LATEST ADDITIONS

Ears On
Book Revised, Self Promoted
Mark Fleischmann  |  Oct 01, 2008
Time for an annual act of self-promotion. Every year, usually around October 1, my book Practical Home Theater: A Guide to Video and Audio Systems goes into a new edition. This year's edition is the eighth, cover date 2009, ISBN 9781932732108, and is easily distinguished by its pale blue cover, which replaces last year's off-white. Annually refreshing the book gives me a chance to review and expand what I know about home theater technology as well as bring readers up to date. This year's big news is the DTV transition, scheduled for February 2009, which is mentioned throughout the book. The most poignant aspect of the update was pruning out a lot of material about HD DVD, leaving only one fat graf of historical summary. HDMI got some attention as I flagged the latest versions and added more material about the distinction between Category 1 and Category 2 HDMI cables. Before long, I'll be taking the page layout I've recently labored over and stripping it down to a pictureless Word file, typing new material into the book over the next year for the following edition. Practical Home Theater is the only book on the subject to get this kind of ongoing attention. If you buy it, I hope it serves you well. Annual act of self-promotion completed.
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Other Tech
Lisa Loeb Takes Us to Camp Vinyl
Mike Mettler  |  Sep 30, 2008

You've always been a bit of a hi-fi geek, haven't you? I have. On prom night, my boyfriend and I checked out stereo speakers at an all-night speaker sale. It was a big deal back then, a ritual - you had to get the perfect speakers, and set your room up a certain way.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Dawn of the Dead
David Vaughn  |  Sep 30, 2008

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/dawnofthedead.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>When a mysterious virus turns people into mindless, flesh-eating zombies, a handful of survivors congregate in a local mall to make their last stand against the foul beasts.

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Audio Video News
Panasonic's Fitness Solutions
SV Staff  |  Sep 30, 2008
I'll be the first to admit that working out indoors sucks. Compared to the distractions of the outdoors, being stuck in front of a television set while exercising can be dreadful. However, Panasonic is showing off a new "Family Wellness...
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Audio Video News
PowerdomeVELVET Heavenly Projector
SV Staff  |  Sep 30, 2008
Sure, some HDTVs are boasting dynamic contrast ratios of 500,000:1. Be prepared to be humbled. Lens giant Carl Zeiss has developed a projector that blasts that number into the stratosphere. The new powerdomeVELVET Planetarium Projector has a...
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Audio Video News
Panasonic Wary of OLED TV
SV Staff  |  Sep 30, 2008
Before they've even hit the market, Panasonic seems to have doubts about the viability of OLED TVs. They don't have an OLED on the market, but they were working on one. CNET is reporting from Ceatec 2008 in Japan that Panasonic's AVC Networks...
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Custom Installation Equipment ReviewsCustom Installation How-ToHome Movie Theaters
Integra PrePro Introduces Advanced Video Calibration
Kim Wilson  |  Sep 30, 2008

Integra is the first manufacturer to offer Imaging Science Foundation's Certified Calibration Controls (ISFccc), which provides a simplified facilitation of individual calibration for different video sources. The Integra DHC-9.9 ($2000) is the first preamp/controller to include this technology (along with 2 new Integra AVRs) that ensures optimal image quality for every HDMI video input.

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Audio Video News
Wal-Mart DRM Downloads Are Toast
Mark Fleischmann  |  Sep 30, 2008
Wal-Mart has become the latest online music retailer to shut down the encryption-key servers for its DRM-encrusted downloads. As a result, anyone unfortunate enough to have bought the latter will have to burn them to CDs for archiving. Otherwise it will become impossible to transfer them to other computers and players in the future.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
David Vaughn  |  Sep 29, 2008  |  First Published: Sep 30, 2008

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/40yearoldvirgin.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Forty-year-old Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell) works at a big-box electronics retailer, lives in a nice apartment with an extensive action-figure collection, and rides his bike to work every day. No wonder he's a virgin. His friends take his virginity personally and vow to do whatever it takes to get him laid.

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
David Vaughn  |  Sep 29, 2008  |  First Published: Sep 30, 2008

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/sarahmarshall.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>When his TV-star girlfriend, Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell), leaves him for a famous British rock star (Russell Brand), Peter Bretter (Jason Segal) sees his life fall to pieces. He decides to take a trip to Hawaii to forget about his troubles and runs into Sarah, who is on vacation with her new beau. Peter splits his time between stalking her and hanging out with the hot hotel receptionist (Mila Kunis), who, for some unknown reason, is attracted to him.

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