LATEST ADDITIONS

Ask S&V
TV Shopping
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jun 27, 2011
It's time to get rid of my Sony Wega 40-inch TV, which cost over $3000 when I bought it years ago. My local A/V retailer carries Sony, Samsung, LG, and Sharp, and a local furniture store offers Panasonic, Toshiba, and Hitachi. The most important features to me are sports, movies, and Ethernet (I have a lot of movies on my new Windows 7 PC).

Chris MacDonald

Continue Reading »
3D Blu-ray Player ReviewsBlu-ray Player Reviews
Samsung BD-D6700 Blu-ray 3D Player
Kris Deering  |  Jun 27, 2011

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
Price: $300 At A Glance: Top-of-the-line streaming • Exceptional 2D and 3D playback • Compact, sleek design

Stream City

Blu-ray players just aren’t what they used to be—they’re a lot more. Sony’s PlayStation 3 has long offered more than just standard Blu-ray playback. Today’s breed of players bring not only state-of-the-art Blu-ray performance but also connectivity to your home media network and a range of streaming options from the most popular movie and music providers on the Internet. These players can become the hub of your home entertainment system and eliminate the need for separate devices to get the most out of today’s technology.

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Will Apple Launch iOS TV?
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jun 27, 2011
When Apple extended iOS from the iPhone and iPod touch to the iPad, skeptics scoffed at the idea of porting the operating system for handheld devices to a tablet computer. Now Apple practically owns the tablet market. Rumor has it that the next step will be an iOS-powered TV.

Granted, this is only the latest prediction among many that Apple would move into the TV set market.

Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Extended Editions (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Jun 27, 2011
In case you've been in a coma for the past 10 years, Peter Jackson adapted the popular J.R.R. Tolkien novel with amazing results. Arguably, it's one of the greatest movie accomplishments of all time with 15 Academy Awards, over $1 billion in US box-office receipts, and nearly $3 billion worldwide.

Many fans are angry that Warner decided to release the theatrical versions last year instead of the these extended director cuts, but Peter Jackson has stated publicly that the theatrical releases are the definitive versions of the films, not the extended cuts, but the fans want to see every minute of filmed footage come hell or high water.

Continue Reading »
Hands on with "Dead Island"
Timothy J. Seppala  |  Jun 26, 2011

Dead Island came out of nowhere earlier this year; its announcement trailer - the scariest set of reverse-chronology vacation snapshots you've seen in a while - went viral and now has more than 4.7 million hits on YouTube. And then for months we heard nothing. What was it, exactly?

Well, I played it the other week at E3 and can tell you exactly what it is: A first-person action-RPG with a focus on melee combat and weapon crafting. Oh, and you can play it online with three buddies, with drop-in/drop-out co-op.

Continue Reading »
Vote
Can Digital Audio Ever Be Indistinguishable From Analog?
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jun 24, 2011
As digital-audio resolutions increase from 44.1kHz/16 bits to 96kHz/24 bits to perhaps even 384kHz/32 bits, I wonder if there's a point at which digital becomes indistinguishable from analog. After all, the human hearing system is not infinite in its discrimination, so there must be a digital resolution beyond which we can't hear the effect of increasing it further. If that's the case, is digital audio at that resolution indistinguishable from top-notch analog, or is there some quality that will always allow us to identify it as digital?

Those who prefer the sound of analog will probably vote that digital will always be distinguishable from high-quality analog, no matter how high the resolution is, and I'd really like to know why you believe that. What is it about digital audio that will always allow humans—at least those with trained ears—to identify it as digital?

Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.

Can Digital Audio Ever Be Indistinguishable From Analog?
Continue Reading »
Ask S&V
Flat Panel Break In
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jun 24, 2011
I heard you recommend "breaking in" a plasma TV for around 100 hours before calibrating it. Do you also recommend something similar for LED-illuminated LCD TVs?

Ronnie Klejka

Continue Reading »
Ears On
Leon Trithon Voted Best Dressed TV
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jun 24, 2011
The most dressed-up flat-panel TV in the universe has to be the Trithon REYN, displayed in the Leon Speakers booth at this week's CEA Line Shows in New York City.

Take a close look at the edge of the set. That's python skin.

Continue Reading »
New Products
Cue Acoustics PS1 aims to rock your bookshelf
Michael Berk  |  Jun 23, 2011

Cue Acoustics, whose r1 iPod dock we thought highly of back in 2009, has an interesting new set of bookshelf speakers in the works.

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
AppRadio: Keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the touchscreen
Michael Berk  |  Jun 23, 2011

Pioneer launched its AppRadio yesterday at the CE Week, with the long-awaited iOS-integrated device coming in at an intriguingly low price of $399.99.

Continue Reading »

Pages

X