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My Left Foot (...and Why High Performance Cars and AV Are the Same)
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jan 20, 2015
I am shopping for a new car. For me, a car is more than basic transportation. In fact, getting from point A to point B is far down on my list. For example, I would gladly trade a practical item such as a spare tire in return for a bit more performance. Things like cargo capacity and riding comfort are unimportant, while horsepower and 0-to-60 times are critical. I’ve always appreciated slick audio/video gear. Same thing with cars.
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Ask S&V
What Does a DAC Do?
Al Griffin  |  Jan 19, 2015
Got a tech question for Sound & Vision? Email us at AskSandV@gmail.com

Q I have a fairly large collection of CDs, all of which have been ripped to lossless WMA format. I’ve come across plenty of discussion of DACs while researching music servers, but I’m confused about why I would need one since I can already listen to digital music files, either through my computer speakers or headphones. Doesn’t that mean what I’m hearing is already in analog form? If so, what need is there to convert it to anything else? —Bill Begg / via e-mail

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Tech2
Legendary MS-DOS Games for Free
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Jan 16, 2015
I'm sorry. I'm sorry to you. I'm sorry to your loved ones. I'm sorry to your coworkers and friends.

I'm about to show you something that will steal countless hours from your relationships, work, and free time. What free time. It's all this.

Behold, 2,300 games that will give you all the nostalgia, for free, in your browser.

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4K TV ReviewsTV ReviewsLCD TV Reviews
Panasonic TC-65AX800U 3D LCD/LED Ultra HDTV Review
Al Griffin  |  Jan 16, 2015

2D Performance
3D Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $3,000

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Accurate color
Good contrast and shadow detail
Customizable Home Screen GUI
Decent price for a 65-inch UHDTV
Minus
Some picture noise

THE VERDICT
Panasonic’s 65-inch Ultra HDTV provides impressive performance and a huge array of Smart features.

Steep price declines have become the norm in the consumer electronics world, especially when it comes to TVs. Case in point: The last Ultra HDTV I reviewed, a Samsung 65-incher that arrived at the tail end of 2013, had an MSRP that was twice the $3,000 sticker price of Panasonic’s 65-inch TC-65AX800U Ultra HDTV. Now I hear that Vizio is selling sets with the same screen size and pixel count for $2,200. They might as well be giving them away.

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Subwoofer Reviews
Hsu Research VTF-15H MK2 and VTF-3 MK5 HP Subwoofer Reviews
David Vaughn  |  Jan 16, 2015

VTF-15H MK2
Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value

VTF-3 MK5 HP
Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value
PRICE $899, $799

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Tremendous bass output
Excellent value proposition
Highly flexible setup controls
Minus
Won’t win any beauty contests
Heavy!

THE VERDICT
Both subs have plenty of bass per dollar and offer lots of adjustments to fine-tune the performance to fit your room.

Robert Southey was an English poet and author whose version of the fabulous children’s story “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” was the first one published, in 1837. While the tale has entertained kids for 177 years, little did Southey realize that his story is a fitting metaphor for modern subwoofers. Like the three bears’ porridge, chairs, and beds, subwoofers come in all shapes and sizes, and finding the one that’s “just right” for your particular room can sometimes require sampling different subs and room positions in order to get the best bass response.

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Ask S&V
Is Motion Resolution an Issue with OLED TVs?
Al Griffin  |  Jan 15, 2015
Got a tech question for Sound & Vision? Email us at AskSandV@gmail.com

As I understand things, any motion on an LCD TV is accompanied by a loss in resolution. For example, 1080p isn’t really 1080p when the image is in motion. Here’s my question: Since OLED has a much faster response time than LCD, does resolution stay the same when the image contains motion? —Michael McGehee / Macon, Georgia

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CES 2015
Taking Streaming to the Next Level in 2015
Barb Gonzalez  |  Jan 15, 2015
There were no big surprises in streaming announcements at this year’s CES.  Few new media players were shown, as the Fire TV and Nexus Android TV were released in November. Streaming 4K and HiRes Audio became a reality in 2014. Instead, it was the trends and the new technologies that will move online streaming to the next level that were the news at CES 2015.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Neighbors
Anthony Chiarella  |  Jan 15, 2015
Picture
Sound
Extras
Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly Radner (Rose Byrne) have a new baby, a new house, and, unfortunately, new neighbors. When a hard-partying fraternity moves in next door, the Radners’ blood pressure skyrockets as their property value plummets and they become locked in a contest of wits and wills with frat president Teddy Sanders (Zac Efron). Funny yet forgettable, Neighbors falls short of Nicholas Stoller’s previous directorial efforts (Get Him to the Greek, Forgetting Sarah Marshall), a consequence of the threadbare script and nonexistent chemistry between the male leads.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
La Dolce Vita
Fred Kaplan  |  Jan 15, 2015
Picture
Sound
Extras
La Dolce Vita was Federico Fellini’s breakout hit: a critical and commercial sensation, even in America, where foreign films till then were strictly art house fare. It’s the winding tale of a litterateur-turned-gossip columnist wandering the streets, bars, and parties of newly decadent modern Rome, seeking love, meaning, and value but finally realizing their futility and wallowing in the miasma. The film coined archetypes of the era: a character named Paparazzo, a tabloid photographer who chases after sensational shots, spawned the word paparazzi; another, Steiner, a refined man of culture who commits a gruesome crime, became the prototype of the modern ineffectual intellectual.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Million Dollar Arm
Chris Chiarella  |  Jan 15, 2015
Picture
Sound
Extras
Million Dollar Arm thankfully falls into that welcome category of sports movies that don’t demand a love of sports in order to click with audiences. Based on a true story, it introduces us to J.B. Bernstein (Jon Hamm), partner at a small sports agency in desperate need of a break, lest their doors close forever. He decides to think globally and soon cooks up The Big Idea: to hold a well-publicized contest in India with the intention of converting a cricket bowler into a baseball pitcher, with a seven-figure prize at stake. J.B. will secure some undiscovered talent, bring his winners home, and teach them the good old American pastime. Simple, right?
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