HDTV and Home Theater Podcast

2016 TWICE VIP Award Nominations The VIPs are TWICE's (This Week In Consumer Electronics, a weekly trade magazine for professionals in the consumer electronics field) annual products awards, and only retailers and distributors can vote to honor the products that have made the biggest difference in their business. The awards are based on product features, product design and value to consumers. After voting is completed, ballots will be compiled and reviewed by TWICE editors. Winners will be announced in the Aug. 22 print issue of TWICE. Product categories are vast, anything you can imagine in consumer electronics, ranging from refrigerators and washers and dryers to dash cams, from computers to networked window coverings. And of course a few categories are in the home theater and audio visual categories. Those are the devices we'll take a look at. Remember that these are the products deemed best by retailers and distributors and they have a slightly different point of view than the rest of us who simply use the products. A/V Receivers $699 or less Onkyo TX-NR757 Stepping up to THX® Theater Reference Sound is easy with Onkyo's Dolby Atmos® and DTS:X™-ready powerhouse, the TX-NR757. Behind the sleek front panel is Onkyo's Dynamic Audio Amplification which include discrete hi-current amplifiers delivering 180 watts/ch. of distortion-free power. AccuEQ room acoustic calibration features AccuReflex to clearly focus the latest object-based soundtracks for an immersive movie experience. Music lovers can stream audio from mobile apps such as Spotify, Pandora or Tidal via Google Cast™, AirPlay, and Wi-Fi®. As well as controlling your home theater entertainment, the Onkyo Remote App lets you send any audio source wirelessly from the receiver to a compatible speaker in another room using FireConnect technology by BlackFire. The TX-NR757 is also ready for easy custom installation with features such as RS232, IR Input and a 12 V Trigger. Sony STR-DN1070 7.2 Channel Home Theater AV Receiver Take your home entertainment up a level with the STRDN1070. 4K and HDR-compatible HDMI inputs/output support the latest video standards, including HDCP 2.2 content protection for 4K content from broadcast, the Internet and UHD Blu-ray Discs. High-Resolution Audio delivers immersive sound, while Wireless Multi-room and Front Surround let you flexibly create your audio environment. This AV receiver is compatible with wireless surround, front surround, and, of course, 7.2ch real surround. Choose your preferred surround audio mode to flexibly suit the room environment. Don't forget to download the free SongPal and Network Audio Remote apps from iTunes® or the Google™ Play Store to use on your iPhone® or Android™ devices. The SongPal app allows you to control receiver functionality including volume and input selection. Price: $599.99 MSRP A/V Receivers $699+ Onkyo TX-RZ810 Engineered for immensely powerful yet refined THX® Theater Reference sound, the TX-RZ810 7.2 Ch. A/V receiver also deftly streams wireless audio with Google Cast™, AirPlay, Wi-Fi®, and Bluetooth. Enjoy different a host of audio sources in different zones with Powered Zone 2 and Zone 3 line outputs or wirelessly with FireConnect powered by BlackFire. Zone 2 HDMI® shares 4k video on a second display, making the TX-RZ810 not only a wall-shaking movie-room powerhouse at 200W/Ch, but also a hub for housewide entertainment. True to the Onkyo RZ Series, the TX-RZ810 seamlessly integrates with control and home automation systems and excels on audio quality featuring Vector Linear Shaping Circuitry, which removes digital pulse noise for a smooth analog signal on all channels for crystal clear audio reproduction. Built with separate analog and digital processing, massive transformer, huge capacitors, and discrete non-phase-shift amps—the TX-RZ810's sheer agility and dynamism exceeds the highest expectations. Sony STR-ZA5000ES – 9.2 Channel 4K AV Receiver The perfect center to your automated home entertainment universe now with just the right amount of: flexible, multi-zone, high-definition connectivity, easy IP integration with leading control systems, powerful browser-based configurability, and well-renowned ES build quality. With 130W per channel, the STR-ZA5000ES delivers cinema-like surround sound and crystal clear music reproduction for an incredible Audio/Video experience that you won't easily forget. Price: $2,799.99 Soundbars Sony HT-NT5 Sound Bar with High-Resolution Audio/Wi-Fi The ultimate Hi-Res sound bar for your 4K home theater experience. The NT5 packs power and performance worthy of any home theater into a sleek, beautiful design. Experience the sonic details of every movie, playlist, and videogame thanks to the clarity of Super Tweeters and support for Hi-Res Audio playback. And connect your compatible device wirelessly to stream music from all your favorite services. It's an easy way to expand your home theater setup. With three HDMI inputs, one HDMI ARC output, a

Value Electronics HDTV Shootout 2016 Each year Value Electronics, a Scarsdale NY Electronics Retailer, gathers HDTV experts from across the nation and pits some of the best HDTVs against each other in order to determine which TV is the "King of TV". This was the thirteenth year the competition took place. Five Mini Overview TV Shootout sessions and Two full voting TV Shootout evaluations were held over two days on Wednesday, June 22 and Thursday, June 23, 2016. All TVs were set-up on an equal playing field, positioned next to each other in alphabetical order, and professionally calibrated in Day and Night modes. The TVs were judged on nine criteria: Black Quality Perceived Contrast Color Accuracy Sharpness Off-Axis Performance Screen Uniformity HDR/WCG Performance Overall Day Performance Overall Night Performance The Contestants Sony XBR75X940D 75-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart TV $5998 The Sony comes with full-array local dimming technology for better contrast, HDR, and wider color gamut. The TV is only 2 inches (5cm) thick which should make mounting a snap. It's rated 4 ½ stars at Amazon Samsung UN78KS9800 Curved 78-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV $9998 The Samsung KS9800 is a Curved 4K SUHD TV that uses Quantum Dot color technology and supports a High Dynamic Range (HDR) picture. One person bought this from Amazon and rated it 5 stars LG Electronics OLED65G6P Flat 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart OLED TV $7997 The OLED 4K 65G6 features a flat 65-inch screen with HDR and LG's webOS 3.0 Smart TV Platform in a thin (2.6 inches) design. It has a 5 star user rating based on 6 reviews. VIZIO Reference Series 65" Class Ultra HD Full‑Array LED Smart TV $6000 The Vizio is one of the lower cost TVs on the list but 10 inches smaller than the similarly priced Sony. Not available at Amazon so there is no star rating on this TV. The Results http://www.htguys.com/storage/content-images/HDTVShootout.png

Samsung HW-K450 Soundbar Review Braden recently upgraded some of the gear in his loft because his boys were demanding a 4k television. There's something to be said about raising a new generation of home theater enthusiasts, especially when they can help you gang up on the finance committee. They were approved for the purchase of a Vizio E70u-d3, but since we've already reviewed the Vizio P702ui-B3, we'll skip the TV review and talk about what the boys decided to buy to upgrade sound in their loft, the Samsung HW-K450 Soundbar. About the Soundbar Despite the higher quoted MSRP, you can pick up the Samsung HW-K450 for just under $200 pretty much anywhere it is sold, including Amazon or even direct from Samsung. Prime shipping will save you some money and get it to you faster, unless you head out and pick it up (for the same price coincidently) from Best Buy or another brick and mortar retailer. At $200, we knew it wasn't going to blow us away, but when you're already $1600 in on the TV, you don't want to push your luck. And the Samsung does have a few features that made it a better choice than similar priced models from other models from other manufacturers. The spec sheets lists the features as: 300W nominal output power for dynamic sound. Wireless subwoofer for powerful bass. Dolby Digital decoder reproduces multichannel audio to deliver a cinematic audio experience. Sleek appearance fits seamlessly along most HDTVs for a streamlined look. Includes HDMI input and output Built-in Bluetooth makes it easy to enjoy tracks from on a compatible Bluetooth-enabled device. Supports a variety of file formats including WAV, WMA, AAC, MP3, FLAC and OGG, so you can enjoy your favorite media. Wall-mountable with the included bracket. Setup If you aren't wall mounting the HW-K450, setup is a breeze. The soundbar is small enough to sit below many TVs; we have it sitting on the table below the Vizio and it doesn't interfere with the picture at all. You plug it into power, add the cables you need for sound from your various devices, and that's it. Then you plug the wireless subwoofer into the wall somewhere and when they start up, they locate each other and pair automatically. This all happened for us without issue and we had the soundbar in service in about 5 minutes. If you want to mount the Soudbar to the wall, you can using the included wall mount brackets. However, the soundbar doesn't include the screws or drywall anchors needed to secure the brackets to your wall, so you'll need to make a quick run to your local home improvement or hardware store for those. We didn't wall mount ours, but it is pretty small and light, so we wouldn't anticipate any issues hanging it above or below your wall mounted TV. Just a couple screws and you're set. Performance and Use We know what you're thinking: you bought a Samsung for audio? What were you thinking? Samsung isn't exactly world renowned for audio gear and sound quality. While that is true, we were pleasantly surprised by how much better it sounded than just using the TV. Audio had much more punch and we could get much higher volumes without the audio distorting or everything blending together into one big mush of sound. For music, it probably wouldn't delight your ears, but for television and movies it does a really solid job. Without the included subwoofer, it would have been pretty lackluster. The sub certainly adds the boom you need to feel the experience of an action movie. There were times when watching high action movies that the dialog could get lost in the rest of the action. This happens with a lot of lower end audio gear, not just soundbars. Delivering crisp dialog even among a mess of other noise and sound effects isn't easy to do. And as most have probably experienced, simply increasing the volume doesn't solve the problem. While we don't think the Samsung HW-K450 is the best audio solution out there, or even the best soundbar out there, it actually does sound really good and makes movie watching better for sure. While Samsung talks about a feature called Surround Sound Expansion, saying it "delivers more realistic and immersive audio experience that feels like it's coming right out of your TV". We didn't get any sort of surround sound at all. The sound coming from the front of the room was great. To say we heard anything to the side or behind us would be a stretch. To solve that, Samsung offers the optional SWA-8000S Wireless Surround Kit for $130. It includes a little wireless surround sound amp and two speakers so you can truly have sound all around you. The unit includes Bluetooth so you can stream audio to it from your smartphone or tablet. Like we already said, it isn't a super impressive device for music, but if you're starting with compressed audio and running it over bluetooth, you don't really need much. When we tested it out, we'd get the occasional hiccup in the music, most likely due to interference from the Bluetooth subwoofer, but perhaps from other i

THX Discussion On today's show we discuss THX, the history and what it means to you and your home theater, with David Kroll Global CI Product manager for KEF. The THX Story Born out of the Star Wars legacy and tied to one of the world's most acclaimed filmmakers, no other brand resonates with consumers as deeply, and with greater trust than THX. One week after "Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back" debuted in theaters, George Lucas hired audio scientist, Tomlinson Holman, to design the audio mixing facilities at Lucas' Skywalker Ranch in Northern California. To begin the project, Lucas gave Holman one year to examine film audio throughout the entire production chain—from the set to the theater, and everything in between. Holman's goal was to find a way to improve cinematic sound production and create specifications to design the state-of-the-art audio mixing rooms that would eventually house Skywalker Sound. During that year, Holman was shocked to discover the state of most commercial cinemas. While Dolby Laboratories had made significant contributions to how sound was recorded and played back on film, no one had control over what happened on the production set or in the theater itself. Holman found that most commercial theaters had not seen significant technology improvements since World War II. Viewing angles were poor, inadequate light levels distorted images, and the quality of sound systems and auditorium acoustics made it impossible to hear the dialogue, let alone experience the filmmaker's vision. THX Deep Note THX Deep Note was first composed by Lucasfilm sound engineer Dr. James 'Andy' Moorer in 1982, making its public debut in the THX trailer Wings, screened before the 1983 premiere of Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi. Since then, Deep Note has permeated the industry to become one of the most iconic audio logos in the world. In late 2014, over thirty years after the release of the iconic original, Dr. Moorer returned to the historic Skywalker Ranch and regenerated THX Deep Note using modern technologies and mixed it in current cinema audio formats. The rejuvenated Deep Note was released in early 2015 with the debut of the THX trailer Eclipse.

ViewSonic PJD5255 DLP Projector Review We typically have some sort of backyard or outdoor theater discussion every summer when the weather is nice and we'd all like to take our movie watching to the great outdoors. We'll probably do a more in-depth feature on the topic later in the summer, but as luck would have it, we found ourselves as the proud owners of a new ViewSonic PJD5255 DLP Projector ($339), a perfect backyard theater projector. But it's good for much more than just outside, so you can even use it during the cold or rainy season. The ViewSonic PJD5255 is a DLP projector with a built-in speaker, making it a great all-in-one portable movie theater, just add content. We ended up with this particular ViewSonic model for a couple reasons. First was that we needed it fast for an emergency presentation and it was available from Amazon Prime Now, second was that it's a great price. ViewSonic has other models that are less expensive, or more expensive and more full featured, so we encourage you to do some research to find the right model that fits your needs. Features SuperColor technology delivers superior, richer colors; Up to 3200 ANSI lumen brightness and 15,000:1 contrast ratio for clear viewing even in brighter settings Native XGA 1024 x 768 resolution Integrated HDMI input and 3D Blu-ray ready; Choice of 5 view settings for a variety of usage scenarios Extensive connectivity including HDMI, 2 x VGA, Composite Video, S-Video, 1 x VGA output and Audio in/out Enhanced sound with enlarged speaker chamber and a powerful amplifier Intuitive interface includes tactile keypad, top lamp door, and optional cable management system Industry-leading warranty: 3-years limited on parts and labor, 1 year on lamp, and free 1st year Express Exchange Setup The ViewSonic PJD5255 really is plug and play, we had it up and running and showing videos in under 5 minutes It doesn't have any lens shift capabilities, so the projector really wants to be centered with your screen for the best overall experience. It has keystone adjustment buttons right on the top of the projector, so you don't have to hunt through menus to make your image square on-screen, assuming the projector is a bit above or below the center of the screen. Zoom and focus are manual adjustments as well. The whole prep time for first use was very simple. We didn't need the manual nor the remote. Didn't even use any of the menus. Performance One of the first things you notice with the PJD5255 is that it is quite bright. The specs boast a 3200 lumen output and it doesn't disappoint. We used it on several different screens and even projected right onto a white wall and every time had a nice, vivid movie experience. The brightness does feel like it comes at a cost though, the color representation feels a little washed out. It's a DLP projector, and DLP has its drawbacks, but we weren't overly distracted by any of them. The only area that disappointed us was resolution. Admittedly we knew going into it that we bought the projector on the cheap and it was only XGA (1024x768) native, so we shouldn't have been expecting too much, but after getting used to the native 1080p projectors we both use, the inferior resolution was quite obvious. For a quick and easy projector, it absolutely fit the bill. If you plan to use it to play back DVDs or streamed content, you should be fine. If you want it for HDTV, you may want to pay a bit more to get a native 1080p resolution projector. On the audio side the 5255 is designed with ViewSonic's proprietary SonicExpert technology that incorporates an enlarged speaker chamber and a more powerful amplifier to deliver a full 20Hz – 20Khz sound range. The integrated speaker isn't any worse than other projectors we've tried with built-in speakers - it's better than a few of them, but not by much. The built-in audio will work in a pinch, but unless it's totally quiet, you'll want some speakers with more power and volume to really delight an audience. We ended up hooking up come Creative speakers and sub to juice the volume level a bit. Conclusion This ViewSonic model reviews incredibly well at Amazon. It has a four and a half star rating across 367 customer reviews. For applications like we'll be using it for, it was a toss-up on choosing a DLP model or a 3LCD model. The Amazon reviews pushed us over the edge and we decided to bite the bullet on the PJD5255. We don't have the others to compare with, but we're satisfied with the ViewSonic PJD5255 for sure. It isn't meant to be installed as the centerpiece of your home theater, but if you want a projector you can store in the closet for a quick backyard movie, or a garage movie, or a bedroom movie for a sleepover, it's worth taking a look at.

Hi-Res Symposium 2016 Representatives from Universal Music Group, The Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing and Sony Electronics met recently to underscore the variety of marketing and educational programs that are currently underway to promote the benefits of Hi- Res Audio devices, content and services to a broader audience. The event, which was sponsored by DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group was held at Capitol Studios in LA. It featured a number of speakers, presentations and demonstrations that were conducted by these organizations' representatives. A research study conducted by Music Watch and the Consumer Technology Association was presented at the symposium that showed that nearly 90% of 18 to 54 year olds want higher sound quality, and over 60% of them are willing to pay more for it. So there is a market for the content and further, the industry is willing to produce such content. Currently there are about 10,000 titles available from 12 online providers and more than 100 manufacturers offering hi-res capable devices. But the question is, how does the industry educate consumers about hi-res and convince them that the higher quality is something that they want to spend money for? Look for manufacturers and retailers to create Hi-Res listening centers within stores to demonstrate the difference. There are also new logos to identify Hi-Res content and players: So the question is why? From the point of view of the content creators it's all about more revenue. Likewise, manufacturers would like you to upgrade your equipment as well. We have discussed at length that we don't think Hi-Res is any better than CD so we won't go into it here. If you are interested we have a video that covers the topic analytically which is available on Youtube (https://youtu.be/8xotaf4aN_g). It's clear to us that the music industry is learning from the movie industry. Create a "Better" format and charge people a premium to buy their music again. If you decide to go down the path to Hi-Res recordings consider a few things: Digital equipment today is better than when CDs first came out - This means that you may hear a difference in digital music that is remastered today. Don't confuse that with hi-res audio. Many songs in the early digital days were not necessarily mastered very well. Fixing those errors alone and putting it back on a CD will do more than simply taking the same master and adding bits. Don't let your eyes do the listening - If you know that you are listening to a hi-res audio product there is a very good chance your eyes will tell your ears that they are hearing superior sounding audio. Double blind is the best way to test. If you can hear a difference then, congratulations! You are in the top 2%. SACD sounds better and it's higher quality - From Wikipedia: In September 2007 the Audio Engineering Society published the results of a year-long trial, in which a range of subjects including professional recording engineers were asked to discern the difference between SACD and a compact disc audio (44.1 kHz/16 bit) conversion of the same source material under double blind test conditions. Out of 554 trials, there were 276 correct answers, a 49.8% success rate corresponding almost exactly to the 50% that would have been expected by chance guessing alone. If you hear a noticeable difference with SACD it may be due it being a 5.1 mix vs a 2 channel mix. Be careful not to draw the conclusion that it sounded better because of the higher bit and sample rates. Before you spend a lot of money setting up for Hi-Res audio do yourself a favor. Make sure you can hear a difference at home. You can buy a decent headphone DAC for about $250, then you'll need to allocate about another $250 for headphones but then you'll just be scratching the surface of the gear you will buy in the future. Do some serious A/B test on your own with no one pressuring you. ABX Shootout is a great SW package that can help you do this. If you don't want to spend at least $500 on gear to help you decide whether Hi-Res is worth it, then you may as well stay with what you have.

This week Ara and his daughter Stephanie discuss the winners and losers of the 2015- 2016 TV Season.

Father's Day Wish List QNAP TS-453A 4-Bay Professional-Grade Network Attached Storage $600 Let's face it, our lives are digital. Whether it be photos, home movies, music, TV or Blu-ray rips, we need safe storage for all our files. A Network Attached Storage unit is one of the best ways to do that. You'll need to add drives but it's worth it because this unit is extremely versatile. In addition to storage, you can also run a Plex Server to stream your files at home or away. A little on the high price side but aren't we dad's worth it?? Ray Super Remote - Touchscreen Universal Remote $250 You know we are big fans of universal remotes! But this one looks so cool! We don't have any experience with the device but it checks all the boxes on our list so we'll go with it! Ray has an integrated guide that looks gorgeous! There are built in apps for the AppleTV, Roku, and Xbox. There is even a Kids app that is easy for the little ones to use. Look for a review on this remote in the future. Deconovo Black Thermal Insulated Blackout Panel Curtain $16.50 Whether it be glare or ambient light that washes out the picture, nothing ruins a movie watching experience like light! Blackout curtains are a great, and inexpensive, way to enjoy your home theater in the daytime. These curtains are heavy and work as sound and heat insulation as well. It's $16.50 well spent! Kuna Outdoor Home Security Camera & Light $199 Kuna is a smart home security system built into an outdoor lighting fixture. The camera detects movement at your door and sends an alert to your smartphone, allowing you to see and interact with visitors no matter where you are. It's like a doorbell camera but more versatile. These lights can be placed anywhere that you would place outdoor lights, front porch, back porch, or the driveway. Simple to install, all you need is a wifi connection and you can monitor outside your home from anywhere.

