Chris Chiarella

Sort By: Post Date | Title | Publish Date
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Here's Your 2024 4K/Blu-ray Holiday Gift Guide!
Chris Chiarella  |  Nov 27, 2024
Disc aficionados like us are stalwarts in the face of continued seismic shifts in the physical media landscape, so perhaps the greatest gift the studios can give us is another season filled with their finest offerings. The past few months have brought us some of the most enjoyable releases of the entire year, from back-breaking boxes and single-movie deep-dives to multimedia indulgences that defy simple explanation. So read on, dear collector/gift-giver, and be inspired.
Continue Reading >
Media Server Reviews
Here, There, and Everywhere
Chris Chiarella  |  Dec 04, 2006  |  Published: Nov 04, 2006
New streaming and networking options for the home and beyond.

Sling Media
I bet our founding fathers came to this same conclusion: One of the obstacles to true freedom is the necessity of wrapping your mind around the new benefits that await you. Take the Slingbox. It's a revolutionary piece of hardware, if you can grasp the relationship between audio, video, and networking. It takes the signal from any standard home entertainment device and streams it to a computer elsewhere in your house—or via the Internet to a laptop, desktop, and even certain phones. The best source component to use with the Slingbox is a DVR, as it combines live TV with stored content and recording capability, all of which you can control remotely.

Continue Reading >
Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Hidden Figures
Chris Chiarella  |  Aug 11, 2017
Picture
Sound
Extras
Return to a time when “computers” were exceptionally intelligent, hardworking human beings who crunched the daunting numbers needed to advance the space program. Sadly, this was also an era of rampant sexism in this country, as well as deeply rooted racism, especially in the South where the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was headquartered. In 1961, Russian dominance in outer space put NASA at the heart of the Cold War.
Continue Reading >
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
High Noon
Chris Chiarella  |  Jun 09, 2017
Picture
Sound
Extras
An undeniable dramatic masterpiece, High Noon has lost none of its considerable power to enthrall an audience with its relentless suspense born of inexorable doom. We know at once that Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper) is a damned good man. Yet when news breaks that a murderer he sent to hang is instead returning with his gang for revenge, he is heartlessly shunned by the townsfolk he has risked his life to protect.
Continue Reading >
Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
High Noon
Chris Chiarella  |  Jun 28, 2024
Picture
Sound
Extras

Three desperadoes await their revenge-crazed leader, arriving at an isolated frontier town on the 12 o’clock train. Their target is the marshal, an honor-bound man of conscience who, despite this day being his wedding day, is committed to stand and fight rather than spend the rest of his life running. The impending gunfight will be four against one, so our hero seeks to form a posse, only to fail in every attempt as the fateful hour draws nearer.

Continue Reading >
Other TechNew Products
Ho-Ho-Home Theater’s 2012 Holiday Gift Guide!
Chris Chiarella  |  Dec 07, 2012
What do you get for the home theater buff who has everything…even if that home theater buff is you? We’ve uncovered an assortment of add-ons, doodads, and whatnot that will raise the bar on your audio/video rig and beyond.
Continue Reading >
Media Server Reviews
HP Pavilion Media Center TV m7580n HTPC
Chris Chiarella  |  Jan 26, 2007
Ready-made living-room multimedia.

We're down with entertainment PCs here at Home Theater. For those of you who are ready to share the joy, there are basically two ways to join the party. For the hands-on approach, we've written about specific best-of-the-best audio and video cards and other devices that you can plug into your own custom-built box. But, for some readers, personal success has brought with it the notion of luxury. Companies like HP are only too happy to remove the guesswork from the equation and pre-assemble a bundle for you, which you can purchase with one phone call or just a few clicks online. Their Pavilion Media Center TV m7580n HTPC is just such a system.

Continue Reading >
The S&V Interview
HT Talks To . . . Elliot Scheiner
Chris Chiarella  |  Jul 05, 2006
Producer/Engineer Elliot Scheiner is a driving force for 5.1-channel music.

After working with some of the biggest names in music, producer/engineer Elliot Scheiner—also a pioneer in and champion for multichannel music—wanted to take us for a ride. Working closely with Acura and Panasonic, Scheiner developed his namesake ELS 5.1 sound system, first for the Acura TL and now for Acura's new luxury SUV, the RDX.One of Panasonic's finest recently chaufferred me in a DVD-Audio-blasting Acura TL to Scheiner's secluded home studio to discuss the artistry, technology, and business of music.

Continue Reading >
The S&V Interview
HT Talks To... Don Bluth
Chris Chiarella  |  Sep 10, 2007  |  Published: Aug 10, 2007
At a time when the quality of feature animation was rapidly diminishing in Hollywood, Don Bluth did more than any filmmaker to keep the art form not just alive but healthy. In 1982, he directed his first full-length movie, The Secret of NIMH (now in a new Family Fun Edition DVD from MGM). That same year, Rick Dyer developed a revolutionary idea for an interactive laserdisc arcade game, which he pitched to Bluth and partner Gary Goldman. They would eventually cocreate the animation for what would become a video-game landmark, Dragon's Lair, the sumptuously realized quest of a hapless knight who—if we're quick with the stick—survives all manner of adversity to rescue a comely maiden from the clutches of a fire-breathing nasty. Before he struck out on his own, Bluth was a Disney veteran with decades of experience. He has given life to everything from the brood-friendly An American Tail, to Fox's ambitious Titan A.E., to the animated sequences in the Olivia Newton-John cult hit Xanadu. Yet a ravenous fan base continues to snap up Dragon's Lair on every new format, most recently the better-than-ever special-edition Blu-ray disc from Digital Leisure. I got to speak with Don Bluth, as well as Paul Gold from Digital Leisure.
Continue Reading >
The S&V Interview
HT Talks To... Doug Liman
Chris Chiarella  |  May 25, 2006
Straight Shooter Director Doug Liman hits the mark every time.

In less than a decade, Doug Liman has established himself as one of Hollywood's most versatile—and successful—directors. He has nimbly moved from comedy to thriller to a unique hybrid of the two in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, soon to be re-released in a new, unrated DVD edition from Fox Home Entertainment. Here he talks about the challenges of making quality movies in a demanding business.

Continue Reading >

Pages

X