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Media Server Reviews
Logitech Squeezebox Touch Media Server
David Vaughn  |  Oct 11, 2010

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
Price: $300

At A Glance: Elegant touch-sensitive screen • Decodes multiple audio formats • Internet radio support • Integrates with Facebook and Flickr

Remember the days when you stacked hundreds, if not thousands, of CDs into towers or bookshelves so you could have your entire music collection at your fingertips? The CD player evolved from a single tray to a multi-disc changer that allowed up to 400 discs per unit, but you still had to find a place for all of those pesky cases. In 1999, the music world turned upside down when 18-year-old Shawn Fanning created Napster, and a new way of music delivery was born. Millions of people around the world digitized their music into MP3s, which compromised quality in favor of convenience. Fortunately, as computing power increased and storage became cheaper, audiophiles could store their digital music in a lossless format (FLAC, WMA Lossless, Apple Lossless, etc.) in order to preserve the integrity of the original recording. But with all of this music digitized, how do you listen to it in your home theater?

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Premiere Design
Dared DV-6C Multichannel Hybrid Integrated Amp
Scott Wilkinson  |  Oct 11, 2010
As I was researching my blog about the Flagship tube-based monoblock amps from a Chinese company using the brand name Dared, I came across this unusual item. The DV-6C is a 6-channel integrated amp with a tube-based, class-A input stage and a solid-state, class-D output stage.
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Projector Reviews
DreamVision StarLight1 LCOS Projector
Thomas J. Norton  |  Oct 11, 2010
Price: $6,995 (optional Schneider Optics lens: $7,995) At A Glance: Big, bright, punchy image • Black level and shadow detail compete with the best • Excessively wide color gamut

Broaden Your Horizons

If you’ve investigated the subject of constant-height projection, you know that it can be a complicated, slightly intimidating business. We covered the ground rather thoroughly in “Beating the Black Bars” (HT, October 2008). Constant-height display generally involves placing a so-called anamorphic lens in front of a projector’s native lens when viewing true widescreen films—that is, films with an aspect ratio of around 2.35:1 (often called scope films). Such a setup also employs a 2.35:1 screen. For material with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 or less, the lens is normally moved out of the way and the image is projected onto the 2.35:1 screen with black bars on each side. This is sometimes called windowboxing.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Maltese Falcon (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Oct 11, 2010
Sam Spade's (Humphrey Bogart) partner meets an untimely end while tailing a man for a new client (Mary Astor). Before he knows it, the sly detective finds himself in the middle of a mystery involving multiple parties in search of a jewel encrusted statue known as the Maltese Falcon.

Based on the 1930 novel by Dashiell Hammett, screenwriter/director John Huston launched his directorial career and turned Bogart into a leading man. Although the film is nearly 70 years old, the story and characters are timeless and Bogart's depiction as the private detective is the benchmark for other such characters in Hollywood.

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Curtain Call
You Had Me at “Hertz”
Michael J. Nelson  |  Oct 11, 2010
In days gone by, marketing was easy. If you had a product that you felt sure would benefit the general public, say, a nerve tonic (or an herbal tincture, suspension, or unguent), you would simply emblazon its name on the side of your covered wagon. You’d take care to correctly spell invigorating, rejuvenatory, and Dr. Southerby’s, of course, and then travel from town to town extolling its marvelous benefits. You’d be certain to mention how it can clear up milk leg in a fortnight, soothe nettle rash, and possibly even reverse ragpicker’s disease if used judiciously. To drive your point home more effectively, your organization’s single employee would mingle with the crowd and impress them with his own miraculous recovery from scrivener’s thumb in just two doses.
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Audio Video News
Most Love 3DTV at First Sight
Mark Fleischmann  |  Oct 11, 2010
As 3DTV stands on the precipice of consumer choice, how are consumers reacting when seeing the technology for the first time?
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Other Tech
Interview: Wayne Coyne's Flaming Eclipse
Mike Mettler  |  Oct 10, 2010

Wayne Coyne is curious.

Now, you can take that statement to mean a couple of different things: 1) the leader of veteran alternative stalwarts the Flaming Lips has an insatiable thirst for discovering ways to push the audio/video envelope, or 2) the man is a bit, well, odd. Know what? It's probably a combination of both.

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Shane Buettner Blog
Grindhouse Blu’s Party Like it’s 2006
Shane Buettner  |  Oct 09, 2010
So, here’s a little slice of the Editor’s life. I live in the Pacific Northwest and work from home, traveling to Home Theater’s Los Angeles offices about a week per month to close each print issue. Last week and next week are back to back closes for HT’s December issue and the massive Buyer’s Guide annual. Coming home from these work trips, after catching up with the family my favorite ritual is opening up my stack of packages that inevitably arrive in my absence, which always includes my supplementary/impulse buys from Amazon. Yes, movies and music.
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Audio Video News
AT&T U-Verse to get Xbox 360 set-top box support
SV Staff  |  Oct 08, 2010
First, the Playstation 3 had Blu-ray Disc support. Then, the Xbox 360 had Netflix Watch Instantly streaming. Then, the PS3 and Wii got Netflix support. Now, the game console home theater arms race has reached another level, as the Xbox 360 will...
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
How to Train Your Dragon (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Oct 08, 2010
Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is a young Viking who marches to the beat of his own drum and is an embarrassment to his father (Gerard Butler). One night while the village is under attack from a swarm of dragons, the young boy shoots down a deadly Night Fury with one of his inventions and discovers it lying in the jungle the next day. Wanting to make his father proud he brandishes his knife and moves in for the kill, but there's something about this dragon that changes his mind and this decision will not only change his life, but those of his people.

DreamWorks animation is best known for Shrek and its numerous sequels but after spending an evening with Dragon, the studio has another hit franchise to exploit. The story is very heartwarming about an underdog misfit who finds his way in the world by developing a most unusual friendship.

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