Google I/O 2016 Google has dabbled in the Home Theater and Home Automation arenas for quite a while - going all the way back to the Logitech Revue and Google TV in 2010, and there were a few devices before that failed experiment as well (review in Episode 452). Even with the success of the Chromecast, it still feels like Google is just toying with us, but that all may change soon. Some of the announcements out of this year's Google I/O conference are pretty exciting, and very promising. Plus, they have something called Project Ara - how can we not talk about that? Google Home Perhaps the most relevant announcement to our show and everyone listening was the Amazon Echo competitor simply called Google Home. The device itself was the big announcement, but they followed that up with an expected delivery date of later this year. However, they didn't specify a price. The man behind the project, Mario Queiroz, also happens to be the same man who launched the only other successful home product in the Google portfolio, the Chromecast. Google Home is exactly what you'd picture if you were told someone was going to launch an Echo competitor. It's a small speaker you plug into the wall with always-listening, far-field microphones that can hear you from across the room. Just like the Echo, Google Home will answer your questions, play your music, and control some of your home automation components. Of course Google will tell you that their device is better at most of those things than the Amazon device, but they have to say that. While the Echo isn't great at multi-room, Google Home is designed with multiple rooms and speakers in mind from the start. It's built on the Cast standard, so you can talk to any speaker and tell it to play music on other speakers, just like you can with Google Cast Audio. Not sure if it'll support synchronized music in multiple rooms, but if it doesn't at launch, we can't imagine it'll be too far off. Google has said they don't plan to be as open a platform and the Amazon Echo, so you can expect less home automation devices to work with it. Their focus is on quality, not quantity. Queiroz made the statement that other platforms may support more devices, but when you actually try to use them, it doesn't really work all that well. We cannot confirm nor deny that claim, but Google's spin on less device support is that each home automation component that is integrated with Google Home will behave just as you'd expect. That's a tall order, but if it is true, it'll be pretty awesome (and probably a historical first). Google Assistant Google Now is getting an upgrade to the new Google Assistant in an effort to take on the Siri, Cortana and Alexa's of the world. The uniques feature that sets Google Assistant apart from the rest is the ability to remember prior questions and apply context to new questions. For example, you could say something like "show me what action movies are playing in my area" followed by a statement like "I'm a fan of anything with vampires in it" to further narrow the search. That sounds more intuitive than most of the digital assistants on the market right now. And could have a nice tie-in with voice controlled home automation. Google Assistant on your Google Home device? That could be pretty sweet. Daydream Farewell Android VR, hello Google Daydream. Quite similar in approach to Google Cardboard, Daydream is built by Google, but it's up to the developers to create the apps, games and experiences that really make it compelling for consumers. At Google I/O, they showed off sketches of a reference VR headset and a remote reminiscent of the Nintendo Wii, that together will provide motion-controlled gaming and simple user interface navigation while using the Daydream headset. Google also announced that several phones that are "Daydream-compatible" from companies like HTC and Samsung should be hitting store shelves later this year. Project Ara So what is Project Ara? For those who don't know, it's actually pretty cool. The idea is a totally modular cell phone, basically the marriage of cell phones and legos. Your phone, instead of being one solid piece of electronics, is a bunch of smaller pieces of electronics your put together, where each of the small pieces is replaceable. You could buy a phone, which is basically all the parts you need pre-assembled, or just go out and buy the parts you want and build your own. For anyone who has seen a commercial about a new phone with a super awesome camera, or crazy long battery life, or a killer screen and wished your phone, the one you just bought six months ago, was that cool, Project Ara solves that for you. Want to add a better camera? Go for it, just replace that module and you're set. No reason to replace the whole phone. Or want to add a better battery, or a louder speaker? Go for it. That's pretty freakin' cool. At the I/O conference, Google announced that Project Ara is coming out of the cool, futuristic idea phase and will be making

Tivo Bolt Review Cord cutting is all the rage, but for many of us, it simply isn't an option. There's way too many members of the household that can't do without TV, you're too far from the transmitters to get over-the-air TV, or the shows you really want to watch aren't available from streaming, or you really like watching live events you can't get over-the-air. Whatever that case, cutting the cord is a non-starter. Slimming the cord, however, could totally work. And the Tivo Bolt (buy now) might be the perfect device to do it. Bolt Features From the Tivo website: "The TiVo BOLT is the shortest distance between you and your entertainment, because it combines all your options into a single box. No more switching devices, toggling inputs or juggling remotes. Whether it's from TV, available on-demand libraries or streaming apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime, HULU, YouTube or Pandora, TiVo BOLT delivers it all in an instant. OneSearch™ scours multiple platforms like TV and Netflix simultaneously, so your search experience is always fast, simple and seamless. No more drilling down into each app and doing multiple hunt-and-seek searches. Find shows and movies by title, actor, director or keyword—and start watching in seconds. OnePass™ tracks down every available season and episode of a show—whether it's on television or a streaming app—and creates a customizable watchlist for you. Start with the pilot episode or jump in anywhere mid-season. OnePass automatically records upcoming episodes and adds them to your list. TiVo BOLT is 33% smaller than any other product in its category, but it packs a mightier punch. With 3x the speed of our previous box and up to 3x the memory, TiVo BOLT satisfies your entertainment appetite… and your need for speed. All that power is packed into a slender, elegant package that runs your entire entertainment center. Oh, and that distinctive, arched design isn't just for looks, it serves as a clever cooling system. No more waiting for commercial breaks to be over. With a single press of a button, you can continue watching your recorded show. SkipMode works with the top 20 channels, including ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, AMC Comedy Central, Discovery Channel, TBS, FX, TLC, History Channel, TNT, The CW, Food Network, USA, Bravo, ABC Family, Syfy, Lifetime and HGTV. QuickMode lets you zip through your recorded shows—and shows with a buffer—30% faster than normal speed with pitch-corrected audio. You zoom along and nobody sounds like a caffeinated chipmunk. It's the ideal way to power through slow-moving news shows, sports and long-winded political debates. TiVo BOLT can handle the biggest entertainment jones. It records up to four shows at once and provides up to 1 TB of recording capacity—enough for roughly 150 hours of HD programming. Need even more? Add an external hard drive or a TiVo-ready NetGear ReadyNAS. And if you've got a new 4K Ultra HD TV, then get excited, because TiVo BOLT is 4K-compatible right out of the box." The Bolt can be purchased in three different options. The 500 GB model goes for $199, The 1 TB model is $299, and the 2 TB option is $499. The big knock on Tivo as a cord cutting device is that it isn't free. There is a monthly or annual subscription fee associated with each DVR. There is a new Tivo Roamio OTA that doesn't have the subscription fee, but it only supports Antenna tuners, not CableCard. The Bolt includes the first year of service for free, but after the first year, the cost goes to $150 per year or $15 per month if you pay monthly. Not great, but honestly, not that bad. Cox charges $28.49 per month for a DVR, so the Bolt is less than half the annual cost of a Cable DVR, at least in our area. Installation The saga of getting our Bolt up and running wasn't really anything to do with the Tivo device itself, but it was quite an ordeal, so we'll tell you everything we went through so you have an understanding for what you may be in for if you decide to go the Tivo route. Since we both are (or were) Satellite TV customers, one of us had to get Cable activated to do the review. So Braden stopped by a local Cox Solution Store, activated a basic Cable package for about $40 per month, added a CableCard for an additional $2 per month and left the store quite satisfied. The whole process took about 15 minutes. What is supposed to happen is you get home, plug the CableCard into the Tivo, connect the Bolt to Coax for Cable service and you're all set. If only that was the case. First thing that happens is you call the Cable provider to pair the CableCard with your account and activate it. This was easy, but it didn't work. The tuning adapter Cox provided couldn't lock on, so the Bolt couldn't pick up any channels. The phone representative suggested a visit from a technician, so we got that scheduled. The technician arrived the following day and found the signal to the Bolt was both weak and dirty. He did some rewiring, added a signal booster and retested the line. All looked good,

Yamaha RX-A850 Review Last October Ara bought a Pioneer Elite VSX-90 7.2 Channel A/V Receiver for his family room. He was looking for something that would allow him to switch 4K content through to his Vizio P-Series 4K UHDTV. The receiver was able to do that and provide good quality sound but he was never happy with the reliability of the receiver. It wouldn't turn on at times requiring a physical reset and it took as many as 8 seconds for it to switch inputs. One day a few weeks ago Ara had enough and decided to swap it out with a new receiver. Since he hadn't bought a Yamaha in quite some time and was really interested in the Aventage line and decided that he RX-A850 had all the features he wanted at a decent price (Buy Now $900). It needed to support HDCP 2.2, 4K, HDR, and sound good! While not needed for Ara's family room, the 850 does support Atmos as well. If you want DTS:X support you'll need to move up to the RX-A1050 which will run you $300 more. The full feature list is listed below: Features: Aluminum front panel and Anti-Resonance Technology Wedge MusicCast wireless multiroom audio support Bluetooth®, built-in Wi-Fi and Wireless Direct for wireless music streaming AirPlay®, Spotify®, Pandora® music streaming service and AV Controller App DSD 2.8 MHz / 5.6 MHz, FLAC / WAV / AIFF 192 kHz / 24-bit, Apple® Lossless 96 kHz / 24-bit playback YPAO™ - R.S.C. with multipoint measurement Dolby Atmos® Support Multi-zone audio support (Zone2) Phono input for vinyl playback Virtual Surround Back Speaker for playing 7.1-channel content with a 5.1-channel system HDMI 2.0a: 4K Ultra HD Full Support with 4K60p, HDCP2.2, HDR Video and BT.2020 pass-through Setup Setup was pretty simple. Connect the speakers and components then add power and then kick off the YPAO calibration. The initial pass through the calibration screen checks for phase issues and in Ara's case all was good. Then it proceed to measure room acoustics. The results were good but we always like to tweak the sound to our tastes. We raised the level of the surrounds and subwoofer and called it done in about an hour, which included unboxing. The menus are simple to navigate. We did not use wifi as we have an Ethernet connection for our entertainment system. Performance This is Ara's first Aventage receiver so he was expecting some good things in the way of audio performance. According to Yamaha the Aventage uses higher quality parts and design: AVENTAGE brings studio-grade sound and sophisticated video enhancements to your home with unparalleled attention to detail in design, engineering and fabrication. Every electrical path, every part, every piece, was rethought and redesigned if necessary to achieve total performance excellence throughout the series. Materials were tested thoroughly and the finest were selected to maximize audio / video playback performance. You do pay a little more for the Aventage. A similar non-Aventage Yamaha receiver (RX-V781) goes for about $100 less. Other than the "Studio-grade" sound, the receivers are nearly identical. Settings: Decode Mode - Straight (we want it exactly as the mixers intended) YPAO Volume - We set this to off. However, if you are watching at night you may want to turn this on. It will adjust the high and low frequency sounds so the dialog doesn't get washed out. It worked as advertised in our testing. Video Processing - We are not big fans of the scaling on receivers. The 850A can scale to 4K (2160p50/60) if you own a UHD set. But with that said we felt that the picture wasn't as good as when we let the TV do the scaling. Object Decode Mode - On (see below) Movies The RX-850A performed quite well with movies regardless of format. There is enough power to drive extreme action scenes and yet the receiver was easily able to handle the subtleties of ambient sounds like rain or crowd noises. We did not connect Atmos speakers but we did enable "Object Decode Mode" on our normally configured 7.1 setup. Perhaps we were fooling ourselves but it did seem as though we were enveloped in a bubble of sound giving us an Atmos like experience. For a larger room that may not be the case so you will want to use Atmos speakers if you can. If you do have a bigger media room the RX-850A, with it's 100 watts of power, will have no issues filling it with sound! Music Although music isn't the primary use for our receiver we did do some critical listening. We found the receiver to be clear and bright regardless of position in the room. We listened to Stereo and and multi-channel tracks. In either case we could notice the placement of the instruments within the soundstage. The A850 behaved nicely never sounding too bright or edgy. We even tried some lower quality rips to check out the compressed music enhancer. It did make it sound better but why would you do that to yourself? Just go with 256Kbps mp3 or AAC or better yet lossless and never speak of the compressed music enhancer again! With CD quality music the RX-A850 really sh

Interview with Gary Yacoubian - President SVS On today's show we have an Interview with the President of SVS Gary Yacoubian. We talk about their forthcoming line of Prime Elevation Speakers. We also discuss their line of high quality accessories that don't cost an arm and a leg. Finally we finish off with a discussion who the audiophile of today is.

Highlights from NAB 2016 Faithful listener and long time contributor to the show Ed Stouffer graciously agreed to be our "man on the street" - or "man on the convention show floor" if you prefer, at this year's NAB Show in Las Vegas. The show just wrapped up, running from April 16-21. For those who aren't familiar, NAB is the National Association of Broadcasters and the NAB Show is their annual gathering to see, learn about and talk about all the latest innovations in audio and video production, broadcasting and distribution. TV Trends – some of my views from NAB 2016 show Edward Stouffer 4K going wide and deep in the broadcast market with a big push to consumers building. This has several components, so I will try to describe them, and what they mean. Original Content. Several presentations talked about 35mm motion picture film stock having a native resolution right about 4K. Decent prints can be scanned with minimal cleanup. Older prints will take some work, just like what happened when HD versions of older material were released. As for new material, there was a general consensus that most mainstream content is moving to 4K capture or is already there. In many cases, the editing is either downconverted to HD or that is the export In the Canon "mega-booth" – which spanned 2 levels and had amateur, pro-am and professional cameras on display - they showed excerpts from several 4K movies shot partially or entirely in 4K, along with some TV episodes, such as "Homeland." Distribution. The net is that while broadcasts are not 4K today, 4K streaming via Amazon and Netflix will have more options as less work in the future is required when the original material is in better shape. As for fixed media, the UltraHD BluRay players have cracked the $500 price point, with the Samsung generating a lot of interest at $399. Christmas 2015, they were $5,000, so the start toward commodity is rapidly coming. Manufacturers I talked with showing the under-$500 players said they generally expect a $250 UHD BluRay player for Christmas 2016. Also, the manufacturers expected that most of the UHD BluRay players will support 4K clients for Netflix & other services, so consumers will also use them as streaming devices for 4K. Broadcast. The chicken's egg has hatched! ATSC 3.0 is the new specification and it includes support for 4K broadcasts, including HDR, 24-channel audio, etc. I talked briefly with a technical director for a major US network and they are actively looking for a pilot at one affiliate this year. As I understand the spec – not close to being a SME by any measure – it takes the equivalent of 2 HD digital channels for one broadcast, depending upon compression used. (The folks in the ATSC booth said twice that it only needed a single digital channel…using the prototype CODECs and laboratory environments.) The network I was talking with said their pilot will likely be an affiliate who has unused spectrum or who multicasts some additional channels who would be willing to interrupt that for the test period. To that end, I saw an LG TV set at the show with the first ATSC 3.0 chipset included. I read through the press briefings a bit and it looks like all major manufacturers announced either future models or lines with ATSC 3.0 shipping by Christmas. Versions of 4K. HDR displays were everywhere. "Ultra HD Premium" was being promoted - as well as HDR branding - which includes HDR, WCG and other requirements for improved black levels and luminance. I asked Sony, Samsung and others about when we could see HDR for HD TVs, and as I expected, they seemed reluctant to talk about it, with one telling me it might hurt 4K sales. One manufacturer said it could cost between 25%-50% for "true HDR" on an UltraHD set. I asked what that meant, and he said that it really required the correct display, software and enough on-board CPU. To that end, he said some "lower tier" brands would say they offer HDR, but to look at their displays beside a top-tier manufacturer and there would be a big difference. I guess one test is to look at the new Vizio 50" 4K TV with HDR and see how that stacks up. As much will be lost as made There are a lot of big – and costly – bets being made on the future path and as some are against one another, they cannot possibly all succeed. I saw multiple DRM systems being advertised. While some use the same encryption standard, they are incompatible with each other, as things like key distribution infrastructures are sold as a whole system. One prediction I heard from an architect at a major encoding vendor was that "Netflix was the next MySpace." Think about that for a moment: when is the last time you used MySpace? I asked for more and he said to compare what happened to HD-DVD. He said it was the better format, was cheaper to produce media, but when Sony flexed its muscle on content, it lost. So, he said, if one or more studios either raise prices on content to Netflix or deny it altogether in favor of any company, Net

DirecTV 4K Review DirecTV has added 4K to some of it’s Genie HD DVR and we are fortunate enough to have a listener who has upgraded to the new service. Ralph Smithers, good friend of the show, was kind enough to share his experience with the upgrade process and quality of the 4K content available. Before we get to Ralph’s review here are a few notes: What You Need 4K Genie HD DVR - Model HR54 is required to view 4K Ultra HD channels. 4K HDTV ULTIMATE or PREMIER TV Package - $92 and $145 respectively Review by Ralph Smithers I have been with DirecTV a little over two years and became eligible for a free upgrade to 4K with a two-year commitment and wanted to share my experience. The upgrade itself was pretty straight forward—three of my four boxes were upgraded to 4K equipment. I suspect those were all the boxes the installer had on hand. The old Genie Mini works fine with the new equipment and my 4K monitor is connected to one of the 4K Genie Mini boxes. None of the components of the dish (LNB) needed to be changed to support the upgrade. While the equipment swap was pretty straight forward, the installer was friendly but admittedly not knowledgeable about 4K. I ran into a number of issues once the installer left my house. Two calls to DirecTV did not resolve the problems and for most of the first weekend of having 4K, I spent more time behind my TV than in front of it. Here is a summary of the issues and how I resolved them. I think this information will be useful to other listeners and there is one outstanding issue where the listeners may be able to assist me. The setup for my non 4K sets went without incident but there were significant issues with the 4K programming, specifically the special Master’s Tournament broadcast. I was able to get the Master’s 4K broadcast with the installer present but my first impression was that while the picture was pristine, it seemed choppy. Shortly thereafter, the channel went dark and a reset of my 4K Genie Mini box was required to get ANY programing. The Master’s programming simply would not work and when I tried to tune to the particular channel where it was playing, the whole system went down. DirecTV has another 4K channel that plays continuous programming and that channel worked great. Everything came to a crash when I navigated to the Master’s channel. I would also add that even the Master’s programming I recorded on my DVR was causing my system to crash. I have a six month old Yamaha RX-V579 receiver that I use to switch my HDMI inputs that is HDCP 2.2 and 4K compliant. I have a Vizio M series 70 inch 4K TV that I purchased in November. My calls to DirecTV resulted in the technicians putting the blame for the issues on my equipment. Both of the technicians went out of their way tell me about people bootlegging content (which was annoying) and could not resolve my issues. Eventually, I was getting content protection notices on all channels and was starting to regret my decision to upgrade. My setup before the upgrade was to route all of my video gear into my receiver and use the Audio Return Channel feature to send the video to my TV and get sound from Smart TV applications into my receiver. In my case, this was working inconsistently at best and not at all on the Master’s Channel. After hours of frustration, I made a cabling change on the TV side that resolved my issue. I noticed that one of my HDMI inputs (non ARC input) on my TV was labeled for 4K 60hz instead of 4K 30hz so I switched the output from the receiver into this port. “Presto” everything worked perfectly on the DirecTV side, as well as other HDMI inputs from the receiver. Had DirecTV been able to direct me on this item, hours of frustration would have been saved so I hope this might help other listeners. The downside of this configuration is that I cannot get my Smart TV app sound into my receiver, even with an optical cable. If anyone can give me advice on this issue, I’d appreciate it but I can manually switch the cabling around if I want to use this feature. So how was the 4K picture quality? Marvelous! The video was razor sharp, the colors were glorious the sound was excellent. I could read the logos and see the dimples on the golf balls on most of the putts. I could see the broken tees and the texture of the blades of grass on the greens. When I flipped over to standard 720p version of the broadcast, these details were obscured. I also noticed that when the camera was focused on the golf balls while they were in flight, they kept their round appearance. In the 720p version, the golf balls in flight had a slight oval appearance. Should note that my TV reported the DirecTV content as 2160p. The other DirecTV channel that pushes out 4K 24/7 broadcasts are mostly nature programming (like the early days of HD). Details were crisp and clear like the golf tournament. My 4K monitor does not support HDR but I noticed a significant improvement in the contrast between dark and light colors. The brighter ima

THX tune-up to the Rescue We had a friend recently who was complaining about their HDTV experience at home. They weren’t seeing the quality they were hoping to see after upgrading their TV, and were contemplating returning it. In talking through it with them, we were able to convince them that perhaps the TV settings just needed to be dialed in to look great in their viewing room. They didn’t want to spend money on a professional calibration, so we went to the trusty THX tune-up app to see what we could do. Install and Setup If you don’t have THX tune-up, you should get it. We ran the iOS version for this exercise, but they also have an Android version as well. Both are free, so you spend a few seconds downloading and installing it and away you go. We can talk through the specific on setting up the iOS app, because it’s the one we used, but many of the setup steps are the same. The basics are: install the app, launch it, connect it to your TV or AVR. On iOS you can connect it with HDMI or AirPlay. The app tells you that: “THX tune-up uses both your mobile device screen and your HDTV screen, making this an interactive 2nd screen application.” Of course you would assume that to calibrate the screen the app would need to put images on it. You can’t calibrate it just by looking at pictures on the phone. We used HDMI to connect to the TV, which for iOS requires an AV adapter. Apple sells them for the lightning adapter and the old school 30 pin connector, so no matter what iOS device you have, you’re covered. We used HDMI because we had the adapter and because HDMI allows you to test audio as well. We didn’t need the audio portion for this time, but if you want to get the full experience out of the app, picking up the adapter so you can connect with HDMI is the way to go. In this case a simple AirPlay mirroring would have worked great for calibrating the screen. So in a pinch, if you just want to dial in display settings, take an AppleTV with you to your friend’s house and you’ll be all set. There is an app setup step that allows you to tell the app what kind of equipment: Television, Projector, Receiver, etc. you’re connected to. It is optional, but supposedly it could help dial in the tests for your particular gear. Use it if you want, skip it if you don’t care. It really doesn't matter all the much. Once you get setup, you can play the THX deep note through your system for giggles. It’s a pretty cool way to demo your setup, but probably a bit janky to pull out the app just for that. If you hit the ‘Get Started’ button on the home screen of the app it will play a short video that describes most of the test you can run and what the app will be doing to optimize your home theater experience. It describes the various picture adjustments and what you’ll be doing to get them dialed in just right. Again, this step is totally optional. If you’re new to TV settings and options, it’s a cool primer on what you’re about to do. If you are already familiar with the concepts of brightness, contrast, etc. you can skip it. Just jump directly to the ‘Adjustments’ are of the app. Calibration We know this isn’t a real calibration, and we’ll probably get a few emails from the community on it, but there’s just not a better word for use for it. Call it ‘TV setting optimization’ if you like, but for simplicity we’re going to call it calibration. The app has five picture adjustment tests and two audio settings tests, each in their own menu. We didn’t use the audio tests this time, but we’ll talk about them in a bit for completeness. In our case we walked through the Picture Adjustment options because that was all we really cared about. Picture The Picture Adjustment setting choices are: Aspect Ratio, Brightness, Contrast, Color, and Tint with a final option called ‘Review Adjustments’ that allows you to review all the setting changes you made with different images/patterns to make sure they all worked as expected. The Aspect Ratio setting shows a pattern to make sure you’re seeing enough of the screen and that shapes are the correct size.This eliminates issues with stretching and overscan. There’s a circle in the middle of the pattern that quickly shows you if you’re dealing with and stretching or distortion issues. Moving on from Aspect Ratio, you dive into Brightness. This make sure your screen isn’t too dark. You want the screen to be as dark as possible without losing shadow detail or other parts of a dark image. From there you dial in Contrast. Contrast and Brightness are similar, but also quite different. You use Brightness to make sure you can see details in dark images. Contrast makes sure you can see white detail. You want to be able to see slight variations even in white images. With these two dialed in, the subtle details in your images should be much more visible. Now that you have dark and light dialed in, next you move on to Color. The color adjustment is used to make sure the colors on your TV are light and vibrant but

What is HDR? For more than a year now we have been talking about 4K TVs and how they are supposed to be the next big thing. But in actuality the increased resolution is only mildly better than equally spec’d 1080p HDTVs. We have pointed to case study after case study that says you need very large (100” or more) screen to see a difference between 1080p and 4K when sitting at normal viewing distances. This alone is not a good reason to upgrade. What has us really excited is what is coming along with these new UHDTVs, HDR (High Dynamic Range) and that IS a good reason to go out and buy a new UHDTV. We have mentioned HDR on previous shows but we we never really talked about what HDR entails in any detail. We thought it would be a good idea to explain what HDR is and why you will want this on your next TV. First we need to differentiate between HDR in photos and HDR in TVs. Photo HDR combines multiple images with different exposures to create a single image that mimics a greater dynamic range. TV HDR expands the TV's contrast ratio and color palette to offer a more realistic, natural image than what's possible with today's HDTVs. Photo HDR can make a picture look unrealistic whereas TV HDR actually makes the picture look more realistic. HDR capable TVs coupled with HDR content will display a more realistic color range, higher contrast ratio which in turn yields deeper blacks and brighter more vivid colors. HDR is far more important to your next TV purchase than 4K but at this point in time it is unlikely that there will be a 1080p HDTV that supports HDR so you will end up with a 4K TV regardless. A TV’s ability to display a wider and richer range of colors, brighter whites, and deeper, darker blacks gives the TV picture a more ‘dynamic’ look, which is where the name comes from. Format War There are two HDR formats vying for your dollars, one from Dolby and one from Technicolor. However this format war is not like Blu-ray vs HDDVD. You will unlikely be stuck with an orphaned UHDTV. Both of these formats support the HDR-10 specification which is supported by UHD players. Streaming services will more than likely support the HDR-10 format although Netflix has some support for Dolby Vision on some of their original content. Some TVs manufacturers are supporting both so it's unlikely that you will be stuck with a TV that won’t support HDR content. If we had to choose between a TV that supported only one format we would pick the one that supports Dolby Vision. Dolby has always been out front with it's support at the point of content creation. They are at the studios working with sound mixers and video professionals to make sure their format looks and sounds best. We heard this with Dolby TrueHD and we expect the same with Dolby Vision. How Do I Know Which TV to Buy? At CES, the UHD Alliance, a 35-member consortium released a standard called “Ultra HD Premium” which is supposed to make it easy for consumers to identify UHDTVs that meet their specification. To be certified Ultra HD Premium a UHDTV must achieve a brightness of at least 1000 nits. There is no specific HDR specification but there are for black levels and color gamut which will guarantee a minimum level if HDR quality. What about cables? You won't need new cables for HDR. Current High-Speed HDMI cables can carry HDR content. The source device (a 4K Blu-Ray player, say) and TV must be HDMI 2.0a to transmit the metadata, however. If you have a receiver and want to use it for switching, it will need to be HDMI 2.0a as well. HDR content (the key) All these new features won’t really do anything to enhance your experience unless you have content that takes advantage of it. HDR content is starting to trickle out now and more is on the way. Amazon has a few titles in HDR (Mozart in the Jungle, Red Oaks, and a few others) and Vudu is offering HDR content in Dolby Vision. Netflix streams Marco Polo and Daredevil in HDR. There are also UHD discs that support HDR so if you have a UHD TV that supports HDR you should be able to find something to watch and show it off! To Sum it Up Getting the best picture from an HDR TV will require HDR content. To guarantee your TV will support HDR look for the “Ultra HD Premium” label. If you really want a UHD TV that does not have the “Ultra HD Premium” label buy a TV that has or comes close to 1000 nits brightness. HDR from cable, satellite, and OTA are still a bit off.

