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Audio Video News
Tributes, Covers 2008: The New Year, Already!
SV Staff  |  Jan 21, 2008
No sooner had I ...
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Custom Installation How-ToHome Movie Theaters
DIY HT on a Budget
Russ Klass  |  Jan 21, 2008

<I>How I got a great basement home theater&mdash;without breaking the bank. </I>

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Audio Video NewsCustom Installation Equipment Reviews
Transport Perceptual Pod
Jon Iverson  |  Jan 21, 2008
New bed features loudspeakers by Anthony Gallo Acoustics
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Projector Reviews
Sanyo PLV-Z2000 1080p LCD Projector
David Vaughn  |  Jan 21, 2008

It is a great time to be a home theater enthusiast. Sure, the format war between rivals HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc has been distracting. But the price of 1080p projectors has fallen from the stratosphere to price levels many can actually afford. Prices of 1080p projectors are now below the $3,000 mark, and we're not talking stripped down bargain units or last year's closeouts either.

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AV Receiver Reviews
Sony STR-DA4300ES A/V Receiver
Kim Wilson  |  Jan 21, 2008
Sony offers two lines of A/V components and has always saved the best features and performance for the ES Series. While more stripped down than some higher-end models, the STR-DA4300ES offers an abundance of state-of-the art features and performance including onboard decoding of Dolby Digital TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, plenty of power for a full 7.1 home theater system, automatic set up and room calibration, HDMI ver.1.3 switching and Sony's powerful Xross Media Bar user interface.
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Audio Video News
Microsoft Rebrands DRM
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 21, 2008
Courting confusion to an even greater degree than usual, Microsoft has renamed its digital rights management. What was formerly known as Microsoft PlaysForSure is now called Certified for Windows Vista. Why?
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AV Receiver ReviewsTower Speaker Reviews
Aperion Intimus 533 Cinema HD Speaker System and Yamaha RX-V861 A/V Receiver
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 18, 2008  |  First Published: Dec 18, 2007
Dress your home in cherry and amber.

If I didn't know better, I'd suspect some kind of hands-across-the-water design coordination in this month's Spotlight System. When the people at Aperion Audio hit upon the handsome cherry veneer finish that graces the Intimus 533 Cinema HD speaker system, the last thing on their mind was the amber display, a longstanding traditional trait, incidentally, of Yamaha receivers. Nonetheless, a harmony did arise between the two golden hues. Of course, the speakers also come in a high-gloss, piano-black finish, but then, the receiver has a black chassis. This merely proves my point, doesn't it?

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Bookshelf Speaker Reviews
Infinity TSS-800 Speaker System
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 18, 2008  |  First Published: Dec 18, 2007
Harman conjugates their contours.

Like a master linguist conjugating a verb, Harman International has a way of reusing original ideas to good advantage in different settings. So, it's not exactly a surprise to find a family resemblance between Infinity's high-end Cascade speaker line, circa 2006, and the TSS-800 set, circa 2007. They share a unique extruded-aluminum form that's tapered at both the top and bottom, for starters.

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Bookshelf Speaker Reviews
Cabasse Eole Speaker System
Gary Altunian  |  Jan 18, 2008  |  First Published: Dec 18, 2007
Sleek style and sound.

"The only thing constant is change" is a corollary that surely applies to consumer electronics, as new technologies and products are regularly brought to market. Loudspeakers are no exception; however, it seems as though some speaker designs remain timeless. A good example is coaxial speakers that have passed the test of time because they work. The French manufacturer Cabasse produces an entire line of speakers built around the coaxial design, and their latest offering is the Eole 5.1-channel speaker system.

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Media Server Reviews
Monsoon Multimedia HAVA Wireless HD
Chris Chiarella  |  Jan 18, 2008  |  First Published: Dec 18, 2007
Sometimes cutting the cord is a mixed blessing.

Certain catch phrases from my youth have stuck with me more than others. I was never a "Where's the beef?" fan, but lately, the one that keeps coming to mind is, "I want my MTV." It's not so much for the images of hyperactive rock stars and animated moon missions so much as the underlying fervor with which individuals demanded their favorite programming. That could pretty much apply to all TV these days, as well as movies or even video games—and the options for a media-hungry generation have never been as varied, or as powerful. I won't call the Slingbox a revolution for the same reason I won't apply that term to my beloved TiVo. Their uses of technology are bold, but the Slingbox has been a tad slow to penetrate the mainstream, as was the DVR in its early years. The Slingbox, if you don't recall our November 2006 review, is a network-ready place-shifting device that streams the audio and video from a connected home theater component, making it available on a PC connected to the Internet. Rather than start a game of Me Too with the more established Sling Media, competitor Monsoon Multimedia has upped the ante in two significant ways that you can probably figure out from the moniker of this particular model from their HAVA line.

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