David Weiss: April 2009 Archives

Want superior audio and video, but still need a few shekels left over to feed the family? Denon's DVD-1800BD delivers eye-popping 1080p/24p images and crystalline sounds for under $500. Denon does make high-end units as well, but you get the best of their tech-brainpower for a tenth of the price with this quite impressive unit. Goldmund -- as a point of reference -- sells their Eidos 20BD player for around $20K, which is as good a definition of overkill as I can think of. Buy Denon and send the other $19.5K to Uncle Bernie Madoff for safekeeping. Don't forget the hacksaw.

The array of Blu-Ray titles continues to explode, and are also coming down in price. Some studios are even offering multi-disc sets that include a Blu-Ray version as well as a standard DVD. That way you have a copy at home for the HD experience, and one you can jam in the laptop for the kids to enjoy on the ride down to grandma's pad. Amazon has a "buy two, get one free" promo going, another vote in favor of upgrading your home video setup. On the downside, Netflix is now charging a premium for Blu-Ray subscribers: bad for us, good for its stock price!

While Denon does not offer BD-Live capability with an Ethernet port, it does deliver on the bread-and-butter of audio and video. The 1800BD features HDMI 1.3a with Deep Color and Bonus View support, as well as full bitstream output of Dolby and DTS-HD audio formats. Even without the Ethernet port, you can download additional content from the Internet and load it onto an SD card that the player will accept. If you fancy subtitles and camera angles and trailers and games, they are easy to add to the already copious features included on a Blu-Ray disc. My most anticipated disc? A 45th anniversary edition of Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, replete with Peter Sellers and George C. Scott interviews and cold war experts discussing the film's prescient take on that high-tension epoch. Due date June 16.

I have been bashing tennis balls since I was a wee lad, with whatever wood or aluminum bit of stringed flotsam was handy. Imagine my Luddite glee when I officially joined the New Athletic Millennium and tried one of the Prince EXO3 racquets. It was nothing short of a revelation. These babies are beautifully balanced, effortlessly powerful and afford one enough control to spin a ball from here to Beijing and back.

The resurgence of the Prince line is one of the great brand-name rebound stories in recent memory. Famous for the first oversized aluminum racquet to crack the market, designed by Howard Head in 1976, the company went on to create many high-tech variants -- out of magnesium and boron and graphite. The tennis craze itself has enjoyed a spike recently, and Prince's backroom technology eggheads are going full steam ahead to serve their demanding customers' need for new gear -- same as in the golf world.

Much of the company's move to number two worldwide behind Wilson is due to the excitement generated by their 03 technology -- rudimentarily, the pin-sized string holes on the side of the head have been enlarged into giant O-ports. This lends itself to more power and stability and much larger sweet spots. As pudding-proof, Russian pro Nikolai Davydenko went from number 20 in the world to number 7 less than a month after switching to an 03 racquet! Maria Sharapova is on board and won two of her three Grand Slams with O3 in hand, as well as Jelena Jankovic, who reached #1 in the world with Prince O3, as well as world #10 Gael Monfils, the most recent convert. Can't argue with success....

In this era of bleak prognostications from Wall Street, it's great to see an American company like Prince Tennis thriving -- a testimony to technological innovation and marketing savvy, both. P.S., while you're getting fitted for a racquet, try on a pair of the OV-1 tennis shoes, utilizing the same hole-y technology. They too are built for speed and comfort, and even look a little intimidating, never a bad thing when trying to humiliate an opponent. All hail the Prince!!

I have a soft spot in my heart for old San Francisco, with its seedy, Barbary Coast licentiousness and grubby/grand dichotomies. So imagine my delight checking into the Villa Florence recently for a weekend stay and finding its venerable Powell Street address having undergone a stunning transformation. What was once a down-market budget hotel is now a hip, sleekly modern oasis in the middle of downtown. And the price is still very reasonable. Che miracolo!

The rooms themselves are now Tuscan earth-toned and amenity'd out -- we're talking Boston Acoustics iPod dock, LCD teevees, DVD player, L'Occitane toiletries and even free wireless internet. The lobby still reeks of old-school elegance, with its high-ceilings and Italian villa décor. Staff is exceptionally friendly and accommodating, even letting me use the printer at the front desk when the business center's failed to respond. And with a smile, not a smirk. Much appreciated.

All that and location times three! You are steps from the clang of the cable-car, a thirty-second walk to Union Square shopping and Market Street, and another ten minute stroll to the Moscone Center and the SF Museum of Modern Art. And if the heavens are spewing forth, the Bar Norcini off the lobby is a good call for vino Italiano and a panini. San Francisco is the anti-L.A. -- and the Villa Florence a nice alternative to the stuffier joints at stiffer prices. Ciao, amici!!