LATEST ADDITIONS

Audio Video News
Biggest production rear-projection 3D TV?
Michael Berk  |  Jun 29, 2011

...who knows? It'll change next week, I'm sure. I'm not going to get into that question again.

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Soundbar Reviews
Polk SurroundBar 6000 Soundbar Speaker System
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jun 29, 2011
Price: $500 At A Glance: Self-contained soundbar with wireless sub • Proprietary Polk SDA and Digital Logic processing • Relatively few user controls

Mellow Bar

As I’ve noted so many times in the recent past, soundbars are a viable step up from horrific built-in HDTV speakers, which have only gotten worse as flatpanel HDTVs have gotten flatter. Soundbars are especially suitable for people who don’t like component audio systems, with their speaker-placement requirements, cabling, and—perhaps the ultimate deal breaker for the flat-panel-owning Luddite—the need to be mated with one of those scary man-eating A/V receivers. But what if there’s a second deal breaker lurking in the bushes?

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Audio Video News
Net Neutrality Comes to Europe
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jun 29, 2011

Net neutrality has become a political and regulatory football in the United States, with internet service providers squaring off against electronic libertarians, and the feds uneasily caught in the middle. But in one European nation, for the first time, it may be about to become law.

In the Netherlands, the parliament is weighing a net neutrality bill designed to prevent the dominant (and newly privatized) telco from discriminating against certain kinds of net traffic.

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Ask S&V
Hybrid Plasma?
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jun 28, 2011
A salesman at a store I visited said the Samsung PN64D8000 is a hybrid plasma with LED backlighting, which makes it much better than the Panasonic plasmas. He says it has the brightness of LED and all the qualities of plasma. What is your opinion of this technology?

Joe Souders

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Premiere Design
NuForce Reference 18 Monoblock Power Amp
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jun 28, 2011
Since 2005, the mission of NuForce has been to "thrill the ear, delight the eye, and please the pocket." I've not heard the company's flagship Reference 18 monoblock power amp, but it does have a delightful appearance and a pleasing price—at least as far as high-end power amps go.
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Audio Video News
Samsung Streams Free 3D
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jun 28, 2011
Would you like to put your new 3DTV through its paces? Your guests will be impressed when Samsung's Explore 3D app gets the show on the road.

Sign up via your PC and the Rovi-powered app will deliver movie trailers, music videos, educational stuff, and (via Wealth TV) full-length shows—all of it free—to any 2010-11 Samsung LED-LCD smart TV or plasma smart TV. Paid content will become available later this year.

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TV Shopping
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jun 27, 2011
It's time to get rid of my Sony Wega 40-inch TV, which cost over $3000 when I bought it years ago. My local A/V retailer carries Sony, Samsung, LG, and Sharp, and a local furniture store offers Panasonic, Toshiba, and Hitachi. The most important features to me are sports, movies, and Ethernet (I have a lot of movies on my new Windows 7 PC).

Chris MacDonald

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3D Blu-ray Player ReviewsBlu-ray Player Reviews
Samsung BD-D6700 Blu-ray 3D Player
Kris Deering  |  Jun 27, 2011

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
Price: $300 At A Glance: Top-of-the-line streaming • Exceptional 2D and 3D playback • Compact, sleek design

Stream City

Blu-ray players just aren’t what they used to be—they’re a lot more. Sony’s PlayStation 3 has long offered more than just standard Blu-ray playback. Today’s breed of players bring not only state-of-the-art Blu-ray performance but also connectivity to your home media network and a range of streaming options from the most popular movie and music providers on the Internet. These players can become the hub of your home entertainment system and eliminate the need for separate devices to get the most out of today’s technology.

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Audio Video News
Will Apple Launch iOS TV?
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jun 27, 2011
When Apple extended iOS from the iPhone and iPod touch to the iPad, skeptics scoffed at the idea of porting the operating system for handheld devices to a tablet computer. Now Apple practically owns the tablet market. Rumor has it that the next step will be an iOS-powered TV.

Granted, this is only the latest prediction among many that Apple would move into the TV set market.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Extended Editions (Blu-ray)
David Vaughn  |  Jun 27, 2011
In case you've been in a coma for the past 10 years, Peter Jackson adapted the popular J.R.R. Tolkien novel with amazing results. Arguably, it's one of the greatest movie accomplishments of all time with 15 Academy Awards, over $1 billion in US box-office receipts, and nearly $3 billion worldwide.

Many fans are angry that Warner decided to release the theatrical versions last year instead of the these extended director cuts, but Peter Jackson has stated publicly that the theatrical releases are the definitive versions of the films, not the extended cuts, but the fans want to see every minute of filmed footage come hell or high water.

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