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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Rango (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Jul 15, 2011
It's the classic fish out of water tale of Rango, a family pet lost in the desert who must learn to survive on his own in the desolate environment. The hapless chameleon travels to the dusty town of Dirt, where water is in short supply and the townsfolk are desperate for a hero. The aspiring thespian puts on the show of his life until the local thugs show up to make trouble he soon realizes he's in over his head.

Although the first act seems to drag on forever, the story picks up steam in the second and builds up to a thrilling and satisfying conclusion. Johnny Depp voices the main character, but it's the absolutely incredible animation that steals the show and ILM deserves massive kudos for delivering the best looking presentation I've seen on Blu-ray. Yes folks, it's that good.

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Ask S&V
NAD and GoldenEar
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jul 15, 2011
I am really new to A/V but quickly becoming addicted! What are your thoughts about NAD? I have a moderate budget and expensive tastes, so I was considering the NAD T 785 A/V receiver and the GoldenEar TritonCinema Two speaker system. I have read great things about GoldenEar, and I like the sound of these speakers. I don't see as much press on NAD, but they come highly recommended from the staff at Listen Up Denver.

Chris Ferguson

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Blu-ray Review: Insidious
Marc Horowitz  |  Jul 15, 2011

Led Zeppelin epitomized testosterone-fueled rock & roll — heavy metal at its finest. But that didn’t mean the band couldn’t go mellow once in a while (as in “Going to California”). 

It’s like that in the horror world, too.

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Tech2
Stop Whining about Netflix
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Jul 15, 2011

When Netflix announced their new pricing plans this week, it was as if they'd kicked a baby. Twitter, Facebook, and even the desolate Google+ ignited as thousands cried out in horror: "How dare you raise your prices!" "I'm cancelling my subscription!" and the terseless "Netflix is making their service more "convenient" by charging me $5 more a month. Thanks a lot."

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Signals
Road Gear
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jul 14, 2011

I have two cars but only a one-car garage. As you might expect, my favorite car (a red 1968 Porsche 911 Targa) gets the garage. Plus, since it’s vintage, it deserves indoor parking. From a performance standpoint, that car is still impressive. It’s lightweight, with lots of horsepower, and since the laws of physics haven’t changed in the last 4 decades, it can blow away most modern cars.

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Ask S&V
HDMI to Component
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jul 14, 2011
I have an older Toshiba 57H82 TV with component-video inputs—not HDMI—and an Onkyo TX-SR608 A/V receiver with HDMI. I would like to connect HDMI hardware, such as a Roku box and DirecTV tuner, to the HDMI inputs of my receiver, but I can't connect the HDMI output of the receiver to the TV. I have heard of the HDfury, which is supposed to convert HDMI to component. Will that work? Do you have any suggestions, or am I stuck until I buy a new TV?

Gary Wilson

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Premiere Design
Shmuel Linski Exposed Speaker
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jul 14, 2011
And now for something completely different—a speaker made of concrete! Designed by Shmuel Linski as his final project to graduate from Shenkar College in Israel, the so-called Exposed speaker is nothing if not unique.
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Editor's Eye
What The Netflix Rate Hike Really Means
Rob Sabin  |  Jul 14, 2011
Take a deep breath and inhale that acrid air, my friends. No, it's not the wildfires burning out west this season, but the stench of fuming Netflix customers as they cancel their subscriptions in droves following the announcement Tuesday of a startling 60% rate hike for the company's popular streaming/DVD combo plan.
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Track One
Promises, Promises...
Mike Mettler  |  Jul 14, 2011

In my Track One column in the print edition of S+V’s June/July/August 2011 issue, I mentioned that I would be discussing my experiences with Autonomic’s Mirage MMS-5 media server in this space. Wellll... things change. Because we’re all good friends here, I’ll give you the scoop.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Blu-ray Review: Brazil
Josef Krebs  |  Jul 14, 2011

Who would’ve thought in 1985 that Brazil would predict the state of both Britain and America in 2011?

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