OpenHAB and OpenRemote There is this dream we have to be able to automate everything in our homes, but do it ourselves, without hiring an installer, and do it for cheap without breaking the bank. So far we have used a lot of Insteon devices, and tied them into other systems to expand the overall reach of what we could build. Luckily, we aren’t the only ones with this dream and a few open source projects have popped up to help us DIY-ers achieve our dreams. OpenHAB OpenHAB is a vendor and technology agnostic open source automation software for your home. Their claim is that you can build your smart home in no time. The name stands for Open Home Automation Bus, and for those familiar with electronics, you know the bus in computer terms is less like a real bus and more like a highway. It is a set of conductors carrying data and control signals within a computer system, to which pieces of equipment are connected and how they communicate with each other. So OpenHAB is the central nervous system of your home automation environment. It is used to connect all your devices and allows them to communicate, and also allows you to act as the brain to send commands to each of them. They describe it as “a software for integrating different home automation systems and technologies into one single solution that allows over-arching automation rules and that offers uniform user interfaces.” This means openHAB is designed to be absolutely vendor-neutral as well as hardware and protocol agnostic. Drilling down on that, it is pretty flexible, it can run on any device that is capable of running a JVM (Linux, Mac, Windows). It allows you to integrate a plethora of different home automation technologies into one cohesive system. And also has the brain: it includes a powerful rule engine to fulfill all your automation needs. Out of the box it comes with different web-based UIs as well as native UIs for iOS and Android. It is fully open source, so new devices and protocols can be added at any time. You can even add them if you want to contribute and become a member of the passionate and growing community responsible for maintaining it. If you don’t want to contribute code, it is easily extensible to integrate with new systems and devices and provides APIs for being integrated in other systems. The openHAB website provides a great description of the core philosophy behind the project: “openHAB does not try to replace existing solutions, but rather wants to enhance them - it can thus be considered as a system of systems. It therefore assumes that the sub-systems are setup and configured independently of openHAB as this is often a very specific and complex matter (including “pairing” processes, direct device links etc.). Instead, openHAB focuses on the “daily use” side of things and abstracts from the devices themselves. A core concept for openHAB is the notion of an “item”. An item is a data-centric functional atomic building block - you can think of it as an “capability”. openHAB does not care whether an item (e.g. a temperature value) is related to a physical device or some “virtual” source like a web service or an calculation result. All features offered by openHAB are using this “item” abstraction, which means that you will not find any reference to device specific things (like IP addresses, IDs etc.) in automation rules, UI definitions and so on. This makes it perfectly easy to replace one technology by another without doing any changes to rules and UIs. A very important aspect of openHAB’s architecture is its modular design. It is very easy to add new features (like the integration with yet another system through a “binding”) and you can add and remove such features at runtime. This modular approach has been a huge enabler for the active community around openHAB with many engaged contributors.” OpenHAB has a huge list of supported technologies including: Benq, Epson projectors, Denon, Onkyo and Pioneer receivers, LG and Panasonic TVs, DMX lighting, ecobee and Nest thermostats, Insteon Hub and PLM, Z-Wave devices, Google calendar, Twitter, Logitech Harmony remotes, Plex and XBMC media servers, Sonos devices, and the list goes on. No mention on the website of any support for Amazon Echo or Apple HomeKit. Our gut says someone in the passionate and growing community is working on it, but we have no proof of that. We haven’t had a chance to toy with openHAB ourselves yet, freetime has been pretty scarce lately. But it looks very promising and we’ve added it to our list of todo items. From the forum and other various internet posts we’ve read, it looks very promising. Yes it is bare-bones. And yes it requires a lot of setup and configuration, but that also means it allows for a very deep level of customization. For those who have the time and the patience, it could be awesome. For those who want something to “just work” out of the box, you’re probably better off going with a commercial solution. OpenRemote Just like we talked about whe

Audioengine HD6 Powered Speaker Review We have been reviewing Audioengine speakers since just about the beginning of the company’s existence. We started with the A5 and have more or less used every product that Audioengine has released. Whether it's been the original A5s from almost 10 years ago to their high performance D1 DAC. Everyone product we have reviewed has delivered on Audioengine’s commitment to build innovative and high quality audio products! Today we are reviewing the flagship HD6 powered speakers (Buy Now $750). The HD6 takes everything we liked about the A5 and turns it up a notch. In addition to the analog inputs of the A5 you now can add digital optical along with aptX Bluetooth to supply your HD6 with the highest quality audio that you can. With the Bluetooth option you no longer have to connect an external device to drive the speakers which makes placement a breeze. Fit and finish are first rate (veneer over MDF) and you have three to chose from, Walnut, Cherry, and Black. We received Walnut and they look beautiful and matched our living room perfectly. Each speaker is quite heavy with the one that includes the amplifier weighing in at 17.5 lbs (8kg) while the passive speaker weighs 12.5 lbs (5.5kg). The speakers come double boxed which will protect them during shipping and they are packaged in soft felt bags that can be reused. Features: Built-in Class A/B monoblock power amplifiers Inputs include analog, optical and Advanced Bluetooth aptX Audiophile-grade components Furniture finishes and magnetic grilles Solid aluminum remote control Setup It's pretty much a three step setup. First you connect the left and right speakers with the included speaker wire. A nice touch by Audioengine is that the wire is pre-fitted with banana plugs. Next you connect your source. In our case we connected an Apple Airport Express via an optical cable. Then we connected power! That’s it! If you wanted to use bluetooth you would substitute pairing the devices with connecting your source. Either way it's three steps and you are off to the races. The speakers also include an aluminum remote control which feels pretty substantial in the hand. There is no setup required to use the remote. Once we set a volume that we were happy with we pretty much never picked it up again rather choosing to use the volume control of our iPhone or itunes. Performance These speakers sounded great out of the box but the bass was a bit boomy. Audioengine recommends about 40 hours to break them in but we heard dramatic improvement after about ten. The bass tightened up and the mids and highs were clear and no longer obscured by the bass. The Eagles - Hotel California Hell Freezes Over Live Album We have used this track on many of our speaker reviews because it really shows how well a speaker can reproduce the high frequencies and bass in one track. The intro guitar solo is crisp, clean and tight! Then you are rewarded bassy drums that are just as good. The last 45 seconds of this track feature some of the best acoustic guitar you will hear anywhere. The HD6 reproduced this faithfully. The Who - Baba O'Riley We chose this track for the classic intro that has become iconic. You clearly hear the sound moving from right to left. Then comes the piano, drums, and guitar and with each additional element we listened to make sure that they were distinct and clear. We did not have to struggle to hear the instruments separate from the vocals. Steely Dan - Deacon Blues (Actually the entire A Decade of Steely Dan Remastered Album) Deacon Blues was already one of Ara’ favorites but the remastered version is even better! You can hear everything clearly and the HD6 is just sound so smooth and warm. Everything from the drums, bass and especially the sax sound like the band is in the room with you. Listening to this track specifically and the whole album in general transported Ara back to his highschool days listening on an old beat up turntable. The original never sounded this good back then but Ara remembered it so fondly that you might call the HD6s a time machine for transporting him back in time. Beastie Boys – Brass Monkey Say what you will about the song but it's a great test for how well your speakers can get down. We mean really down. The HD6 did extremely well with it. The bass was super tight and clear. We had it cranked up pretty loud too! As long as we were on the Beastie Boys we kept it going with Fight For Your Right (to Party). That was more of an homage to every hockey rink in North America that plays that song after a fight! Not quite as loud as Staples Center but still fun anyway. Stevie Ray Vaughan – Tin Pan Alley This track has wide dynamic range and excellent stage presence. You can hear the separation between individual instruments and vocals so clearly that you think you are in a club listening to him. And the bass, oh man the bass is awesome! Seriously this man left us way too early! Conclusion If you are serious about your mu

DTS Play-Fi We had a chance to check out the WiSA standard in our review of the Axiim Q Wireless Home Theater System on Podcast 728 a couple weeks ago. On top of that, Ara is a big AirPlay fan for whole house audio and Braden is invested in Sonos. Since we can’t have just one, or even four, standards, it looks like another competing technology, this one from DTS, is hoping to fulfill our dreams of wireless audio around the home. The technology, called DTS Play-Fi, looks pretty promising and has some solid companies in its corner. What is it? DTS markets Play-Fi as a premium, whole-home wireless audio ecosystem. They are quick to point out that the technology is open and available to anyone. Not open as in free, but open as in unrestricted access. They claim to have the largest ecosystem of brands in the world, allowing you to build an AirPlay or Sonos like system, without the restrictions that come with those platforms. Since all Play-Fi products are seamlessly interoperable, you have the freedom to select the perfect speaker for each room, and know that they will all work together as if they came from one manufacturer. With AirPlay from Apple, you get a lot of freedom to select the right speaker, but you’re pretty limited on the control side. Apple really wants you to control the system from one of their products. There are third party apps that allow you to stream to AirPlay devices from an Android phone, but nothing like the native support you get from an Apple device. Sonos is the complete other side of the spectrum. You have total freedom in how you control your audio system, use a Mac, a Windows PC, an iPhone or iPad, or any Android phone or tablet. But you have to buy Sonos speakers. There aren’t any non-Sonos speakers that will work in that system. DTS actually came by the technology via their acquisition of a company called Phorus in July 2012. Phorus was using the technology in their PS1 speakers. Staying consistent with how DTS tends to operate, they decided to open the platform and license it, hoping to get on as many devices as they possibly could. They didn’t want to make the devices themselves, they wanted to build a technology to allow their partners to enable wireless, whole-home streaming and take a little cut. It has worked out pretty well for them with other technologies. What does it do? In a nutshell, it allows you to essentially build your own Sonos with any devices you like. Prefer the tonal quality of one speaker brand over another? Go for it. Buy their Play-Fi speakers. Prefer the aesthetic look of a particular speaker, have at it. Want to control it from an Android phone? iPhone? Windows PC? Go for it. All with native support. Bottom line, stream your favorite content at high audio quality from every device that you've got. Like Airplay, Play-Fi sends audio from your devices to speakers throughout the home over WiFi using their proprietary streaming, synchronization, and authentication technology. Features include: Lossless audio transmission Multi-room, multi-zone, multi-user options Advanced Left/Right speaker configuration for stereo speakers Support for high-resolution audio (24bit/192kHz) New features and services delivered wirelessly Works over standard Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and Powerline networks For Android, iOS, Kindle Fire, and Windows PCs Just like Sonos and AirPlay, Play-Fi works over your home WiFi network. If you have spotty WiFi coverage in some rooms, this could be an issue. And you need to make sure your router is up to the task of streaming all that music simultaneously. Play-Fi support streaming the same source to up to eight devices simultaneously. Of the three, only Sonos offers the ability to create its own dedicated network by connecting one of your devices via hard-wire to your router. In this mode each Sonos device also operates as a wireless repeater, extending the range of the dedicated network and helping you overcome spotty WiFi issues. And, of course, Play-Fi comes with a bunch of music options from around the world. The native app has support for Spotify, Pandora (enabled for select Play-Fi products only), Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Deezer, Songza, Sirius XM, KKBox in Taiwan, QQ Music in China, and multiple others. They also support DLNA for access to content from your local network. And they’re adding new sources all the time. Since the sources come from the control devices, the speakers don’t need to be updated to support new ones as they come out. Doing a feature for feature comparison, Sonos and Play-Fi are fairly neck and neck, while AirPlay lacks a few capabilities they both offer. We already know Apple doesn’t do Android, but AirPlay also only supports multi-zone streaming from an iTunes collection on a computer, not from your iPhone or iPad. AirPlay can’t stream from multiple sources, and doesn’t support left/right stereo pairing, while both of the others do. Play-Fi differentiates itself from both of the other options with support for High-Resolu

Interview - Will Price CEO Simple Control Ara has been using Simple Control as his home remote for many years. It is the one piece of gear that he can’t live without. His setup includes three rooms, lights, thermostats, and iTunes control all in one great looking app. We produced a video demonstrating the capabilities, though a little dated they show the capabilities pretty well. Virtual Remotes - Simple Control provides a virtual remote control for any supported device, automatically optimizing each remote for iOS. Simple Control provides all of the commands from your original remote and often more advanced commands including “discrete” power on and off. Live Feedback - Simple Control provides advanced two-way feedback support for many devices via direct network control or serial connection. Unlike older universal remotes, Simple Control knows your receiver’s volume level, power status, mute, input, and mode allowing you to view and control these aspects of your system in ways impossible with infrared. Simple Control integrates with Blu-ray players to allow live scrubbing and elapsed/total time displays, integrates streaming and USB song feedback from popular receivers, provides guides for DISH, TiVo, and DirecTV DVR content, and many other examples. Once you’ve tried live feedback, you’ll wonder how you ever used home theater components without it. Control All Your Music - Keep things in tune. With Simple Control, you not only have all your music in your pocket. You hold the key to every speaker in your home. It’s like being the conductor of your own personal home orchestra. iTunes/Apple TV Integration - Simple Control controls iTunes installations on your Mac OS X or Windows sytems directly via your network. All your music, TV shows, movies, and other iTunes content can be controlled directly from Simple Control like another home theater device. Simple Control can even control Airplay through iTunes to stream your music from iTunes to an Apple TV or other Airplay compatible device on your network. Simple Control has direct network control of supported Apple TV models including gestures, media feedback and keyboard support. SONOS Integration - Simple Control even supports any Sonos device including speaker grouping. A Simple Service subscription provides Sonos speakers a media guide for the your entire music library including Pandora, Internet radio, Sonos Queue, Sonos Favorites, iTunes playlists, inputs, Pandora thumbs up/down, station creation and more. TV Guide Listings - Simple Control provides integrated cable, satellite and antenna television listings for the US, UK, Canada and 31 other countries. Your listings are personalized with favorite channels and integrated with your devices to tune channels directly. Information on each show provides episode tracking, descriptions, Next On schedules, cast and crew information and photos, and detailed talent biographies and filmographies. DISH, DirecTV and TiVo DVR Guides - Supported set top boxes include DISH’s Hopper/Joey, DirecTV and TiVo Roamio/Premiere with the ability to browse and play programs recorded on your DVR. Never miss a moment with the DVR recording and schedule editing capabilities for DISH and TiVo models

KEF T-Series 5.1 Speaker System We all tend to agree with the idea that you can’t have your cake and eat it too, especially when it comes to speakers in your home theater. You can either get small, good looking speakers that match your aesthetic decor, or you can get good sound. You can’t have both. KEF, and their T Series speakers, would like to respectfully disagree. Braden recently ran into a listener who ordered some T series speakers when he realized we had never posted a review of them. One of the more requested KEF lines is the T Series because of their unique thin profile. We haven’t listened to every KEF speaker, so our standard response to questions was that they looked good, but we couldn’t really judge the sound because we just hadn’t heard them. So we got some a while back. We were, though, a bit skeptical that a speaker that thin could sound as good as a speaker with a standard depth cabinet. System The T Series line of speakers are very thin, high performance home theater speakers designed to compliment your flat panel television. The speakers themselves only measure 1.4 inches or 35 mm thick and are designed to be flush mounted to the wall. In the literature and on the website KEF promises “several landmark innovative driver technologies” that are supposed to allow speakers this thin to sound as good as traditional, bigger bookshelf style speakers. KEF sells the T Series in three configurations; all three are comprised of different combinations of the same three basic units, the T101 satellite speaker, the T301 satellite speaker and the T-2 subwoofer. All three include a T301c for the center channel and a T-2 subwoofer. The T105 system includes four T101 sats for the front and surround speakers and retails for $1699 US ($1649). The T205 system steps up to T301s for the front left and right speakers and keeps the T101s for the surrounds and goes for $1849. The top of the line T305 system uses T301 speakers in the front and the surround and retails for $2199. We have the T205 system. Design The speakers look great. They have a diminutive design that, as you would expect, doesn’t stand out, but tries to blend somewhat seamlessly into a flat panel environment. The speakers all have black grilles and thin black bezels with a small KEF badge. The T301c center speaker has a sideways name badge so it looks right when you mount it horizontally as you typically do with center speakers. The T-2 subwoofer is thin and unobtrusive as well. At 7 inches, it isn’t quite as thin as the speakers, (measures 15 x 14.6 x 7), but it is very easy to get it out of sight to make it heard, but not seen. Installation The T Series come with small pedestal stand you can attach so that they can be placed on a cabinet or a shelf, or you can leave the pedestal off and mount them to the wall. They also come with a wall plate that can be attached to the wall for mounting the speakers as flush as possible. To make it easier, they come with templates you can use to get the wall plates aligned and installed just right. Speaker wires are attached in a smart way that doesn’t require binding posts, so there really isn’t anything pushing the speaker off the wall at all. Performance Once you get them installed and have admired how nice they look, you’ll want to actually get some sound cranking through them to test the promise of high performance in a thin package. To be perfectly honest, we weren’t expecting to be blown away. Having been conditioned for years on what size cabinet it takes to really make great speakers, we were hopeful that the speakers would be decent, but didn’t want to really judge them against “real” speakers. Boy were we surprised. We’re home theater guys, so we started right in with 5.1 content. We threw every piece of test content we could find at the speakers to see how they would perform and where they would fall down - and we were amazed. They did a great job with just about everything we handed them. From loud, intense action scenes like you find in Transformers and Spider-man 2 to the more subtle sounds you find in movies like Road to Perdition or Gladiator, the T Series speakers were great. At high volumes, they sounded loud, crisp and very clear. At low volumes they still had enough punch and clarity to deliver all the subtle details. Of course, the T-2 subwoofer is a must. It clearly rounds out the full surround sound effect and without it you’d be left feeling somewhat flat. But we were surprised at how well it, too, was able to deliver a strong, powerful sound from such a small package. The specs say it will reproduce sound down to 30Hz. It doesn’t go as low as other subwoofers we’ve used, and we didn’t measure it to double check the 30Hz claim, but to our ears it certainly went low enough to deliver the boom you need for good home theater surround sound. The key is how seamlessly the sound blends between the speakers and the sub, making the whole surround sound experience quite smooth and seamless. W

