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Do You Buy HT Gear Online or In-Store?
Scott Wilkinson  |  Mar 30, 2012
Yesterday, it was reported that Best Buy plans to close 50 stores and eliminate about 400 jobs over the next year due to mounting losses in the face of competition from online retailers. Of course, online buying is the ultimate in convenience, but then you have nowhere local to go for service. Also, a store provides at least the possibility of seeing and hearing a demo before you buy, though TV demos in big-box stores are typically useless because the TVs are not set up properly and the environment is nothing like any room in a home.

This news leads me to wonder about where you buy your home-theater gear—online or at brick-and-mortar stores? Why do you shop online or in-store?

Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.

Do You Buy HT Gear Online or In-Store?
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Ask S&V
Pioneer AVR with B&W Speakers
Scott Wilkinson  |  Mar 30, 2012
I have the following system:
  • Pioneer VSX-1021 A/V receiver
  • B&W 600-series speakers (683 front L/R, HTM61 center, 685 bookshelf surrounds, ASW610 subwoofer)
  • Oppo BDP-93 Blu-ray player
  • Sonos wireless audio system
  • Sony 55-inch XBR TV
All in all, the sound is outstanding, and the image of Blu-ray discs is also amazing. However, a friend says the overall setup is not balanced—in particular, the receiver is cheap compared to the other elements. I do not have much space for a higher-end receiver, so is there any other solution? Is this setup really unbalanced, since it sounds great to me?

Ricardo Monnerat

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
David Vaughn  |  Mar 30, 2012

September 11, 2001, is a day that I doubt anyone in the world will ever forget. For young Oskar, it was the day he lost his best friend—his dad. Based on the bestseller by Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is an emotional rollercoaster about a preteen trying to cope with the loss of his father in his own unique way. I enjoyed the film a lot and was especially impressed with the AVC video encode with its outstanding level of detail and rich color saturation. The enveloping DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack is no slouch either and features crisp dialog and pinpoint imaging.
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Audio Video News
Happy Trails to (and From) Yamaha's Doan Hoff
Doan Hoff  |  Mar 30, 2012

After 33 years, Doan Hoff, Yamaha's veteran manager of advertising and public relations is retiring today. We wracked our brains trying to come up with something to say that would capture how much we've enjoyed working with Doan (and how much we're going to miss him), but we ended up turning to the man himself.

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Tech2
The Things I Said, and the Things I Said I Said
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Mar 30, 2012

Between the words I think and the words you read, there are several stages of editing. The first takes place within my brain. The last, at the hands of a copy editor [hah! - Ed]. In both cases, this is a good thing.

But sometimes, a great line gets pulled that I don't think should have been cut.

So here, for your perusal, are some choice lines of mine, from various articles, someone deemed unworthy for mass consumption.

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Ask S&V
Upconverting S-video to HDMI
Scott Wilkinson  |  Mar 28, 2012
I need a new A/V receiver to replace my non-HDMI Denon AVR-3805. Among my source devices are two JVC S-VHS VCRs, so I hope to find an AVR with at least one S-video input that is upconverted to HDMI. What would you recommend for under $1000?

Stan Sexton

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New Products
Totally Tubular: Samsung's 2012 Premium Audio Line
Michael Berk  |  Mar 28, 2012

Last night we got a chance to check out Samsung's new audio product line - a full refresh of the company's approach to docks and HTiBs, with a whole bunch of interesting twists.

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Tech2
The Importance of Setup (a Cautionary Tale)
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Mar 27, 2012

I took a mini-vacation a few weeks ago to Venice, Florida. My Dad had rented a house for a month and, figuring I could use a few days off, I went to visit. Now first of all, I was the youngest person in the zipcode by half. I've never seen such a concentration of gray hairs.

While there, I was volunteered to do some pro bono work helping diagnose a home theater system that had never worked properly, despite "professional" installation.

What I discovered seriously pissed me off.

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Home Theater Geeks Podcast
Podcast 104: Carlos Angulo & James Kittle
Scott Wilkinson  |  Mar 27, 2012
Vizio product marketing manager Carlos Angulo and product engineer James Kittle talk about Vizio's soon-to-be-released 21:9 CinemaWide flat-panel TVs, including size considerations, LED edgelighting and backlighting with Smart Dimming, Vizio Internet Apps, scaling 2.35:1 movies to the panel's native 2560x1080 pixel resolution, and passive 3D. They also discuss Vizio's upcoming Google TV implementation, its 4K technology demonstrations at trade shows, answers to chat-room questions, and more.

Run Time: 51:18

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CES 2012
Tech Trends 2012: Headphone Haven
Michael Berk  |  Mar 27, 2012

THERE WERE countless headphone exhibitors at CES 2012: familiar names showing incremental upgrades to longstanding models, Chinese OEMs showcasing suspiciously familiar designs under house brands, upstart firms testing the waters with hybrid driver designs and innovative fit systems, automotive and furniture firms muscling their way into the latest hot retail category.

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