LATEST ADDITIONS

Thomas J. Norton  |  Jul 06, 2010
At a press event last week in Beverly Hills, California, Sony announced three new receivers and a Blu-ray player in the company's premium ES (Elevated Standard) line. Also new this year is a revised policy for ES sales. Unlike Sony's standard models, the ES series will be marketed exclusively through specialty retail outlets. These will include the Magnolia division of Best Buy and independent sellers. Sony feels that only such stores are fully qualified to properly demonstrate these products to consumers, allowing buyers to appreciate and take full advantage of the features they offer. Such limited distribution will also allow Sony to better enforce its minimum advertised pricing structure. The ES products will no longer be available online, nor will they be sold in Sony Style stores.
Joshua Zyber  |  Jul 06, 2010
Blu-ray’s Missed Opportunity

In May of 2009, Home Theater ran an article titled “BD-Live in Action” with an overview of the Internet features available on Blu-ray. Even though that piece was written a good three years into the high-def format’s life, the BD-Live aspect was still very much in its formative stages. Many of the Internet features available at that time were gimmicks or filler material. Few could be classified as essential to the experience of owning a Blu-ray Disc. The article concluded with the statement, “We’ve only started to see the building blocks of BD-Live’s potential. Now is the time for a true innovator to step in and show us what it can do.”

Mark Fleischmann  |  Jul 06, 2010

Performance
Value
Build Quality
Price: $4,694 At A Glance: Three-way monitor with horn-loaded tweeter and super-tweeter • Ebony/mahogany side panels • Tightly focused soundfield and good bass

Two-Horned Demon

Hey you. Did you notice what I just did when I yelled at you? I cupped my hands around my mouth. That guided my voice’s acoustic output toward your ears. It also limited its off-axis response to reduce room interaction, enabling you to hear me better. You probably noticed that it also introduced an added coloration to the sound of my voice. But you heard me, didn’t you?

Mark Fleischmann  |  Jul 06, 2010
Under new regulations from the Federal Communications Commission, cable operators can no longer maintain exclusives on sports networks they own. Satellite and telco TV providers have not been slow to demand access to these desirable channels.
SV Staff  |  Jul 05, 2010
This has been a long time coming, but it's finally happening. Blockbuster is getting delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. According to Engadget, Blockbuster will be forced to delist from the NYSE after a failed attempt to split its stocks. ...
Thomas J. Norton  |  Jul 05, 2010

Break out the fireworks. Fire up the grille. Happy 4th of July. A new chapter in the Neverending Story of this Blu-ray player saga has arrived.

SV Staff  |  Jul 02, 2010
Welcome to the world of technological tautology. While Apple has still remained schtum about any new Apple TV product, a report from The New York Times hints that the next generation of Apple TV could actually be a television of some form. As...
David Vaughn  |  Jul 02, 2010
Looking to cheer up one of their old friends (Rob Corddry) who just attempted suicide, Adam (John Cusack), Nick (Craig Robinson), and Adam's nephew Jacob (Clark Duke) take a road trip to a ski resort where they hung out in the 1980s. After a wild night of partying and hot tubbing, the quartet finds themselves transported back to 1986 and they must relive their experiences without causing a "butterfly effect."

Judd Apatow has ruined the typical Hollywood comedy with his sick sense of humor. Granted, he had nothing to do with this production, but it's a pure rip-off of his brand of humor that I personally don't find very funny. The language is so harsh a sailor would blush, there are multiple scenes with projectile vomiting, and too many crude sexual references befitting teenage boys and not grown men. It's pretty sad when the most mature member of the groups is actually a teenage boy.

David Vaughn  |  Jul 02, 2010
When the US loses a diplomat over enemy lines, Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his covert military team are sent to find them and get out of dodge without being detected. Once on the scene, they find some special forces personnel skinned alive and wonder who or what could have done it.

The 1980s had its share of sci-fi/horror classics and Predator is one of the best and spawned a number of sequels including the upcoming theatrical release of Predators. Schwarzenegger is outstanding as the action hero and director John McTiernan takes a promising concept and delivers the goods with plenty of action and intensity.

Scott Wilkinson  |  Jul 02, 2010

With all the buzz about Toy Story 3, my expectations were pretty high, and I wasn't disappointed when I saw it in Imax 3D—that is, I wasn't disappointed in the story or the 3D, which was among the best I've ever seen. However, the particular presentation I attended at the AMC Burbank 16 did have some problems.

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