• 500-gigabyte hard disk stores approximately 1,000 CDs in lossless FLAC format • 17-inch, 1,280 x 1,024-rez color touchscreen with slot-loading CD drive for importing discs
• 500-gigabyte hard disk stores approximately 1,000 CDs in lossless FLAC format • 17-inch, 1,280 x 1,024-rez color touchscreen with slot-loading CD drive for importing discs
One of the criticisms aimed at 3D in the home is the dearth of available titles. Then there's all the exclusive deals that make many titles available only in bundles with 3D TVs and Blu-ray players from one manufacturer or another. But according to the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG), a trade association representing the home-entertainment industry, these limitations are starting to ease as more titles are being released for the holiday buying season. In fact, 10 titles are being released today—which is being called Blu-ray 3D Day—in anticipation of Black Friday (November 26 this year).
It took the better part of a decade for Steve Jobs and his Apple associates to get it figured out, but you can now officially buy the music of The Beatles from the iTunes store. They have also launched a special section of the Apple site dedicated to the band.
Congratulations to Ron Abruzzese, the winner of UAV's Lord of the Rings sweepstakes! His prize package includes all three movies on Blu-ray plus a swag bag of LOTR collectibles.
"My father first interested me in home theater as a youth," Ron recalls, "which is why he'll be the first person I watch these Blu-rays with! I love the LOTR series and look forward to watching these movies on my PS3 and Vizio LCD TV." He admits that his sound system is a bit out of date—a hand-me-down Pioneer receiver and a pair of Dynaco speakers—but he plans to upgrade as soon as he can. "Although I'm somewhat new to UAV and Home Theater, I'm already a big fan and plan on being a continual reader. I will certainly look to your sites for recommendations."
Thanks Ron, and again, congratulations on winning UAV's first sweepstakes!
A high-tech retelling of Charles Dickens' beloved tale about a penny-pinching Scrooge (Jim Carey) and his encounter with three ghosts who take him on an eye-opening journey to discover the true meaning of Christmas.
It's a story that's been told countless times throughout cinematic history but Robert Zemeckis puts his own spin it and delivers a technological marvel that bored the hell out of my family. The story can easily be told in under an hour but the 95 minutes felt like nine hours, especially when Scrooge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. I'm surprised the film received a PG rating due to some scary images of the ghost's visits. Regardless, the beautiful animation couldn't make up for the shortcomings of the screenplay.
British high-end stalwart Musical Fidelity has just released its latest 2-channel power amp, the AMS100. Like the other amps in the AMS series, this one operates purely in class-A mode, which means the entire waveform is amplified by a single set of devices (transistors in this case) rather than having one set amplify the positive swings in the waveform and another set amplify the negative swings as in class-B and class-AB designs.
When we wrote this feature for last year’s HDTV Buyer’s Guide issue, the flat-panel HDTV market was much simpler. 3D was nowhere in sight, and much of our analysis boiled down to the pros and cons of LCD and plasma technology. This year, 3D is just one of the newer wrinkles in the market. The number of plasmas in the market isn’t what it was just a few years ago, but plasma is not only hanging on, the best plasmas still stake a legitimate claim to being the best flat panels available. With LCDs, manufacturers are aggressively using the backlighting techniques to market the sets. In fact, LCDs are getting more and more sophisticated and offering serious potential value. There’s a lot to learn, so let’s get going.
My wife and I have always loved movies, so I decided to make a small Home Theater in our unfinished basement. We had lots of space so made half the area a theater and the other half a bar area. The design and floor plan were totally inspired by Home Theater magazine, of course.
This might be my favorite tent in the annual Home Theater circus. The Home Theater Top Picks of the Year are the very best components we’ve reviewed over the past year in all the major categories. We also call out an overall Product of the Year and a Budget Pick of the Year. This year we see a terrific mix of emerging new technologies—3D and next-gen media servers are both represented—and stalwart audio brands that deliver high-end sound year in and year out amid the constant churn of technology.
A high-tech retelling of Charles Dickens' beloved tale about a penny-pinching Scrooge (Jim Carey) and his encounter with three ghosts who take him on an eye-opening journey to discover the true meaning of Christmas.