Axiim Q Wireless Home Theater System This podcast is going on eleven years and one thing that we have heard from the beginning is that there are too many wires required to setup a 5.1 or 7.1 home theater system. Wireless has always been the dream but it's never been good enough. That is until today! The Axiim Q is a multi-channel wireless HD audio/video system that is WiSA compliant and supports up to 7.1 uncompressed 24bit/96kHz surround sound that is simple to setup and use. And right now you can buy a 5.1 system for $1,500 (7.1 for $2,000). This price will go up after the beta period. Features: HD Wireless Audio - Up to 7.1 surround sound with WiSA compliant wireless 24bit/96kHz audio. Bluetooth connection for audio streaming. Audio Format Support - Up to Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio. Audio Control - 10 band graphics equalizer, volume, and distance calibration per speaker. HD Video - Up to 1080p 60fps and 3D modes. Inputs - Six HDMI inputs with CEC. Four USB 2.0 and eSATA for connected peripherals. Outputs - HDMI output to TV. Remote - Bluetooth remote and IR port for users with universal remote control (i.e. Harmony). Network - Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11ac WiFi. Network Features - Firmware update. Connected Drive Features - Music discovery from USB and eSATA connected hard drives. Apps - iOS and Android remote control apps. Setup It took fifty minutes to get up and running and that included opening the shipping boxes and removing the packaging. The speakers themselves are beautifully built and have some heft to them. The only cable coming out of the back is a power cable. Once you have the speakers placed you connect the AVR to power and a TV and then begin the setup. First you connect to wifi and then the system sends a tone to a speaker. You identify which speaker it is and bam! Your system is configured. Then you calibrate your speakers. This is the only place where the system is not ideal. You use your phone's microphone to and point it towards the individual speakers as instructed on screen. It is used to determine distance and levels, no EQ. However, nothing will prevent you from using a third party app to determine EQ and then manually set it. There are even EQ presets and to be honest they sounded pretty good. We really don’t think this is a deal breaker at all. Performance First let’s talk about wireless before we get into the speakers. We could not see any lag in audio and video. If you didn’t know it you would think you were watching/listening to a wired system. During our testing we turned on the microwave and had a home full of wifi transmissions and did not experience one audio dropout. We didn’t hear one hiss, pop, or click! Dead silent when it was supposed to. We had a true 5.1 audio system in a room that was not setup for any home entertainment! The dream was realized. Axiim is using the WiSA standard: WiSA defines a set of attributes for Wireless Speaker and Audio technology that combine to deliver unmatched performance and ease of use for the home theater consumer. WiSA technology transmits 24-bit audio at sample rates up to 96k/second, with robust error recovery for uninterrupted listening enjoyment. With extremely low latency and negligible speaker-to-speaker delay, it offers flawless wired-quality performance and reliability. WiSA technology operates in the relatively unused 5.2 to 5.8 GHz UNII radio frequency spectrum, reliably transmitting uncompressed HD audio from 2-channel stereo to 7.1 surround, along with system configuration and calibration data. Older wireless technologies, by contrast, operate in the same crowded frequency band used by cordless phones, baby monitors, security monitors, wireless Internet hubs, and microwaves—resulting in interference and poor quality audio. The WiSA Association was created to provide an interoperability compliance program for speaker brands and manufacturers of CE devices. Consumers purchasing products bearing the WiSA logo can be confident that these products will work together flawlessly in the home theater environment. This level of compliance is especially critical for new and emerging technologies such as wireless audio. What that means is you can buy an AVR from one company, speakers from another, and a subwoofer from yet another. Right now Klipsch, Definitive Technology, and Martin Logan are selling WiSA compliant speakers in addition to Axiim. From an audio point of view the speakers performed quite well. Ara’s first Home Theater in a box was a Yamaha that cost $1,000 and had terrible speakers that sounded like they were tin cans. This system costs a little more but it is night and day better quality. The center channel measures just 5.8 x 14.1 x 5.7 in (147 x 358 x 145 mm) but produces audio with depth and clarity, and texture of larger speakers. The system comes with a ten inch sealed subwoofer with a frequency response of 20 - 100 hertz. Our test material for the subwoofer was the final boxing match in Real Steel. When the

So You Need to Replace a Plasma… Whether you’re a plasma owner lamenting the day when you’ll need to replace or upgrade it, or you always wanted to be a plasma owner but missed your chance before they went extinct, there are options out there you may not be too bummed out about. We’ll admit, the Pioneer Kuro demo we saw at CES several years ago is still the single most jaw dropping television demo we’ve ever seen. But it may not have actually been the best TV we’ve ever seen. The History While Plasma TVs were still an option for us, the big debate was between plasma technology and the competing flat panel tech, LCD. Eventually LCD came to include LED LCD in addition to the traditional bulb or CCFL based LCD sets. Let’s be perfectly honest, both had their pros and cons. We talked about it quite often on the show when the debate was hot. Sure, plasma was great, but let’s not rewrite history. It had its detractors. And as we all know, it ultimately lost the war. Plasma Pros / LCD Cons: Plasma has better off angle viewing. This has been helped tremendously on LCD sets with the advent of IPS or In-Plane Switching, but LCD remains no match for plasma in the off-angle viewing department. Plasma has better color saturation. The colors on a plasma TV are more accurate than the LCD screens because plasma technology is better at controlling the relative light intensity for each individual pixel. Which also yields... Plasma has better contrast ratios and black levels. Plasma technology is much better at producing those rich, inky blacks we all want to see. LCD is helped enormously by local dimming, but still not a match for plasma. Plasma has better response times / refresh rates. Delays in refresh rates or slow response times produce what is known as motion blur on a television. This is when a fast moving object or scene loses clarity or definition as it passes by. LCD suffers from it, plasma does not. Plasma Cons / LCD Pros: LCDs are brighter. Plasma may produce deeper blacks, but LCDs are far brighter. Plasma also tends to suffer from worse screen reflections, making LCD a far superior experience in bright rooms or rooms where it is difficult to control ambient light. LCDs are lighter. Let’s be honest, plasmas are crazy heavy. LCDs are far easier to move, to mount, to install, to work with in general. LCDs are more energy efficient. You’ll save a little on your electricity bill and feel like you’re giving back to the environment. While the gap was never as big in reality as LCD manufacturers would have led you to believe, LCD is a less power hungry technology. LCDs emit less heat. Plasmas can really heat up a room. Depending on where you live, and the time of year, this may not be an issue, but LCDs emit far less heat. LCD has better resolution. LCD is the only 4k technology of the two. If you remove CCFL LCDs from the equation and focus only on LED LCDs, all of the pros and cons are the same, but the gap is far smaller. LCD is still better in the areas where it has always outperformed, even increasing the margin in some areas like energy efficiency. On the LCD cons list, they all remain, but LED narrows that lead significantly. LED TVs can produce very good blacks, have improved on contrast ratios and with increased refresh rates have dramatically reduced motion blur. Of course this has lead to the Soap Opera Effect, but that’s something else altogether. Plasma vs OLED The debate between plasma and OLED was rare. Plasma was available at a normal price, OLED was astronomical. By the time OLED started to drop, plasma had already died a lonely death. That didn’t stop a few of us from debating the relative merits of the two technologies during their brief overlap. The debate was over quite quickly. OLED outperforms plasma in pretty much every category. It has a better color gamut, better black levels, better contrast, better brightness, better response times, everything is better. Well, maybe not everything. At the time we were able to debate it, the plasma was still cheaper and available in larger screen sizes, so it had two wins in its column. Some claimed better off angle viewing, but only because they were comparing with curved OLED. Since we all know curved is a goofy gimmick, we can throw that one out. So at the time, plasma was an inferior display technology, but it was one you could actually afford, so it had that going for it. The Decision So the decision today is: do you replace a plasma with an LED TV or an OLED? It’s pretty obvious that if OLED is a superior display technology to plasma, and plasma is better than LED, then it stands to reason that OLED is far better the LED. Now that you can buy a 4k OLED, there really isn’t any display technology category where LED has an edge over OLED. If picture quality is the only consideration, the choice is clear: replace the plasma with an OLED. However, we all live in the real world, a world where picture quality isn’t the only consideration. We have budget conside

ELAC B5 Debut Bookshelf Speakers Last year Ara went to The Home Entertainment Show (T.H.E. Show) in Newport Beach where he saw some extremely expensive AV equipment. There were rooms full of gear costing more than $100,000 and speakers from companies, some of which you have heard of, and many more from companies that only audiophiles would know. There was so much to be impressed with but alas, they were only a pipe dream for Ara as he still had a mortgage to pay and a daughter to put through college. By the way, this year’s “Show” is June 3 - 5 at the Hotel Irvine in Irvine CA. What caught Ara’s eye, or ears for that matter, were some extremely affordable speakers from ELAC USA. They were showing off a new design by world renowned speaker designer Andrew Jones. Andrew Jones had previously designed a line of affordable speakers for Pioneer. There were about twenty people in the room when the music started. Everyone’s reaction was pretty similar… disbelief that a small bookshelf speaker costing $230 a pair could sound so good and produce deep deep bass! Now that Debut line is available we bought a pair of the B5s (Buy Now $230) and put it through it's paces. But first the specs: Speaker type: 2-way, bass reflex Frequency response: 46 to 20,000 Hz Nominal impedance: 6 Ω Sensitivity: 85 dB at 2.83 v/1m Crossover frequency: 3,000 Hz Maximum power input: 120 Watts Tweeter: 1-inch cloth dome with custom deep-spheroid waveguide Woofer: 5.25-inch woven aramid-fiber cone with oversized magnet and vented pole piece Cabinet: CARB2 rated MDF Port: Dual flared Binding posts: 5-way metal Width (each): 7.87 in / 200 mm Height: 12.75 in / 324 mm Depth: 8.75 in / 222 mm Net weight (each): 11.5 lb / 5.2 kg Gross weight (packaged pair): 26.2 lb / 11.9 kg Fit and Finish The speakers are quite basic in appearance. You can have any color and finish as long as it's black brushed vinyl. The build quality is first rate though. It's essentially an uninspiring box with sharp edges. ELAC chose to spend the money on sound while keeping costs down rather than esthetics. Performance Our typical approach to reviewing speakers is to give you our subjective opinions on the performance. But for these speakers we wanted to measure the frequency response objectively. However, our measurement microphone did not arrive in time so we resorted to checking online and found that others were measuring acceptable levels down to 50Hz and a relative flat response until about 10KHz. After that it starts to drop off and at 20KHz the signal is about 7dB less. To drive the speakers we were using an Audioengine B1 Bluetooth Receiver (Buy Now $189) connected to an Audioengine N22 Desktop Amplifier (Buy Now $199). We listened the the speakers right out of the box and were blown away. There was a sense of openness to the music that sounded great regardless of what we were listening to. The Bass! Wow how could a speaker of that size have so much low end? We couldn’t wait to hear what these were going to sound like after they were broken in! After about thirty hours of playback we fell even more in love with the B5s! We played the gamut of music, Classical, Rock, Country, and Jazz for our critical listening. First up was Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Specifically from the Immortal Beloved soundtrack. When we were at Sony Pictures we watched this movie over and over again testing our equipment so we know how it's supposed to sound. What we listen for are the triangles about four minutes into the track. They were there but they were not as pronounced as we have experienced before. Next up was Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds performing Crash Into Me. This is such an incredible track that Dolby used it on one of their demo discs a few years ago. This may sound redundant but it sounded “Live”. Like you were there. You could make out the instruments in clear detail. Everything from the musicians striking the strings of the guitars to the texture of Dave Matthews’ voice. Speaking of live, in Melody Gardot’s “Worrisome Heart” you could hear the room dynamics. And talk about a voice, these speakers were made for her deeper voice. Now it's time to test the bass and for that please forgive us but we turned to LMFAO’s “Sexy and I know it”. At one minute in you could feel the bass in the floor. We were surprised at how good the entire track sounded. Nothing sounded muddled, vocals were clear and precise, and high frequencies pierced through the bass. Regardless what you think about this track, it shows off what these speakers can do. We were impressed with everything we listened to. The B5s really perform in a way that makes you wonder how they can only cost $230 a pair. Credit needs to go to the designer Andrew Jones for such an achievement. Home Theater There is no reason why you can’t use these speakers as part of a home theater: 2 x Debut F5 Tower Speakers $280 each ($560 Total) 4 x Debut B5 5.25" Bookshelf Speakers $230 pair ($460 Total) 1 x Debut C5 5.25" Cent

Nvidia Shield 4k Review The market for streaming boxes is pretty crowded. You’ve got the Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Google Chromecast just to name a few. The market for 4k streaming boxes is even getting pretty crowded lately. So is there still room for one more? Nvidia would like to think so. And we love everybody, so we were willing to give yet another set top streamer a chance. This one is called the Nvidia Shield 4k (Buy now, $193). About the Nvidia Shield 4k NVIDIA SHIELD is an 4K Ultra HD (as well as Full HD) home entertainment system, delivering incredible resolution in favorite apps like Netflix, HBO, HULU, YouTube, Major League Baseball, NBA, KODI /XBMC, and PLEX. Vivid 10-bit color and rich Dolby 7.1 surround sound make this a true home theater experience. Or plug your headphones into your SHIELD controller or SHIELD remote for a private listening experience. Say "Oscar-winning movies" or "launch Netflix" and let Google's advanced voice commands find content for you on your Android TV. Get personalized recommendations on your home screen. Even cast a show or pictures to your TV from your PC, Android, or iOS device with built-in Google Chromecast support. SHIELD makes your smart TV experience fast and easy. Download premium Android games – from family games and indie hits to the most advanced Android TV titles with rich gameplay and intense multiplayer action. Or join GeForce NOW to connect to NVIDIA's gaming supercomputers and enjoy unlimited streaming of popular PC games or buy newly released games from the online store. Enjoy what the Wall Street Journal calls “the highest performing streaming TV set-top box ever made”. NVIDIA SHIELD is over 4x the performance of new Apple TV, new Fire TV, or Roku 4. NVIDIA SHIELD comes with 16GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot for external storage, 802.11 2x2 wireless AC with MIMO, Gigabit Ethernet, two USB 3.0 ports as well as a game controller as well as an HDMI cable. Setup Setup is pretty easy. It includes all the cables you need to get it plugged into power, your TV and to charge the included game controller (which also serves as your remote). The included HDMI is a nice touch, many streamers don’t include one, but it is a bit short. We used one of our own so we could have it installed in the right spot. Then you connect to Wifi (hard wired is also an option) and log into your Google account. There’s a simple way to do it using a laptop, and a code from the Shield, but we couldn’t get that to work, so we went the more cumbersome email address and password route. After you sign into Google, the Shield kicks into an automatic software/firmware update. This took For. Ev. Er. Perhaps the slowest update we’ve ever seen, certainly not snappy. This is more than coffee break time in the setup routine. For us it took over an hour. After the update, you have the option to update your controllers as well. This only took a few seconds, luckily. Then you’re in an ready to start using the Shield. Performance Streaming apps like Netflix and YouTube work perfectly. They are very fast and very responsive. Often when using an app like this in a TV, you get sluggish performance. The cursor struggles when you’re typing in a password or searching for content. Things take a while to load, etc. But with the Shield, things are incredibly snappy. The videos look as good as any other streaming box we’ve used. Nothing to complain about. If you’re an Apple user, of course you can’t get to that content. No Vudu either. But if you’re a Google user, you’re set. You can side load the Amazon video app if you use prime video alot. Online rumor mill says Nvidia is working on the deal with Amazon, they just don’t have it in place yet. Might be able to side load Vudu as well. We didn’t try. Local media playback is awesome. You can cast to it from an Android or iOS device. There is a built-in playback app. In addition to that, Plex comes pre-installed so you can use it as a media zone in your whole house video server setup. Listen to last week’s show for a full review of Plex as a media server option. You can also install the VLC app to get access to a wide array of file types and encodings that you may not have support for in the other apps. The Shield has a couple USB ports you can plug portable or external drives into for local playback and to increase the storage of the unit itself. In addition to local media playback, there is an HDHomeRun app you can use to play over the air television directly on the Shield. It’ll set you back a cool 99 cents, but if you can swing it, the app does convert your Shield into a cord cutter’s dream. If you want to supplement that with live cable channels, you can add the SlingTV app and subscription as well. You’ve got the likes of Netflix, Google Play and Hulu for new release and catalog content, local media playback, OTA HD content and cable content from SlingTV. It’s quite an impressive array of possibilities. Gaming is the best we’ve had on

Plex Media Server If you have been with us for a while you know how fond we are of media management. The first time we saw the Kaleidescape system back when we first started the podcast we became obsessed with having all our videos available to stream to our televisions. Over the years we tried many different solutions from XBMC and Boxee to iTunes and the AppleTV. Ara settled on the iTunes solution because he was so heavily entrenched in the Apple eco system that it made the most sense. Over the years we have received plenty of emails asking us to check out Plex and Ara did, but because he was so committed to the AppleTV it was nothing more than a rudimentary look. That all changed when Apple opened up the AppleTV to developers. The developers at Plex quickly released a version of their client SW for the AppleTV and now Ara had no excuse for not thoroughly looking at Plex. What is Plex? Plex organizes your video, music, and photo collections and streams them to all of your screens both in your home and when you are away. Whether you are watching on a smartphone, tablet, computer, or set top box, your entire library is available to you. View Plex user interface slide show. Key Features: Stream your content from anywhere that you have an Internet connection Automatically add metadata in a gorgeous interface Total control of your media. You manage who can see what. (Plex Pass) Beautiful Music Interface Automatically get access to high quality online trailers and extras for the movies you have in your Plex library. (Plex Pass) Mobile Sync - Simply tell Plex what you want to take with you on your phone or tablet and Plex will keep your content up to date. (Plex Pass) Cloud Sync automatically optimizes the media you choose and uploads it to places like Dropbox, Google Drive, Bitcasa and Box. It's like having a media server that's always on. (Plex Pass) Plex Channels provide access to numerous sources of online content, like TED Talks, Vimeo, Revision 3, and more. Easily save online videos from your favorite sites to watch later, even on the big screen. Supports DLNA What do you need? Plex Media Server - This is the brains behind the operation. The media server is the host for all your content. Support for Windows, Mac, Linux, and a bunch of NAS devices. Plex Mobile Apps - Plex apps for Android, iOS, Windows, and Windows Phone let you browse and enjoy on your device of choice. Plex for smart TVs, game consoles, and streaming devices - Watch your content on the Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Fire TV, Xbox, PlayStation®, and other devices stream from your Plex Media Server with ease. Plex Media Player - Bring your content to your computer screen. With support for Windows and Mac Setup Getting up and running is quite easy. You install the server and then point to where your media resides. Plex will then analyze your content and download the necessary meta data. We found that it was really accurate but there was some tweaking that needed to be done. Part of the setup is signing up for the optional Plex Pass ($40 upgrade) which gives you access to premium features. Plex Player Our experience with Plex from a playback point of view was on the iPhone, iPad, Computer, and AppleTV. The features are identical but the interactions are a little different. We won’t delve into the details of the interaction but rather the experience as a whole. Also, there are a lot of features and we won’t cover all of them here. We encourage you to visit Plex online for more information. The GUI is gorgeous! Movie and music art look stunning! There is quite a bit of information about your movies plus there are extra features similar to DVDs and Blu-rays on most movies. The extra features are streamed from the Internet. There are ratings from Rotten Tomatoes on on the AppleTV there are reviews. You can even see who is in the movie but it looks like that feature is still a work in progress. One of the nice things about Plex is that it allows you to play just about any format file. That’s why you need a reasonably powered server so it can transcode on the fly. We threw mp4 and mkv files and had no issues over our LAN. We even watched the videos over the Internet as well albeit at a lower data rate. You can setup your player to use different data rates and resolutions depending on whether you are watching in your home of away. You will have to know how to open up ports on your router to be able to watch over the Internet but there are easy to follow instructions online to walk you through it. Music is just as wonderful. The album and artist art adds polish to the interface. If you have paid for the Plex Pass you can even watch Vevo videos for your tracks. In fact you have access to all the videos of an artist regardless whether you have the track or not. You don’t have access to any premium music service tracks that you may have downloaded. Conclusion One of the reasons Ara didn’t give Plex a fair shot was because of how invested he was into iTunes

TCL Roku LED TV Review Smart TVs are all the rage these days. It seems like everyone has their own Smart TV platform that is supposed to be better, faster, cooler, more awe inspiring than the other guys’. But what is an upstart TV manufacturer like TCL, without the resources to go off and build it’s own smart TV platform supposed to do? Partner of course. They chose to partner with Roku to give you a jaw-dropping Smart TV out of the box without having to invest in building or maintaining their own. Sort of brilliant if you ask us. Roku is a great Smart TV platform, whether standalone or embedded. We grabbed the 48” model that was selling at Costco for $349 to test it out, At that price it was considerably less expensive than the other more well-established brands, and it came with Roku built in. Not something we could easily pass up. The specific model we tested was the TCL 48" Class (47.5" Diag.) 1080p Roku LED LCD TV 48FS3750. You can pick one up for yourself from Costco for $349.99 or from Amazon for $349.99. Features Make it yours- Personalize your Home screen, put your favorite cable/satellite TV, streaming channels, gaming console, and other devices front-and-center. No more flipping through inputs or wading through complicated menus. Find what you want- Search through the widest selection of channels – by keyword, actor, or title. Follow your favorite entertainment and always know when it is ready to stream—on what channel and at what price. Control with a smartphone or tablet- With the free mobile app, transform your smartphone or tablet into a Roku remote and even browse and add new channels. Plus, find what you want fast with voice search - a fun way to find what you’re looking for. Little screen, meet big screen- Send photos, videos, and music from your smartphone or tablet to the TV. Plus, cast movies, web videos, and more to your TV with with Netflix and YouTube mobile apps. 1080p Full HD Resolution Clear Motion Index 120 Refresh Rate 3 HDMI, 1 USB, Built-in Wi-Fi, & Roku Streaming Software Setup Setting up the TV is simple, but it is a little different than you would expect. First steps are easy: setup your inputs and connect to WiFi. Setting up the inputs is pretty cool. You tell it what you have plugged into each of the inputs in the back of the TV, such as a Cable Box, Satellite Box, Blu-ray player, Gaming system, etc, and it adds an icon to the home screen for that device. No more scrolling through inputs, you just select the device icon like you would any other app and away you go. Connecting to WiFi is the same as any other network TV or set top box. Once you get on the network, you’re given a code to register the device to your Roku account using anything with a web browser, could be a desktop, laptop, tablet or smart phone. If you don’t have an account, you create one. If you have any other Roku devices, you just add the TCL TV with the registration code and away you go. You use the online account to select what apps (Roku calls them channels) you want on the TV. We thought this was going to be awesome. At first the idea of creating a Roku account just to use the TV seemed cumbersome. But if we were able to select the apps we wanted, then sign into each of those apps on the web, using the full keyboard we had available on the laptop, it would save a ton of time. Subscription info would be pushed down to the TV, and there you go, instant Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, Pandora, you name it. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case. You select the apps online, but you still have to sign into them from the TV using the tiny remote. Wasted opportunity if you ask us. Performance Once you have everything setup and the Apps are registered and authenticated, you’re good to go. You can use the TV as a standard television, or select from any of your configured apps. The Roku platform has by far more available app choices than any other Smart TV we’ve used. Because it is a neutral platform, you can get things like Netflix, Amazon, Google Play and Vudu all on the same box. Of course, no Apple. They’re still learning how to place nice with others. From the Smart TV and apps point of view, it worked great. Beyond your standard streaming audio and video apps, Roku has other apps like Plex and its own Roku Media Player to get access to your own content from USB or the network. The TV can operate as an Video server playback device without the need for any external boxes. It even supports SlingTV so you can watch live television without having to pay a Cable or Satellite subscription. The TV is very versatile and we found all the apps to be snappy and they performed quite well. As a television, the TCL is fine. It’s really what you would expect from a $350 almost 50 inch HDTV. The picture quality isn’t stellar. There are occasional artifacts on the screen, but it isn’t terrible. It is still quite a bit better than even the HDTVs from 5 or 6 years ago. The sound is pretty bad, but if you’re looking for good sound

