Scott Wilkinson

Sort By: Post Date | Title | Publish Date
Home Theater Geeks Podcast
Podcast 123: Kevin Wines
Scott Wilkinson  |  Aug 07, 2012  |  0 comments
Kevin Wines, Image Technology Director at THX, Ltd., talks about the future of display technology in the home and commercial cinema, including increased spatial resolution (4K, 8K), increased temporal resolution (high frame rates of 48 and 60fps), and how these advancements might be delivered to the home. He also discusses 3D, including the 3D broadcast of the Olympics, online distribution versus physical media, THX certification of displays and content, answers to chat-room questions, and more.

Run Time: 1:08:33

Continue Reading >
Ask S&V
PCM vs. Bitstream
Scott Wilkinson  |  Aug 03, 2012  |  7 comments
Which is best, sending PCM or bitstream from the player to the A/V receiver? I have reviewed many posts in the A/V forums and other areas that don't seem to give a definitive answer. I have an Onkyo TX-SR608 AVR and an LG Blu-ray player capable of decoding DTS and Dolby lossless audio. I view Blu-ray and DVD discs about 50/50; certainly Blu-ray when available. Should I set the Blu-ray player to output PCM or bitstream? And why the final choice? Do I need to tell the AVR which stream to expect?

James

Continue Reading >
Ask S&V
HDMI CEC or Universal Remote
Scott Wilkinson  |  Aug 01, 2012  |  2 comments
I am searching for an appropriate AVR and speakers to build a modest system around a Samsung ES8000 flat panel. Simplicity of use for the basic functions is an important criteria to get final approval! I have a PS3 and Sky satellite box to connect. Do I really need to limit myself to products displaying an Anynet+ label in order to minimize the number of button presses required? Just how standard are the implementations of HDMI CEC today? Or would a universal remote control make such concerns irrelevant?

Simon Leach

Continue Reading >
Home Theater Geeks Podcast
Podcast 122: Gordon Wetzstein & Matt Hirsch
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jul 31, 2012  |  1 comments
MIT postdoc researcher Gordon Wetzstein and Ph.D. student Matt Hirsch explain a new glasses-free 3D flat-panel technology they are working on at the MIT Media Lab. Conventional stereoscopic displays show two views (left and right eye) in a narrow viewing area, and all viewers see the same perspective. The new display shows many perspectives across a wider area, providing each viewer with a different perspective, much like a hologram. The new display combines several LCD layers, directional backlighting, and sophisticated processing to achieve its remarkable result. This isn't going to be a commercial product any time soon, but it does point the way toward a more realistic 3D display without needing those annoying glasses.

Run Time: 55:22

Continue Reading >
Ask S&V
Sony HX929 or Panasonic VT30
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jul 27, 2012  |  10 comments
I have an old Samsung LED-illuminated RPTV and I want to upgrade. I am stuck between the Panasonic TC-P65VT30 plasma TV and the Sony XBR-65HX929 LED-LCD TV. I move a lot, so the room it is in will vary at least once in the next two years. I watch tons of sports and lots of moves, and I also do some gaming. I have no interest in 3D, just picture quality. I'm torn between the two after playing with them both at Best Buy, and I hope you have something encouraging to say that may steer me to one or the other.

Bear Brown

Continue Reading >
Ask S&V
Best AVR for Klipsch Speakers
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jul 25, 2012  |  8 comments
I'm getting an awesome deal on a 7.2 speaker setup from Klipsch and I need to find a receiver that can drive them properly.

Here are the speakers I'm getting:

  • 2 KF-28 floorstanding speakers
  • 1 KC-25 center-channel speaker
  • 2 KS-14 surround speakers
  • 2 KB-15 bookshelf speakers
  • 2 SW-450 subwoofers
I've spent some time trying to figure out exactly what I need in an AVR, but I'm not confident that I know what I'm doing. I've been thinking about the Yamaha RX-A2010, which allows for 9.2 channels, so I had planned to use the extra two channels to bi-amp the KF-28 speakers, as they are equipped with dual-binding posts. Is this receiver powerful enough to drive these speakers properly?

Kyle Sigo

Continue Reading >
Blu-ray Player Buying Tips
How to Connect a Blu-ray Player
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jul 24, 2012  |  18 comments
If you want the best possible video and audio experience in your home theater, there is no better source than Blu-ray Discs—in fact, nothing else equals the super-sharp video and awesome audio you get from Blu-ray. But I get many questions about how to connect a Blu-ray player for optimum performance, so I thought I'd spell it out here. (Don't be intimidated by the diagram above; it shows lots of possible connections between lots of home-theater devices. This article covers only the connections between the Blu-ray player in the center, A/V receiver on the left, and TV at the top.)
Continue Reading >
Home Theater Geeks Podcast
Podcast 121: Martin Dornfeld
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jul 24, 2012  |  0 comments
SurgeX senior engineer Martin Dornfeld discusses power protection and management for home theaters, including surge protection, lightning rods, whole-house versus outlet-level protection, brownouts and blackouts, uninterruptible power supplies, dedicated circuits, grounding, IP power management, whether or not power conditioning can improve the performance of A/V equipment, answers to chat-room questions, and more.

Run Time: 1:06:43

Continue Reading >
The Big Picture
The Dark Knight Rises
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jul 23, 2012  |  28 comments
Last week, I was invited to see a private preview screening of The Dark Knight Rises, three hours before the long-awaited midnight showings on July 20, 2012. The next morning, of course, I awoke to the news of a horrific shooting at one of those showings in Aurora, Colorado, in which 12 people were killed and nearly 60 were wounded, some critically. I have no idea how the movie figured into the gunman's plans—if at all—but the event has certainly cast a pall over what would have otherwise been just another Hollywood mega-blockbuster opening.
Continue Reading >
Ask S&V
Projector Lamp Longevity
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jul 20, 2012  |  2 comments
Do you have any idea why the colors of an InFocus projector have turned green-blue (or rather lost red) after only 250 hours? Is this an indication of lamp aging?

Sotiris Filippakopoulos

Continue Reading >

Pages

X