Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.5
by henning
When I was a kid I used to watch shows like Buck Rogers, with its Princess Ardala and Wilma Deering. I also enjoyed Battlestar Galactica and Galactica 1984, though the former was by far the better show. When the remake came around I started to watch it, but found it quite depressing. The good guys could never catch a break! I started watching season 2 on DVD from ZIP.CA, because the picture quality was so much better than what my cable company provided. The only problem was that I had to wait for it. Once finishing the first half of the season on DVD (what the?), the second half is finally being released. I already went to the ZIP.CA website and preordered the rental. Unfortunately for all you buyers out there, Universal is charging $50 for half a season!
First there’s Sony with their HDMI 7.1 receiver, now there’s this Pioneer. Except while the Sony was silver, the Pioneer is a stately gold. It has two HDMI inputs, which begs the question: why not just have three or four? My SA8300HD uses HDMI. My PS3 will have HDMI. And that would fill this receiver’s quota. What if I bought and HD DVD player, or a dedicated Blu-ray player? At any rate. This receiver has Pioneer’s Advanced MCACC technology that’s examine your room using beeps and bloops and a microphone, and set the speaker distances and crossovers automatically. If I remember correctly, it’ll even do some EQ to even out the response in your room. Supposedly this works quite well. This receiver also has iPod support. Shipping in Japan mid-September with the VSA-AX1AV to cost ¥118,000 (about $1,025).
Sony has a new receiver that’s perfect for all you Blu-ray and/or PS3 lovers out there. This TA-DA3200ES model supports 7.1 channels of audio at 120W per channel into 8 ohms. It supports HDMI switching at up to 1080p resolutions, perfect for Blu-ray or PS3 use. As welll, it’ll upconvert video from it’s video inputs. Though no mention is made of whether this means conversion from composite and S-Video to component (all analog), or from those inputs to HDMI (required an A to D conversion). At any rate, this receiver is due in November for 99,750 Yen, or about $865 US.
Polk has announced the first-ever in-ceiling speakers that have received the THX Ultra2 certification. They measure 14″ in diameter, and feature two 5 /14″ midrange drivers and a 1″ tweeter and on paper have some fine looking specs. In-wall and in-ceiling speakers have historically been chasing to catch up to their free-standing brethren, but appear to have made some serious progress in the last few years. Now, with the Polks, they can boast arguably the industry’s highest certification as well.
