LATEST ADDITIONS

The Custom Installer: The Lost Art of the Demo
John Sciacca  |  Jul 06, 2005

When I'm on vacation, I peruse the local phonebook for A/V stores. It's a great opportunity for me to go rub shoulders with other installers, trade war stories, get ideas on how to set up our showroom or solve a problem I've run across - and to get wowed by a killer demo.

Continue Reading »
Other Tech
iPod Extreme
 |  Jul 06, 2005

Minisystems by Al Griffin

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
2005 DVD Hall of Fame Inductees
Chris Chiarella  |  Jul 05, 2005  |  First Published: Jul 06, 2005
Over in the pages of the August 2005 Home Theater magazine, we just revealed our thoroughly refreshed picks for the top 100 DVDs of all time, a roadmap to assembling the ultimate DVD library, in a variety of categories. To keep the list from being too redundant from years past, and to give newcomers a sporting chance, we have instituted a new policy of purging the number-one-ranked winners from 2004, not as any sort of penalty, rather to retire them to this "best of the best" status:
Continue Reading »
Other Tech
The Return of The Gear Guy
John Sciacca  |  Jul 05, 2005

While it's relatively easy to find good components, it's a lot harder to find ways to get them to play nice with each other. And that challenge has only gotten greater as components have become more complex and setups more elaborate.

Continue Reading »
Other Tech
Download Lowdown
Michael Antonoff  |  Jul 04, 2005

A lot of people equate downloading with transferring songs from Apple's iTunes site to an iPod, thinking that's the end of the story. But online music files can have about as many uses around the house as your favorite three-in-one tool.

Continue Reading »
Other Tech
The iPod Killer Elite
Peter Pachal  |  Jul 04, 2005

It's no exaggeration to say that Apple has defined how people listen to music in the 21st century. Already commanding 75% of the digital music player market, the iPod phenomenon just keeps growing.

Continue Reading »
Sharp XV-Z2000 DLP HDTV Front Projector
Al Griffin  |  Jul 04, 2005

For some time, I've been perplexed by the huge price gap between HDTV and EDTV Digital Light Processing (DLP) front projectors. It just never added up that models with Texas Instruments' high-definition 720p (progressive-scan) display chip, most of which cost $8,000 or more, should be priced so much higher than their enhanced-definition cousins costing $1,500 or less.

Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Pioneering
Thomas J. Norton  |  Jul 04, 2005

Pioneer is not a huge company by Japanese mega-corp standards, so when they hold a line show, we don't expect dozens of new products. But they're big in the areas of importance to home theater enthusiasts, namely plasma displays, DVD players and recorders, and AV receivers. So when they invited me to attend their 2005 west coast line show, there was no question about my response. I were there.

Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
With a Bang or a Whimper
Thomas J. Norton  |  Jul 03, 2005

<I>Avoid a Blue Tuesday by capping off your holiday weekend plans with the end of the world! Whether we will become extinct as a species from within or without is the subject of two movies on DVD, one an environmental-disaster flick of dubious distinction, the other a classic loosely based on the Victorian novel that in turn has inspired a current remake. Thomas J. Norton and Fred Manteghian report on 2004's </I>The Day After Tomorrow: All Access Collector's Edition<I> and 1953's </I>The War of the Worlds.

Continue Reading »
Hitachi 50VX915 Directors Series LCD RPTV
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 03, 2005

Form factor fueled the development of Hitachi's new line of handsome, black-lacquer-finished LCD RPTVs. Hitachi's focus-group research told them that consumers clamor for plasma more for the thin form factor than for the picture quality. But high plasma prices inhibit sales, so the company decided to take advantage of one of its core competencies&mdash;lens technology&mdash;to build a microdisplay that <I>looked</I> like a plasma but was priced within reach of a larger group of consumers.

Continue Reading »

Pages

X