LATEST ADDITIONS

Grace Notes
Picking the Meat from John Carter’s Bones
Leslie Shapiro  |  Jul 03, 2012

By any measure, Disney’s enjoyable Mars epic John Carter was a fiscal fiasco, netting only $72 million in the US and $282.4 million total worldwide, barely clearing its $250 million price tag. Ouch.

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Audio Video NewsThe Big Picture
Vizio 21:9 CinemaWide TV Finally Available
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jul 02, 2012
After what has seemed like an interminable wait, Vizio's 21:9 CinemaWide LED-LCD flat-panel TV is finally available to consumers at Vizio's website. With a native pixel resolution of 2560x1080, this XVT-series set is the first ultra-widescreen flat panel available in the US that displays 2.35:1 movies without black bars above and below the image.
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Projector Reviews
Review: Casio XJ-A146 Projector
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Jul 02, 2012

Seriously. This thing has a laser. A blue laser that makes. . . green light?  Color me confused, and intrigued.

Sporting Casio's unique "Hybrid" light source firing at a 1,024x768 DLP, the slim $1,399 XJ-A146 is intriguing on many levels. But can it work in a home theater?

We shall see.

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Sweepstakes
ZVOX ZBASE 555 Surround Soundbar Sweepstakes
Jon Iverson  |  Jul 01, 2012
Register to win a ZVOX ZBASE 555 Surround Soundbar (MSRP $399.99) we are giving away.

According to ZVOX, unlike conventional home theater systems or "sound bars," the ZVOX 555 creates room-filling three-dimensional sound from a single low-profile cabinet. No external speakers or subwoofers. No speaker wires. Just place your flat panel TV on top of the ZVOX system, plug in one connecting wire -- and you're ready to go.

[This sweepstakes is now closed.]

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Vote
Is Your Display Fully Calibrated?
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jun 29, 2012
Video displays rarely come out of the box looking their best. We always recommend that you select the display's Movie or Cinema picture mode and use a setup disc such as High-Definition Benchmark, Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics, or Disney's World of Wonder (WOW) to set the basic picture controls.

This typically gets you relatively close to the display's best performance, but to get even closer, you must calibrate the display's grayscale and color gamut if the necessary controls are available in the menu system. You can hire a professional to perform the calibration at a cost of several hundred dollars, or you can do it yourself if you have the required equipment, software, and training, which can cost thousands of dollars. But for those of us who want to wring every last drop of performance from our displays, it's money well spent.

Have you had your display's grayscale and color gamut fully calibrated? If so, did you hire a pro to do it, or did you do it yourself? If not, why not?

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

Is Your Display Fully Calibrated?
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Ask S&V
Large TV, Tiny Speakers
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jun 29, 2012
I would like to install a 70-inch or larger high-end, networked TV in a new home-theater area. Please provide a few brand recommendations as well as LED, LCD, or plasma and why. I'm also wondering about your take on the Orb Audio speakers for that "I have never in my life experienced such completely amazing sound" for a 7.1 system. Feel free to make several other speaker manufacturer suggestions, keeping in mind a small, corner ceiling-mounted speaker system.

Jeff Moline

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Track One
The Avengers Assemble on Blu-ray
Mike Mettler  |  Jun 29, 2012

Yesterday, a rep from Disney came to the S+V offices to show me some of the coolest interactive features that will be on the Blu-ray edition of The Avengers, which comes out on September 25.

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Out Of The Blu
Bullhead, Midsomer Murders, God Bless America
Chris Chiarella  |  Jun 29, 2012
An Oscar-nominated Dutch crime drama, a beloved British series and a topical, off-the-wall dark comedy are all arriving on Blu-ray.
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Tech2
Show Me the Content: Google Nexus 7 Tablet and Nexus Q Streamer
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Jun 29, 2012

I like writing about tablets about as much as I like getting kicked in the privates, but when big companies announce big dumb things, I feel obliged to cover it. Last week it was Microsoft, with their could-be-awesome-but-probably-won't-be Surface tablet. This week it's Google and the Nexus 7 (and the Q streamer). As usual, the lazy tech writers made hyperbolic comparisons, claiming it a Kindle Fire "killer" and... oh WTF IT'S THE CONTENT.

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Bluetooth Speaker Reviews
Review: Braven 650 Bluetooth Speaker
Michael Berk  |  Jun 28, 2012

Another week, another exciting new line of Bluetooth portable products. This time around, the name behind the speaker is Braven (the company formerly known as Spar), who recently announced three new full-featured models in the Six series. We of course couldn't resist calling in the company's flagship, the $189.99 Braven 650, for a look.

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