Exchange DVDs for Blu-rays of Same – Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is offering an exchange program for over 85 Warner Bros. films on Blu-ray at $4.95 each plus sending in your present standard DVD version of the same film. If you exchange over $35 worth, the shipping is free; otherwise you must include prepaid postage with the exchanges. All you do is select the title you want from the DVD2Blu Warner web site and send in your list together with the DVDs you have. Among the films are: Pan’s Labyrinth, An American in Paris, The Shining, Bullitt, Get Smart, The Departed, Ocean’s Eleven, and many more.
Universal Music Japan Launches SHM-SACD Discs – 20 reissues – some of which have come out in the past on standard SACDs and other audiophile formats – will be made available next month by Universal Music Japan. SHM stands for Super High Material – a polycarbonate plastic with improved transparency derived from LCD display manufacturing technologies. The discs are also single-layer, without the hybrid CD layer. The result is claimed to be lower distortion and improved resolution. All the reissues are stereo only and pricing in the U.S. will be around $45 each. Five classical titles are included, among them the Brahms German Requiem conducted by Karajan, The St.-Saens Organ Symphony conducted by Barenboim and Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra and Dance Suite conducted by Solti. Jazz and pop reissues include The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Moody Blues, Steely Dan, The Police, Stan Getz, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.
Troubled History of Digital Radio – Digital audio Broadcasting (DAB) was first developed in the last 1980s, and realized in a technology called Eureka 147. This system operates on a separate frequency from analog FM broadcasts, and boasts not only crystal-clear sound without artifacts but also a display showing the music’s title and artist. Stations can be personalized to display weather, traffic or stock market quotes on request, and tickets or recordings can be ordered by pressing a button. European and Canadian broadcasters embraced Eureka 147 some years ago, although the UK demurred and set up their own inferior digital system. Radio stations in the U.S. feared that a separate digital band would reduce the high value of FM stations and insisted on a compromise originally called IBOC (for In Band/On Channel). The digital signals are squeezed within the existing FM and AM bands and station frequencies, and compromise the analog FM signals by their presence. IBOC was renamed HD Radio, approved by the FCC, and promoted, but many radio listeners don’t even know what it is. Its growth has been about as slow as that of FM broadcasting years ago. Canadian supporters of Eureka 147 are hostile to HD Radio, which is totally incompatible and requires a separate digital receiver.
Low-Power FM Stations – Back in 2000 the FCC voted in favor of creating a Low-Power Non-commercial FM radio educational service designed to serve areas and audiences being ignored by mainline broadcasters. Such stations are allowed radiated power of either 10 watts or 100 watts, which covers a very small area. Over 1200 different groups applied for licenses. Unfortunately, not many stations are now on the air because the higher power stations – including both commercial and public stations – objected strongly, which led to Congress severely restricting LPFM by reducing the appropriations for it. Former President Clinton signed the bill doing that.
