Thomas J. Norton

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A/V Veteran
Searching for Mr. Big Screen
Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 02, 2016
Living in coastal northwest Florida has its benefits, but first-rate movie theaters isn’t one of them. In moving from the Los Angeles area last year I left behind some of the best movie theaters in the country...
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A/V Veteran
SED Gets Closer
Thomas J. Norton  |  Oct 09, 2006

So did the puppet image in the last photo turn into a Sumo wrestler? Not quite. I couldn't snag a screen shot if the puppet because of a strange interaction between the screen image and my digital camera (FM reported the same thing). But for some reason this photo came out OK. The image on the SED's screen wasn't his blue; that's a camera issue.

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A/V Veteran
SED Puppetoons
Thomas J. Norton  |  Oct 09, 2006

The SED demo included this puppet performance (this is a direct shot of the live action, not a screen shot from the SED) so we coulde compare live vs Memorex.

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A/V Veteran
Seeing ‘Oppenheimer’ in IMAX…and Skipping ‘Barbie’
Thomas J. Norton  |  Aug 08, 2023
OK, I haven't seen Barbie. Nor do I have any intention of doing so, even it if shows up for free on a streaming service. My only...ah...exposure to Barbie was in the Toy Story franchise, where she was basically a third-stringer. But Barbie was a apparently big deal for years for young girls, who are now all grown up and yearn for nostalgia wrapped around some new-fashioned man-shaming.

But I did see Oppenheimer in my local IMAX...

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CEDIA 2015
Seen too Often
Thomas J. Norton  |  Oct 17, 2015
This isn't the best way to showcase the best image quality your screen can provide, even it it's a light rejecting design.
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Self/Less
Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 01, 2016
Picture
Sound
Extras
Damian Hale, an extremely wealthy and self-centered businessman (is there any other kind in the movies?), is in his late sixties and dying of cancer. But he’s found an escape in a secretive company that has developed a way to transfer the contents of someone’s brain into a younger, healthy human body. They call the process shedding. It succeeds on Damian, but with complications he didn’t anticipate.
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A/V Veteran
Serenity in a Star Wars Universe
Thomas J. Norton  |  Nov 02, 2005

The DVD of <I>Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith</I> hits the video stores this week. Fox didn't send us an advanced screener. Perhaps they read the rather negative review I wrote last summer during the film's <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/thomasjnorton/505tjn/index1.html">thea... release</A>! I'll have more to say about the movie, and about the DVD release, in the upcoming November 2005 <I>UAV</I> eNewsletter, scheduled to be mailed out next week. You do subscribe, don't you? (If not, simply <A HREF="http://www.ultimateavmag.com/newsletter_subscribe/?Your%20E-mail"> click here</A> to sign up. It's free.)

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CEDIA 2014
Seymour-Screen Excellence
Thomas J. Norton  |  Sep 12, 2014
It's no coincidence that manufacturers offering screens that reject ambient light use bright images to show off their wares, often either animation or sports. There's no way such a screen, on dark movie scenes, can compete with a conventional screen in a darkened room. But such light-rejecting screens, if used properly, can be of real value in some installations. Seymour-Screen Excellence introduced its first light rejecting screens this year, including this Ambient Visionaire 1.2 model. As shown here, fixed frame at 116-inch diagonal 16:9, it will cost you about $3500.
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Projection Screen Reviews
Seymour-Screen Excellence Reference Series Enlightor 4K Acoustically Transparent Projection Screen
Thomas J. Norton  |  Apr 04, 2014

Performance
Setup
Value
PRICE $2,773 (varies with size and configuration)

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Places center dialogue where it belongs
Good sound transparency
Minus
Light easily passes through it
Needs a bright projector to look its best

THE VERDICT
Acoustically transparent screens aren’t for everyone. None of them is totally transparent to sound, and all of them—this Seymour no less so than others—allow some light from the projector to pass through. But if your system demands such a screen, the Seymour is well worth a close look.

At the 2013 CEDIA Expo, many of the home theater demos used acoustically transparent screens. And a number of them—including those from Wisdom Audio, Datasat, and Digital Projection—used screens from Seymour-Screen Excellence.

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CES 2011
Sharp 3D Projector
Thomas J. Norton  |  Jan 07, 2011
While I don't have a great shot of Sharp's XV-Z17000 DLP 3D projector, it looked bright and beautiful on a 100" screen with a stated gain of 1.0. It was clearly one of the best 3D projectors I've seen so far, and also the least expensive at about $5000.

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