A/V Veteran

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A/V Veteran
It's a Laazzeer...Projector
Thomas J. Norton  |  Nov 29, 2013  | 
Lasers, or Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, have been with us for half a century. A laser produces a highly focused (spatially coherent) beam of light having a very specific wavelength, the latter depending on the design and application. They’re used in medicine, industry, laser printing, barcode scanners, CD, DVD, and Blu-ray players, laser light shows, and innumerable other applications.

Lasers can also be used as a light source for digital projection. While this is still under development, we’re likely to see it first in movie theaters. Lasers can not only produce a much brighter image—which can help overcome the dimness of 3D presentations—but also offer cost benefits to theater owners. Conventional xenon lamps are expensive to replace, and have a useful life of perhaps 1000 hours (some theaters try to stretch this as much as possible, often with negative effects on picture quality). A laser light source can stretch this by at least twenty-fold or even more. While replacement lasers will likely be significantly more expensive to early on, they’ll still be cheaper per hour of use. Another possible cost saving might come from using a centralized “light farm,” with the light from a single remotely located bank of lasers routed to multiple projectors via fiber optics.

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A/V Veteran
It's a Tight Fit
Thomas J. Norton  |  Oct 08, 2006  |  First Published: Oct 09, 2006  | 

This single seater in the Pioneer booth is for those who can't fit a Mini in the garage. I'm not sure how it fits into consumer electronics. Perhaps it's the audiophile special—you can drive and still always be in the sweet spot.

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A/V Veteran
It's a Wrap
Thomas J. Norton  |  Jun 13, 2006  | 

The gear has been packed back up and the rooms cleared. The demo material has been tossed into suitcases, destined to end up in an obscure corner of each exhibitor's factory, the place where overplayed and now unloved recordings go to die. And copious notes have been made on what worked and what needs to be improved.

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A/V Veteran
It's Hi-Fi Show Time Again!
Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 23, 2024  | 
I've blogged on audio (and video) shows before but there's always something more that needs to be said on the subject. Every year new hi-fi shows seem to pop up, though some will inevitably fade while others come along to fill the gaps. I've never been involved in organizing an audio show, but can imagine that it's a hectic, rewarding, but often difficult business (our sister publication, Stereophile actually ran a few annual audio shows years ago).
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A/V Veteran
It's Showtime! The A/V Show Season Gets Underway
Thomas J. Norton  |  Oct 18, 2022  | 
After a long, hot summer (in more ways than one!), the audio and A/V show season recently kicked off with the annual CEDIA Expo. CEDIA stands for the Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association, and as the name implies, it caters to attendees in the business of installing custom home theaters and media rooms. As such it also offers a wide range of training sessions to supplement its trade show exhibits.

In recent years CEDIA has moved beyond traditional A/V gear and into peripheral products such as home automation, security, and home health assistance — areas a custom install company might find useful in expanding its services. But traditional audio and video are still CEDIA's core attractions, and in showcasing both current and new products it draws a huge contingent from the A/V press.

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A/V Veteran
It’s a Jurassic World (After All)
Thomas J. Norton  |  Oct 02, 2018  | 
While the movers behind the Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek franchises aren’t at risk of losing sleep over dinosaurs just yet, the Jurassic worlds and parks do threaten to chomp on more than a few toes over the coming years.

When Jurassic Park debuted in 1993 it could have been a boom or a bust. Computer generated effects (CGI) were just coming into their own, but with a few exceptions (notably Terminator 2) they still hadn’t eaten the film business alive. Though keenly aware of his problems with the anamatronic shark in 1975’s Jaws, director Steven Spielberg was also aware that CGI, while still in its infancy, had significantly advanced the possibilities for special effects since the (on-set) practical effects of 1975.

So Spielberg went ahead. Using a brilliant combination of anamatronics and CGI he crafted a classic movie with effects that still hold up today. Four other Jurassic films have followed, three of them directed by others...

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A/V Veteran
JVC Gets Thin
Thomas J. Norton  |  Oct 08, 2006  |  First Published: Oct 09, 2006  | 

JVC announced a new 58" D-ILA model that checks in at just a bit over 10-inches deep.

