Thomas J. Norton

Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 18, 2008  |  0 comments
A chip off the old block?

Panasonic has been making pro video projectors for years, but its first home theater projector to catch my eye was the PT-AE700U. Both that model and its follow-up, the PT-AE900U, were competent 720p LCD designs in deceptively small, businesslike black boxes that offered good value for the money.

Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 14, 2008  |  0 comments
Sometimes you do get what you pay for.

Let’s face it: Even for 60 diagonal inches, $7,500 is a lot of money for a flat-panel HDTV in today’s market. If you pay that kind of coin—assuming you can—you’d better get something very special.

Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 10, 2008  |  6 comments

I can't say I'm as big a <I>Star Trek</I> fan as some. I love the stories and characters, but I'm not into the minutiae. I don't know which deck sickbay is on, couldn't tell you the date the first Enterprise was launched (actually it was Stardate 1814, if you can believe Wikipedia), and don't know a word of Klingon.

Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 07, 2008  |  0 comments
Will there be laser light in your home theater some day? Mitsubishi hopes so. To the best of our knowledge, it is the only company about to use lasers as the light source for some of its DLP-based, rear projection televisions.
Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 07, 2008  |  0 comments
Big, bodacious, and beautiful.

LCD displays have taken over much of the flat-panel market because they’re bright, they’re flat, and they have become increasingly affordable.

Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 04, 2008  |  0 comments
Apart from the occasional foray into cutting-edge technology that doesn't always pan out (ionic tweeters, anyone?), speaker technology is relatively stable—glacial, even, compared to other consumer-electronics products like flat-panel displays. The manageable pace of speaker development has allowed small- and medium-sized speaker companies to thrive. Most of them make nothing but speakers that remain in production for years, which is a plus for buyers. Unlike that flat-panel display you just got, when you buy a new set of speakers today, you can be reasonably sure they won't be yesterday's news tomorrow.
Thomas J. Norton  |  Mar 21, 2008  |  1 comments

You're got two displays; perhaps a plasma on the wall for day-to-day viewing and a projection screen that drops down in front of it for serious movie watching. Or you want to feed HDMI video to a small screen on your equipment rack as a monitor. Or…whatever. Up to now, it's been difficult to find an affordable device that will split an HDMI source in two. There are a number of such products on the market from companies like Gefen, Key Digital, and PureLink, but they tend to be expensive solutions to a relatively basic problem, often providing more flexibility than you need.

Thomas J. Norton  |  Mar 06, 2008  |  Published: Mar 07, 2008  |  9 comments

So now we have a single HD disc format. Hallelujah. No more excuses for sitting on the fence. No more "my upconverted DVDs look almost like high definition" claptrap. The clouds will part, angelic choirs will sing, and…oops, wrong blog.

Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 27, 2008  |  0 comments
This year, as last, Sony held its annual line show at the Paris hotel in Las Vegas. While it is intended primarily for dealers—which explains the introduction of everything from televisions to digital voice recorders, computers, cameras, cell phones, and alarm clocks (in short, everything you'll see featured in Sony movies later this year)—the press was brought in to have the first look.
Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 19, 2008  |  9 comments

The ship has sailed. The hero is riding off into the sunset as the fat lady sings her closing aria. She sees the handwriting on the wall for her final curtain. The end is near.

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