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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Lion King 3D
David Vaughn  |  Oct 05, 2011
Forced into exile by his evil Uncle Scar after the death of his father, young Simba hooks up with a meerkat named Timon and his warthog chum Pumbaa. Adopting their carefree lifestyle, Simba ignores his real responsibilities until he realizes his destiny and returns to the Pride Lands to stake his claim to the throne.

When The Lion King hit theaters in 1994, Disney had its third animation success in a row and solidified the fact that the studio had regained its hit-creating mojo. The voice cast is outstanding, the story is inspiring, and the soundtrack is just as fun today as it was last century. Looking to capitalize on the 3D craze hitting Hollywood, Disney converted the hand-drawn animated film into the new format with surprisingly good results. While it doesn't look quite as good as Beauty and the Beast, it fares much better than some live-action conversions I've seen.

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Ask S&V
AVR Decoding Light & PS3
Scott Wilkinson  |  Oct 05, 2011
I have a Sony STR-DA4400ES AVR connected to a PlayStation 3 via HDMI. Whenever I play a Blu-ray movie on the PS3, none of the audio codec lights come on. But when I watch programs from my cable box or watch DVDs from a different DVD player, the corresponding light does illuminate. Any idea what the problem is?

Mark Barios

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Tech2
The World’s Most Expensive In-Wall Speaker
Brent Butterworth  |  Oct 05, 2011

Somehow when I was walking around last month’s CEDIA Expo, I completely missed what must surely be the biggest, baddest, most expensive in-wall speaker ever created.

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Audio Video News
NBA2K12: Ending the Debate
Michael Berk  |  Oct 04, 2011

NBA2K12, the latest entry in 2K Sports' long-running basketball franchise, hits store shelves today, and it's as slick and smooth-playing as befits a 21st-century sports juggernaut - and with the upcoming NBA season in some doubt, it's a good thing it mimics the real thing so closely. Maybe you won't be getting any NBA Today updates (and real-world rookies won't be appearing until the sport resolves its labor trouble), but the latest NBA2K looks back to the sport's golden years to give you a whole lot more.

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Headphone Amp/DAC Reviews
Klipsch S4A Brings a Touch of the iPhone to the Android Platform
Michael Berk  |  Oct 04, 2011

Along with a couple of other choice items - the Mode M40 noise-cancelling full-size headphones and the G-17 AirPlay dock - Klipsch has released the S4A, an Android-friendly incarnation of the popular S4 in-ear headphone.

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Music ReviewsBlu-ray Movie Reviews
This Week in Music and Blu-rays: October 4, 2011
Brett Milano  |  Oct 04, 2011

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Music Reviews
CD Review: Paul McCartney
Robert Ripps  |  Oct 04, 2011

According to the press release that accompanied my preview copy of this CD, Paul McCartney was "keen to tell a story through the music" of his first-ever ballet score. He ended up telling two: not just a love story but also the tale of "an underwater world whose people are threatened by the humans of Earth."

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Speaker Tech
Frequency Response: A Show and Tell
Brent Butterworth  |  Oct 03, 2011

I often worry that people get the wrong idea when I praise a speaker for sounding "flat." By this I mean its frequency response is flat, which is a good thing. But if you ask the man on the street, I bet he'd equate flat sound with lifeless sound.

It's high time I explained what frequency response is and why flat frequency response is desirable in audio products. Not only will I explain why non-flat response is bad, I'll demonstrate it to you with some audio files I cooked up just for this article.

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Editor's Eye
How Home Theater Plays The Ratings Game
Rob Sabin  |  Oct 03, 2011
Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
A lot of consumer electronics editors and reviewers have a love-hate relationship with product ratings. The love side comes from knowing they make readers happy. Assuming the ratings structure is well thought out (that is, simple and easy to understand) and the ratings are applied with fairness and accuracy, they wrap the whole product up in a nice little ball and tell you, at a quick glance, whether it's a winner, loser, or in-betweener. Perhaps most important, a good rating, or a good rating coupled with a seal of approval like our Top Picks designation, is validation that the product is worthy of the money you plan to spend on it. Given the sea of black boxes, identically thin TVs, and similar speaker systems out there, we recognize that giving you this validation is really the essence of our job at Home Theater.
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AV Receiver Reviews
Pioneer Elite SC-57 A/V Receiver
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 03, 2011

Audio Performance
Video Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
Price: $2,100 At A Glance: Nine Class D amps that sound good • Most fun you can have with a remote smartphone app • Home networking champ, including Apple AirPlay

I’m usually suspicious of celebrity endorsements of audio gear (think Dr. Dre’s association with the Beats headphones bearing his name). But the Air Studios logo on the front panel of this attractive-looking, innovative flagship Pioneer Elite A/V receiver represents more than a casual association.

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