The Reprise of PIP

I hate to admit this, but despite the appeal and all the hard work that go into the extras supplied with DVD movies, I rarely have taken the trouble to access that content. Part of it is that I don't like to be interrupted when I'm engrossed in a movie. The other part is that once a movie is over, I'm not that into dissecting it into parts.

Still, I remember finding background info on the making of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow pretty darn interesting when I sat down to give it a proper review several years ago. I guess supplemental info is all about timing with me.

Music for Rent

I held a garage sale recently and had hundreds of CDs on display. One of the shoppers asked me why I was dumping all my CDs. I wasn't getting rid of all my discs. I was just filtering out those that I bought for maybe a song or two (Journey's Greatest Hits, The Best of Don McLean...). I picked the tunes I wanted, shoved them into iTunes and put the discs up for sale.

These days, instead of paying $15 for a greatest hits album of '70s faves to get one favorite song, I just hop into iTunes or Napster, pay 99 cents and then I don't have to worry about where I'll fit another plastic case in my space-challenged CD rack.

Surround & Visionaries

Porcupine Tree mastermind Steven Wilson (holding down the middle position and leaning on the center channel in the accompanying photo) dropped by the S&V offices yesterday for a 2-hour surround-sound listening session with yours truly (at right) and entertainment editor Ken Richardson (at left). Wilson sat in our sound room's sweet spot while I perched in a chair to his left and PTree manager extraordinaire Andy Leff sat to his right. Richardson kept to his feet and acted as the 5.1 mix-master of ceremonies, swapping out a number of benchmark surround mixes for Wilson to listen to and comment upon for a story that will appear in the not-so-distant future. Wilson, one of the most accomplished surround-sound creators/mixers/producers on the scene today, is a charter anointee in a new Visionaries series we'll be introducing in S&V in 2008.

Sharp Expands South of the Border

It was a lesson in perspective this week in Baja California, Mexico, where Sharp Electronics officially cut the ribbon on a $300 million LCD manufacturing plant in Rosarito. While American journalists were busy scribbling notes about screen sizes (42-, 46- and 52-inch 1080p TVs for now) and production capacity (200,000 units per month, going up to 400,000 in 2009) Mexican journalists peppered local and national dignitaries with questions about environmental issues, work conditions at the maquiladora and Mexico's bid to rival China as a source of low-cost labor for the rest of the world.

What's in a Name?

A lot of profit, if you're talking about trusted names in consumer electronics. But some of those reassuring brands we grew up with — RCA, AT&T, Westinghouse, and Polaroid — bear no relation to the American companies we associate them with. In many cases, it's Chinese companies looking to make inroads into the lucrative U.S. market, where branding is everything.

In the case of RCA, the buyer is another well-known American company, Audiovox, which this week signed a definitive agreement to buy the RCA audio/video business from France's Thomson. Thomson bought the RCA trademark in the late '80s, a year after General Electric had acquired RCA (including its broadcast business) and replaced the famous red RCA neon letters with GE atop Rockefeller Center in New York City.

Four Words: Led Zep Goes Digital

Just got the press release 10 minutes ago. Reprinted in full below. —Ken Richardson

LED ZEPPELIN TO RELEASE DIGITAL CATALOG

The Legendary Band's Original Albums Available for the First Time at All Online Music Retailers November 13

LOS ANGELES — Led Zeppelin's catalog is among the most enduring bodies of musical composition to come out of the 20th century — and now it's coming to the 21st. As one of digital music's final holdouts, the band's illustrious catalog is one of the most highly anticipated digital releases to date. Beginning November 13, the band's original albums will be available for full-album or a la carte download from all online music retailers.

The albums being made available include Led Zeppelin (1969), Led Zeppelin II (1969), Led Zeppelin III (1970), the untitled fourth album (1971), Houses of the Holy (1973), Physical Graffiti (1975), Presence (1976), The Song Remains the Same (1976; recently remixed and remastered for reissue on November 20), In Through the Out Door (1979), Coda (1982), How the West Was Won (2003), and Mothership (available November 13). Featuring such indelible anthems as "Communication Breakdown," "Whole Lotta Love," "Immigrant Song," "Stairway to Heaven," "D'yer Mak'er," and "Kashmir," these releases, together with various retrospective collections, have sold more than 300 million albums worldwide.

"We are pleased that the complete Led Zeppelin catalog will now be available digitally," said Jimmy Page. "The addition of the digital option will better enable fans to obtain our music in whichever manner that they prefer."

[Editor's Note to Mr. Page: Some of us fans would still prefer to hear the complete Led Zeppelin catalog in high-resolution surround sound. Next year, perhaps? —KR]

TiVo, Rhapsody Hook Up

It's all about the relationship. That was the message at the official rollout of TiVo and Real Networks' new partnership at  the Arena club in Manhattan this week. Emcee Chris Harrison, host of The Bachelor, opened the festivities, leaving attendees to wonder whether the TiVo/Rhapsody marriage would end like most of the Bachelor debacles--or live happily ever after.

Taking a bite out of the hand that fed him, Harrison referred to TiVo, fresh off an announcement last week with MTV, as "kind of a whore" before going back on message about "finding the perfect relationship."

DLP: Tales from the Dark Side

At the CEDIA Expo, Texas Instruments announced the latest generation of its Digital Micromirror Device (DMD) technology, dubbed DarkChip 4. The company claims even better reproduction of black and dark grays than achieved by its current DarkChip 3 devices (never mind DarkChip 2 and the original, now antediluvian DarkChip).

I've always been fascinated by DLP simply because the whole idea seems so improbable. Who could dream up something as wild as using semiconductor fabrication methods to make chips covered with hundreds of thousands of microscopic, individually rotatable mirrors? But that's how DLP works — hordes of teensy reflectors flipping at breakneck speed under computer control. From the beginning, the main challenges for TI have been packing more mirrors onto the chips and eliminating stray light, which limits DLP's ability to produce deep black. With 1080p DMD chips now available, the focus is clearly on the latter issue.

Read This

There's something about the electronic book that holds a lot of appeal. When Sony launched its first-edition Reader at the Consumer Electronics Show a few years ago, reporters flocked around the device — to the surprise of the Sony PR team, who undoubtedly viewed big-screen SXRD TVs and music systems as far more intriguing products.

Now the second-edition PRS-505 Sony Reader has hit stores, doubling the capacity from 80 to 160 average-length books and packing Pro Duo Memory Stick and SD card slots to hold even more books.

Radiohead, Eagles: Out of Record Stores

"Record stores"? What are those? Judging from actions by bands as seemingly disparate as Radiohead (left) and the Eagles, record stores are obsolete.

Just this morning, it was confirmed that Radiohead's new album, In Rainbows, will be available on Oct. 10 — but only through radiohead.com. You can preorder the album in two different versions: as DRM-free MP3 downloads or in a "Discbox," which, according to the band's PR agency, "includes double-vinyl and CD versions of the record and a second, enhanced CD with additional new songs, artwork, and photographs of the band, all exclusive to the box. Anyone purchasing this deluxe edition will automatically receive the bundled MP3 album on Oct. 10." The box will ship "on or before" Dec. 3, according to the band's site.

The Discbox will sell for 40 pounds (about $80). But get this: The Oct. 10 download-only version will sell for . . . apparently, whatever you want! That's right! How much is the new Radiohead album worth? "It's up to you," says the band's site.

Talking about devaluing music.

But let's get back to those things called record stores . . .