Marantz SR6010 It was a couple of years ago that we heard our first demo of immersive surround sound. It was at CES that the then SRS Laboratories made sounds dangle in mid air. Then we heard about Dolby Atmos which did the same thing first in the cinema and now in the home. Speaker manufacturers quickly jumped on board and created upfiring speakers that bounce sounds off the ceiling to create a dome of sound and receiver manufacturers developed products that made the speakers work. One such receiver is the Marantz SR6010 (Buy Now $1399). The SR6010 is loaded with features and specifically is Atmos capable. The major features are listed below: Features: Dolby Atmos Built-In; DTS:X Ready - Supports 5.1.4 or 7.1.2 channel Atmos experience provided that you add an external stereo amplifier. Support for DTSX is provided with a firmware upgrade. High Grade Audio Components Built-in Bluetooth & Wi-Fi; Music Streaming; AirPlay Latest HDMI 2.0a Connectivity; HDCP 2.2 Compatible; ISF-Certified - The SR6010 is about as future proof as you can get right now. It supports 4K Ultra HD 60Hz video, 4:4:4 Pure Color sub-sampling, High Dynamic Range (HDR) and 21:9 video, 3D, and BT.2020 pass-through so you can buy your new Ultra HD player and connect it to this receiver with confidence. Certified by the Imaging Science Foundation and comes with a full suite of video calibration controls (for use by an ISF technician), along with ISF Day and ISF Night video modes. The SR6010 will upconvert standard definition and high definition analog and digital video content to 4K Ultra HD Powerful 7 Channel Discrete Amplifier with ECO Mode - Each channel is rated at 110 watts (8 ohms, 20Hz~20kHz, .08%THD), and all channels can drive 4 ohm speakers with no issues. The receiver adjusts power consumption according to signal level and the power reduction is displayed on your screen in real time. Audyssey Platinum DSP Suite - With the supplied measurement microphone, MultEQ XT32 analyzes each speaker's output (including the subwoofers) at up to 8 measurement locations and generates precision digital filters that optimize each channel for the correct frequency and time domain response. Multi-Source/Multi-Room Dual Subwoofer Outputs External Control Capabilities - The SR6010 can also be set up and operated by a home computer on the network via IP control, either via wired LAN connection or via Wi-Fi wireless connection. The SR6010 also features Control4 SDDP (Simple Device Detection Protocol) and Crestron Connected certification for quick and easy integration with Control4 and Crestron home automation equipment. Setup Setup was like just about every other receiver with the following notable points. In order to use the Atmos speakers you need an external amp. In Ara’s case that meant disconnecting the rear surround speakers from the Emotiva amp and connecting them to the Marantz. The Kef Atmos speakers were connected to the Emotiva amp and the Atmos pre-outs connected the Marantz to the Emotiva. Setting up the receiver was really easy because of the cool setup wizard that Marantz developed. You simply respond to the questions on the screen and then listen to make sure the speaker is sup up correctly. This eliminates the need to determine which mode you need to put the receiver in to get your Atmos setup right. To be honest Ara doesn’t even know what the speaker settings have been set to, but he knows it works! Next up was to run the Audyssey calibration. Marantz includes a cardboard mic stand which makes placing the mic in 8 locations easy. Give yourself some time for this step. The sequence is run for each speaker times eight spots. The onscreen guide tells you where to place the mic so you get a proper calibration. Albeit a long process. Music While we discuss how well music sounds on each receiver it's not the focus of our reviews. For completeness we’ll tell you that the SR6010 sounds quite good. We listened to music via Airplay and through an AppleTV. Classical piano sounds phenomenal! Rock and roll was tight and jazz had some great bass. To Ara’s ear the music sounded a little brighter than the Pioneer Elite that it replaced. It will play FLAC HD, ALAC, WAV192/24 and DSD. In a nutshell, even audiophiles will find the SR6010 as a capable receiver. From Marantz: The SR6010 uses very high grade audio components that have been carefully selected. The whole internal circuit further enhances audio quality by delicately handling all signals via the Marantz designed HDAMs in Current Feedback topology before they reach the speakers. Marantz HDAM (Hyper Dynamic Amplifier Module) technology found on the company’s™ Reference Series components provides superior low noise wideband performance in an all-discrete configuration, compared to conventional op amp ICs. HDAM technology provides an ultra-fast slew rate for true wideband response and maximum dynamic range to deliver optimum sound quality with today's high resolution audio formats. Movies As stated

CES 2016 It’s that time of year again, the time when hordes of people descend on Las Vegas, Nevada to get a glimpse of all the new technology manufacturers are showing off. Last year over 170,000 people attended. This year, there will be two less. With one HT Guy in Seattle, we weren’t able to attend in person. But luckily many of our peers were, so we get to sift through their highlights without having to walk for miles through countless booths and crowds to see everything. Samsung, Philips and others bring Dolby Atmos Soundbars Samsung introduced a soundbar (HW-K950) that will attempt to create a Dolby Atmos experience using a wireless speakers. The system includes a soundbar with three forward facing speakers and two pointed towards the ceiling. The system uses wireless surround speakers that also include Atmos speakers. Finally, there is a wireless subwoofer that gets you a 5.1.4 Dolby Atmos system with only four speaker enclosures. No pricing or ship date was announced. Philips is also shipping a Dolby Atmos Soundbar. Called the Philips Fidelio soundbar it includes 18 drivers, including two upward-firing speaker modules. Angled tweeters create a wide soundfield. Total output is 400 watts, including 8-inch 220-watt wireless subwoofer. Other features include Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 decoding, dedicated center-channel speaker, two HDMI 1.4a inputs, HDMI audio return channel, and optical and coaxial inputs. no pricing was announced. Samsung’s Family Hub Is A Fridge Of The Future Among the reasons why this is deemed a smart home technology of the future is it touts 21.5-inch 1080p monitor outside and few cameras and sensors within so you will know what is inside the refrigerator without the need to open its door or view the interior of the fridge remotely on your smartphone. This is specifically advantageous if you are in a grocery store but do not know what particular foods to buy. You can tag expiration dates on refrigerator items so you use them before you lose them. The giant screen is more than just a peek inside the box, you can use it as a family message board, sync your family calendar to it, shop for groceries or surf the web for recipes. It has speakers, so you can listen to music, and we assume the web interface would allow you to get to Netflix or YouTube as well, but we don’t know for sure. LG Annouced Premium LCD-Based Super UHD, 8K TVs LG announced a premium line of UHD TVs (UH9500, UH8500 and UH7700). According to LG, they will all be brighter, better contrast ratios, and include a wider color gamut and HDR. LG will also introduce their first 8K TV, the 98 UH9800. For reference, Sharp’s 8K screen goes for close to $130,000! According to LG the UH9500 and UH8500 increase the color gamut to approximately 90% of the Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) P3 color space. LG is also claiming high quality sound from the UH9500 due to a Harman Kardon speaker system. Pricing was not available LG's rollable OLED display LG is showing the 30R 18-inch rollable display. They claim the display can be "rolled-up like a newspaper." They have been showing flexible OLED for a couple years, so how this display improves on concepts we saw in 2014 and 2015 isn’t obvious, but we expect it to have better resolution and perhaps some built-in electronics for use as an actual television/monitor. The benefit of a rollable display in a consumer environment is pretty obvious. As TVs get to be rediculously large, transporting them, getting them in the door, etc. will become very difficult. If the screens could be rolled up, then just tacked up on a wall once you get them home, it could make 100” screens in every home a reality. Not to mention video walls that can turn into faux-windows ala Total Recall would be pretty sweet. Simple Control Adds Amazon Echo Integration Simple Control announced that its popular iOS apps for control of AV gear and smart home devices have been certified by Amazon for use with their Amazon Echo product. Amazon Echo includes Alexa, a cloud-based voice service that can be used to give commands to Simple Control. Once Simple Control is paired with Amazon Echo, users can control the home environment simply by speaking commands to Alexa, such as "Alexa, tell Simple Control to turn on the TV in the kitchen." The Simple Control and Simple System apps operate thousands of devices like TVs, cable and satellite boxes, receivers, Blu-ray players, lights, switches, thermostats and more. Ford A Ford Mustang you can order online with free shipping for Amazon Prime members? No, but the automotive company is partnering with Amazon to let you control your smart home from your car through Ford's Sync Connect and AppLink services and Amazon's Echo home-automation hub and Alexa voice-concierge service. Beyond Amazon, Ford announced it plans to work with the Wink smart home platform to provide similar levels of voice commanded functionality straight from your driver's seat. HARMAN’s Mark Levinson® Previews № 519 Audio

Predictions for 2016 Time for the HT Guys to look into our crystal ball and try and predict the HDTV and Home Theater landscape for 2016. Our crystal ball is never as clears as a good HDTV but we give it a shot nonetheless. Ara: Competitor to Sling.com Sling.com was the first into this market but they won’t be the last. Look for one of the major cable or sat providers (or even Apple) to offer competitor to sling.com. And if it's Apple look for local channels as a bonus. UHD Blu-ray player will be available for less than $500 This one is simply a shot in the dark. Rumor has it that the first UHD Blu-ray players will go for more than $1,000. But lack of demand and memories of the whole Blu-ray/HD-DVD debacle will drive prices down. But don’t expect to see this until Black Friday. There will be a 100 inch 4K UHD with HDR and wide color gamut for less than $10,000 This is my shoot for the moon prediction. If this comes true, I may never upgrade my projector and opt for this solution instead! But realistically, this has about a 10% chance of coming to pass. But I like to dream! Samsung will re-enter the OLED market This is kind of a gimmie. Samsung did have an OLED (KN55S9CAFXZA) but we haven’t seen anything commercially available since. With the success of LG’s OLED TVs Samsung won’t be able to stay out of the market. We’ll have a good idea if this is correct next week at CES. Apple to stream Hi-Res Audio With so many music streaming platforms out there Apple will look for a way to differentiate itself. It already has the Mastered for iTunes program. Why not Apple Hi-Resolution? Also, look for more radio stations like Beats 1 in the higher resolution audio. Braden: HDTV and VR mashup With the popularity of the Oculus Rift and the Growing investment by other firms such as Microsoft and their HoloLens, someone will produce video content that takes full advantage of the immersive experience of Virtual Reality. There are apps that allow you to watch movies on the Oculus Rift, but nothing (that I know of at least) that has been produced to provide a native 3D experience within a VR headset. probably nature footage, but it’ll happen. Somebody *will* get into the live TV streaming game, but still no locals Amazon, Apple, Google or Sony - one of them will offer native television streaming from their platform to match the service offering of SlingTV. So you’ll either get an iTV app on your Apple TV, or a TV app on your FireTV, you get the picture. Once you pay your fee, you get access to everything on TV right now for a select set of cable channels. And maybe, if you’re lucky, a national feed from the major broadcasters. 80” Televisions for under $2000 This is a carry-forward from last year; I think I was just one year too early. Both OLED and 4K will push prices down for 1080p TVs. Wanting to capitalize on the desire for a larger screen, Manufacturers will push prices down for the big 1080p sets to get them flying off the shelves. So the price for a starter series 80” TV will drop to under $2000 at some point this year. Maybe Black Friday, maybe for another event, but it’ll drop. Lightbulb speakers for Surround Sound The best way to get the height channel experience from sound formats like Dolby Atmos it to actually have them in the ceiling. The up-firing speakers that bounce sound off the ceiling are cool, just not quite as precise. It isn’t always easy to cut holes and run wires to add speakers to your ceiling. Somebody will create a box, either an add-on for your amp, or built into the receiver itself, that lets you send audio from specific surround channels to specific bluetooth devices. Bluetooth light bulbs are a perfect fit. Proliferation of Home Automation Glue Platforms/Hubs Apple is already working on making HomeKit the central hub that glues all your automation devices together, but it won't be the only one. Google will release one, maybe based on Nest/Thread, maybe not. Others will want into the game as well. The underlying idea? Any device, one platform. Buy any smart bulbs, locks, sensors, gadgets you want, regardless of the underlying protocol: Insteon, Z-Wave, ZigBee, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc. and plug them into your home. They become part of the system as if they all spoke the same language. Google Translate for Automation devices.

Prediction Review for 2015 It's hard to believe that another year has gone by! With that it's time to see how we did with our 2015 predictions. This year's scorecard: Ara a respectable three out of five! Braden a decent 2-2.5 out of five. Ara’s Predictions: There will be a 65 inch production OLED TV for less than $5,000 Look for LG and Samsung to continue to push OLED technology. They’ll finally figure out that no one wants a curved model and produce a 65 inch flat panel OLED. Bonus prediction - It will be LG that makes this prediction a win for me! Nailed it!! At the time of this writing not only is there a 65 inch OLED for sale at Amazon but it's made by LG! Its also 4K. LG Electronics 65EF9500 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Flat Smart OLED TV $4997.99 There will be a production Quantum Dot TV available for sale This is my hedge against the OLED prediction totally failing. We saw the first quantum dot TVs at CES about three years ago. LG is pushing forward with the technology. It produces higher yields than OLED and better pictures than current LEDs so this is a no brainer technology to pursue. Well as it turns out this was a true statement when I made it. In 2014 Sony had released TVs with Quantum Dot technology and it marketed it as Triluminos. However, it's not very clear that they are still doing this. Regardless this is a fail. Apple will open up the AppleTV to developers After seeing the potential of the FireTV from Amazon, Apple will realize the AppleTV is falling behind the competition. Look for a new model (AppleTV 4) with game support that will use iPhones and iPads as controllers. By the way, the 4 in AppleTV 4 stands for 4K. I can dream can’t I?? Predict something enough and it's bound to come true! With the release of the AppleTV 4 Apple opened up the platform to developers. This coming year should make or break the platform! Apple to stream 4K movies and television programming If you are going to dream might as well dream big! What good is a new set top box capable of 4K content if you don’t have 4K content. Sure they will support Netflix 4K streams but the real deal will be buying and renting movies and TV shows from iTunes in 4K. No 4K streaming! Not even a 4K AppleTV. Oh well… Maybe I’ll hold this over for 2016 :-) Sonos to debut a dedicated 7.1 home theater system One of the main reasons people don’t have full surround systems is the need to string speaker wire everyplace. Sure the front is easy enough but why should you have to string wire when you can have freedom to place speakers wherever you want. Sonos has the best sounding wireless solution we have heard to date. So why not make a complete 7.1 system without the need of speaker wires? It would be easy to setup with almost no configuration required. When your aren’t watching movies you could repurpose the speakers for music without the need of turning on an amplifier. Now if we can only do something about those pesky power cords! Success on this one. Sonos has a home theater category on their site (Sonos Home Theater). Yes it uses a sound bar for Left, Center, and Right channels. There is also a subwoofer and you can use four Play:1,3, or 5s for the surrounds. The Sonos Home theater can be used in music mode when not watching movies so what’s not to like? Braden’s Predictions: At least 5 major studio movie releases will be available online concurrent with cinema release With “The Interview” now out there as a pilot for what is possible, Sony will do it again at least once, and other major studios will try their hand at it as well. Theater owners will threaten not to run the movie(s), but if the studios choose wisely, theater owners will be forced to run them because they’d stand to lose too much in ticket sales if they didn’t. Complete flop. There were some huge stars in day and date released movies, but most were backed by lesser known production companies. Ethan Hawke in Predestination, Chris Evans in Before We Go, Samuel L. Jackson in Big Game, Hugh Grant in The Rewrite? Speaking of rewrite, if I changed the prediction to major, A-list actors, I’d have nailed it. Curved televisions will go away Nobody really gets it. Manufacturers seem to be the only ones that understand the value in the curved screen. Realizing there’s no demand for it, manufacturers will make them disappear. This means we’ll be on the hunt for another gimmick to boost television sales. Look for 4k to try to fill that gap. But it’ll still be a bit niche, so look for something else as well. Automation integration in your smart TV? Could this be the year of home automation? Let’s be generous and go with partial credit on this one. Curved TVs are still around, but not nearly as prominent as they were a year ago. It feels like a very small percentage of televisions on display in most stores are curved anymore, and we really aren’t seeing nearly as many ads for them. Looks like 4K really is the next big thing, at least for 2015. Live television streaming won’t be coming to you

Ultimate Home Theater in a Box for 2015 Each year we design a Home Theater setup that is considerably better than a typical home theater in a box. We have seen complete setups for less than $500 from manufacturers like Sony and Panasonic that quite frankly do not sound good. While our system costs more than a name brand HTIB your satisfaction will be dramatically more. Plus we include EVERYTHING you need to actually setup a home theater. Minimum components for our system are a HDTV, Blu-ray Player, Receiver, and 7.1 speakers. For this feature we choose components that we either have direct experience with or have experience with a similar model made by the same manufacturer. In years past we would set a maximum price but this year we are not doing that. We are defining a system that can had by anyone who is serious about home theater. These systems will look and sound great by anyone’s definition! Braden: Samsung UN65J6200 65-Inch 1080p Smart LED TV (2015 Model) ($1198) Borrowed from the HDTV buying guide. My TV is a bit smaller than last year’s Sharp 70-inch Aquos but it’s also $400 cheaper. We’ve already talked about it, but this set combines great features with a really affordable price - even for Samsung. Its Smart TV technology allows you to access movies, games, streaming services, and other apps so you can easily get to your favorite media. Surf the web using the built-in Wi-Fi, or use the screen-mirroring feature to play your mobile content on the big screen and you can plug into the USB port to watch your own media. Great TV, great price, no brainer. Denon AVR-X3200W 7.2-Channel Full 4K Ultra HD A/V Receiver with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi ($999) Maybe it’s cheating a bit, but I snagged a receiver from the buying guide as well. Because we all know Denon makes the best receivers...this one has everything I need and more. It’s a bit more expensive than the Onkyo TX-NR636 from last year, but I had a little wiggle room with the less expensive TV, so we dropped that into the receiver. This bad boy is a 7.2 channel A/V receiver that packs 105W of power per channel. It has 3D and 4K Ultra HD/60Hz full rate pass-through with 4:4:4 color resolution, HDR, BT.2020. 8 HDMI 2.0a inputs (incl. 1 front) and 2 HDMI outputs with full HCDP 2.2 support. Of course, built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. And let’s not forget Dolby Atmos (up to 5.1.2), DTS:X ready (via firmware update). Instant content Airplay, Spotify Connect, Pandora, SiriusXM Internet Radio Internet Radio, DLNA, DSD,FLAC, ALAC and AIFF High Resolution streaming. And the new IP control capability with the HEOS Link turns any stereo system into a wireless zone (HEOS LINK sold separately). Hsu Research Hybrid 1 - 7.1 Package in Satin Black ($1449) Speaker prices went up a bit this year, sorry. Last year was the Klipsch RF-42 II Reference 7.1 system for $1299. This year it’s the HSU Research system for $150 more. So I’m typically a Denon and a Klipsch fan-boy. Admittedly. Not ashamed. Denon made my list this year but Klipsch did not. Cuz it’s all about the boom. A full 7.1 speaker system with a killer sub. You won’t need you upgrade these speakers for a long time - if ever. Miscellaneous Logitech Harmony 700 Rechargeable Remote with Color Screen ($64) Last year was the Logitech Harmony 650 for $60. That remote is now up to $86. Although the 700 has been discontinued, you can still get it at a great price. Great remote, ties all your devices together, has hard buttons for everything you need to do, and barely even changes the total budget at all. It’s a no brainer. And, unlike the 650, the 700 is rechargeable. No batteries to replace. Forget Blu-ray, they’re commodity. Add $50 and pick up anything you want. Add about $100 for cables and a power strip and another $100 for the streaming box that suits your needs and you should be all set. Sit back and watch some HDTV. Summary Total cost, end to end, for a killer, big screen, 7.1 home theater: $3960 (ip from $3583 last year, but that didn’t include a streaming box). Ara: LG Electronics 60LF6100 60-Inch 1080p LED Smart TV $865 Home Theater in a Box systems are typically about getting you an introductory setup and this TV is a perfect centerpiece for your theater. A 60 inch TV will allow for a more cinema like experience in a smaller family room. This HDTV has decent picture quality and good reliability numbers so buy with confidence! Sony BDPS3500 Blu-ray Player with Wi-Fi $70 In years past I went with Oppos but I no longer feel you need to spend $500 for a Blu-ray player if the main thing you are going to do is watch Blu-rays. The Oppo is well worth its price tag but only if you need the added features. The Sony streams video from all the big players and you can stream video from your Android device via Miracast. For those who don’t have a hardwire connection near the TV the 3500 supports the MIMO protocol for improved speed and reliability. Yamaha RX-V677 7.2-channel Wi-Fi Network AV Receiver with AirPlay ($380) This is th

