You are here: HOME

Watchmen & 300 Coming to Blu-ray in July

Written by wangjing on May 31, 2009 13:33

The summer is hot and sticky. Probably the last thing you feel like doing is waiting in line at your local movie theater, no matter how chilly it is inside.

Late last year, Mitsubishi began selling a new type of rear projection HDTV. Instead of using a standard lamp for illumination, or even LED lighting like Samsung has done in some of their DLP models, Mitsubishi's new LaserVue TV uses lasers to light up the screen.

Electronic House Announces Home of the Year Winners

Written by wangjing on May 31, 2009 13:32

You may not have the cash to drop on a mega-mansion, but that doesn't mean you can't dream (and look), right? Electronic House is showing off some of the latest, greatest high-tech homes with the magazine's 4th annual Home of the Year Awards.

Samsung BD-P3600 Blu-ray Player: Review By Chris Boylan

Written by wangjing on May 31, 2009 13:31

Less than three short years into the life of the Blu-ray Disc format and already it's not good enough to have a killer Blu-ray Disc player with outstanding audio and video performance. We expect more: dynamic PiP commentary over the film, interactive web-based content, multi-media playback, online audio and video streaming capabilities, etc. And Samsung's current Blu-ray offering, the BD-P3600 has all this and more... perhaps too much more (but we'll get to that).

Marantz Celebrates Designer With Amp & SACD Player

Written by wangjing on May 31, 2009 13:28

Happy anniversary Ken Ishiwata! Apparently, when you spend 30 years designing super-cool audio equipment for Marantz, there's no cake or gold watch. Well, there could be, but the company is going one step further by inserting Mr. Ishiwata's initials into its latest high-end two-channel audio components.

Samsung HT-AS730ST Review

Written by wangjing on May 31, 2009 13:26

If you follow home entertainment trends at all, then you know that everybody (and his aunt, most likely) wants a Blu-ray player. The penetration of HDTV is only growing, and despite our sluggish economy, people appear to be buying BD players and other sources that take advantage of all that a big screen HDTV display has to offer. So that leaves but one glaring hole in the next-generation home theater experience: the sound. The low-end solution would be a DVD-quality "home theater in a box" (HTiB), a 5.1 speaker system with the Dolby Digital and DTS decoding, plus the requisite wattage to amp it up. But this approach doesn't take into account the higher-resolution lossless multichannel audio capabilities of Blu-ray, or the wondrous host of possibilities offered by de rigueur HDMI connectivity, for audio and video. What's an aspiring-yet-budget-conscious HD maven to do?

Though Sony's PS3 (PlayStation 3) is a popular Blu-ray Disc player, even for those who never take advantage of its gaming features, one aspect of the PS3 has proven to be problematic for full integration into a home theater system: its lack of IR (Infrared) remote control support. Oh you can buy a wireless Blu-ray-oriented remote control for the PS3 that does most of what you'll need, but this works via Bluetooth instead of IR, and this means it cannot be fully integrated with any IR-based universal remote control. Aftermarket vendors suck as Nyko have provided partial solutions which control most (but not all) aspects of PS3 operation, but at the expense of one of the PS3's USB ports.

In the not so distant past, audiophiles who dug the crystal clear sound of electrostatic panels (including our editor Chris Boylan who uses MartinLogan Speakers in his own reference theater system) were limited in where they could buy them. If you didn't have a local custom installer or high-end audio dealer in your area, you were out of luck. But recently MartinLogan has embraced the 21st century by allowing online dealers such as OneCall and Amazon.com to represent their wares. This means you can buy Martin Logan speakers online and still benefit from the full manufacturer's warranty.

Ultrasone Zino: How Keen-O!

Written by wangjing on May 31, 2009 13:23

Ultrasone, manufacturer of studio-quality headphones, will shortly be introducing an affordable new model to take portable listening to the next level. Dubbed Zino, these semi-open headphones are comfortable and wicked-stylish in shiny gunmetal black with brushed aluminum accents.

Samsung 72-inch 1080p HDTV: $1699 Shipped (HL72A650)

Written by wangjing on May 31, 2009 13:22

While it's certainly true that flat panel plasmas and LCD TVs scream "sexy," if your taste runs to the large screen sizes (over 50 inches), they also scream "EXPENSIVE!" And while front projectors are also undeniably cool, they present their own challenges: where to put the screen, how to control the lighting, how to provide sound, etc. And this is where rear projection DLP HDTVs come in.

Start Prev 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  Next  End