted, I tried one last test. through the light tube. This is what pro- Using a magnetically ballasted fluores- duces the annoying flicker we sometimes some problems.” However, Lowry added cent lamp by Dana from my office, I notice in*Older fluorescent lights. Elec- that Matsushita feels it has the problem tronically ballasted lights, onthe other “well in hand in our product line.” hand, generate a 25- to 50-kilohertz sig- Compared with the energy savings nal and use it to power the tube. This also produces a flicker, but it’s much too fluorescent lights can yield, remote con- fast for our eyes to detect. However, it’is trol interference is “a minor inconve- this flicker that most experts believe is nience,” Mack asserted. His best advice causing the problem. It doesn’t bother was to move the lamp to a different elec- us, but it annoys the heck out of remote trical circuit and make sure it was at controls. least 10 feet away from any A/V equipment. When I pointed out Most lights, incandescent and fluo- the impracticality of his solu- tion, he also assured me the rescent, emit light in the infrared range, problem was being worked on, “but that’s not the problem,” explained and that Philips hoped to Tarry Olson, manager of applications for have a solution in place soon. electronic lighting systems at Osram Sylvania. “The problem,” he continued I followed Mack’s sug- “is the frequency of the power that’s ap- gestions, but the same fail- plied to the light. When it’s 60 cycles, ure occurred with the light there's no problem. However, when it’s moved to the far corner of 25 to 50 kHz, there are problems.” Sim- ply put, electronically ballasted fluores- the room, 16 feet away. cent lamps can blind a remote control Using an extension cord by producing a signal “tuned” to the in- frared receiver's frequency. to connect it to a separate circuit didn’t help either. Fluorescent lights flicker at twice Next I tried a fluores- the frequency of the applied power, ac- cent tube that produced cording to the Lighting Research Center a more natural “day- light” color spectrum. It Remote Codes-How They Wor ooecceecs i a ay The hundreds of different remote controls available today use a variety of techniques and codes to communicate with TVs, VCRs and other electronic devices. But the codes all work pretty much the same way. Most remotes send out pulses of infrared light at a specific frequency, say 56 kilohertz. And each time you press a key, you generate a group of coded pulses. In a code that consists of 24 bits of binary information, a com- mon arrangement, the first four bits determine which one of 16 possible devices the remote is talking to. For example: 0 would be for a TV set, 1 for VCR-1, 2 for VCR-2, 3 for a laserdisc player, and so on. The next eight bits describe which key you've pressed, allow- ing for a total of 256 possible key codes. The last 12 bits are check Mimicked: bits, which are compared with the first 12 bits to detect errors. One For All’s When the infrared receiver detects the infrared signal, 2085 remote— it compares it to a clock pulse operating at the same fre- it's infrared quency within the component that houses it, and responds codes were in- as ordered. —TH terfered with by 4 of 11 bulbs we tried.

Double Gremlin: Lights of America’s 30- watt tube glitched our cable TV box and ster- | eo receiver. To see how much fluorescent interference an unwary {| trols and clock- viewer might encounter, I tested a varicty of easily avail- | ing circuits to help isolate the able lights with a typical home video set up. In all, I looked at Il fluorescent lights from seven major manufac- | remote signal turers. Six instances were found in which the lights _ interfered with the cable, VCR and stereo controls of our | from spurious in- | frared radiation. est equipment. In each case, the interference was from an Some re- electronically ballasted light. ceivers not only look at the cen- For the test setup, I enlisted my own home video sys- ter frequency of the remote signal tem. The components included Universal's URC-2085 but also at its pulse width, and reject any noise spikes One For All remote control, Mitsubishi’s 26-inch with shorter durations. Newer compo- CS-2655R TV, Toshiba's 20-inch CE2058 TV, RCA’s nents are better shielded, and limit the VR680HF VCR, a Scientific Atlanta cable convertor infrared receiver's view so it only sees light coming from a narrow cone in front | (model 8500321), and a Technics SA-R277 stereo receiver. of the equipment. It all helps, but the to- The lights were purchased at the Orchard Supply Hardware store in Gil- tal answer has yet to be found. roy, California. All the lights, except for a Dana magnifier lamp, were screw- based fluorescents designed to replace standard incandescent bulbs. The prices Fluorescent light manufacturers also cited below are those the store charged. have to clean up their act. Because most electronically ballasted lights generate a I employed the Universal remote with each of the lights to operate the ca- pulse instead of a nice clean sine wave, they produce harmonics that walk all ble box, the VCR, both TV sets and the stereo receiver. None of the lights over the frequencies remotes use. interfered with the controls for either of the TV sets, and none of the four magnetically ballasted lights interfered with any of the Universal’s controls. The electronics and the lighting in- dustries are working together to solve The magnetically ballasted lights were Panasonic's 15-watt Light Capsule the problem by developing compatible standards for both infrared remote con- ($14.99), Lights of America’s 12-watt Lifelight U-Tube ($9.99), FEIT’s 9-watt trols and electronically ballasted fluores- Electronic U-Tube ($12.99), and the Dana swing arm magnifier lamp with a cents. The standards, being developed circular 22-watt tube ($49.99). by committees of the Electronics Indus- | However, among the seven electronically ballasted lights selected, two led tries Association and the National Elec- to solid failures with the cable box. Both were eight-inch circular tubes from trical Manufacturers Association, will Lights of America, a 30-watt model ($14.99) that also induced intermittent assign specific frequencies to each, and failures with the Technics receiver, and a newer 22-watt unit ($12.99) with re- set limits on the total harmonic distor- duced total harmonic distortion (THD). The lower THD eliminated the tion produced. “But it’s going to take receiver interference. An 18-watt Philips Earth Light ($16.99) led the VCR time, maybe a year or so before the in- controls to fail fully and the stereo receiver controls to fail intermittently. A dustry has the final answer,” Lowry told 20-watt Osram Dulux El light ($16.99) led to intermittent VCR failures. me. Both Matsushita and Sylvania are working through the EIA and NEMA to Three electronically ballasted lights performed perfectly with all compo- resolve these problems. nents: GE's 20-watt Soft White with reduced THD ($9.99), GE’s 26-watt Energy Choice ($9.99), and Panasonic’s 27-watt Twin Light Capsule ($19.99). MORE LIGHT THAN HEAT If you decide on an electronically ballasted lamp, look for one of the new- With frequency gremlins on the er ones with reduced THD. It should produce fewer phantom frequencies. My loose, why should you even consider favorites among those we examined are the 22-watter from Lights of America, buying one of these energy-saving fluo- rescent lights? To save money, that’s which looks like the | why. They cost 60 to 75 percent less to Deep Space Nine run than equivalent incandescent bulbs, and last 10 times longer. The savings oc- Clean Sweep: space station, and cur because fluorescents produce most Panasonic's 15-watt GE's Soft White light. of their energy in the visible instead of Light Capsule passed the infrared portion of the electromag- our test with flying col- And remember, the netic spectrum, with most of the energy ors, as did three other same light may react manifested as light instead of heat. Typ- magnetically balanced differently with differ- ically, they use 75 percent less electricity ent A/V components. | than incandescent lights. With prices bulbs we tried. —TH alt Remote controls also at Rensselaer Poly- } use switched infrared technic Institute in Troy, | signals. Typically, they New York. They flicker | produce signals in the once for each positive | 50- to 100-kilohertz and each negative swing # of the sine wave. So lights operating be- range to transmit binary information to tween 25 and 50 kHz produce a 50- to receivers on cable boxes, TV sets, VCRs 100-kHz flicker in the form of a switched and the like. Better infrared receivers infrared signal. use sophisticated automatic gain con- 46 VIDEO APRIL 1994

