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Home Theater Geeks Podcast
Podcast 63: David Cole & D.J. Roller
Scott Wilkinson  |  Apr 27, 2011
Next3D co-founders David Cole (pictured) and D.J. Roller discuss the problems with current 3D broadcasting and explain how their new technology solves them by encoding 3D images at much lower bitrates, allowing high-quality 3D to be broadcast and streamed online. They also talk about Next3D's VOD (video on demand) streaming service that will offer 3D content exclusively, the company's agreement with Turner Broadcasting to shoot sports in 3D, and answers to chat-room questions.

Run Time: 58:53

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Human Planet: The Complete Series (Blu-ray Disc)
David Vaughn  |  Apr 27, 2011
From Greenland to Mongolia, Cambodia to Kenya, people are living by their wits, braving the elements, seizing opportunities, and overcoming huge obstacles to survive and thrive. Whether it's a line of woman and children who use star and sand dune patterns to traverse the Sahara in order to trade their wares, or dozens of young Pa-aling fishermen who breathe air through a tangled web of pipes attached to a diesel engine, humans find a way to endure.

BBC Earth has quite a pedigree with hit documentaries such as Life, Planet Earth, and Blue Planet. They've taken us all around the globe and given us a better understanding of what a marvelous place we live. In Human Planet, they weave 80 different stories over eight episodes (Oceans, Deserts, Arctic, Jungles, Mountains, Grasslands, Rivers, and Cities) to show humanity's uncanny ability to adapt and live in every corner of our diverse world.

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Audio Video News
Buy Panasonic Stuff, Get Avatar
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 27, 2011
Panasonic's exclusivity deal with the Blu-ray 3D release of Avatar has a new variation. Now you can buy a Panasonic Blu-ray player or compact system and get the hot disc. Previously it was available only to purchasers of Panasonic Viera TVs.

The BD 3D Avatar remains unavailable in stores.

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Premiere Design
T+A E-Series Music Receiver
Scott Wilkinson  |  Apr 26, 2011
Founded in 1978, German maker T+A is well-known for high-performance, high-value audio products. New to the company's E-Series is the Music Receiver, which combines the other two products in that series—the Power Plant integrated amp and Music Player CD/digital-file source—into one chassis.
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Ask S&V
Large Screen for a Bright Room
Scott Wilkinson  |  Apr 26, 2011
Is the picture brightness greater on a Mitsubishi 75-inch LaserVue or 82-inch lamp-based rear-projection TV? I have a room full of floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides with skylights, and I want a larger screen TV (I now have the last 72-inch Toshiba made), but none of the current LCDs or plasmas are available in a large size at a reasonable price (e.g., the B&O 85-incher is $85,000!).

Henry Hollander

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Projection Screen ReviewsOther TechProjector Buying TipsProjector SetupProjector Tech
Screen Innovations Black Diamond II HD Projection Screen
Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 26, 2011
Price: $2,199 At A Glance: Image pops with room lights on • Minimizes room reflections with lights off • Fixed frame—no retractable version

Lighten Up

Many of us will tolerate a projection system that requires a totally darkened room for movie watching. But when other family matters make this impossible, or when your buddies come over on a Sunday afternoon for the big game, how many of us are willing to totally blacken the room and leave everyone to stumble around in the dark?

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Audio Video News
The Droids you're looking for?
Michael Berk  |  Apr 26, 2011

Sony's PSN and Qriocity network outage may be ongoing, but the company's pressing forward on the mobile hardware front.

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Audio Video News
My, Netflix, How You've Grown
Mark Fleischmann  |  Apr 26, 2011
Was it only yesterday when Netflix was a babe in the cradle, with giant Blockbusters and cable operators looming over it? My, Netflix, how you've grown. You've all but defeated Blockbuster and now you're bigger than the country's largest cable TV and satellite radio operators.

The latest Netflix quarterly earnings report shows 23.7 million subscribers. While this is short of estimates, it's still enough to propel Netflix past Comcast, with 22.8 million subscribers, and Sirius XM, with 20.2 million subscribers. This has got to make the cable industry in particular nervous.

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Audio Video News
A hostile and retaliatory measure with great hubris
Michael Berk  |  Apr 26, 2011

The Beastie Boys have struck back against bootleggers (who've been distibuting an unauthorized copy of the final mix of the upcoming Hot Sauce Committee, Part 2), posting a full stream

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Ask S&V
Oppo BDP-95 Settings
Scott Wilkinson  |  Apr 25, 2011
I recently bought an Oppo BDP-95 Blu-ray player, and I already have a Pioneer PRO-110FD Kuro plasma TV. Which video setting should I use in the player, Auto or Source Direct? I've tried both, and the picture looks great either way. I've also tried 1080p, and that looked great as well, though I understand this is far from an ideal setting for 1080i sources. Is there anything I should be looking for to see which setting is better? I have a Denon AVR-4308CI receiver, but I set it to pass the video signal through without any processing.

I use the AVR's HDMI 1 input for movies, but I also hooked up the player's 5.1 analog outs to the receiver's Ext. In. This is for listening to music (CD, SACD, DVD-Audio). For Blu-ray music, should I use the analog out when the signal is PCM? Is the HDMI out better for the lossless forms of Dolby and DTS? As an aside, the player's manual hints that it is better to output SACDs from the analog outs as PCM rather than DSD. Is this because the player likely does a better job at decoding the DSD signals?

Stephen Beney

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