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LCD TV Reviews
Sony BRAVIA KDL-55XBR8 LCD HDTV
Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 17, 2009
This review is part of a four-way Face Off. Read the introduction and conclusions of the Face Off here.

Despite the market penetration of LCD flat panels—they significantly outsell plasmas—LCD technology has two serious shortcomings. Off-axis viewing is one—we’ll get to that a bit later. The other is how they handle blacks and deep shadow detail. But a new design technique, LED backlighting with local dimming, promises to change all that. (See sidebar on page 37.) Both the Sony and the Samsung use it.

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LCD TV Reviews
Samsung LN55A950 LCD HDTV
Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 17, 2009
This review is part of a four-way Face Off. Read the introduction and conclusions of the Face Off here.

Two of the LCD sets in this Face Off, including the Samsung, produce black levels that were unheard of in LCD flat panels until recently. Like the Sony in this group, the Samsung LN55A950 uses clusters of multicolored LEDs as a backlight, together with local dimming of the individual clusters as required by the program material. The LN55A950 is the larger of Samsung’s second generation of LED local-dimming sets.

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Pioneer Elite KURO PRO-111FD Plasma HDTV
Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 17, 2009
This review is part of a four-way Face Off. Read the introduction and conclusions of the Face Off here.

Manufacturers of flat-panel plasma televisions have been refining the technology for years. But Pioneer has been particularly successful at it. In the past, the company made some of the world’s best rear-projection CRT sets, and it knew that great black levels are the foundation of a great picture. That philosophy has paid off over the years, particularly in recent-generation KURO sets.

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Panasonic VIERA TH-50PZ800U Plasma HDTV
Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 17, 2009
This review is part of a four-way Face Off. Read the introduction and conclusions of the Face Off here.

The Panasonic TH-50PZ800U is one of the first HDTVs to earn THX certification. But you might ask, “Isn’t THX mainly into audio?” I can see where you’re coming from, but THX isn’t exactly new to the home video business. It has certified video software for years and has begun to do the same for projectors and flat-panel displays.

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Face Off at the HDTV Corral
Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 17, 2009
Four premier flat-panel sets go head to head.

Panasonic VIERA TH-50PZ800U Plasma HDTV Review and Comments
Pioneer Elite KURO PRO-111FD Plasma HDTV Review and Comments
Samsung LN55A950 LCD HDTV Review and Comments
Sony BRAVIA KDL-55XBR8 LCD HDTV Review and Comments

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Audio Video News
Picture: The Part of the New Simpsons Open You Didn't See
SV Staff  |  Feb 17, 2009
If you watched the HD debut of The Simpsons this weekend, then you probably noticed the super-fast scan during the open. I couldn't help but wonder what hilarious stuff was going on in that split second, so I put together a quick and dirty...
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Audio Video News
Happy DTV Transition Day, Part 1
Mark Fleischmann  |  Feb 17, 2009
Today is the originally scheduled date of the DTV transition. Some television stations will make the transition from antiquated analog to cool new digital broadcasting on this very date. Others will have to wait till June 12. Let's look at the current tally.
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Bookshelf Speaker Reviews
Boston Acoustics VS Series home theater speaker system
Daniel Kumin  |  Feb 16, 2009
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Other Tech
The Fictional Future of Home Entertainment
Stan Horaczek  |  Feb 16, 2009

SQUID Recordings Origin: Strange Days What is it? Using a jack plugged into the cerebral cortex, users can record every aspect of their experiences and burn them onto media that look suspiciously like Minidiscs.

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Fred Manteghian Blog
Care and Feeding of the Videslowdoptus
Fred Manteghian  |  Feb 15, 2009

I'm a jaded reviewer who thinks there are only two kinds of people in the world. The first group have the latest flat panel / front projector rigs with HDMI everything, 1080p, ba-blah-ba-blah-ba-blah, and the rest of the world watch TV on the same set Ricky Ricardo used to watch in "I Love Lucy." So imagine my surprise when I got an irate letter from a reader who had read my review of the Rotel RSP-1069 pre/pro in <i>Home Theater</i> magazine where I said, incorrectly, that the Rotel would internally convert HDMI sources to component, all the way up to 1080i. I mean, who would need to do that anyway? Well, he did for one, since his perfectly-good-otherwise widescreen RPTV lacked HDMI (or DVI) inputs. I apologized in print, but that's not the point. I, Fred Manteghian, had discovered a new species!

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