dropping below $10 a tube, you can save CHECK enough using energy-efficient fluores- POWER INDICATOR cents to subsidize a new remote. Mollcae e LED ispay A typical 100-watt incandescent Just push the“check” buttor bulb costs about 90 cents and lasts 750 to see the ie battery pow | hours, while a 22-watt fluorescent tube delivers an equivalent amount of light Circle 17 on Reader Service Card. and lasts 10,000 hours. If you can pick | up a compact fluorescent for less than | $12 —the cost of 13 replacement incan- | descents—you’ve already saved money in the long run (and the hassle of buy- ing, storing and changing 13 incandes- cent bulbs). If you use a light for three hours a day, on average, at a typical electric | company rate of 8.5 cents per kilowatt- hour, you will save $7.26 per year on each incandescent light you replace with a fluorescent. At a New York City utility rate of 20 cents/kilowatt-hour, you'll save $17.08. At this rate, each flu- orescent light will save you $154 over it’s nine-year life. I wish my stocks did as well. TWO WAYS TO GO If you’re considering buying an ener- gy-saving fluorescent, you have two types to choose from: e Electronically ballasted lights. These weigh little and start instantly. Unfor- tunately, most interfere with some, but | not all infrared remotes, and there is no way for you to predict which combina- | tion will cause problems. Equipment | makers use a variety of infrared receiver chips, which can interact with dozens of fluorescent lights operating at slightly different frequencies. Before you plunk your money down, either for bulbs or | A/V components, check the store’s re- turn policy. If it will take back your pur- chase, you have nothing to lose and a lot to save. e Magnetically ballasted lights. These are bulkier and can weigh more than ten | ounces, which may make a table lamp top heavy. They embody a repackaged version of the same technology in use for years. Some flicker for a few moments when you turn them on, while others tend to hum. In general, they won’t in- terfere with your infrared remote, and they’ll save you just as much on your electric bill. Most videophiles may never experi- ence this peculiar, fluorescent gremlin. But more than 30 million compact fluo- rescent bulbs are sold each year, and if you're among the viewers who are expe- tiencing interference, the most difficult part of the problem is identifying its cause. Once achieved, the solution could hardly be simpler— change your bulb. Then sit back, relax and enjoy the show. r

BY LARRY WHITE If you were to build a home theater the way most manufacturers describe and display them, you’d need a perfectly shaped room with a large blank wall, power and cable connections in just the tight places, no pre-existing A/V equip- ment (at least that you'd like to keep), and funds running into the tens of thou- sands. I’ve always dreamed of having a system like those featured in Video Mag- azine and other publications, but most of us aren’t wealthy enough to buy a com- plete home theater system as a single package. Rather than fantasize about winning the lottery and buying my dream system, I've pursued a more practical alterna- tive—I've been slowly and methodically Where’s the Wires? This home theater built around a 46-inch rear- projection set has a custom-installed look with fully concealed (but easy to access) wiring. It has storage for over 500 VHS | tapes, plus CDs, | cassettes and laser- discs. Each drawer (below) holds three rows of 29 tapes. How one video buff used computer-aided design, careful planning and common sense to create his dream home threater. 48 VIDEO APRIL 1994