Audio Video News

Crestron has announced that select Denon and Marantz AV receivers can now be updated via firmware to seamlessly integrate with the company’s home automation systems. The update can be accessed via the receiver’s system setup menu.

John Sciacca offered a number of great suggestions for what to do with old equipment in his recent Old Electronics Get New Life column, which inspired us to pose this question to Sound & Vision readers: How do you get rid of old AV gear that’s past its prime.

Well, the results are in and 60 percent of the tally was a near toss up between 1) moving gear to another room, 2) giving it to a friend or relative, and 3) selling it at a garage sale or online through a site like eBay—all excellent ways to keep good used gear in circulation. Here’s the complete breakdown:

Elite Screens has announced that its CineGrey 5D Ambient Light Rejecting projection screen is now available to the consumer market. The screen, which is compatible with active 3D and 4K projectors, is said to counter the wash-out effect from ambient light while enhancing contrast and color balance.

Chinese consumer electronics giant TCL (The Creative Life) yesterday introduced a 48-inch 1080p LED-backlit LCD HDTV that will be sold exclusively through Sam’s Club stores nationwide and online at SamsClub.com for $449 starting in early March. The model is the first in a 2014 lineup of TVs with screen sizes ranging from 23 to 55 inches due out later this spring.

The results of last week’s survey are in. We asked how you are watching the 2014 Winter Olympics and just over half of you chose cable/satellite TV. Off-air antenna was the next closest choice with 19 percent of the vote, followed by DVR recordings and “other,” which netted 12 and 11 percent, respectively. We interpret “other” as meaning you are watching two or more ways—say, streaming and cable/satellite—which in hindsight probably should have been a choice. Remarkably, streaming via a smart TV got no votes. Here’s the complete breakdown…

Companies want shoppers to think of them first—just not too deeply. If consumers start dissecting the brands synonymous with electronics, some of them are just weird.

Why does the Kindle Fire HDX have that blue tint around the edges of the touchscreen? Amazon says it’s actually to improve overall color: “Most LCD displays use white LEDs, and then apply filters to extract the desired color. The result is oftentimes a compromise to tone and color accuracy, or—if attempting to address these compromises—an increase in battery consumption and, thus, device weight. We’ve taken a different approach. To achieve perfect color accuracy on the Kindle Fire HDX 7-inch at the lowest possible battery consumption and weight, we used blue, not white, LEDs. Blue LEDs allow for a much more accurate and rich representation of color and result in an up to 20 percent improvement in power efficiency.” Amazon was selling the device for $229 at press time.