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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
American Graffiti (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Jun 03, 2011
A coming-of-age story set against the 1960s backdrop of hot rods, drive-ins, and rock 'n' roll follows two young men as they spend their last night in town before heading off to college. Crusing the streets to the howling sounds of Wolfman Jack, Terry (Charles Martin Smith) is on the prowl for a hot blonde (Suzanne Somers), while Steve (Ron Howard) tries to make up with his girlfriend after suggesting they see other people while he's away at college.

George Lucas is known for his Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, but this film was his first commercial success, and it earned five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Not only is it wildly entertaining, it's a blast to see future stars Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, Cindy Williams, Somers before they became household names.

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Audio Video News
Audyssey Announces Dynamic Volume TV
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jun 03, 2011
You've already read about Audyssey Dynamic Volume in our pages and webpages. Audyssey has just announced a new version called Dynamic Volume TV.

Audyssey Dynamic Volume TV is designed to reduce the dynamic extremes of TV programming in somewhat the same way regular Dynamic Volume handles the extremes of movies, but without the obvious pumping effects of cruder automatic gain controls. It also evens out levels among different inputs.

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Headphone Amp/DAC Reviews
Review: Arcam rCube
Michael Berk  |  Jun 02, 2011

OK...I'll get this out of the way upfront. Despite the great reviews it's received, before I'd actually encountered it in person I was suspicious of the rCube. Arcam's a company I know and trust, they build a fantasic line of products (including some impressive all-in-one systems), and they know their wireless and DAC design.

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Ask S&V
Movie Aspect Ratios
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jun 02, 2011
There's been talk on some home-theater forums about a few movies that have been cropped to an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. Why are they cropping these films? Videophiles are saying they hope this trend doesn't continue.

Mark Hudson

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Premiere Design
KEF Blade Speaker
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jun 02, 2011
Two years ago, I wrote an Ultimate Gear blog about the Concept Blade, a one-off speaker built by British stalwart KEF as a research project to push the envelope of speaker design. Now, that project has yielded a product you can actually buy—the KEF Blade.
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Audio Video News
Onkyo Unveils First DTS Neo:X Receiver
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jun 02, 2011
Onkyo's TX-NR1009 is the first surround receiver with DTS Neo:X, which converts signals with 2.0, 5.1, 6.1, or 7.1 channels to 9.1 or 11.1 channels.

Why this, why now? Frankly we're not sure.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Blu-ray Review: Barry Lyndon
Josef Krebs  |  Jun 01, 2011

William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1844 novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon relates the colorful adventures of an Irish itinerant who tries his hand at war, gambling, and financially profitable marriage while traveling through 18th-century Europe. Stanley Kubrick’s 1975 adaptation, like many of the director’s other films (including Paths of Glory, Dr.

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Game Review: Dirt 3
Timothy J. Seppala  |  Jun 01, 2011

Dirt 3 (Codemasters Racing Studio)
Xbox 360 (also for PC, PS3)

It took a while for Dirt 3 to click for me. At first, I loved bombing around the beautifully rendered tracks with all of the driving assists turned on, racking up easy gold medals. Then I got bored because everything felt so automatic, and progressing didn't require any skill. So, I turned the aids off. That was a wake-up call; I'd never I worked so hard for a last-place finish before.

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Custom Installation How-ToHome Movie Theaters
The Future of Retail?
Kim Wilson  |  Jun 01, 2011
You feel like you are walking into someone's home but this is actually a systems integrator's Experience Center. These recreations of a modern living room, dining room, bar and dedicated theater demonstrate to customers all the technologies that are possible from automated integration that is controlled by an Apple iPad to cabinets with lifts that hide your TV when not in use.
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Ask S&V
TV Setup, 7.1 on 5.1 System, Ethernet Extension
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jun 01, 2011
What features should I turn off before setting my Vizio TV's picture controls? What happens when you play a 7.1 Blu-ray on a 5.1 system? Can I extend an Ethernet cable by adding another cable with a female-female adaptor?
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