I am sitting in a chair - mock-jock Howard Stern would call it a "stool" - in the rear of a new home theater. The chair is made of sturdy wood (perfect for Stern show lap dances), is cushioned in fine leather, and boasts Mediterranean-style carvings that would be a natural in my parents' living room. It does not swivel.
In a wintry scene on a certain Blu-ray Disc I'm watching, I can see subtle shadings in the whites of the snow-covered yards. All around, contrast is crisp, and color is stunning - such as the perfect-hued skin tones of the leading man's face. Not to mention the brilliant shade of azure in his matching scarf and hat. (Has such a tint ever appeared onscreen before?)
If we can do it, anyone can! We created Sarah Palin (right) by employing an mStation 2.1 stereo orb (top left) and a Boston Acoustics tower speaker (bottom left).
Really, there should be a law. Oh, sure, the F.C.C. has a regulation that TV commercials can't be louder than the programming surrounding them, but the advertisers skirt around that with some kind of compression trick. So ultimately, the commercials still sound . . . loud. And as for why so many TV stations come in at different sound levels . . . anyone?
I never meant to hold the cable guy hostage. But there he was sitting in my desk chair just a few feet away from my plasma, watching the little "preparing" prompt on my TiVo setup screen spin round and round and round . . . Then round some more . . .
Got a really big living room? Got a really big entrance to that really big living room? And is your electric bill no issue? Then somewhere at CES, there was an über-jumbo-sized TV for you.
Everyone at CES who's had the privilege of witnessing Pioneer Electronic's future generation Kuro plasma in action wants to tell someone. That's because it's been like no other experience they've had while watching TV.
