SV Staff

LG has announced that its 2016 smart TV lineup will have an updated webOS 3.0 Smart TV platform designed to make it "simple and fast" to find and switch between content from broadcast TV, streaming services, and external devices.

If you saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens over the weekend, your hard-earned dollars contributed to an estimated domestic take of $238 million in its first there days, shattering the $208.8 million opening weekend record of set by Jurassic World in June. Add in foreign box office receipts—except China, where it has yet to open—and you’re at a half billion ($517 million), according to Box Office Mojo, which on a global basis is actually slightly less than Jurrasic’s opening.

Yamaha’s iconic DSP-A1 was named one of the year’s best products in the December 1998 issue of Stereo Review, predecessor to Sound & Vision.

2015 was very much a transitional year for both audio and video technology. On the display side, Ultra HDTV continued its march into the marketplace, and we saw the first high dynamic range displays. A/V receivers caught up to the UHD displays with full passthrough of HDMI 2.0 signals bolstered, finally, by HDCP 2.2 copyright compliance—a key feature missing from most 2014 AVRs. We got our first real listen to object-based Atmos surround at home in both the nine-channel variety with four height speakers (a winner!) and the seven-channel variety with two height speakers (not quite so much). Beyond that, we saw more growth in the wireless multiroom audio segment, with several accomplished speaker manufacturers getting in the game. Here, then, is our list of standout products reviewed in the 2015 calendar year. Make sure you check current pricing online; we list MSRPs as originally reviewed, and some products are now heavily discounted.