Tom Norton

CES 2017A/V Veteran
CES 2017: Audio/Video Dreamin'
Tom Norton  |  Dec 27, 2016  |  3 comments
In just a bit over a week Sound & Vision contributors will be traveling en masse to sleepy, laid-back Las Vegas for CES 2017, hoping to be wowed by all the new audio and video products headed our way in the coming year. Our show blogs will begin on Wednesday January 4th, the most significant (for us) of two days of formal press conferences before the show floor opens on January 5th.
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CEDIA 2016
JVC Launches True 4K Flagship Projector with HDR
Tom Norton  |  Sep 16, 2016  |  2 comments
BLUEscent. That’s the moniker for JVC Kenwood’s newest LCOS projector, the DLA-RS4500. Larger than it looks in the photo above, and available with or without carrying handles (I’d recommend the handles!), it’s designed around three of JVC’s true 4K LCOS imaging chips.
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CEDIA 2016
LG’s New 77” Flagship OLED Impresses
Tom Norton  |  Sep 16, 2016  |  0 comments
The booths at CEDIA are invariably more modest in scale than what you’ll see at CES. But in LG’s case, that’s not for lack of trying. Outside the entrance, visible on the left side of the photo here, fifteen 55-inch OLED displays were clustered closely together, their thin bezels rendering the seams between them barely visible.
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CEDIA 2016
SI Transformer Switches Aspect Ratio Like Magic
Tom Norton  |  Sep 16, 2016  |  1 comments
Screen Innovations (SI) showed their Transformer screen last year, but it’s only now being readied for full production. It can service films of varying aspect ratios, primarily 2.40:1 and 16:9.
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CEDIA 2016
SIM2 Projector Advances 4K “Wobulation”
Tom Norton  |  Sep 16, 2016  |  0 comments
At last year’s CEDIA we reported on a new DLP imagining chip from Texas Instruments that offered one-half the pixels required for full 4K resolution. To produce 4K, the digital micromirrors first display half the pixels in the image, then microseconds later shift by a fraction of a pixel to show the others. While this is similar to the pixel shifting (a.k.a. wobulation) now used by JVC in most of its projectors (the new BLUEscent excepted), and by Epson in its laser model, TI argues that its micromirrors can shift far more rapidly.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Sony Unveils XBR-Z9D TVs, Demos Advanced HDR Processing and Backlighting
Tom Norton  |  Jul 22, 2016  |  9 comments
Late this summer, or shortly thereafter, Sony will attempt to upend the way we look at UHD and high dynamic range (HDR) with its new Z9D series of premier Ultra HD. Don’t look for them at Joe’s Video down the street, however, but rather in premier outlets such as Magnolia (located in or adjacent to selected Best Buy stores) and custom installers. They’re also likely to find their way into more than a few professional facilities.
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Surround Sound System ReviewsTower Speaker Reviews
DALI Rubicon 8 Speaker System Review
Tom Norton  |  Apr 08, 2016  |  1 comments

Performance
Build Quality
Value
PRICE $13,080 as reviewed

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Open, airy highs
Clean, tight bass
Big, generous soundstage
Minus
Setup takes patience for best results
Treble can be unforgiving

THE VERDICT
Careful trial and error with placement, and perhaps the addition of a good subwoofer for movies with crushing bass will be needed for getting the best out of the DALI Rubicons. But the best this system offers is compelling.

DALI (Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries) isn’t new to this country, but it’s relatively new as overseas loudspeaker manufacturers go. The somewhat new Rubicon range sits near the top of the company’s U.S. product offerings, topped only by the Epicon series, which it is said to most closely share technology.

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A/V Veteran
HDR Is Here!
Tom Norton  |  Mar 09, 2016  |  9 comments
High dynamic range source material (HDR) has been available for downloading for months now, but the offerings have been spotty and, like the other enhancements that comprise the new Ultra HD format (4K 2160p resolution and longer, lower and wider color) constrained by the often limited bandwidth of Internet delivery. While popular notions of ever expanding bandwidth and more efficient compression abound, no one can know the future. And even now not all areas of the country are served by even the minimum Internet bandwidth required for fully featured Ultra HD delivery, much less at the highest possible quality
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CES 2016A/V VeteranAudio Video News
AV Highlights from the Frontlines of the Big Show
Tom Norton  |  Jan 12, 2016  |  1 comments
Another year, another CES. I’ve been doing them for so long you think they’d become second nature, or even boring. But they always surprise, and there’s always too much of interest to see in the show’s four short days, jostling through 175,000 of my closest friends.
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A/V Veteran
Hints for Better Viewing
Tom Norton  |  Mar 12, 2015  |  Published: Mar 10, 2015  |  3 comments
Mark Fleischmann’s recent blog on ways to improve your system’s audio inspired me to do something similar for video. Of course you, the loyal readers of Sound & Vision already know much of this. But for those who don’t, or for (welcome) newbies, those who are helping friends avoid common mistakes, it’s useful to periodically emphasize that there’s more to getting you money’s worth from a flat screen set than merely plunking it down in what may at first appear to be the best location and turning it on. Getting your HDTV to sing is serious business. Here, of course, I’m referring primarily to flat screen sets; a projector with a screen is, in many ways, a different topic.
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