HDTV Buying Guide 2015 Tis the season for us to go wishlist shopping and help you spend your money - one of our favorite times of the year. If you happen to be lucky enough to have budget for a new HDTV this Christmas, but still aren’t sure which one to buy, we’ve got you covered. Unlike years past, we’re going to skip the budget categories, and the screen size categories and jump right to our top picks. We each pick three TVs and one ‘money is no object’ / ‘dare to dream’ TV for you to consider. For those who don’t still have last years buyer’s guide handy, here are few of the sets from last year along with their prices. As odd as it sounds, most of the prices actually went up. Unlike receivers, it may not pay to wait a year to get a set on the list. So check out this year’s list and jump on the good deals before they’re gone. Seiki SE50FY35 50-Inch 1080p 60Hz LED TV (was: $349, now: $556) LG Electronics 65LB6300 65-Inch 1080p 120Hz Smart LED TV (was: $1299, now: $1199) Sharp LC-60LE660 60-Inch Aquos 1080p 120Hz Smart LED TV (was: $799, now: $1049) LG Electronics 55EC9300 55-Inch 1080p 3D Curved OLED TV (was: $3499, now: $1797) Sharp LC-90LE657U 90-inch Aquos HD 1080p 120Hz 3D Smart LED TV (was: $6195, now: $6688) Braden’s Picks VIZIO E50-C1 50-Inch 1080p Smart LED TV (2015 Model) ($498) I didn’t want to do anything smaller than 55 inches, but a 50 inch TV for $498 is tough to pass up. Especially when Vizio has emerged as a brand that you can trust for the most part to deliver on quality and reliability. They aren’t just a value brand anymore, but they maintain an excellent, affordable price point. Full-Array LED: for light uniformity, and up to 12 Active LED Zones for deeper, more pure black levels. Smart TV: built-in high-speed Wi-Fi for apps like Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus, and YouTube. You can step up to 4K for $200 more, but at 50” it probably isn’t worth it. Samsung UN65J6200 65-Inch 1080p Smart LED TV (2015 Model) ($1198) Samsung is probably the gold standard these days in HDTV, or at least the most popular brand out there. And 65 inches is probably the sweet spot for really big screens at very reasonable prices if you do some shopping around. This set combines great features with a really affordable price - even for Samsung. Its Smart TV technology allows you to access movies, games, streaming services, and other apps so you can easily get to your favorite media. Surf the web using the built-in Wi-Fi, or use the screen-mirroring feature to play your mobile content on the big screen and you can plug into the USB port to watch your own media. It doesn’t have micro-dimming for better contrast, but you can get that for $360 more in the 6300 series. Sharp LC-70UE30U 70-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz Smart LED TV (2015 Model) ($1931) Sharp tends to be my go-to brand for really big panels at really deep discounts and this TV is no exception. There are some Vizio models that you might want to compare with it, but it packs a punch for under $2000. Sure it’s only 5 inches larger than the Samsung UN65J6200, but it is 4K and has local dimming for great contrast. The Revelation Upscaler displays all content at near-4K quality. It even has Smart TV features built on Android TV with access to the Google Play store, so you can customize the Smart TV experience to your liking. The only thing you don’t get is HDR, but that’s rare right now and costs quite a bit more. Your best bet for HDR is to upgrade to OLED, but that’ll easily cost more than double what this TV costs for the same screen size. Honorable mention: Sansui SLED6516 65-Inch 4K DLED LCD TV 120HZ TV ($899) A 65” 4K TV for $899? You might be rolling the dice on quality and/or reliability, but at $899, it could be worth the gamble. Ara’s Picks Last year: LG Electronics 60LF6100 60-Inch 1080p LED Smart TV $865 This year I am all about large format 1080p TVs. I love my 4K Vizio P-Series but after a little more than a year of ownership I can count the number of times I have watched a 4K show on one hand (not including testing for the show). So this year it's about saving money and getting some fantastic TVs at great prices. First up is this 60 inch LG. LGs are actually pretty decent in quality and reliability and for $865 what’s not to like? It's not going to blow you away with video processing features. Its 120Hz refresh rate and LED lit. Beyond that it is a smart TV. The main reason for making my list is that it's 60 inches and only costs $865. And it only weighs 52 pounds! Sharp LC-65LE654U 65-Inch 1080p 120Hz Smart LED TV $997 It used to be that our list was full of Japanese manufacturers. This year Sharp is the only TV that makes my list from Japan. This is a 120Hz smart TV with good picture quality. Built in Wifi makes it easy to get you streaming video from Netflix and Youtube. Samsung UN75J6300 75-Inch 1080p Smart LED TV $1997.99 My next TV is a step up in size and quality and two steps up in price. It uses something that Samsung calls Micro Dim

Receiver Buying Guide 2015 It is that time of year where we get to spend your money again! This week we concentrate on receivers. Our goal with these guides is not necessarily about getting the latest product. It's about getting a good product at a great price so you may see some of last year’s gear on the list. All these receivers are readily available online or at a big box store. Just like last year’s Buying Guide, we’re going to skip the budget categories jump right to our top picks. We each pick three receivers and one ‘money is no object’ / ‘dare to dream’ receiver for you to consider. Braden’s Picks Onkyo TX-NR545 7.2-Channel Network A/V Receiver ($440) This 7.2-channel receiver can power a 5.1.2-channel Dolby Atmos speaker setup: 5.1 standard surround configuration plus two in-ceiling or height channels: 5.1.2. All HDMI inputs support the latest TV video displays, and with three of six inputs handling HDCP 2.2. Built-in Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Airplay (including Pandora and Spotify) to stream virtually any audio from your smartphone, tablet, or PC to your home theater. And support for playback of Compressed, Lossless, and Hi-Res Audio via Local Network (MP3, WMA, WMA Lossless, FLAC, WAV, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, Apple Lossless, DSD 5.6 MHz, LPCM). Denon AVR-X3200W 7.2-Channel Full 4K Ultra HD A/V Receiver with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi ($999) Because we all know Denon makes the best receivers...this bad boy is a 7.2 channel A/V receiver that packs 105W of power per channel. It has 3D and 4K Ultra HD/60Hz full rate pass-through with 4:4:4 color resolution, HDR, BT.2020. 8 HDMI 2.0a inputs (incl. 1 front) and 2 HDMI outputs with full HCDP 2.2 support. Of course, built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. And let’s not forget Dolby Atmos (up to 5.1.2), DTS:X ready (via firmware update). Instant content Airplay, Spotify Connect, Pandora, SiriusXM Internet Radio Internet Radio, DLNA, DSD,FLAC, ALAC and AIFF High Resolution streaming. And the new IP control capability with the HEOS Link turns any stereo system into a wireless zone (HEOS LINK sold separately). Denon AVRX6200W 9.2 Channel Full 4K Ultra HD A/V Receiver with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi ($2199) Two Denons? Is that allowed? The X3200 is the reasonable choice. the X6200 is the less reasonable, but “wow” choice. The amplifier has 9 discrete output stages with identical circuit topology and high current transistors. Each channel is rated at 140 watts. Of course the AVR-X6200W features the next-generation sound formats Dolby Atmos, dts UHD and Auro 3D (upgradable) which allows you to add Height/Top speakers to dramatically expand the soundstage. Featuring a total of 8 HDMI inputs, the AVR-X6200W also has 3 HDMI outputs for flexible multi-room options, with full HDCP 2.2 support. This receiver is also equipped with advanced video circuitry capable of upscaling video signals to 1080p and up to 4K/60Hz full-rate video passthru with support for 4:4:4 color resolution, HDR, and BT.2020. Ara’s Picks Yamaha RX-A850 7.2-Channel MusicCast AV Receiver with Built-In Wi-Fi and Bluetooth $899.99 This year I am only selecting receivers that are HDCP 2.2 compliant and support 3D sound. As a result my lowest cost receiver comes in at a penny under $900 but it supports a 5.2.2 Atmos setup and you can send it any 4K Ultra HD source with HDCP 2.2 and HDR. The 850 has support for Hi Res Audio as well as Pandora, Rhapsody, SiriusXM, and Internet Radio. There is also support for Yamaha’s proprietary wireless multiroom audio system called MusicCast. Pioneer SC-91 7.2 Channel Networked Class D3 AV Receiver with Built-in Bluetooth, Wi-Fi & Dolby Atmos $999 I have never been disappointed with the audio quality of a Pioneer Elite receiver and based on my recent experience with its little brother, the VSX-90, I can fully recommend this receiver to anyone who wants to take a step up in this department. This unit is 130 watts per channel which will fill even large rooms with sound. It supports 4K pass through and of course Dolby Atmos. The SC-91 has MCACC Pro calibration, Subwoofer EQ, built-in AV Navigator, plus an easy initial setup app. Marantz SR6010 7.2 Channel Full 4K Ultra HD AV Sourround Receiver with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi $1399 I have one and so should you. While this unit only has 7 amps (110 Watts each) it does have 13 preouts which with an external amp will provide you with the most immersive audio experience! The 6010 supports both Dolby Atmos and dts UHD. Of course it supports 4K Pass through and is HDCP 2.2 compliant. It streams all kinds of services but we all have a set top box that can do that don’t we! Ultimate Present Integra DTR-70.6 11.2-Channel AV Receiver $2,800 I have never been able to get my hands on an Integra receiver but if I can dream this is what I would want. It checks every box and then some. Its THX Select 2 Plus certified and can be calibrated so that the video processing in this receiver actually does something to improve the picture on your TV. Components are heavily screened to

What we're thankful for '15 Each year at this time of year we do a show where we discuss what we are thankful for. There are the obvious things to be thankful for like our families, especially our wives who put up with our home theater obsessions. And of course we are thankful for you, the listener/reader of our show. So as is tradition over the last many Thanksgivings, on today's show we give you our list of consumer electronics things we are thankful for. For 2015: Ara’s List: Apple Music - and by extension all other music services. Being able to stream pretty much any song I want at any time is fantastic. I even like the Beats One music channel. I pay 5 times more per month (five Radios but only one family subscription for Apple Music) for Sirius Satellite radio. If Apple gives me a Country music channel similar to Beats One, it's bye bye Satellite radio! Sometimes you need a DJ. OLED - To be honest, I never thought OLED would make it since LEDs have gotten so much better for a fraction of the cost. But it's nice to see prices coming down and screen sizes going up. In actuality, I am thankful for OLED buyers. Thanks to you, I will be able to afford my next TV, which will be OLED. DIY Speakers - This year I got into DIY Speaker building, well assembly anyway, but you do have to pick the right components! I have had a ton of fun and build some fantastic sounding speakers for a fraction of the cost. Next up is a subwoofer! More on this to come in the upcoming year! Dolby ATMOS - How can I not be grateful for a technology that gets me to go out and spend more money on a new receiver and speakers. All kidding aside, anything that immerses the viewer into the movie is a great thing. Netflix/Amazon/Hulu - There is so much HD content out there and now with these guys they are creating even more. And the best part is a lot of it is in 4K and some even use HDR and the wider color gamut! Most of the content is decent but there are some really great shows that are big network quality in production value. So much so that every out of work actor should rejoice! Braden’s List: Amazon Prime Now - This may not be entirely home theater related, although I have used it to buy batteries for remote controls and even a new TV for a bedroom. The idea that you can get almost anything you need, including home electronics, delivered to your door in two hours or less is absurd. There are so many times I didn’t want to have to run out to the grocery store to get something. Now I don’t have to. Need banana plugs to make speaker/amp/receiver installation easier? Yeah, they’ve got that. Front Projection - I recently took a few of my boys to see a movie in the theater. Ignoring the fact that we spent way too much money to see a pretty bad movie, and had we waited to watch it at home it would have only cost $5-6, the experience was sub-par. The film was grainy and full of static. The sound was muddled and the surround sound was almost non-existent. For the entire two hours of the movie I just kept telling myself how much better it would have been to watch at home. Front projection is awesome. Dish Network / The Hopper - Dish Network is doing a great job adding features to their existing service. They’ve added Pandora integration into the Hopper and Joeys, they added Netflix to both as well. They have a new sports app in the DVR that helps you locate games, news, etc for your favorite sport of favorite teams. They now have a wireless Joey even. But the single biggest feature is Auto-Hop. Whenever that question comes up at the beginning of a show, I do a little happy dance on the inside. 4K TV - This is a little odd for me, since I still don’t own a 4K TV, to be thankful for Ultra High Definition, but it isn’t what you think. Now that 4K is the new big thing, how often are we hearing about 3D? It’s almost as if we’ve filed 3D away under the “do not care” category and completely left it in 4K’s wake. For that reason alone UHD is worth more than words. All we’re hearing about now is 4K TV penetration, 4K content, 4K Blu-ray, and on. Sure it might get old after a while, but for now I’m really thankful for the lack of 3D talk. Home Automation - Automation is a fun hobby. Something happens, you want to do something in your house, and after a while you start to think of ways you could automate that task. It’s a strange, but very fun, addiction. Although I haven’t started playing with it yet, I can’t wait to get the Amazon Echo working with the Insteon gear in my home. Voice control for home automation? Yeah, that’s next level. Alexa, lower the lights and set the temperature to 72 degrees. Done. I’m in.

Black Friday Preview 2015 Black Friday is an ever-evolving event and every year we can’t get enough. This year, some stores are opening way earlier, others are skipping Black Friday altogether. If you’re planning to wait in line, we wish you the best of luck. Just like prior years, the deals are as good as ever. Looking back, the deals we thought were unreal are totally inflated now. In 2008 the cheapest Blu-ray player was $128 and a 50-inch 720p plasma was going for $900. In 2009 the Blu-ray player price dropped to $78 and you could get a 50-inch 1080p plasma with a Blu-ray player for $1000. Not inflated, last year the lowest price for a tier one brand HDTV was a 50" Panasonic 1080p LED for only $199.99 Our research came from our favorite goto sites for Black Friday circulars, including: www.bfads.net, www.blackfriday.com, and blackfriday.gottadeal.com. WalletHub put together a pretty cool analysis of 2015’s Best & Worst Retailers for Black Friday Deals. The lowest price tier one brand HDTV is at Best Buy Toshiba 49" 1080p 60Hz LED HDTV (49L310U), $149.99 The largest TVs are at Sears and h.h. gregg Sears - Samsung 75" 1080p 60Hz LED Smart HDTV (UN75J6300), $1,999.00 h.h. gregg - Samsung 75" 1080p Smart HDTV (UN75J6300), $1,998.00 h.h. gregg - Sony 75" 4K Ultra Smart HDTV (XBR75X850C), $2,998.00 Honorable mention: Wal-mart - Vizio 70" Smart LED HDTV (E70-C3), $898.00 The list has multiple 720p TVs 32 inches or larger, more than we expected to see. There were three last year. Wal-mart - TCL Roku 32" 720p LED Smart HDTV (32S3700), $125.00 Target - Samsung 32" 720p 60Hz LED HDTV (UN32J4000), $177.99 Target - Westinghouse 32" 720p 60Hz LED HDTV (WD32HT1360), $99.99 Sears - LG 32" 720p 60Hz LED HDTV (32LF500B), $209.99 Sears - RCA 32" 720p 60Hz LED HDTV/DVD (LED32G30RQD), $199.99 Sears - Samsung 32" 720p 60Hz Slim LED HDTV (UN32J4000), $179.99 K-Mart - LG 32" 720p HD LED TV (32LF500B), $209.99 K-Mart - Samsung 48" 720p Slim LED HDTV (UN48H4005), $429.99 K-Mart - Seiki 32" 720p LED HDTV (SE32HY), $159.99 h.h. gregg - Proscan 39" 720p LED HDTV (FLDED3996A), $188.00 h.h. gregg - Samsung 32" 720p LED HDTV (UN32J4000), $178.00 h.h. gregg - Samsung 32" 720p LED Smart HDTV (UN3234500), $198.00 The list has multiple 4K TVs as well, also more than we expected to see. Best Buy - 10 Wal-mart - 2 Target - 3 Sears - 6 h.h. gregg - 24 Deal lists: Amazon Amazon announced in a press release that holiday deals start on Friday, November 20, with new deals added as often as every five minutes for eight straight days - so keep an eye on their Black Friday Landing Page in order to not miss anything! Customers will have access to 10 coveted Deals of the Day starting at midnight on Thanksgiving, and up to 10 more on Black Friday. They can also shop limited-time Lightning Deals on thousands of sought-after products per day throughout the eight days of deals. Best Buy Logitech Harmony 700 8-Device Universal Remote, $49.99 Sony USB Stereo Turntable, $64.99 Amazon Fire 7" 8GB Tablet (Black), $34.99 Panasonic Streaming Wi-Fi Built-In Blu-ray Player (BD903), $39.99 Samsung Streaming 4K Upscaling 3D Wi-Fi Built-In Blu-ray Player, $87.99 Sony Streaming Wi-Fi Built-In Blu-ray Player (BDPS3500), $49.99 Onkyo 805W 7.1-Channel 4K Ultra HD & 3D Pass-Through A/V Home Theater Receiver, $249.99 Amazon Fire TV Stick, $24.99 Google Chromecast (2015 Model), 2 FOR $50.00 Google Chromecast Audio, 2 FOR $50.00 Roku SE Streaming Player, $24.99 Roku Streaming Stick, $39.99 Insignia 2.1-Channel Soundbar w/ Wireless Subwoofer, $99.99 Insignia Soundbar w/ Bluetooth, $49.99 Klipsch Reference 10-in. 300W Powered Subwoofer, $174.99 Klipsch Reference Bookshelf Speakers, $124.99 Klipsch Reference Dual 6-1/2-in. Floorstanding Speaker, $174.99 Klipsch Reference Dual 8-in. Floorstanding Speaker, $224.99 Samsung 400 Series 2.1-Channel Soundbar w/ 6.5-in. Wireless Active Subwoofer, $147.99 Samsung 500 Series 2.1-Channel Soundbar w/ 7-in. Wireless Active Subwoofer, $247.99 Insignia 40" 1080p 60Hz LED HDTV (NS-40D420NA16), $159.99 LG 24" 720p 60Hz LED HDTV (24LF452B), $79.99 LG 43" 4K 60Hz LED Smart HDTV (43UF6430), $399.99 LG 49" 4K 60Hz LED Smart HDTV (49UF6430), $499.99 Samsung 24" 720p 60Hz LED Smart HDTV (UN24H4500AFXZA), $147.99 Samsung 32" 1080p 60Hz LED Smart HDTV (UN32J5205AFXZA), $227.99 Samsung 40" 1080p 60Hz LED HDTV (UN40HS003AFXZA) & Xbox One: The LEGO Movie Videogame Bundle, $499.98 Samsung 40" 1080p 60Hz LED Smart HDTV (UN40J5200AFXZA), $317.99 Samsung 48" 1080p 60Hz LED Smart HDTV (UN48J5201AFXZA), $379.99 Samsung 55" 4K 120Hz 3D LED Smart HDTV (UN55JS8500FXZA), $1,499.99 Samsung 55" 4K 60Hz LED Smart HDTV (UN55JS7000FXZA), $999.99 Samsung 60" 1080p 60Hz LED Smart HDTV (UN60J6200AFXZA), $697.99 Samsung 60" 4K 60Hz LED Smart HDTV (UN55JS7000FXZA), $1,299.99 Samsung 60" 4K 60Hz LED Smart HDTV (UN60JU6390FXZA), $799.99 Samsung 65" 4K 120Hz 3D LED Smart HDTV (UN65JS8500FXZA), $1,999.99 Sharp 50" 1080p 60Hz LED HDTV (LC-50LB370U), $299.99 Toshiba 49" 1080p 60Hz

AppleTV Gen 4 It's fair to say there are three big names in streaming set top boxes, Roku, Apple, and Amazon. Yes we know there are others but these are the biggest right now. We reviewed the Amazon Fire TV a few shows ago (Podcast #710) and we will review the Roku 4 in the near future but today it's the AppleTV 4. It comes in two incarnations, the 32 GB will run you $149 and the 64GB will run you $199. We took the 64 GB version for a spin. The one big feature that is missing is that the AppleTV does not support 4K. Is that a deal breaker?? Read on to find out. Features: Glass Touch Remote - Fluid and precise control with a swipe of your finger Voice Control (Siri) - Just say you want to watch or ask about the weather New UI Design Fast app switching - Double tap the home button and toggle between open apps App Store - Third party games and entertainment are now available iTunes, Home Sharing, and Airplay If you have owned a previous version of the AppleTV you won’t be too surprised at what you find in the box. The AppleTV 4 is about twice as thick but about the same in the other dimensions. On the back Apple added a USB-C port but eliminated the optical digital port. In fact to install our new unit we literally unplugged the existing cables from the Gen 3 and then plugged them into the Gen 4. Since the power supply is internal to the box, Apple used the same power cord between versions. This also helps in being able to find a spare plug in your power strip. Then we walked through the screens to get our AppleTV online. It was straight forward but then it became a major hassle. The only way to enter data was with the remote. Ara has a long password so it was a pain to enter it using the remote. There is no mobile app to do this as there is on the Gen 3 AppleTV. This is a major oversight by Apple. It wouldn’t be so bad if it were just for setting up your iTunes account or your Homeshare, but you have to do the same thing with Hulu, Netflix, HBO, and on and on. To make matters worse, Ara has three AppleTVs so it needs to be done at all three TVs. We were perplexed as to why Apple just didn’t keep the cable system login on file and not force you to verify it with every video app you download. And why not have the capability to replicate another AppleTV on your network. What we really didn’t understand is how could Apple release the AppleTV without a companion iPhone/iPad app? By the way, the current IR remote still works with the Gen 4 AppleTV. We had to switch our Simple Control remote back to IR so that we had the ability to control it with the iPad. But realistically once you use Siri you don’t want to go back! Performance: Now that you have gone through the headache of setting up the AppleTV it's time to start watching. And here is where the product does quite well. In actuality from a picture and sound point of view, there isn’t any difference between the Gen 3 and Gen 4. But that’s not a bad thing. The picture and sound quality of the Gen 3 was already very good. But what about 4K? We don’t know why Apple didn’t release a 4K model. At this point in time it really doesn’t matter especially if you are watching on a TV that is less than 70 inches. To be honest sitting at 12 feet you probably need 100 inches to see the difference in 4K and 1080p if all other things are equal. Not going 4K probably kept the price down. Once we get content that makes use of the wider color gamut and HDR you will probably see a 4K AppleTV. In the meantime don’t get hung up the lack of 4K. If picture and sound quality are the same why do I care about upgrading? Good question! You may not need to upgrade now. The big thing is that there is an App Store for the AppleTV and that means there will be all kinds of apps in the future that will make the AppleTV a very versatile box and platform. We can see the day when the major networks will have apps for their channels and you can tell siri to launch the app. You will be able to say, “Watch ESPN 2” and the AppleTV will go there. In fact you can launch ESPN now via voice. You can launch any app via voice and it launches right away. We even asked Siri to play the latest episode of Brooklyn 99 on Hulu and within a few seconds Jake Peralta was screen making us laugh. The other feature that I (Ara) really like is the “What did he/she Say” capability. Have you been watching a show with someone who for some reason never understands what was just said? It can be very frustrating!! This feature was made for you. You simply pick up the remote and hold the Siri button and say, “What did he say”. Then Siri backs up about 15 seconds and turns on subtitles for you. Once you hit the point where you asked the question Siri turns off subtitles. If the application does not support the subtitles activation, Siri just rewinds 15 seconds and lets you listen harder. You can also ask Siri, “Who’s in this”? You are then presented with a list of the actors in the show. But as far as we could tell, it only incl

