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Audio Video News
Tech Tidbits March 2018
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 19, 2018
The First 8K channel will be launched by NHK, the Japanese broadcast authority, later this year. How much programming will support it remains to be seen...

Samsung may return to OLED manufacturing, say anonymous sources quoted by a Korean-language news site. But this time it would combine the brightness of Samsung’s quantum dot with the black levels of OLED...

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Grace Notes
Roger Daltrey's Hearing Loss: Who's Sorry Now
Leslie Shapiro  |  Mar 18, 2018
At a recent solo concert in Las Vegas, Roger Daltrey urged his fans, “I advise you all, all you rock’n’roll fans, take your f***ing ear plugs to the gigs.” Daltrey, age 74, admits that he's “very, very deaf” and relies on reading lips. While most people lose some hearing as they age, years and years of loud music has most likely caused profound hearing loss in The Who's lead singer. Sadly, it's a condition that is preventable. “If only we had known when we were younger.”

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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Logan Lucky
Chris Chiarella  |  Mar 16, 2018
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Director/Producer Steven Soderbergh is an admirably free thinker, a true creative with an eye on the future of filmmaking. He’s very particular about the projects he chooses, emerging from pseudo-retirement to direct his latest, Logan Lucky. Made largely outside the Hollywood system he walked away from, it still managed to score some A-list talent on a modest budget, with James Bond and Kylo Ren likely welcoming the opportunity to play against type, as a down-on-his-luck explosives expert and a goodhearted sad-sack, respectively.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
American Made
Brandon A. DuHamel  |  Mar 16, 2018
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The dramedy action film American Made from director Doug Liman (Swingers, Edge of Tomorrow) is based on the true story of airline pilot Barry Seal (played here by Tom Cruise), who in the late 1970s was recruited by the CIA to become a drug runner for the Medellin cartel in Central America. Seal eventually became a key figure in what would turn out to be one of the biggest political scandals in the following decade, the Iran-Contra “gate.” While this might sound like heavy material, American Made is far from a heavy film.
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Audio Video News
Bose Augments Aural Reality
SV Staff  |  Mar 16, 2018
Bose is getting into augmented reality (AR) — with a twist: Its new AR platform will specialize in delivering audio.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Onkyo's New 7.2-Channel AV Receiver Costs $400
SV Staff  |  Mar 16, 2018
Onkyo has expanded its 2018 AV receiver lineup with a 7.2-channel model that costs only $400.
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Audio Video News
TV Antennas Making a Comeback
SV Staff  |  Mar 16, 2018
Chart courtesy of Parks Associates.

New research from Dallas-based Parks Associates shows that a growing number of American are using good old-fashioned TV antennas to pull in pristine digital broadcasts over the air.

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Audio Video News
Washington State Affirms Net Neutrality
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 15, 2018
The State of Washington has become the first state to pass its own full-fledged net neutrality law, grabbing the regulatory reins from the FCC, which had axed its own net neutrality rules a few months ago.
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Throwback Thursday
Flashback 1998: Reflecting on 20 Years of Netflix
Michael Antonoff  |  Mar 15, 2018
When Netflix launched its DVD-by-mail service 20 years ago, the dozens of websites selling DVDs said the newcomer would never survive. Funny how almost all of those competitors are now long gone.
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Ask S&V
What Can I Do to Overcome Spotty Streaming?
Al Griffin  |  Mar 15, 2018
Got a tech question for Sound & Vision? Email us at AskSandV@gmail.com

Q The idea of physical media going away bothers me because video streaming quality still seems so spotty. Even my wife — I’ll call her a home theater appreciator, if not an enthusiast — noticed how bad the last season of Game of Thrones looked when we streamed it on HBO Now. To be fair, that’s not the case with all streaming services. For example, Stranger Things looked great on Netflix in 4K. With both examples, however, you will most certainly get the definitive experience by watching the show on disc. Here’s my question: Which of the video streaming services currently offers the best possible AV quality? Are there any advances on the horizon? —Jason Acosta / via e-mail

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