Once when we were watching a DVD in the media room, my wife missed a scene because she was nodding off. But usually it’s me who does the nodding. I search for the remote control, and I can never find it when I need it. Forget about the whole remote, I’ll just settle for the right button. I fish around. There, that must be it. My fingers traverse the button terrain to find the Pause or Rewind button in the dark purely by feel. Because I’m holding the darned thing upside down, I accidentally hit the Open/Close button, which stops the movie cold and slides open the disc tray. Ah, the joys of not missing a minute of a movie!
Price: $1,800 At A Glance: First A/V receiver to include Trinnov Optimizer • HQV Reon-VX video processor • Big beefy chassis
Say Hi to Trinnov
The Sherwood Newcastle R-972 A/V receiver is the first to include a new player in auto setup and room correction technology. Say hello to the Trinnov Optimizer. Nearly two years after it was first announced, the R-972 has arrived. After endless behind-the-scenes tweaking, this product will surely trigger debate and discussion among surround enthusiasts.
The transition from monaural to two-channel stereo in the 1930s is undoubtedly one of the most important innovations in the history of recorded and reproduced sound. The idea first came to Alan Blumlein when he went to the movies, which had only recently been enhanced with synchronized audio.
<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/toothfairy.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>When a professional hockey player (Dwayne Johnson) tries to spoil the belief of the Tooth Fairy of a young six year old, he gets a summons from the "Department of Dissemination of Disbelief" and is sentenced to two weeks hard time as the Tooth Fairy.
<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/edgedark.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Thomas Craven (Mel Gibson) is a veteran homicide detective for the Boston Police Department and a single father. When his only child (Bojana Novakavic) is murdered on the steps of his home, everyone assumes that he was the target. During the investigation he begins to suspect otherwise and this leads him into a dangerous world of corporate cover-ups and government collusion.
<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/kk.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Daniel (Ralph Macchio) and his single mother move from the east coast to Los Angeles and he has a difficult time meeting new friends. When he becomes the object of bullying by the Cobra Kai, a menacing group of karate students, a local handyman (Pat Morita) teaches the teenager self defense and in the process the two become the best of friends.
If you like baseball, need a 3D fix, and want to indulge both appetites at the same time, DirecTV, the Yes Network, and the FSN Network have just what you need. They're going to air Major League Baseball games in 3D in nine lucky states.
Price: $2,800 At A Glance: 3D ready • Effective 2D-to-3D conversion mode • Fine contrast with solid blacks • Outstanding setup adjustments
The LEDing Edge
Samsung appears to be producing so many LED-backlit LCD sets these days that it risks a “been there, done that” reaction from the flat-panel peanut gallery. But with the coming of 3D, plus some twisty new technology that produces an outstanding picture, the company is challenging other set makers to a game of catch-up.
As I explained in a previous entry in this blog, virtually all direct-view 3DTVs coming to market now use battery-powered active-shutter glasses to ensure that each eye sees only the image it's supposed to. But if you've gone to see a 3D movie at a commercial cinema lately, you were undoubtedly handed a different type of glasses that includes no electronics at all. These so-called passive glasses are much less expensive than their active counterpartswhich is why they're used in public settings where they can be easily damaged or stolenand there are two different types, depending on the technology being used in a particular theater. In this blog entry, I'll explain how one of these technologiespolarizationsimulates 3D on a 2D screen.
Earthquake Sound's origins are deep in the world of 12-volt (that's car stereo to you and me), where they take their bass, and their SPLs, very seriously. So while I was a bit dismayed by the size of the carefully shrink-wrapped pallet that its Titan Telesto-based speaker system arrived on - it could easily have contained a whole-house stand-by-generator - I was not particularly surprised.