High Def Gets Higher? The Movie Theater Industry May Try To Pry You Away From Your Home Theater

Sony has announced that they are rolling out a new digital cinema projector that can display theatrical movies at a resolution four times clearer than High-Definition TV. The projector outputs an image with 4,096-x-2,160 pixels resolution, which is double that of HDTV both horizontally and vertically to result in more than 8 million pixels versus about 2 million on HDTV.

The Problem: Don't plan on seeing Spiderman 3 on this new system unless you live in Chicago, Maryland, New Jersey, or Japan.

Sony is using the rising popularity of HDTV as leverage to sell the system. With high-definition home theater systems in many a movie buff's home and broadcast HDTV being enjoyed by millions of people, it's becoming more difficult for cinemas to entice customers based on picture quality.

The Outlook: As competetive as this industry is, don't be surprized if you see companies using the same technology for home use in the near future. Sony has not ruled out the possibility of a home version of their new projector.

When and Where Can I See The Cards Play in Hi Def

Here is Fox Sports Midwest's HD coverage for the Cardinals.

Fri Apr 27 Chicago Cubs 7:00 p.m.

Mon Apr 30 at Milwaukee 6:00 p.m.

Fri May 4 Houston 7:00 p.m.

Sat May 5 Houston 12:00 p.m.

Tue May 15 at Los Angeles 9:00 p.m.

Sat May 19 at Detroit 6:00 p.m.

Fri June 1 at Houston 7:00 p.m.

Fri June 8 L.A. Angels 7:00 p.m.

Sat June 9 L.A. Angels 6:00 p.m.

Mon June 18 Kansas City 7:00 p.m.

Mon July 2 Arizona 7:00 p.m.

Tue July 3 Arizona 7:00 p.m.

Wed July 4 Arizona 6:00 p.m.

Thu July 5 Arizona 6:00 p.m.

Fri July 6 San Francisco 7:00 p.m.

Sat July 7 San Francisco 6:00 p.m.

Fri July 20 at Atlanta 6:30 p.m.

Tue July 24 Chicago Cubs 7:00 p.m.

Thu July 26 Chicago Cubs 7:00 p.m.

Fri July 27 Milwaukee 7:00 p.m.

Sat July 28 Milwaukee 6:00 p.m.

Mon Aug 6 San Diego 7:00 p.m.

Tue Aug 7 San Diego 7:00 p.m.

Wed Aug 8 San Diego 7:00 p.m.

Thu Aug 9 San Diego 7:00 p.m.

Fri Aug 24 Atlanta 7:00 p.m.

Sat Aug. 25 Atlanta 6:00 p.m.

Tue Sept. 4 Pittsburgh 7:00 p.m.

Wed Sept. 5 Pittsburgh 7:00 p.m.

Fri Sept. 14 Chicago Cubs 7:00 p.m.

Mon Sept. 17 Philadelphia 7:00 p.m.

Tue Sept. 18 Philadelphia 7:00 p.m.

Wed Sept. 19 Philadelphia 7:00 p.m.

Thu Sept. 20 Houston 7:00 p.m.

Come Visit Our Newly Renovated Showroom

Foyer Area

-60" Sony DLP with custom made entertainment center

- 50" LG Plasma

- Tannoy Surround Sound System

Theater Room 1

- Marantz VP4000 Projector

- 106" Stewart Screen

- KEF Surround Sound System

Theater Room 2

- Marantz VP12 Projector

- 120" Da-Lite Screen

- 2-23" Nuvision LCD's

- NHT Surround Sound System

- Blu Ray Player, Dish HD, and Direct HD that is also fed to every screen in the store.

Theater Room 3

- Marantz VP8600 Projector

- 80" Planar X-Screen

- Mirage Surround Sound System

How to Fix a Scratched DVD / CD

Most parents can relate to this: My daughter loves to watch figure skating. She often tries to emulate her favorite skater on our hardwood floor. One day she was doing some serious sliding, it was pretty impressive. Then I found out that under her left foot was my Van Halen "5150" CD, and under her right foot was the director's cut of Apocolypse Now on DVD. Both copies of course were data side facing the floor.

Here are a few tips I have found that will get your favorite disc back to a playable condition:

1. Clean the disc. Even if a disc isn’t actually scratched or scuffed, dust, oil, and other surface contaminants can prevent it from playing properly. Thus cleaning the disc should always be your first move. Run warm water over the damaged disc to remove dust. If there is stubborn dirt or grease on the disc, gently rub it with your finger while you are washing it, and use a gentle detergent or liquid soap (with the water) or rubbing alcohol (in place of water). Anytime you rub or wipe a disc, you should do so by starting at or near the center of the disc and rubbing straight outward toward the edge to prevent further scratching. Shake the water off and let the disc air-dry (do not dry it with a towel or cloth, and don't sun-dry it either).

2. Try to play the disc. Many times a good cleaning is all that is needed. If, however, problems persist after cleaning, try to play the disc in a different player. Some players handle scratches better than others; computer drives tend to be best.

3. Burn a new disc. If you can get the disc to work in one player—especially your computer’s—but not in others, try burning a new disc. The disc burning utility on your computer may be able to read the disc well enough to produce a perfect copy. You may wish to try this even if the disc doesn’t play correctly on the computer.

4. Locate the scratch. Actually repairing the disc will be easier if you can figure out where the offending scratch is. Visually inspect the disc’s playing surface for scratches or scuffs. Scratches that run perpendicular to the disc’s spiral—that is, those that run generally from the center to the rim—may not affect playing at all, and in any case are generally less damaging than those that roughly follow the direction of the spiral.

5. Polish or wax. Baking soda toothpate works best at reaching the dirt or oil inside of the scratch. If that does not work, Vaseline is a good temporary fix that will get you through the process of copying the disc.

6. Bring the disc in to get refinished as a last resort. If the disc still doesn’t play correctly, bring it in to a music store (especially one that sells used CDs) or a DVD rental store and ask if they can repair the disc for you. Many of these businesses have CD refinishing machines that do a remarkable job, and they’ll probably charge you less than five dollars to repair the disc.

MPAA Lobying for Home Theater Regulations

Los Angeles , CA - The MPAA is lobbying the US Congress to push through a new bill that would make unauthorized Home Theaters illegal. The group feels that all theaters should be sanctioned, whether they be commercial settings or at home.


MPAA head Dan Glickman says this needs to be regulated before things start getting too far out of control, "We didn't act early enough with the online sharing of our copyrighted content. This time we're not making the same mistake. We have a right to know what's showing in a theater."


The bill would require that any hardware manufactured in the future contain data technology that tells the MPAA directly of what is being shown and specific details on the audience. The data would be gathered using various motion sensors and biometric technology.


The MPAA defines a Home Theater as any home with a television larger than 29" with stereo sound and at least two comfortable chairs, couch, or futon. Anyone with a home theater would need to pay a $50 registration fee with the MPAA or face fines up to $500,000 per movie shown.


"Just because you buy a DVD to watch at home doesn't give you the right to invite friends over to watch it too. That's a violation of copyright and denies us the revenue that would be generated from DVD sales to your friends," said Glickman. "Ideally we expect each viewer to have their own copy of the DVD, but we realize that isn't always feasible. The registration fee is a fair compromise.


The bill also stipulates that any existing home theaters be retrofitted with the technology or else the owner is responsible for directly informing the MPAA and receiving approval before each viewing.







Have a happy April 1st!