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Audio Video News
Why Do We Have to Wait to Start the Friggin' Movie?
Steve Guttenberg  |  Dec 20, 2012
Steve Guttenberg has a question that's on the minds of many: Why do we have to traverse an endless string of trailers, FBI warnings, promos, and menus before we can start watching a DVD or Blu-ray?
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Grace Notes
Google Scan and Match for Google Play Music launches in the US
Leslie Shapiro  |  Dec 20, 2012

The Google Play Music Manager has been around for quite a while. Upload and store up to 20,000 songs in the cloud, so you can play them from any connected  Android device or computer, anywhere. The problem was that you had to go through and upload each and every file. However, Google has just launched a new scan and match feature in the U.S.

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Audio Video News
Coming Attractions
HT Staff  |  Dec 19, 2012
From a Wi-Fi-enabled Blu-ray player you can control with your smartphone to a $900 video projector that's so bright you won't have to black out your windows, we present a handful of the latest products, including one that would make a sweet gift.
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Headphone Reviews
Review: Yamaha Pro 500 headphone
Brent Butterworth  |  Dec 19, 2012

From mixing boards to Blu-ray players to soundbars to saxophones, Yamaha makes just about everything audio. Which is why it’s surprising that in the one field that practically every audio company has piled into—headphones—Yamaha hasn’t done much in the last few years. The Pro 500 represents a re-entry of sorts, a flashy blue bombshell designed to attract both audiophiles and fashion-oriented “listeners.”

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Signals
The Dimming Future of AMOLED
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Dec 18, 2012

It is the job of engineers to push the envelope and design the products of the future, not the products of today. When the first Compact Disc players were on the drawing board, 780-nm lasers were extremely expensive, but engineers anticipated that low-cost versions would soon become available. They bet right: cheap laser modules were perfected just before the CD format’s launch.

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New Products
Steiger Dynamics Unveils Liquid Cooled Home Theater PC
HT Staff  |  Dec 18, 2012
As a service to our readers, HomeTheater.com publishes selected manufacturer-supplied announcements and press releases for products that we think might interest you.
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This Week
New Blu-rays for December 18 2012: Last Chances, Southern Gothics, and Bad Sci-Fi
Josef Krebs  |  Dec 18, 2012

Total Recall

As a fan of the 1990 version of the science fiction action thriller Total Recall, loosely based on the 1966 Philip K.

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This Week
Get Ready for a High-Rez Christmas
Mark Smotroff  |  Dec 18, 2012
This weekend, I pulled out my SACD of Vince Guaraldi's classic soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas, marking the beginning of the holiday season for me personally.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Best of the Boxes: 2012’s Best Blu-ray Collections
Chris Chiarella  |  Dec 18, 2012
What better gift than a Blu-ray box set? We cherry pick the best of the best so you don't have to hunt to find that perfect gift for a family member, special friend or... yourself.
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TV ReviewsLCD TV Reviews
Sony XBR-55HX950 3D LCD TV
Al Griffin  |  Dec 18, 2012

When it comes to picture quality, LCD TVs ?with a full-array, “local dimming” LED backlight tend to outperform their edge-lit LED brethren by a not insubstantial margin. We’ve covered the particulars of LED backlight tech before, so I won’t get sidetracked in explaining it here, but the finer control afforded by a full-array design allows for improved contrast and, for the most part, better uniformity when displaying dark images. Sony was among the first TV makers to push full-array for LCD, and then mysteriously put the tech on hold. But it roared back in 2011 with the XBR-HX929 line, a series that pushed full-array to new heights. The newest such sets to arrive from Sony are the HX950 series, which started shipping in late 2012. Can they match, or even exceed, Sony’s vaunted HX929 TVs?

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