Thomas J. Norton

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Thomas J. Norton  |  May 18, 2021  |  1 comments
In case you haven't noticed, prices in the consumer world are creeping up. It's not yet a tsunami, but the signs are there. This should be a concern for everyone, and audio- and videophiles won't be immune from it. Some of the rising costs are due to unexpected events, such as the hacking of an oil pipeline, which might settle back in time. Others are due to government monetary policies, for better or worse in the unsettled time of Covid-19. Inflation is always produced when too much money chases too few goods. And there's no money tree in the back room of the Capitol in Washington. We're borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, but Peter can't object; he's just a printing press. The typical payback is inflation, a hidden tax on everyone.

Economics is a boring, black art, but it could inevitably affect our own little A/V corner of the wider world...

Thomas J. Norton  |  Oct 08, 2007  |  0 comments

It's been a couple of years since we last tested an InFocus projector. When Fred Manteghian reviewed the $7,000, 720p <A HREF="http://ultimateavmag.com/videoprojectors/905infocus/">ScreenPlay 7210</A> back in September 2005 there was a lot less competition in the front projector market, and InFocus was a major player. It's still a respected name, with a long history in business and home projectors. But the playing field has not only become a lot more crowded, the name of the game has changed to 1080p. Not just 1080p, but 1080p at what would have been seen as impossibly low prices two years ago.

Thomas J. Norton  |  Jun 03, 2002  |  0 comments

Until recently, the beer-budget options available for equipping a home theater with a projection system were severely limited. You either bought used or you settled for a projector designed primarily to serve the business market. Both approaches saved money, but neither was ideal. You can luck out buying used gear&mdash;a car holds its value far longer than a video projector&mdash;but you can also get burned. A business projector can perform reasonably well at home, but it won't be optimized for home applications and often lacks important features, such as full control of aspect ratio.

Thomas J. Norton  |  Jan 12, 2005  |  0 comments

As the first three-chip DLP projector to pass through my studio, the InFocus ScreenPlay 777 generated more than a little excitement. Apart from its futuristic, streamlined appearance, its size and weight&mdash;not to mention its price&mdash;immediately set it apart from the one-chip designs that have come to dominate the home-theater projection market.

Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 23, 2009  |  0 comments

If you sometimes get nostalgic for the days of 2-channel audio, you're not alone. Life was simple then. You plugged your CD player in here, your turntable in there, hooked up the preamp to the power amp (unless you were a hair-shirt audiophile with an all-in-one integrated amp) and you were done. Select the source, adjust the volume, sit back, and listen.

Thomas J. Norton  |  Mar 02, 2009  |  0 comments
Price: $2,600 At A Glance: Outstanding audio and video performance • All the latest Audyssey and THX Ultra2 Plus features • Uniquely flexible video calibration controls

Covering All the Bases

If you sometimes get nostalgic for the days of two-channel audio, you’re not alone. Life was simple then. You plugged in your CD player here, your turntable over there, hooked up the preamp to the power amp (unless you were a hair-shirt audiophile with an all-in-one, integrated amp), and you were done. Then you would select the source, adjust the volume, sit back, and listen.

Thomas J. Norton  |  Sep 09, 2018  |  0 comments
A 75Wpc, 2-channel amp (into 8 ohms) might seem a little anachronistic today, when home theater fans want as many high-powered channels as they can afford in their amps and AVRs.
Thomas J. Norton  |  Sep 17, 2016  |  1 comments
Integra announced its new flagship surround preamp processor at CEDIA.
Thomas J. Norton  |  Mar 13, 2018  |  14 comments
Any flat screen TV advertised as 4K will actually display the full 8 million pixels in a 4K (3840 x 2160) source. You can't be certain about how well it will do a wider color gamut or high dynamic range—the other keystones of Ultra HD—but it will put 8 million discrete pixels on the screen. Whether or not the 4K source material is actually true 4K from the camera to your Ultra HD disc is a different issue for another discussion.

But with projectors there are two versions of 4K resolution...

Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 26, 2019  |  13 comments
The recent decision by Samsung to cease selling Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray players (at least in the U.S.), reported elsewhere on this site, has been taken by many as foreshadowing the death of video on physical media. Add in Oppo’s cessation of player manufacturing last year, and the statistically significant falloff in disc sales (confirmed locally by a recent, dramatic reduction in the shelf space devoted to video discs at my nearest Best Buy), and, the news certainly isn’t encouraging.

But the imminent death of the disc isn’t yet in sight. The disc market is still profitable, and the studios haven’t yet slowed down churning out both new and older titles. Check out The Digital Bits website for their weekly lists of releases and then tell me that video discs are on life support. They may be limping, but as a wise man once said, “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over.”

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