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Other Source Component Reviews
Atari Gamestation Pro Retro Game Console Review
John Sciacca  |  Jan 03, 2024

Performance
Features
Build Quality
Value
PRICE $99

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Nice selection of games
Everything needed to play is in the box
Ability to upgrade controllers/games
HDMI port for connecting to a TV
Minus
Missing some key titles
Awkward controller button layout
Questionable longevity of controllers

THE VERDICT
For Gen X-ers, the My Arcade Atari Gamestation Pro is a blast-from-the-past in an affordable package that allows you to relive some of your favorite games from childhood. Probably the best under $100 purchase I’ve made!

Here’s the TL/DR: this review is mainly for Gen-Xers. If your first gaming console was an NES or Genesis, or PlayStation or X-Box, then you’ll probably do better just to move on. But for those of us who grew up in the Atari Generation, when the home gaming market was born and really started to take off, this box is a time machine that will transport you to simpler times when all you needed to worry about was a stick and a button!

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CES 2024Audio Video NewsNew Products
Auro Technologies to Demonstrate Next-Generation Audio Codec at CES 2024
Bob Ankosko  |  Jan 02, 2024
Auro Technologies, the Belgian company behind the Auro-3D immersive-surround format, says it will demonstrate the “first and only truly scalable next-generation audio codec” at CES 2024, which opens in Las Vegas a week from today.
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Audio Video News
Trinnov’s High-End Altitude Surround Processors Now Support HDMI 2.1
SV Staff  |  Jan 02, 2024
Trinnov Audio, the French company specializing in sophisticated audio processing, recently announced that its Altitude16 and flagship Altitude32 immersive surround-sound processors are now equipped an HDMI 2.1-capable board.
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Spatial Audio File
The Ten Best Immersive Audio Albums of 2023
Mike Mettler  |  Dec 29, 2023

It seems like everyone is riding the immersive audio wave these days, which ultimately isn’t such a bad thing at all to see our favorite format reach the ears of as many spatially interested and Atmos-curious listeners as possible. With that in mind, here are my choices for the ten best and most thoroughly immersive audio albums of 2023, which appear as follows in reverse order from 10 to 1. . .

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Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Princess Bride
Chris Chiarella  |  Dec 29, 2023
Picture
Sound
Extras

Director Rob Reiner’s genre-defying The Princess Bride, from the book and screenplay by William Goldman, is weird but somehow it works. A modest hit in theaters in 1987, this romantic, swashbuckling fairy tale struck a unique comedic tone with its quirky characters and absurd situations and has since grown to become a family favorite for generations.

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CES 2024Audio Video NewsNew Products
LG Previews 2024 QNED TV Lineup
SV Staff  |  Dec 28, 2023
LG today offered a sneak peek at its 2024 lineup of QNED TVs, with screen sizes ranging from an entry-level 43-incher all the way up to a gargantuan 98-inch model, but did not disclose pricing or availability, saving that for a later date.
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SmartStream
2023: The Year of the Commercial
Barb Gonzalez  |  Dec 27, 2023
FAST (Free Ad-Supported TV) and streaming services with ads have brought back commercials in a big way. 2023 was the year streaming became so expensive that we had to reconsider the luxury of uninterrupted streaming.
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4K TV ReviewsOLED TV ReviewsTV Reviews
Samsung S90C 77" 4K Quantum Dot OLED TV Review
Mark Henninger  |  Dec 27, 2023

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

PRICE $2,500

AT A GLANCE
Plus
High value for price
Superior picture quality
Works in bright settings
Low Lag and High Refresh Rate
Minus
Potential for image retention and burn-in
Lacks support for Dolby Vision
77-inch is the largest size with QD-OLED

THE VERDICT
When a TV's picture quality is the top priority over screen size, you won't do better than this 77-inch quantum-dot OLED from Samsung.

It is a small miracle that you can buy a TV as good as the 77-inch Samsung S90C Quantum Dot OLED for $2500. But that's where we're at, as the year 2024 begins. The price premium paid for early adoption has long since passed, and the TV's current pricing makes it an exceptional value for those who prize high contrast and deep blacks and extremely intense colors.

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A/V Veteran
Star Date: 1997 - Lessons from the Past Still Apply, Part 2
Thomas J. Norton  |  Dec 26, 2023
Part two of an interview did I did more than 25 years ago reveals that not everything has changed when it comes to home audio.
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Music Reviews
The Who – Who’s Next: Life House Super Deluxe Edition & 4LP Box Sets
Mike Mettler  |  Dec 26, 2023
Photo: Trinifold Archive

Performances
Sound

Life House was intended to be Pete Townshend’s life’s work, so to speak, following the somewhat unexpected runaway success of The Who’s May 1969 groundbreaking 2LP rock opera,Tommy. But for various reasons, portions of Life House were instead transmogrified into the nine songs that comprise one of the truly seminal albums of the rock era, August 1971’s Who’s Next.

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