Actually, and I think its funny, the very first home THX system was from Technics! The Perfect Vision reviewed it back in the day, and it was a complete system with the receiver, speakers and two subwoofers - two were required for certification. I have the mag around here somewhere but it cost over $10,000 - for Technics.

Oh, I just installed a HSU VTF-15H subwoofer yesterday - it will reproduce 15Hz at 110db and 22Hz at 120db! I've been rocking the house and have frightened cats everywhere. The bass on the Battlestar Galactica Blu-ray is wonderful and finally feels like I remember seeing it in the theater in SENSURROUND.

" The bass on the Battlestar Galactica Blu-ray is wonderful "

Are you talking ther original BG or the newer one? I am assuming original because of your seeing it in the theater.

Yes, the original 1978 feature film version - it was in Sensurround Mod-III which I've never been able to get the full details of. I have a Mod-III Sensurround control box but not the special cable and connector set to interface it with an audio system. It was an amazing experience, that for sure. 16Hz is the low end cut off point for all Sensurround films because MCA found that buildings resonated at lower frequencies so with a 16Hz cut off point there would be no chance of damaging the theater.

I had that Technics thx receiver purchased it on sale at a Mom and Pops store that sold high end gear back when Sony had a good name on their ES line and ONKYO was a very in demand receiver back in 1994 and I owned their first DTS reciever and I had that Millennium DTS outboard Decoder that plugged into the Technics and it was really in demand DTS decoder.

I'm sure Disclord you have owned the Millennium DTS decoder at one time or another?? I still have the original Magazine with the review. I don't think it was the Sound&Vision either. Anyways thats when they were all built in Japan with good quality control.

I still have 2 of the Millennium decoders - MSB designed and built them for Brad Miller - the first 300 were hand made at MSB here in America until they got the overseas plant going. When DTS DVD's came out all the Millennium's that had been sold up to that time required a new PIC chip to enable them to decode the 1.5mbps rate DVD signal - Millennium sold the PIC chip as a little kit you could install yourself for $25. It was the "reference" decoder for all of the DTS CD's and LaserDisc's until DTS got their own decoder built. I worked for DTS at that time so I got my decoder for free - it was the black one and later I got the silver model.

The AC-3 RF demodulator that MSB designed and built, and Lexicon and JBL later marketed, looks like a sibling to the Millennium - it's the only AC-3 demodulator that can be switched to optimize it to the individual players RF signal. For whatever reason, Pioneer chose not to make that a mandatory feature in demodulators. MSB also made a small board that could be installed in LaserDisc players that would output the demodulated AC-3 or DTS or PCM all from the players single coax or optical output and they also had a board that decoded all the formats and output them on the THX DB-25 connector. They felt all the processing should be in the player but Pioneer, for whatever reason, only wanted the raw RF out and nothing else.

Hey guys, btt.. the feeling to go into a store, raiding the inventary, that is unchalleneged..Unfortunately, lots of real-life stores bites the dust. Last year they closed down the Virgin Store in strasbourg (F), Freerecord store (NL) closed everything down over the years..Yeah, maybe it´s a little bit Nostalgia, but I always enjoyed it, visiting a city when in holidays and checking out, what movies they´re selling in local stores. Of course LD was always a niche, I remember when I was in Dublin in 1997 and asked for LD, they didn´t have a clue what I was talking about. I ended up buying myself a copy of THE WILD BUNCH on VHS (Widescreen)....because I didn´t want to go home empy handed.

You need to check out Model Cave in Ypsilanti. It is better than any hobby store I ever imaged I would set foot in (outside of Germany or Japan). Its GOOOOOOD. I'm not kidding. If you were ever into models, go there. No RC, no trains, no distractions.

I'd like to point out to some of the more nostalgic people that indie stores were almost totally crushed before downloading stuff, legal or otherwise, ever became an issue.

The guy who owned the record store where I bought my first 45 (I think it was either Call Me by Blondie or Run Runaway by Slade) told me that he knew he was screwed when the new CD releases at Target were cheaper on the shelf than what his distributor was charging. By the time downloads really became an issue most of the indie video rental shops had been destroyed by Blockbuster, the indie record stores destroyed by Camelot, Sam Goody, etc. Now those places have collapsed under the weight of their own corpulence and idiocy leaving us with Wal Mart, Target, etc. Its an ever more corporate controlled world every day.

BTW, I live about an hour away from this store and I'll be checking it out if they are still running in a couple of weeks.

I always assume it was to avoid the Dolby Digital licensing fee, which was probably enormous back then.

