Ad: Manage updates with the Download App
ie8 fix

rca

How to make a video game console patch bay

Over the years you may have accumulated a lot of old video game consoles and, naturally, getting rid of them is not an option. After all, you've spent so much time with your beloved console. Like an old friend, full of memories and adventures, it's hard to let go.

Or maybe you're a collector who likes to play older games every now and then for the nostalgia. I'm in both camps. And unfortunately my television is not equipped with enough inputs to have all my game systems connected at once and ready to play at a moment's notice.

There is a solution to this problem! … Read more

The greatest audio and video products of the 20th century

It's hard to imagine now, but there was a time when audio and video products were introduced that were so revolutionary that their impact was felt literally decades after their introduction.

Take the JBL L100 Century. It was the first speaker I fell in love with. Its brilliant orange "waffle" foam grille and white 12-inch woofer looked so cool in the early 1970s when the competition's speakers were all drab brown boxes with boring cloth grilles. The JBL was the ultimate "rock" speaker of the era, so my Hendrix and Led Zeppelin LPs never … Read more

Competitive wireless carriers take on AT&T and Verizon

Competitive carriers both large and small, urban and rural are banding together to take on the nation's two largest carriers, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, as they amass more control over the wireless market.

On Monday, the Rural Cellular Association will announce that it is rebranding its organization and calling itself the Competitive Carrier Association. Steven Berry, CEO of the Washington, D.C., lobbying group, said the change is a reflection of how the wireless industry has evolved over the past few years.

Owing to increasing consolidation in the market, small rural carriers, which were RCA's original … Read more

RCA's 'video LP' format, doomed from the start?

While the LP revival is still in full swing you rarely hear about the other 12-inch, grooved vinyl record format, the RCA VideoDisc.

It was a grooved, carbon-loaded PVC disc. The grooves were 48 times smaller than an LP groove, but they were still tracked with a diamond "needle"! That was possible because unlike an LP's zigzag grooves the CED's grooves were hills and dales. That difference also minimized groove wear, so the discs could be played hundreds of times. VHS and Beta tapes would wear out faster than that. The VideoDisc also had stereo soundtracks.… Read more

LED bulbs get their own spotlight at CES

Consumer electronics companies are muscling into lighting with LEDs.

RCA said today at CES that it will manufacture LED bulbs as part of a larger home theater announcement. The company said that it developed a "chip on a board" that uses a single efficient LED light source, rather than several smaller ones. That design optimizes the energy efficiency of the bulb, said Bob Hatefi of RCA licensee BDC in a statement.

As energy-efficient lighting standards take hold in the U.S. and around the world, expect more electronics companies moving deeper into consumer LED lighting. Late last year, … Read more

The 'groovy' highway hi-fis of the 1950s

I know a little about under-dash record players from the late 1960s, but I was totally clueless about 1950s car turntables, until I heard writer Paul Collins talking about them on WNYC's "Soundcheck" radio show a few weeks ago. I chatted with Collins to learn more about these groovy hi-fis.

Columbia Records developed the proprietary Highway Hi-Fi format: a thick 7-inch, 16 2/3rpm record that had up to one hour playing time per side. Chrysler executives jumped on the idea, and offered the turntable as an option in their 1956 models, and were hoping one out … Read more

RCA Symphonix: Not your grandma's hearing aid

It's hard to make a hearing aid sound cool, but it helps to refer to it as a "personal sound amplifier." Meet RCA's Symphonix RPSA10.

RCA isn't targeting the Big Band generation with the new device. It's geared more for younger buyers, some of whom, the company notes, may have damaged hearing from spending so much time hooked up to blasting headphones and exposed to booming car stereos.

RCA and its parent company Audiovox already make plenty of speakers and headphones and it's not a stretch to jump into the hearing aid realm … Read more

CES: TV makers not yet tuning in to Google TV

LAS VEGAS--History may be repeating itself as the Internet draws closer to televisions, but no clear front-runner emerged this year at CES; certainly not Google.

There was a television roughly every 10 feet last week in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, home to the massive CES gathering of the geeks. Samsung, LG, Toshiba, Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, and virtually anyone else you can think of that makes a television constructed a sprawling booth to hawk their wares, with an increasing focus on so-called "smart TVs," or TVs that can access content from both the Internet … Read more

RCA unveils new Mobile DTV portable TVs

RCA is back in the portable TV business with a new line of Mobile DTV products that it will release later this year.

In case you don't know what Mobile DTV is, it's a new mobile digital broadcast standard that's designed to allow you to get TV on the go--even in a moving vehicle. The free service has already been rolled out in some test markets and will expand to other regions this year. A handful of standalone Mobile DTV-enabled devices are currently available and certain noteboook computers, tablets, and smartphones are expected to have Mobile DTV … Read more