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HDTV TechA/V Veteran
Key TV/Video Terms Explained
Thomas J. Norton  |  Sep 06, 2016  | 
We tend to forget that not all readers have been around the block when it comes to the language of video. Those that have know the tricks of the trade, and what all of the terminology means. True, even they’re sometimes mistaken, and we ourselves can get caught out from time to time with what’s being offered this year (or this week!) in the ever changing high definition (HD) and ultra high definition (UHD) world.

But manufacturers seldom offer much help in this, or even do their best to obfuscate. In their specs, descriptions, and promotional copy, one thing you won’t find clearly stated is what their products won’t do...

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A/V Veteran
King Kong Musings
Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 10, 2006  | 

I saw <I>King Kong</I> &mdash;twice&mdash; theatrically, in the "standard" auditoriums of the Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood (not the Cinerama Dome where it was also playing, for reasons I described in an earlier blog, "<I>King Kong: Peter Jackson's Production Diaries</I>," below). It was, without question, the best theatrical film presentation I've seen in years. I wrote about the DVD in our most recent e-Newsletter, which will show up in your mailbox in a few days. (You do subscribe don't you? It's free, just go <A HREF=" http://www.ultimateavmag.com/newsletter_subscribe/?Your%20E-mail ">here</A>to sign up.)

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A/V Veteran
King Kong: Peter Jackson's Production Diaries
Thomas J. Norton  |  Dec 23, 2005  | 

Going ape over that last minute gift for the home theater enthusiast? Or looking to drop a hint on a gift for yourself? Check out Universal's recent release, <I>King Kong: Peter Jackson's Production Diaries</I>. Boxed in a faux-antique file briefcase that someone was paid entirely too much money to design and that you'll probably ditch anyway because it won't fit on your bookshelf, this set contains a production memoir, four limited edition prints (my signed Certificate of Authenticity is number 32,786!), and, most important, two DVDs filled with behind the scenes production material on the making of the film.

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A/V Veteran
King Plasma
Thomas J. Norton  |  Mar 31, 2006  | 

During a gala event last night at Ken Cranes Home Entertainment on the tony west side of Los Angeles, LG Electronics hosted the launch of its long-awaited 71-inch plasma display, the MW-71PY10. As the press handout states, it's the first plasma you can speak of in feet, not inches (they should have made it an even six feet&mdash;what's an itty bitty inch among friends).

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A/V Veteran
Know Your Blu-ray Stats
Thomas J. Norton  |  Sep 03, 2019  | 
An in-depth look at Blu-ray parameters that can be sorted and studied in a variety of ways.
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A/V Veteran
Laserdiscs, Blu-rays...and Egypt
Thomas J. Norton  |  Aug 16, 2022  | 
I've written early and often about where the current mania for streaming will take us, and the slow, possible demise of packaged media. Yes, new and re-releases on disc are still common, to which anyone who follows the website The Digital Bits website can attest. But what does the future hold for disc-based entertainment?
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A/V Veteran
LEDs, OLEDs, and Micro LEDs
Tom Norton  |  Feb 13, 2025  | 
This blog will be old-hat for many veteran Sound & Vision readers, but there are always newbies flummoxed by this whole LED vs OLED vs Micro LED business.

The oldest and most basic form of a flat screen television is the LCD, or Liquid Crystal Display. A layer of liquid crystals is sandwiched between two layers of polarizing filters. When an electric signal is applied to those filters (that signal being the source to be displayed) the liquid crystals align in changing patterns to produce the moving and (where needed) color image.

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A/V Veteran
Let the Ultra HD Game of Thrones Begin
Thomas J. Norton  |  Sep 01, 2015  | 
Last year the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) laid down what it considered the minimum standards for a 4K Ultra HD set. A few months later it introduced a voluntary UHD logo program that manufacturers could use in advertising and labeling sets that meet the standards. This logo also clarified the name to be used for these sets: 4K Ultra HD. While manufacturers are free to make and sell 4K Ultra HD sets of any description (the CEA has no legal authority to stop them), they can’t use the logo if their sets don’t meet these standards. The logo will read either 4K Ultra HD or 4K Ultra HD Connected (though there’s nothing to stop a manufacturer who doesn’t meet the standards from calling their sets simply 4K, or Ultra HD)...
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