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Custom Installation Equipment Reviews
Upscale Outdoor Entertainment
Kim Wilson  |  Aug 04, 2010

Outdoor speakers have been around for decades but the main difference today is who’s making them. Some of the finest loudspeaker manufacturer’s are using their unique technologies and sound signatures to elevate outdoor audio performance to a whole new level of design, reliability and high-impact sound. With the recent integration of video screens and LCD TVs into the outdoor environment, it’s conceivable to build a state-of-the-art home theater directly under the stars that will rival your indoor theater. With A/V this good, you may never go back inside.

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Olive 4HD Music Server
John Sciacca  |  Aug 04, 2010

Many companies seem to have lost sight of the fact that, at the end of the day, their products are supposed to be fun. This is especially true for music servers, which by definition are supposed to serve up enjoyment. But complicated setup and clunky interfaces bog down most models.

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Ask S&V
Panasonic Frustration, Lossless Analog, Upgrade Blues
Scott Wilkinson  |  Aug 04, 2010
Can't Get No Satisfaction
Love your blog at HomeTheaterMag.com. It is very informative and has helped me in many ways.
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Inside Dolby Surround 7.1
Brent Butterworth  |  Aug 04, 2010

Just when you think they're all done adding more channels to sound systems, they add a couple more. The June 18 premiere of Toy Story 3 also marked the premiere of Dolby Surround 7.1, a technology that allows a commercial cinema to add two additional channels of sound to the 5.1 channels they already have. The existing left, center, right, left surround, right surround, and low-frequency effects channels have been augmented with left back surround and right back surround channels.

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Audio Video News
Some Directors Knock 3D
Mark Fleischmann  |  Aug 04, 2010
Not all directors are as enthusiastic about Hollywood's 3D push as James Cameron of Avatar fame. Some are against 3D while others are ambivalent about it.
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Audio Video News
Justin Bieber getting 3D biopic. Seriously.
SV Staff  |  Aug 03, 2010
3D movies have simultaneously reached their apex and nadir. Canadian teen pop sensation Justin Bieber is getting his own feature-length, widespread-release documentary film, and it's going to be in 3D. It gets weirder, too. Paramount is in talks...
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Audio Video News
"Resistance" to 3D: Futile?
SV Staff  |  Aug 03, 2010
Maybe you saw Inception. Maybe you loved those three-dimensional-looking images. Maybe you realized — and appreciated — that those images weren't actually in 3D.Director Christopher Nolan (at right in photo, with Leonardo DiCaprio) digs good...
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Audio Video News
Harman Kardon? Check. Harman Newsweek?!
SV Staff  |  Aug 03, 2010
"He started a business selling FM radios in the 1950s" . . . and now he's running Newsweek magazine! Yes, Sidney Harman, whose 92nd birthday is tomorrow, has bought the ailing publication because, as he quipped to The New York Times,...
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Elvis Blu-ray Collection (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Aug 03, 2010

Five years before his untimely death in 1977, Elvis was followed by a film crew during a 15-city tour of the United States. The footage was pieced together into a documentary by Robert Abel and Pierra Adidge and includes over 25 musical numbers with montage sequences from Presley's early career.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
James and the Giant Peach (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Aug 03, 2010
A young boys life is turned upside down when his parents pass away and he's sent to live as a virtual slave with his two witch-like aunts. One evening he risks life and limb in order to save a spider and in the process gains possession of some magic crocodile tongues from a mysterious man. When he spills them in the garden a humongous magical peach grows on a dead tree that turns out to be his ticket to freedom.

Inspired by Roald Dahl's children's book and brought to the screen by producer Tim Burton and director Henry Selick, James and the Giant Peach was a box office bomb but has found a cult-like following on home video. I had caught portions of the movie over the years but this was my first time watching it in full and I'm not that impressed. The stop motion animation is good, but slow pacing and dreary visuals didn't impress me.

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