LATEST ADDITIONS

Premiere Design
Hollywood, The 4K Way
Rob Sabin  |  Dec 20, 2011
Eleven years ago, in the fall of 2000, the Sunday Arts & Leisure section of The New York Times published a long freelance article I wrote announcing the birth of digital cinema. Digital projection for large venues was mostly a dream at the time, but the technology existed and had been proven to provide satisfying images for the average moviegoer. Meanwhile, digital cinema’s biggest booster, filmmaker George Lucas, had just finished shooting Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones in 1080p/24-frame-per-second digital using a cutting-edge camera developed by Sony and Panavision. It was the first major motion picture to be shot entirely in video.
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Premiere Design
The 4K Revolution
Rob Sabin  |  Dec 20, 2011
When the Federal Communications Commission approved the ATSC digital broadcast standard in December 1996, most consumers shrugged as the pundits (us at Home Theater included) heralded the greatest advance in television since the introduction of color in the 1950s. Time has proven us right. With six times the detail of standard-definition video, HDTV has been both a revelation and a revolution. For those who care about picture quality, one quick look was enough to know the world had changed, and we were never going back.
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Ask S&V
Streaming from Multiple Components
Scott Wilkinson  |  Dec 19, 2011
With so many components now able to connect to the Internet, how do you choose which one to use (TV, Blu-ray player, AVR, etc.)? Do you have to connect all of them?

Art Jacques

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Tech2
Last-Minute Gift Ideas
Brent Butterworth  |  Dec 19, 2011

Every year, magazine editors around the world solicit ideas from their writers for the compulsory “holiday gift guide.” Every year, we scrounge the Internet in search of items we think our editors will go for. ’Cause the more gift ideas the editors buy, the more money we make.

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Vote
Which is More Important at Home, 3D or 4K?
Scott Wilkinson  |  Dec 16, 2011
Like it or not, 3D capabilities are now included in many home-theater displays, where it is just another feature along with online streaming. It is clear, however, that not everyone enjoys 3D, which is fine—they can simply not use it. For those who do, there is a growing amount of 3D content, though the rate of that growth seems pretty slow to me.

On the other hand, everyone I talk with is eager to see 4K home-theater displays, which have four times the resolution of "ordinary" high-def. Now that we've reviewed the first such display—the Sony VPL-VW1000ES projector—I wonder how important 4K really is, especially given that commercial 4K content for home use is not likely to be available for years to come, leaving owners of these displays with only upscaled 1080p and their own high-resolution still photos.

So I ask you—which do you think is more important for home theaters, 3D or 4K? Perhaps you believe both are equally significant or that neither one is important. In any event, your fellow home-theater geeks want to know what you think!

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

Which is More Important at Home, 3D or 4K?
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Streaming Device Reviews
Roku 2 XS Media Streamer
Barb Gonzalez  |  Dec 16, 2011

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
Price: $99 At A Glance: Vastly improved picture quality • More responsive, motion-sensitive, Bluetooth remote • Tiny footprint • Wide variety of content providers

Roku has released its newest generation of media streamers, including the top-of-the-line Roku 2 XS player. Perhaps you haven't given Roku much thought as a serious addition to your home theater. Its earlier models gave more attention to the quantity of media-streaming partners than to the quality of the pictures they were streaming. The Roku 2 XS may change your mind as it changed mine.

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Bookshelf Speaker Reviews
Boston Acoustics Classic Series 2300 II Speaker System
Mark Fleischmann  |  Dec 16, 2011
Performance
Value
Build Quality
Price: $880 At A Glance: Super-smooth-sounding top end • Spacious, big-sounding midrange • Compact form factor • Modest price

There are two schools of thought about speaker design for movies and music. The purist approach is that the fundamentals of performance affect both equally—what’s good for music is good for movies and vice versa. On the other hand, the pragmatic approach calls attention to the differing demands of movies versus music, suggesting that your choice of speaker should be optimized for one or the other, whichever you care about more.

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On-Wall Speaker Reviews
Klipsch Gallery G-28/G-12 Speaker System
Mark Fleischmann  |  Dec 16, 2011
Performance
Value
Build Quality
Price: $2,745 At A Glance: Horn-loaded tweeters • Shallow-depth enclosures • Clear, focused sound

Traditional home theater is the union of big-screen television and surround sound. I never tire of reiterating that statement—but I must admit, this is the first time I’ve qualified it with the term traditional. For many if not all consumers today, home theater is the union of flat-screen television and slimmed-down surround sound, with loudspeakers losing cabinet depth to complement the more compact form factor of LCD and plasma HDTVs. Don’t get me wrong: I love my flat-panel HDTV, and the mere thought of going back to an unsightly direct-view or awkward rearprojection set makes me shudder. But the flattening trend that makes 21st-century HDTVs so much more appealing isn’t a recipe for great sound.

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Ask S&V
RPTVs vs. Flat Panels
Scott Wilkinson  |  Dec 16, 2011
You have the best home-theater website, hands down. I also love your short guest appearance on Leo Laporte's radio show every week. I notice that you talk about plasma and LED LCD TVs a lot, but very rarely talk about DLP TVs. Even last weekend when you were the guest host on Leo's show, there was no mention of it. Is this because the technology and displays are not as good as plasmas and LCD TVs, or is it because there is no market for those TVs? Or is there another reason? I can get the Mitsubishi WD-92840 92-inch DLP TV for about $3300! No plasma or LED comes close to this price. If I want an 80-inch or larger flat panel, I'm looking at somewhere north of $10,000!

Levy Sergio Palacios

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Revisiting Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
Chris Burke  |  Dec 16, 2011

Released last week, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary marks ten years since the groundbreaking first title in the Halo series hit the shelves and raised the bar for the first-person shooter.

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