Shane Buettner

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Hollywoodland (HD DVD)
Shane Buettner  |  Mar 03, 2007  |  0 comments

Ben Affleck drunk, and wearing tights- threat or menace? Actually <I>Hollywoodland</I> reminded me that we once knew Ben Affleck's name because of his acting talent and not the sheer tonnage of projects he was involved with or who he was engaged to. This well crafted movie tells the story of the death and then life of George Reeves, the Superman of 1950s camp TV. Coming in I knew nothing of Reeves' mysterious death let alone his life beyond the tights. <I>Hollywoodland</I> weaves through Reeves' life by way of a private investigator's look into his death, a character the film's creators acknowledge is an amalgam of several people and not a real person. The other chracters names have apparently not been changed to protect the innocent (or guilty).

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How Much Cheaper Does HD On A Disc Need To Get?
Shane Buettner  |  Jul 05, 2007  |  8 comments

Today's Blog was inspired by an article I read at Content Agenda. Click <A HREF="http://www.contentagenda.com/articleXml/LN635907567.html?industryid=4517... to read it.

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How SCB Rolls, Part 1
Shane Buettner  |  May 13, 2007  |  0 comments

This morning's Ask the Editors panel was another fun and engaging event full of excellent questions and (hopefully) informative answers. At one point the subject of separate systems optimzed for two-channel audio vs video and surround sound came up, offering me a chance to get my own message out there on this subject, and to admit to you all that I am in fact a card carrying analog druid. I do not have two systems and I sacrifice nothing in performance for either.

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How SCB Rolls, Part 2
Shane Buettner  |  May 13, 2007  |  3 comments

Pictured here is the Vandersteen Model 5A, which is my reference loudspeaker. This pair is finished in striking carbon fiber. This speaker has bult-in powered subs and an 11-band EQ that allows its response to be tailored for flat response below 20Hz in virtually any room. This also allows you to put the speakers out in the room where they image best without sacrificing bass response as is typical as you move out from the room boundaries.

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Blu-ray Player Buying Tips
How to Buy a Blu-ray Player
Shane Buettner  |  Feb 28, 2011  |  1 comments
Getting the Best Blu for Your Buck

Not all high-definition video—or audio—is created equal. There isn’t an upgrade of any kind that you can make in any part of your system that will allow it to take a lower-quality source and deliver the kind of performance you’ll get from Blu-ray Disc. Blu-ray features the highest bandwidth, best-in-class high-definition video currently available to consumers. And it serves it up with a chunky side order of lossless audio that’s miles beyond the lossy compressed audio we’ve had in theaters and at home for the past decade and a half. Buying a Blu-ray Disc player isn’t the minefield it was just a couple of years ago, but we’ve still got some tips and tricks that will help you get the best Blu for your buck.

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3D TechHDTV Buying TipsHDTV Tech
How to Choose a Flat Panel
Shane Buettner,  |  Nov 15, 2010  |  0 comments
It’s getting better all the time.

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.

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HP md5880 RPTV
Shane Buettner  |  Sep 12, 2006  |  Published: Sep 13, 2006  |  0 comments
  • $3,499
  • 58" single-chip DLP (wobulator)
  • 1920x1080
  • Key Connections: Dual HDMI and component inputs, VGA computer input
Features We Like: DynamicBlack feature sounds like a dynamic iris system for improved blacks, CableCARD and Over-The-Air HD tuners
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HP PL5060N Plasma
Shane Buettner  |  Apr 07, 2007  |  0 comments
  • $1,799
  • 50" Plasma
  • 1366x768
  • Key Connections: One HDMI and two component inputs, one PC/DVI input
Features We Like: OTA HD tuner
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AV Receiver Buying TipsAV Receiver SetupAV Receiver Tech
HT Guide To AVR Features
Shane Buettner  |  May 29, 2007  |  0 comments
Essential Audio Features
Basic Surround Decoding
Today's AVRs feature a ton of surround decoding features from Dolby and DTS, from basic 5.1-channel surround decoding to several ways of decoding stereo into 5.1-channel surround, or beyond.
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Huge Heap O' High-Def Releases
Shane Buettner  |  Jul 27, 2007  |  14 comments

In the last week or two the huge announcements on HD releases for this fall just haven't stopped coming. Sam Peckinpah's classic Western, <I>The Wild Bunch</I> hitting Blu-ray and HD DVD in September was just the beginning.

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