It’s hardly a new trend, hiring a high-end audio company to design — maybe build — an audio system upgrade for a car. Bose does it all the time, as do THX, B&W, Lexicon, and B&O
It’s win-win, better audio, a bit of extra profit, and brand exposure for the audio company. But when it’s a pairing of two storied companies like Porsche and Burmester, color me interested.
Seriously. This thing has a laser. A blue laser that makes. . . green light? Color me confused, and intrigued.
Sporting Casio's unique "Hybrid" light source firing at a 1,024x768 DLP, the slim $1,399 XJ-A146 is intriguing on many levels. But can it work in a home theater?
I've been playing Counter-Strike for 13 years. Not continuously, mind you (that would be weird), and less and less as the years go on, but thirteen years. Wow.
So much has changed. Back then I was a bald writer, avid pc gamer, and lover of classic cars. Now I'm... hey, wait...
Perhaps it's fitting that C-S, with its latest iteration C-S:GO, hasn't changed a bit either, save for a polish and some softer edges. Softer edges. That's what we have in common.
Consisting of a small colorimeter you attach to your TV, some software, and a Blu-ray (or DVD) with test patterns, the package claims to let you "calibrate" (their word) your own TV.
It's hard to classify Defense of the Ancients 2, a free-to-play game from Valve. It's part RPG, part RTS, part multiplayer shooter, part lots of things. This month, there were 5.2 million unique players.
The best I can describe it, is if you've ever played a traditional RTS, and recall one of the "hero" levels where you play as just one, uber-strong, character. That's DotA. Sort of. It can be pretty intense, and quite fun, too.
If you keep reading I promise no more unexplained abbreviations.
For most people, running a 1-meter HDMI cable to their TV is the only connection they need to make to experience a glorious 1080p picture. But mount that TV on a wall, or decide to go with projection, and you have a problem: the wires. Sure you can run HDMI cables through your walls or ceiling (or down to your basement), but sometimes that's just not easy - or possible.
As Daniel Kumin found in his recent "Something in the Air" article, sending HD signals wirelessly is not only possible, it's now practical, and even affordable.
New on the scene is DVDO's Air, one of the more interesting-looking products in this category. Curious how well it stacks up? How convenient. Me too.
There’s a coffee cup on the remote, an icon unmistakably a cup and saucer. Maybe it’s tea. It’s the largest button. It’s backlit. It might be taunting me.
So begins my time with the Epson MegaPlex MG-850HD Projector, a plucky little PJ that makes me question the logic of every flat panel in existence.
There's a coffee cup on the remote, an icon unmistakably a cup and saucer. Maybe it's tea. It's the largest button. It's backlit. It might be taunting me.
So begins my time with the Epson MegaPlex MG-850HD Projector, a plucky little PJ that makes me question the logic of every flat panel in existence.
Let’s cut right to it: this projector is staggeringly, amazingly, blindingly bright. It’s brighter than any projector I can remember measuring. It’s brighter than any plasma. It’s brighter than most LCD TVs I’ve reviewed. Uncalibrated, on a 102-inch, 1.0-gain screen, I got 87 footlamberts. That means, with a slightly smaller screen, or a screen with even a little gain, you could have an over 100-footlambert image from a projector.
There is a way to make your music sound better. Well, OK, there are LOTS of ways to make your music sound better. If you're looking to improve your digital music, beyond new speakers, amps, and so on is a bit of technological wonder called the DAC, or Digital/Analog Converter. This is what turns your music files into something analog you can actually hear.
Receivers these days tend to have built in DACs, but just because they're there doesn't necessarily mean they're any good. A great sounding DAC can smooth out your digital audio, making it sound more natural and realistic.
Firestone Audio's tiny ILTW packs a lot into a tiny frame, for not a lot of money.