LATEST ADDITIONS

A/V Veteran
Hidden Treasures: Anonymous
Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 05, 2016
Yes, I do have an odd taste in movies. But there must be others who can equally enjoy science fiction and action films, animated features, and well-done historical dramas. Only recently I revisited the DVDs of Zulu (the 1964 film with a very young Michael Caine in his first major role), and the first episodes of Shaka Zulu (a late ‘80s mini-series with a riveting performance by Henry Cele as Shaka). The technical quality on Zulu was very good for a DVD (there is a Blu-ray release that has received mixed reports, but I haven’t seen it). The picture quality on Shaka Zulu (1.33:1) is poor, but watchable. Both have mediocre audio at best, but despite their technical limitations are superb.

Anonymous is a much more recent effort (2011)...

Continue Reading »
Apptitude
Roll Out the Carpet to YouTube Red
Michael Antonoff  |  Apr 05, 2016
To cut commercial clutter from a diet rich in streamed entertainment, I agreed to pay Google $9.99 a month for its YouTube Red service across all my devices. Unlike free YouTube, there are no pre-roll commercials to fidget through. The countdown taunting viewers to put their lives on hold until the Skip Ad button appears is nowhere in sight. Intermercials that played between videos or regularly interrupted a full-length movie are gone.
Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
Top 10 Movies, TV Shows: Blu-ray vs. Digital
SV Staff  |  Apr 05, 2016
Game of Thrones: The Complete 5th Season and Sisters were the top selling Blu-ray and digital titles, respectively, as of mid-March, according to the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG), while Daredevil and The Walking Dead grabbed the top spots in this week’s Top 10 Digital Originals and Top 10 All Shows lists...
Continue Reading »
Grace Notes
Surf’s Up: Hercules WAE Outdoor Rush Bluetooth Speaker Review
Leslie Shapiro  |  Apr 04, 2016
Summer’s almost here and the time is right for dancing in the streets. Yup. I went there. While there are plenty of great-sounding Bluetooth speakers, sometimes you need one that you can really take anywhere and subject it to rigors you wouldn’t dream of with other speakers. The Hercules WAE Outdoor Rush ($129) is a water-proof, dust-proof speaker that is so rugged it will even float. Best part—it also has a built-in FM tuner. Bring on the beach party!

Continue Reading »
Audio Video NewsNew Products
Fluance Turntables Available for Pre-order on Kickstarter
SV Staff  |  Apr 04, 2016
Fluance has announced that its first line of turntables is now available for pre-order on Kickstarter.
Continue Reading »
Audio Video News
WiSA Issues Wireless Home Theater Update
SV Staff  |  Apr 04, 2016
David Carlick, interim president of the Wireless Speaker & Audio Association, a.k.a. WiSA, issued a statement last week about progress being made or, as he put it, “the opening curtain on the WiSA Standard as the solution for high definition, multi-channel audio— big sound for big TV's.”
Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Mulholland Drive
Fred Kaplan  |  Apr 01, 2016
Picture
Sound
Extras
Mulholland Drive is a wild and woolly movie, rife with swooning mysteries, esoteric clues, red herrings, black swans, and, even if the whole mélange remains a puzzle to you, it tosses up some of the most haunting and sensual images and sounds ever to come out of Hollywood. It begins with heavy breathing and soft focus on a red sheet, your first signal that what you’re about to see is someone’s dream, though how much, and at what point things flit back and forth from nightmare to reality (or, simply, to random jetsam from writer-director David Lynch’s own weird dreams and fantasies) is up for grabs.
Continue Reading »
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Self/Less
Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 01, 2016
Picture
Sound
Extras
Damian Hale, an extremely wealthy and self-centered businessman (is there any other kind in the movies?), is in his late sixties and dying of cancer. But he’s found an escape in a secretive company that has developed a way to transfer the contents of someone’s brain into a younger, healthy human body. They call the process shedding. It succeeds on Damian, but with complications he didn’t anticipate.
Continue Reading »
Streaming Device Reviews
Lirpa Labs Mob Cam VR App
Michael Antonoff  |  Apr 01, 2016
Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE Free (App); $5 to $20 per hour

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Eliminates airfare, hotel, and dry-cleaning bills
Diffuses “line rage” caused by waiting in too many lines for too long
Lets you bypass prickly security checks
Minus
Vertically held camera phones result in narrow, picket-fence-like view on widescreen
Surge pricing and data overage charges passed onto consumer quickly add up
Lacks 4K video and 7.1- channel audio support

THE VERDICT
Mob Cam VR will appeal to the weary, the non-ambulatory, or anyone so disgusted with the idea of returning to a massive trade show that they’d do anything to opt out.

Mimicking business plans pioneered by Uber, Airbnb, and TaskRabbit in which anyone with a car, room, or broom can offer transportation, a bed, or cleaning service to strangers, the Lirpa Labs Mob Cam VR is a new app that empowers smartphone owners everywhere to work as on-location cameramen for one or more distant viewers willing to pay for a live video feed.

Continue Reading »
Tech2
Dog Headphones Reviewed
Geoffrey Morrison,  |  Apr 01, 2016
CES 2016 proved to be a massive year for the petcare gadgets industry. People love their furry family, and the electronics world is finally catching up. The biggest innovation? Headphones for dogs. More than the thunder-dampening earmuffs of yesteryear, these high-fidelity canine cans promise “better than human range fidelity” and “high definition to howl about.” Obviously, we needed to test them out.

Of course, we couldn’t listen to these beyond-audiophile-level headphones with our paltry human ears. So we recruited some of our favorite pups to try them out.

Continue Reading »

Pages

X