Review: Pioneer Elite VSX-90 7.2 Channel A/V Receiver The HT Guys upgrade equipment faster than most just so we can stay on top of the latest technology. So when the 4K Fire TV product was released and our current receiver could not send a 4K signal to the TV we figured what better reason to upgrade. We chose the Pioneer Elite VSX-90 7.2 Channel Receiver with Atmos mainly because it is a capable receiver and it didn’t break the bank (Buy Now $699.99) Features: 7 HDMI inputs with 2 outputs 100 W/ch (8 ohms 20 Hz-20 kHz THD 0.08 % 2ch Driven FTC) 4K 60P Ultra HD upscaling and pass-through Built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Simplified connection and setup Dolby Atmos DSD playback Subwoofer EQ and dual subwoofer pre-out Spotify Connect and Roku ready Energy-saving ECO Mode Intuitive setup with icon-based Graphical User Interface (GUI) Offers both RS-232c interface and full IP control Setup: We have gotten really good at swapping out receivers. Probably a skill most will never need to master but it helps us from time to time. Our speakers are connected via Banana plugs so recabling the receiver took about three minutes which included 7.1 speakers, 5 HDMI connections, Ethernet, and power. Then we ran the calibration setup which Pionner calls MCACC Multi-Channel Acoustic Calibration. The VSX-90 uses the Pro Version of this technology. Like pretty much every other auto calibration system, Pioneer’s measures every speaker noting size and distance, sound levels and timbre from the listening point. The subwoofer is also analyzed and adjusted using four different frequency parameters to correct phase and timing errors. The VSX-90 uses the ES9006 Sabre Premier audio DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter) which should provide smoother audio. And you audiophiles may like to know that there is support for 192 kHz 24-bit AIFF, Multi-channel WAV, FLAC, and Apple Lossless up to 96kHz 24-Bit. The VSX-90 offers both RS-232c interface and full IP control providing compatibility with the most popular home automation systems. For custom-installed home theater solutions, it offers multi-zone capability audio video support. For tablet and smartphone users there is the iControl AV5 app available to make using the receiver a breeze. Performance: First up is video. The main reason we upgraded our receiver was to be able to pass 4K content from our Amazon Fire TV device to the 4K TV. In this regard it is important to note that only the first three HDMI ports are HDCP 2.2 compliant and without that you won’t be able to pass protected 4K content through to the TV. The receiver will upscale all digital content to 4K but we found that the best picture was obtained by simply passing the original signal (Pure Mode) through and letting the TV do the upscaling. The Amazon Fire TV looked fine with 4K content (See Review Here) that was unprocessed by the receiver. We subjectively compared the video straight from the Fire TV to that of video that went through the reveier. We could not see any difference which is what you would expect in the Pure mode. It should be noted that this receiver does not have video processing beyond a scalar. In general we feel this is a good thing because we have not found a good receiver that also processes video well. Then it was time to listen to some audio. We had high expectations due to the Sabre DAC and we weren’t let down. Our listening material included lossless audio, 256 Kbps AAC, and streaming audio. Everything we listened to had more punch and the midrange sounded clear and crisp. If we had to sum up the listening experience it would be that the music sounded bright. The VSX-90 had no issues with reproducing an accurate sound stage with good instrument separation. When it came time to watch (listen) to movies we were impressed with how good our subwoofer sounded. Same subwoofer same Dolby True HD content but a noticeable improvement in the bass. The only real complaint we had with the unit was source switching. Whenever we switched between sources it took as long as six seconds to get video back on screen. Odds and Ends: Dolby ATMOS sound technology - We did not test this feature Remote - Typical receiver remote. Multi-zones - The VSX-90 can send audio and video to a secondary room. WiFi - The unit also has dual antennas to extend the range. MHL compatibility - One port Bluetooth and Airplay Streaming Music - vTune, Pandora, and Spotify ready Conclusion: The Pioneer Elite VSX-90 is a feature rich receiver that won’t break the bank and allow room for some future growth. You may not be in a position to upgrade to Atmos but it's nice to know that when you want to the VSX-90 will be ready for you. It's relatively easy to setup and configure with the use of the onscreen instructions. For those who really like to listen to high quality music this receiver fits the bill. We couldn’t ask for a better mid-range AVR to handle both movies and music.

Instant Home Theater in Two Hours or Less Amazon Prime changed the game. You can have pretty much anything you need, including an entire home theater, delivered to your home in two days or less. And you never have to get off the couch. A recent conversation with a friend who needed a TV and an HDMI cable and had them delivered in an hour using the new Prime Now app got us thinking. What if you wanted an entire home theater delivered to your home within an hour or two? Is that even possible? The scenarios are endless. You have company over and everyone decides to watch a movie, but they brought kids and the kids need something to watch too. Or you and your family, friends, guests, whatever can’t decide if you want to watch a live sports event or that night’s episode of Dancing with the Stars, so, in the spirit of ‘why not both?’ you need to add a second home theater to keep everyone happy. Or, simply, just cuz. Prime Now is a new service from Amazon, available to Prime members in select markets at no additional charge, that allows you to order products for delivery in two hours, sometimes less, depending on your proximity to the distribution center. We assume the products available may vary by market, since not all distribution centers would have the exact same inventory, so this adventure is what the HT Guys would be able to put together from their local distribution center in Orange County, California. Prime Now is currently only available as an app for your smartphone. You cannot tap into it from your computer, not yet at least. For our discussion we’ll provide links to the products at the main Amazon website, but if you want to get them delivered in an hour, you’ll need to download the app and find them there. Televisions Every home theater needs an HDTV. What options are available from Prime Now? We assumed they would be small TVs, easy to store and easy to deliver. What we found surprised us. There were a bunch of options for HDTVs from Prime Now. Small TVs, like you would imagine, a 32” model from LG or Sharp, 43” options from Vizio and Sharp, etc. But they also had some bigger sets available. There’s a 50” Vizio, a 55” Vizio, and a 55” LG. Sure 55” isn’t huge, but it isn’t tiny either. A 55” TV would make a pretty good cornerstone in a 2 hour or less home theater. LG Electronics 55LF6000 55-Inch 1080p 120Hz LED TV. If you buy it from the Amazon website, you’ll pay $647.99 and the strange thing is, it isn’t available for Prime shipping - you actually pay an extra $36.36 for shipping. If you buy if from the Prime Now app you pay more than $100 less, $538, and you get same day shipping. That’s a great deal. VIZIO E50-C1 50-Inch 1080p Smart LED HDTV. Probably not the way to go unless you’re a huge Vizio fanboy, the TV is 50 inches compared with the 55 inches of the LG, but you only save $10. It costs $528 from both the Amazon website, where it is available for Prime shipping, and from the Prime Now app. The consistence makes sense, but the price for the screen size doesn’t. VIZIO M55-C2 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED HDTV. If you want to go super impressive in a couple hours or less, there is one 4K TV available from Prime Now. For some reason this one is also more expensive from the website than from the app, and isn’t available for Prime shipping from the site either. At Amazon.com you pay $921.99. Although the shipping isn’t Prime, it is free. From Prime Now you only pay $849.99. Projectors But what if your emergency home theater needs to go really big? You want to watch in the backyard by the pool or set the kids up in the front yard so they can share with the whole neighborhood. Prime Now has you covered there as well. These should be much easier to stock and ship, making it that much easier to be an instant hero. Optoma HD141X 1080p 3D DLP Home Theater Projector, $574 from Prime Now, 3000 Lumen Optoma HD26 1080p 3D DLP Home Theater Projector, $649 from Prime Now, 3200 Lumen BenQ W1070 1080P 3D DLP Home Theater Projector, $696 from Prime Now, 2000 Lumen And of course you’ll need a screen. The Epson Duet 80-Inch Dual Aspect Ratio Projection Screen is $105.78 from Prime Now, includes a floor stand and can be expanded to the size that best meets your needs - old school 4:3 or widescreen 16:9. Surround Sound This is where it gets tricky and you have to be a bit creative. We didn’t find any AV Receivers through the app, and the speakers we could get were all more computer speakers than home theater speakers. That said, the Logitech Surround Sound Speakers Z506 would probably do a decent job for you, and at $57.99 they aren’t going to break the bank. You get a center speaker, four satellites and a subwoofer for that price. Certainly better than the built-in TV speaker. There are a couple of sound bar options, like the VIZIO SB2920-C6 29-Inch 2.0 Channel Sound Bar for $78 or the VIZIO SB4051-C0 40-Inch 5.1 Channel Sound Bar with Wireless Subwoofer and Satellite Speakers for $348. With the inclusion of the w

Amazon Fire TV (4K) We are big fans of streamers. Whether it be Roku, Apple, or Amazon there is a streamer out there that makes watching movies as convenient as pressing a button on your remote. So when all three updated their offerings we knew we were going to be spending some time in front of the TV evaluating them. First up is the Amazon Fire TV in 4K (Buy Now $99). Features: All-new Amazon Fire TV now supports 4K Ultra HD for true-to-life picture quality. Watch high-definition 1080p streams on Amazon Video, Netflix, Hulu and more, even without a 4K TV. Now with Alexa, use your Fire TV Voice Remote to check sports scores or the weather, play music, and more - instantly Enjoy over 250,000 TV episodes and movies on Netflix, Amazon Video, HBO GO, and Showtime Anytime, plus games, music, and apps Cutting the cord? Watch the best of live TV on NBC News, NBA Gametime, and Sling TV, which includes ESPN, CNN, HDTV, AMC, A&E, Cartoon Network, and more. Say it. Watch it. Simply say the name of what you want to watch and start enjoying in seconds. Now with 75% more processing power, a dedicated graphics engine, better Wi-Fi support, 2 GB of memory, 8 GB of storage and expandable storage of up to 128 GB With over 800 games - the most games of any other streaming media player - there is something for the entire family, including Minecraft, Lego Star Wars, and Pac-Man 256 Amazon Prime members get unlimited access to Prime Video, including original programming like Transparent, plus over 1 million songs with Prime Music Setup The physical setup is simple, connect the device to your TV (or receiver) via HDMI, connect the Ethernet cable or use wifi, and the plug it into power. If you are a Prime member it is already configured to your account so you can start watching Prime content immediately. The Fire TV comes with a few programs already installed but if you want Netflix or Hulu you’ll need to install them. That takes a couple of minutes depending on your internet speed. You’ll also want to update the firmware on the device. The main reason is that you get Dolby Digital Plus instead of Stereo on Netflix! Also, an update for older Dolby Digital systems (not Dolby Digital Plus) will be distributed on November 30th. We did run into a few issues that were not a fault of the Fire TV but issues that you may run into as well. The first time we connected the device to our receiver, a Denon, that did not support HDCP 2.2. Of course everything worked, we just couldn’t get an 4K content to display. A message on the video setup of the Fire TV told us that the port is connected but since it does not support HDCP 2.2 we would only be able to get 1080p. We first verified that the TV supported HDCP 2.2. And it did on all HDMI inputs but only input five was HDMI 2.0. As it turned out, you can get 4K content over HDMI 1.4 as long as it supports HDCP 2.2! Next up was to upgrade the receiver. See what we do for you guys!! We ended up buying a Pioneer Elite VSX-90 7.2 ATMOS receiver. A review on that will be coming in a few weeks. We also verified that we were using high speed HDMI cables. For our test, they were Amazon Basic HDMI cables that cost about $10. All the pieces were in place and we were ready for 4K! Unfortunately, there wasn’t any to be had. As it turns out only the first three HDMI ports on the VSX-90 are HDCP 2.2 compatible and it says that nowhere except in some tiny print in the manual. In fact the sticker on the front proudly proclaims 7 HDMI inputs and HDCP 2.2. Regardless, the Fire TV was moved to an input that supported HDCP 2.2 and the message saying that 4K was not possible went away. One last note. Removing the battery cover on the remote is one of the most difficult things I have had to do for any device I have owned. Seriously?? What were they thinking. Fortunately there is a video that will help you with this task (https://youtu.be/cjyUo18DQdg) Performance For our testing we looked at three apps, Netflix, Amazon Prime Videos, and Slingbox. There are plenty of video apps but we figured that Netflix and Amazon have a decent amount of 4K content so it made the most sense. Slingbox The Slingbox app makes the Fire TV a killer product… well if you have a Slingbox anyway. You could take the Fire TV with you on vacation and have access to all your TV anywhere you go. Or you could setup a Slingbox someplace where you want access to local content and access on your TV at home. Regardless, this is a cool feature. Unfortunately it didn’t work. The Slingbox app kept trying to load and never really worked. We’ll try again later but right out of the shoot there were issues. In general, we found there to be some quirkiness with the player. Amazon may be one or two firmware updates away from a rock solid system. Netflix Next up was Netflix and some 4K content. Amazon is touting something called ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction). Its supposed to start streaming instantly. Here is what we found. If you select a movie and tak

CEDIA 2015 Each year CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association) holds an event where the industry gathers to show off their wares. Kinda like a mini-CES, but also like a best of CES, we’ve been to a few of these and actually enjoy the show more than CES. It takes the parts of CES that we are interested in and compresses it down to a more manageable show. We didn’t go this year but that won’t stop us from talking about some of the products we think are interesting. This year the show was from October 14-17 in Dallas, TX. Sony Electronics Announces 4K Home Theater Projectors at CEDIA 2015 Sony Electronics is expanding its home theater line-up by announcing new projectors at CEDIA 2015. The new projectors include the VPL-VW665ES and VPL-VW365ES, which deliver native 4K resolution and a new long-lasting lamp gives both up to 6,000 hours of performance, with high brightness and high contrast for even more vibrant images. The VPL-VW665ES is compatible with HDMI input of HDR (High Dynamic Range) content with a 300,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. Sony is developing HDR support across its portfolio and the VPL-VW665ES gives home cinema enthusiasts the opportunity to experience total immersion in whatever they are watching. The new VPL-VW665ES and VPL-VW365ES use advanced SXRD™ panels for a native 4K picture, with no artificial manipulation of pixels. Both new models allow users to enjoy up-to-date 4K content services through the latest connectivity options using the latest HDMI standard and HDCP 2.2. The new projectors will be available in October 2015 at a suggested retail price of $3,999 for the VPL-HW65ES, $9,999 for the VPL-VW365ES and $14,999 for the VPL-VW665ES. SunBriteTV Unveils 84-, 55-Inch Outdoor 4K TVs SunBriteTV has announced its entry into 4K UHD with two new outdoor televisions, including an 84-inch Pro Series model (SB-8418UHD), its largest screen size to date, and a 55-inch Signature Series unit (SB-5574UHD). Designed for permanent outdoor installation, both the SB-8418UHD and the SB-5574UHD feature weatherproofing technology that protects internal components from rain, snow, dust, salt corrosion, insects, and humidity. Specialized high-brightness anti-glare screens differ from those of indoor televisions for a 3840 x 2160p 4K UHD viewing experience. Both units come with a 20W detachable weatherproof speaker bar. Shipping dates and pricing for both units will be released later this year. The SB-8418UHD, part of SunBriteTV’s Pro Series, also features a glass shield to provide extra protection for the LED panel. The unit has an (800 NIT) LED screen and Direct Sunlight-Readable capability with a built-in heating and cooling systems that keep it operating in temperatures from -40° to 122°F. The SB-5574UHD has a 3.5-inch depth and is fully functional in temperatures from -24° to 122°F. Epson Unveils New Line of Premium Ultra-Bright Pro Cinema Projectors Epson unveiled an expanded line of Full HD 1080p Ultra-Bright Pro Cinema Projectors, the Epson® Pro Cinema G6970WU, Pro Cinema G6570WU, Pro Cinema 4855WU, and wireless Pro Cinema 1985. Featuring up to 6,000 lumens of color brightness and 6,000 lumens of white brightness. Epson's latest projectors provide custom installers, sports and AV enthusiasts versatile solutions specifically designed to provide exceptional image quality and wireless connectivity in large, open ambient light environments that compete directly with traditional flat panels. The Pro Cinema 1985 wireless projector shines bright and supports the latest in connectivity – transforming the projector into a versatile home entertainment hub. Users can stream media from a smartphone, tablet, or laptop using wireless projection with Miracast® and Intel® WiDi. For brilliant entertainment right out of the box, the projector features built-in sound and two HDMI® ports to connect cable and satellite boxes, gaming consoles and more. In addition, the Pro Cinema 1985 supports MHL-enabled devices, including Chromecast, Roku®4 and Amazon® Fire TV Stick. Pro Cinema G6970WU: $6,999 MSRP, 6,000 lumens Pro Cinema G6570WU: $5,499 MSRP, 5,200 lumens Pro Cinema 4855WU: $3,099 MSRP, 4,000 lumens Pro Cinema 1985: $2,499 MSRP, 4,800 lumens The Pro Cinema G6970WU, G6570WU and 1985 will be available in November through CEDIA and specialty dealers. The Pro Cinema 4855WU is shipping now. Control4 Delivers Enhanced Smart Home Security and Entertainment Experiences Control4 released OS 2.8, the latest version of its smart home operating system. With OS 2.8, Control4 rolls out a reimagined smart home security experience that easily integrates with today’s leading security systems, smart locks and cameras; offers native streaming of music services from Pandora, Deezer, and TIDAL; and updates other capabilities to make it easy for Control4 homeowners to search, browse, listen and watch their favorite media. Additionally, OS 2.8 delivers a number of enhanced dealer tools, most notably the ability to back up

Chromecast Audio We have been enjoying whole house audio for years now. Braden has a nice Sonos system in place while Ara has gone with an Airplay solution. We each have multiple zones including the garage and bathrooms where we can listen to our music in a casual setting. The Sonos solution uses Sonos designed speakers or it can use a bridge to add powered speakers or receivers to the system. Apple uses their technology called Airplay which allows you to connect powered speakers connected to an Airport Express or one to the many receivers and third party powered speakers that support Airplay. Both systems are flexible and reliable. You can mix and match speakers, receivers, and even set top boxes. You can choose to have different music playing in the various zones. And everything can be controlled from the palm of your hand. The systems can cost a few hundred dollars all the way up to thousands. The playing field just got a little more crowded with the introduction of the Chromecast Audio. It's a small device about the size of three silver dollars stacked on top of each other and it only costs $35! And no you can’t get it at Amazon! Seriously…what are those guys thinking?? The Chromecast Audio plugs into your powered speaker via the 3.5mm audio input jack for streaming music through WiFi. If your speakers or receiver only accept RCA inputs you can use a cable that is 3.5mm on one end and RCA on the other. Once set up, simply use your iPhone, iPad, Android phone and tablet, Mac and Windows laptop, or Chromebook to send your music to any zone in the house. Setup Setup is quite easy. First connect the Chromecast Audio to power and use the supplied 3.5mm cable to your speakers. Then download and launch the Chromacast app for your mobile device. Follow the onscreen steps and in less than a minute you will have your fist audio zone up and running. Repeat the steps for each zone you are setting up and just like that you have multiroom audio! Depending on the speakers you choose you can spend anywhere from $50 up to $500 or more per zone. But if the listening is strictly causal and for ambiance you can easily setup up a five zone system for less than $500! Performance To start playing audio (on an iOS device anyway) you simply launch an app that is Chromecast capable select the speaker and enjoy. Google Play, Pandora, iHeart Radio all support Chomecast Audio. In fact the list of supporting apps is quite large. Check out the Chromcast Audio website for a full list. Unfortunately but not unexpectedly for iOS users Apple’s own apps do not support the Chromecast Audio. Once you have started streaming control is handed off to the Chromecast which streams directly from the cloud. So if you get a call or notification you don’t stop or interrupt the music. This is a nice feature if you are having a party and you don’t want the music to stop. If you are at home and you prefer it to be quiet you can always pause the track. You can also cast from a desktop Mac or Windows PC but you’ll need to use the Chrome Browser and install the Chromecast Extension. Once you do this any audio that is coming into your browser can be sent to the speakers. So far the experience has been real nice, but what about the audio quality? Well how much quality can you expect from a device that costs $35? We found the audio was a little thinner than when listening through the same speakers connected directly to the phone or tablet. The lows didn’t have that punch and the highs just seemed washed out. We couldn’t find detailed specs on the converter used but that’s probably because it's not very good. In general we found the Sonos did a much better job. But this isn’t a real knock on the product. It's just a reminder not to expect miracles from the device. For what it is, the Chromecast Audio is a nifty little product that does a decent job. The current firmware does not support sending audio to multiple zones at once. Google says there is an update coming later this year that will enable that feature. Conclusion Let’s be honest, the Chromecast Audio is not going to win over any audiophiles, but what it will do is make it possible for just about anyone, with a limited budget, to deploy a multi zone audio system for casual listening that won’t break the bank!