Back when you could walk into a store and browse you did have a choice - if you didn't like the prices or the stock you could go elsewhere. There were loads of places selling music and movies on the high street. Now those same shops have all but vanished. Whilst there are plenty of internet sites selling such items there are also lots of disadvantages. There is the cost of shipping to factor in and the inevitable damage that can occur when items are not packed properly. Who hasn't received a DVD boxset with a big dent in the corner due to sloppy packaging? These companies are in the business of making money and profit margins are so tight that packaging is often an afterthought. They will literally send out a $200 boxset in a sheet of bubblewrap - that's it and if you send it back they'll send you a replacement with the same shoddy packaging!

In any case physical formats will have all but vanished within a decade and then what are you going to do? The choice will be down to a few big companies who ONLY offer streaming and ONLY if you subscrbe to their myriad of other dubious services. You'll effectively be paying whatever price they dictate with nothing to show for your money at the end of it other than a bigger bill. Things are definitely heading in that direction.

As for 'anyone with a computer can get their work out there' yes they can but no one is buying it. Often these same people have no business head and don't realise that in order to keep afloat you need to actually factor in all the associated production costs. The number of artists who are teetering on the brink of extinction due to bankruptcy is at an all time high because they have to finance everything themselves these days. This doesn't encourage artists to release new material because with the current business model they will not even break even. Even major artists like Prince have been giving away their last few albums with newpapers because at least that guarantees to bring in a fixed revenue which would otherwise be a complete gamble if they decided to finance the album themselves. For smaller less known artists the papers (who themselves are now struggling for sales) would never entertain releasing their new material. This is no 'golden age'...it is just one step closer to Orwell's 1984.

EXCELLENT post Laserdisc_Fan. You are 100% correct, and it's scary.

DITTO ....
Very sobering to say the least.
This trend has long been on the horizon.
Where it will lead I can only wonder ..............

i've not one but two privately-owned video rental shops left in my hole-in-the-wall Timbuktu of a town. neither of which are remarkable in the least...

No video stores here left either, other then the rental box machine (like a soda pop machine) at a walmart store.

But we have 2 local record stores, and also McNally Robinson, and 2 London Drugs store which stock records and CD's right on the shelf to flip through, and they can also order in anything you want. The London Drugs store had a big sign outside their store "Dust off your turntable we now have records" And these store are well supported.

same here, "Redbox" at WALTER-WORLD.

oh, and one of those two rental shops i had mentioned above? they just folded up.
gee, i wonder how long 'til the remaining one, "CRAZY MIKE's VIDEO" throws down the cards?

good thing i'm not into video rentals in a big way, though i do like to pick up 80's early/first editions of certain movies on VHS
from time to time, usually in the form of ex-rentals, so long as they are in reasonable enough condition,
as the oddball films i'm often after generally tend to be found in, since they usually weren't particularly heavy movers in the rental circuit...

We still have rental stores in Holland, but only Blu-Ray and DVD.
Sometimes I ge a little sentimental, thinking of the past, when our local video rental store had walls full of Betamax, VHS, and Laserdisc (yeah!)
At the end of the 90's, the Beta tapes were gone, but the Laserdiscs were still available (even new titles!), and we got DVD's.

It seems so long ago.... I'm just 32 but sometimes I feel old

My goodness, come on, it's better than it's ever been, the flow of information. I can buy/find, almost anything on the internet today from anywhere in the world. Those old days of reliance on what you we're fed locally ONLY are gone, thank goodness. Don't become a victim/dinosaur. Embrace and enjoy the new found freedom. What a depressing board stuck in the past and I thought I was getting old, thanks for cheering me up and making me feel young.
Love ya guys,
Elvis

I hate downloading and I don't want to use a computer or mediaplayer for audio/video entertainment.
So... no for me

I love internet for giving me more possibilities to purchase movies or music, but I only want physical media

Understand, but what do you love, the physical medium or the actual content? For me it's the content, I can program my media player to display beautiful pictures of the medium if that's necessary, which it isn't. And I can do all this from anywhere in the world. Can't carry those hard copy mediums.
But I can understand the guy that doesn't move around a lot and rooted into one location, just not me.

I'm never away from home for a long time, and I'm never going to move again in my life (it causes terrible troubles because of my autism).
So, I don't have to carry anything around. I love physical media, and I love the content.

Standing in front of my collection, feels a bit like being in a rental store,, only... I don't have to pay for it

Nothing wrong with that. Make me envious at my more reflective moments.
Elvis