United Object Smart Beam Laser Projector You could probably start a pretty healthy debate if you asked a group of home theater enthusiasts what the single most important piece of gear is if you want to truly transform a home video system into a legitimate home theater. Surround sound is important. Without surround sound you’ll never feel like part of the action, and your home theater will never feel like a movie theater. The subwoofer provides the punch you need to really feel the action; the center channel provides all the on-screen action and the surround speakers put you right into the middle of that action. But equally as vital is the front projector. Sure TVs are getting bigger, and they’re really good - even at the really big sizes. To be honest, big TVs that are really good is a relatively new phenomenon. In the past the really big screens, the rear projection screens, were good, but they were really more about size than quality. But not true today; there are some killer home theaters built around large plasma and LED TVs. But for the authentic big screen experience, you really need that big screen. Something you can still only get from a front projector. But if you turn that debate inside out a bit, if you ask about the single most important piece of equipment for a portable theater setup, the answers change. Surround sound isn’t as important, because who would travel with 7 speakers. Obviously you wouldn’t travel with a full television set, so you could say a really good, portable screen is key. But most people would tell you the projector is the most important. And small projectors, pico projectors, are starting to really develop into a strong category. One such pico projector that’s getting a lot of attention is the United Object Smart Beam Laser pico projector. Not only is it tiny, small enough to fit in any travel bag, it has some unique features that make it quite compelling as the centerpiece to your portable home theater. We had the opportunity to play with one recently and it was a lot of fun. Granted it won’t ever be able to anchor your true home theater experience, it is cool enough to anchor your portable video needs and turn any portable electronic viewing device, like a laptop, tablet or phone, into a portable home theater rig. Basics The United Object Smart Beam Laser Projector is square. It measures about 2.2 inches on a side and can fit in the palm of your hand. They bill it as the smallest HD laser projector in the world. It has a maximum brightness of 60 ANSI Lumens using, of course, a laser power source. The display itself uses LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) technology and is capable of 720p (1280x720) HD video resolution. It’ll go as small as 20” all the way up to a maximum 100” screen. You can buy it online direct from United Object for $419. Or from Amazon for the same price, but you do get Prime shipping. Setup and Use The projector needs power and a video source. It includes the power cord and an MHL cable, but you can also use micro HDMI, but you’ll need to provide your own cable for that. The unit is battery powered and the manual claims you can get up to 120 minutes of video from a full charge. We didn’t test that, but because it also supports a couple wireless video options, you don’t need to have it plugged in at all times to use it. You can connect to it using Miracast, mirroring from iOS, or using DLNA over WiFi. Plugging into power is, of course, trivial. Once that’s done, plugging in a micro HDMI cable (you can get from Amazon for a couple bucks) and using the Smart Beam like a traditional projector is a snap, assuming you have a device that supports either HDMI or MHL. At that time, you have a 2-inch cube portable projector that fits in the palm of your hand. The Smart Beam includes an MHL adapter that is needed for some MHL devices, but we went with straight HDMI and it was ridiculously easy to setup and use. It took all of 30 seconds. Going wireless really doesn’t take that much more work. When you turn it on without an HDMI/MHL input, the home screen shows you a Miracast Device name to connect to. We assume that is trivial, but didn’t have a Miracast device handy, so we didn’t try it. To use it with iOS or DLNA, you have to switch it to DLNA mode by tapping the power button twice quickly. Then it turns into its own WiFi hotspot and tells you how to connect to it. You join it as if it were a standard, open WiFi network and use AirPlay to mirror a device to it or DLNA to send content to it. This added an extra minute or two to the setup. Performance One really cool feature of the projector is that it will auto focus for any supported screen size. You can’t zoom, so you have to move it to the proper distance to get the right screen size, but once you have it at the right distance, it’ll automatically focus for you. We found the focus to be much sharper at larger screen sizes than smaller ones, but that could also be a function of how far we were from the screen,

Ultimate DVR We have been using DVRs now for the past 10 years or so and they have come a long way since when they were first introduced. But with that said there are still a few features that could take the DVR to a whole new level. We have a few ideas for the Ultimate DVR and so do you. Pause In One Room And Pick Up In Another Most of our DVRs can already pick up recordings in different rooms at the last played spot but it's a bit cumbersome. The way it works for most of us is to turn on the TV in the other room go to the recording list select the show and then hit resume. We would like to make it simpler. How about when you hit pause you are given an option to select another TV for continuation. Then you turn off the TV and go to the other room and turn on the TV. A dialog box will already be displayed on the screen asking you to hit play to resume. With a single click of the remote you are back in business! User Profiles User profiles would make life much easier for homes with multiple inhabitants. The interface should allow for quick filtering of the recorded programs based on users. That way we don’t see the shows that our children and/or spouses recorded. Anytime a new program is added to the season pass manager it will show up in everyone’s list until you accept or reject it. You can also show the full unfiltered list with a simple toggle. But the real power will be in tracking where you were in a program. If someone in your household watches a show that you also have in your list it should not indicate that its been watched by you until you watch it. If someone else is 30 min into the show and you are 15 min into the show the DVR should keep track of that as well. True iTunes/Netflix/Amazon/Youtube Integration It would be great if you could log in via your DVR and then whatever subscriptions/TV/movies you have purchased would show up in the program list. Sure you can switch over to a Smart TV application or external set top box. It would be really cool if they just show up in the playlist. Listeners Ideas I would like to be able to record 4-6 shows simultaneously, watch DVR from my phone, set recordings more easily (too many steps), watch from any TV/device. Thanks! Shawn Faherty Stafford, VA via Facebook Due to there being so much content out there to watch, some intelligence can be added to recommend shows that you would like based on what you record and shows that you watch via the "Catch Up" feature. I find that there is a lot of good stuff out there, but we just don't seem to find it and if we do find it, the shows are a few episodes in already. For shows that you generally record, highlight them within the "Catch-up" section. I prefer to watch via "Catch-up" then via the recorded shows since then I don't have to skip commercials. Glen South Africa via Facebook Cloud based dvr so that recordings are available to view on all devices. Could be practical now that dsl speeds are much higher these days. Integration of catch - up and on demand within the EPG. This could allow for scrolling 'back in time' through the epg to launch a catch up show, straight from the epg itself. Duncan via Facebook In today's day and age, if a game runs late, the dvr should automatically adjust @409SWH via twitter An interface that's easy to use with less clicks. The @XFINITY X1 DVR is example of poor/stupid UI. @HiFiGuy528 (and many others!) via twitter Honestly, way before any fancier feature, I'd just like the damn thing to work SMOOTHLY. My Comcast box is just slow enough responding to button presses that it drives me crazy. I spend an inordinate amount of time just trying to fast forward through commercials without overshooting the beginning of the next program segment. Then, rewinding... Then, oops, back forward... Then back... Then screw it, I'll just watch this last commercial. At the end of a program I hit stop and WAIT for the option to delete, then hit OK and WAIT for it to delete, then WAIT for it to respond to the "exit" button for the DVR menu to go away. Then I'm about 10 seconds away from smashing the remote. Also, on the Comcast DVRs, you have to add about 3 minutes to every recording because the thing acts squirrelly near the end of any recording, in ways too specific and weird to explain here. Oh, AND, for no reason, they changed the play button's function during playback from simply showing the play timeline to now pausing the program. GRRR.... So the feature I want the most? JUST WORK RIGHT. The next complaint is simply the guide / schedule. Program reruns show up as new and either don't get changed to a rerun listing until right before it airs, or never change and get recorded, filling up the drive. And our local PBS station CONSTANTLY has errors in listings. On other stations, series recordings just disappeared for the upcoming season, and we had to re-create them. Nuts. So then after all the basic stuff, I'd like one DVR that remembered where you were in any recording, no matter how you were pla

Yonomi - The Automation Consolidation App Being able to control anything and everything in your home from your smartphone is pretty cool. Having to open multiple apps to do it is kinda lame. That’s what the developers behind Yonomi are hoping to solve for you. Sure if you have a central server or hub, you can do it all there and control everything with one app, but is there really one server that can control any smart device? We haven’t seen it yet. Of course, Yonomi can’t control any and every smart device you can imagine, but because their approach is different, they have support for more than you can imagine. And it feels like it will be easier for them to add support for more devices faster than a server or hub product could do. About the App From the Website: “Smart devices are here: Wireless thermostats, activity monitors, networked music systems and a whole host of devices in the home. Wouldn’t it be great if they all could communicate together? Wouldn’t it be even better if they worked in unison to make your daily routines easier and more enjoyable? Now there is an app that does all that and works in the background so you can get back to the things that really matter.” “Yonomi resides on your phone and in the Cloud. No need for a hub, controller box or other additional hardware. Yonomi magically finds and enhances your existing connected devices allowing them to interact with one another in ways never before possible.” Supported Devices August Smart Locks Belkin WeMo Switches, Plug Modules, Motion Sensors, Bulbs and Netcams Belkin Wemo enabled Crock-Pot Belkin Wemo enabled Mr. Coffee Cree LED Bulbs Egg Minder GE Link LED Bulbs Jawbone UP Mimo Baby Monitor Nest Thermostat and Smoke Detector Parrot Flower Power Philips HUE Lights Quirky Aros Air Conditioner, Door & Window Sensors, Water Sensors Sonos Devices Withings Pulse, Activite, Smart Body Analyzer, Wireless Scale Using the App First of all, the app is totally free. We aren’t sure how they plan to make money and stay around for the long run, but hopefully they have a plan. It is a bit scary to rely on it as your home automation server to only have it disappear out from underneath you. But then again, it’s free, so you’ve lost nothing but the time it took to get it up and running. Installing the app is as easy as any other app. Then you register by providing your name, email address and a password. Once done, it scours your WiFi for compatible devices and adds them. Once you have some devices in the app, that’s when things get really fun. It starts by suggesting routines that match with the devices you have. Almost like a Harmony remote, when you add a TV and it tells you that you should really have a Watch TV activity, etc. But it goes way beyond just the devices it found. You can tell it where your home is located and it can use date and time, sunrise and/or sunset, the location of the phone (you leave home, you arrive home, etc) and a lot more to customize your routines. Much like an automation hub or server, you can configure all kinds of routines to occur based on your life, and even things you didn’t know your devices could do. You can have your Sonos speakers talk to you, like saying ‘Don’t forget your lunch’ at 7:45 in the morning as your kids are headed out the door for school, then play Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye) by Bananarama as they’re walking out. Or it can say, “Welcome home, Dave” when you get back from a long day at work, then start playing your favorite relaxing slow jam mix to help you de-stress. Even turn on some lights and start a pot of coffee. Events that occur on the phone can set off routines in the smart devices as well. Flash the lights in the whole house when you get a phone call. Mute the Sonos speakers, or pause the music, when you answer or make a call. Have the Sonos speakers announce the weather when you shake the phone. It’s fun, easy to use, and very easy to configure. Because the app works with the Sonos Playbar, there are a bunch of cool potential routines to tie into your home theater as well. We didn’t get the chance to try it on multiple phones, to make sure they could set independent routines, like different slow jam mixes when different people arrive home, but since the phone was added as a supported device during setup, we assume it would be as simple as logging into the app with the same account and creating some new routines. We’ll try this later and report back.

Binge Watching TV We have talked about Binge watching on the show many times. It's a relatively new phenomena where you watch multiple episodes of a TV program in rapid succession. In the early days that meant you would buy or rent seasons of the program you were interested in on DVD. Today it can be that or more likely you stream the program from Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, or the network’s website. We have never in the history of television had more content available to watch than we do right now. From old series to new made for streaming series you no longer can say there is nothing to watch. But has Binge watching improved the experience? Will take a look. Some Statistics A recent Tivo study says a little more than 90% of you have binge watched television. Seventy percent of the respondents to the Tivo survey say there is nothing wrong with it. Some of the reasons for binge watching include, catching up on missed episodes, finding out about a series a season or two or five after it first aired, and some just want to power through a season without having to wait for the show each week. The undisputed champ of binge watching is Netflix with 66% of the Tivo respondents saying that’s how they binge watch. It's not all roses for those who binge watch either. Thirty One percent of the survey takers said they have lost sleep because of their binge and 37% say they have lost an entire weekend to the habit. There is another study that binge watching can lead to depression although it may be that those who suffer from depression like to binge watch. Remember the old adage, everything in moderation! It applies to binge watching as well. Water Cooler Discussions Not What They Used To Be Who remembers watching Lost and then going to the office the next day to talk with co-workers so that you could decipher the previous night’s episode? It was almost like a ritual that a small group of us would discuss nuances of the show. It made for a nice social interaction with friends and co-workers. Fast forward a few years and now with Twitter you can watch a TV show with hard core fans and get real time discussion or you can interact with the actors after the show with Twitter Q&A. With binging these social elements of watching programs are no longer there. You may have spent the entire weekend watching Daredevil (Fantastic show by the way) on Netflix but your co-worker is only 5 episodes in. You have to hold back on your enthusiasm in your discussion for fear of a spoiler. Speaking of spoilers, now we have to speak in code to make sure that the person you are speaking with is caught up. We have all been upset with someone who says something like, “OMG, I can’t believe they killed Beth!!” (Spoiler alert, they killed off Beth in The Walking Dead). We have on this very show had to be careful in what we say for fear of spoiling an episode or series for our listeners. How long do we have to wait before we can freely talk about a show without fear of upsetting our friends? Here is a survey from the Sydney Morning Herald: Content Creators Are Adapting It not just the viewers who are changing, so are the producers of television. It's not very long after a season wraps up that all episodes are available on Blu-ray and DVD ready to be shipped to your door so you can binge. So many of you would tell us that we should watch “Burn Notice” and “The Walking Dead” that we ended up getting the discs from Netflix and catching up in a few weeks. We remember how depressing it was when we ran out of old episodes and had to wait each week for the next one. Although the Monday Morning Debrief, as Ara’s daughter calls it, is also fun. Creators understanding that we can watch more content at any time are giving us more things to watch. For streaming you don’t need an audience of ten million people to make the show viable. Networks have a finite amount of time to fill so they only want to fill it with shows that draw huge numbers. Streaming can get by on a lot less. Plus, since the show was meant to be streamed the producers don’t care when you watch. As a result more shows are getting green lit. The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt was passed on by NBC and then picked up by Netflix. It has been a huge success and is nominated for an Emmy. Do you remember when mid-season finales were big? Well no reason to do that anymore. Also, what about seasonal episodes? Shows that are made available all at once no longer can do the obligatory Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas episode. But is does allow creators to be free from the limits. not having to “waste” episodes based on seasonal elements allows the creators to experiment. Not fearing being canceled after two episodes allows the creators to develop the plot and characters at a slower pace. Binge watchers may have to wait four or five episodes to get the full picture, but who cares, that can be done before lunch. This way you don’t feel like you’ve invested an entire month on a show before deciding that you don’t

New TV Shows for Fall 2015 Few things in life are as highly anticipated as television premier season every Fall. The Super Bowl maybe? A wedding or the birth of a child perhaps? But most of them pale in comparison to the awesomeness that is premier season. All of your favorite shows coming back for another year, and a ton of new shows to potentially add to the DVR. One of them might just become your new favorite show. Media Life Magazine has a great post with all the Fall Premiere Dates by date, time, and Network. ABC Blood & Oil Premieres: Sunday, Sep. 27 at 9:00 PM Don Johnson won't be getting Blood & Oil all over his Miami Vice linen clothes in this dirty series about a modern-day oil boom in North Dakota. Johnson plays an oil tycoon who's the antagonist to ambitious young couple Billy (Chace Crawford) and Cody (Rebecca Rittenhouse), who do everything they can to break off a little piece of that oil pie for themselves. Will everything of theirs — including their marriage — stand up to the challenge? Dr. Ken Premieres: Friday, Oct. 2 at 8:30 PM Community's Ken Jeong, who was once a real-life doctor, can now say he plays a doctor on TV. Jeong stars as the titular character, a great physician who lacks bedside manner and a husband and father of two who drives everyone up the wall. The multi-camera comedy should be a good fit on Friday nights, where it will be paired with Last Man Standing. Suzy Namamura, Tisha-Campbell Martin, Dave Foley, Jonathan Slavin and Albert Tsai also star. The Muppets Premieres: Tuesday, Sep. 22 at 8:00 PM Everyone's favorite (or at least top 10) puppets are coming back to television, but this time, they have even more sass. This new version of The Muppets is presented as a modern-day documentary catching us up with Kermit, Miss Piggy and everyone else as they go on with their professional (running a late-night show) and personal (puppet romance!) lives. ABC is pitching this as a more adult version of The Muppets that's still good for kids of all ages. The Big Bang Theory's Bill Prady will run the show. Quantico Premieres: Sunday, Sep. 27 at 10:00 PM Let's just call this one How to Get Away with Terrorism, because this twisty ensemble thriller has a lot in common with ABC's big hit from last fall. A new incredibly attractive (obvs) class of FBI recruits at Quantico all joined the FBI for different reasons, which will be shown to the audience via flashbacks. But the real interesting part? One of the recruits — we don't know who — is responsible for the biggest domestic terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11. Let the twists begin! Priyanka Chopra, Jake McLaughlin, Johanna Braddy and Graham Rogers star. Wicked City Premieres: Tuesday, Oct. 27 at 10:00 PM Anthologies, period pieces and murder dramas are all the rage, and ABC smashed 'em all together in Wicked City. Set in 1980s Los Angeles, the first season is all about a detective (Jeremy Sisto) chasing down coupled-up serial killers (Ed Westwick, Erika Christensen) who prey on young women. Enjoyment tip: Try not to think about how half the cast wasn't even born when the series takes place. CBS Angel From Hell Premieres: Thursday, Nov. 5 at 9:30 PM Jane Lynch stars as a guardian angel. Or does she star as a crazy person who thinks she's a guardian angel? That's what Maggie Lawson's character — a straight-laced dermatologist — will have to figure out in this oddball buddy comedy. But you'll have to figure out when to laugh — this is a rare single-camera comedy on CBS. Code Black Premieres: Wednesday, Sep. 30 at 10:00 PM Marcia Gay Harden stars in this medical drama about an emergency room in Los Angeles that's overcrowded, understaffed and under-equipped. But the doctors get it done, because this is a television show! Based on Ryan McGarry's award-winning documentary of the same name, Code Black also stars Luis Guzman, Raza Jeffrey, Benjamin Hollingsworth and Bonnie Somerville. Life in Pieces Premieres: Monday, Sep. 21 at 8:30 PM A fantastic cast highlights this multi-generational family comedy that's told from the point of view of every family member. Babies will be born, kids will go to college and sitcom situations will go down at funerals. Dianne Wiest, James Brolin, Colin Hanks, Zoe Lister-Jones, Angelique Cabral, Thomas Sadoski, Betsy Brandt and Dan Bakkedahl star. Limitless Premieres: Tuesday, Sep. 22 at 10:00 PM You thought the movie was OK, now see the television show based on the OK movie! This thriller stars Greek's Jake McDorman as a man who takes a drug that gives him access to 100 percent of his brain, meaning he's gifted physically and intellectually. Naturally, that makes him the perfect person to solve crime! Jennifer Carpenter, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Hill Harper co-star. Bradley Cooper, the star of the original 2011 film and executive producer of the series, will recur and reprise his character. Supergirl Premieres: Monday, Oct. 26 at 8:30 PM Add CBS to the list of networks riding on the cape of the superher

Today we go through emails and news and a discuss a post by Scott Wilkinson at AVS Forum that provides 12 Tips to Tune up your HDTV with guest host Stephanie Derderian. Don't worry, Braden will be back next week!

DIY Automation Controls using Amazon’s Dash Buttons Amazon released a new little product a couple months ago, to very little fanfare. The Dash Button is a tiny device that allows you to instantly order a specific product for Amazon Prime delivery. We thought it was a bit of a novelty and didn’t see much use for it, but as with just about anything in technology these days, give it time and someone will find a way to repurpose it and put it to better use. About the Dash Button Each button is about the size of a portable USB drive and, in Amazon’s own words, it “...comes with a reusable adhesive and a hook so you can hang, stick, or place it right where you need it. Keep Dash Button handy in the kitchen, bath, laundry, or anywhere you store your favorite products. When you're running low, simply press Dash Button, and Amazon quickly delivers household favorites so you can skip the last-minute trip to the store.” They are currently available in limited quantities to Prime members only. Each Dash Button costs $4.99. Not bad for the convenience factor. When we first heard about them, we thought it could be pretty neat. Buy a button, tell it what product you want it to order for you, and place it in a convenient location. Do you use a lot of AA batteries for remote controls, kids toys, etc? Place the Dash Button by where you store your batteries and when you’re running low, click it and you’ll have more on your doorstep in two days. But that’s not exactly how it works. The idea is the same, but the Buttons aren’t nearly that configurable. Each Button corresponds to a predetermined product, and includes that product’s logo on it. If you find yourself constantly ordering and reordering one of the available products, it could be great for you. If not, the Dash Button may seem useless. That is, unless you find your own unique way to hack the Dash Button to get it to do something else that makes sense for you. Right now there are 18 Dash Buttons available: Tide Detergent, Bounty Paper Towels, Cottonelle Toilet Paper, Glad Trash Bags, Gillette Razor Blade Refills, SmartWater Water Bottles, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, Gatorade Sports Drinks, Huggies Diapers, Larabar Nutrition Bars, Izze Sparkling Juices, Wellness Natural Pet Food, Amazon Elements Baby Wipes, Clorox Disinfecting Wipes, Maxwell House Coffee, Olay Skin Care, Gerber Baby Formula, and L'Oreal Youth Skin Care. Repurposing the Dash Button The whole idea comes from a post at Medium.com by Ted Benson called How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button to track Baby Data. Which, we’ll admit, sounds a bit creepy, but it isn’t. It was a dad’s quest to track when and how often his baby woke up at night. You can get the full details if you read the post, but he had tried baby tracker apps, but wasn’t satisfied, so he decided to put the Amazon Dash Button to use for just that purpose. Those familiar with networking know that any devices you connect to your home network must have a unique identifier so your router can tell it apart from all the other devices on your network. This identifier is called a MAC address. The Dash Button is no different. Each one has a Mac address so it can connect to your home Wifi, then connect to Amazon over the Internet to make your product order. That MAC address, and the Dash Button’s ability to connect to your home Wifi are the secret to unlocking the device’s full potential. To save battery life, the Dash Button completely shuts off when not in use. This means that when you click the button it has to wake up, connect to your Wifi network, then place the order. So if you can track when it connects to your network, you can get an alert every time the button is pressed. The author decided to monitor his network with a simple python script running on his computer. The source code is available at the post if you want it. But if you’re inventive, there are multiple ways to detect a new device joining your network. Since each Dash button has to have a unique MAC address, you can have as many as you want and detect each one independently when they’re pressed. The author went on to enhance his python script to add a line to a google spreadsheet. He was able to use two different Dash Buttons to track two different baby activities at night, without having to turn his phone on, launch the app, track the activity, etc. Just click a Dash Button and you’re set. Of course, as he points out, you want to make sure the Dash Button isn’t actually associated with an item at Amazon so you don’t end up ordering something every time you click it. But instead of writing a line to a Google spreadsheet, this is where the world becomes your oyster. Yours can do anything you can script to occur from the computer tracking the network for Dash Button activity. If that computer happens to be your automation server, imagine the possibilities. Do you have an automation activity you perform constantly that a single button press would make so much easier when a light switch isn’t

Mobile HDTV Motorola Mobility, one time subsidiary of Google, now a part of Lenovo, just released a new app in the Google Play Store called, yep, you guessed it, Mobile HDTV. The app enables select phones and portable devices, with the proper hardware, to watch live, over-the-air HDTV right on your Android device. The concept is pretty simple, and you’d think very compelling, but it turns out most people can’t use it. The question is, why not? According to the description of the app, “Digital HDTV brings the broadcast TV experience to mobile devices with HD quality, making the experience more personal and more universally available.” The app is both a tuner and a DVR, so it allows you to... “Watch TV while away from home: Digital HDTV brings the HD broadcast TV experience to the mobile device, with the additional support of the EPG (Electronic Program Guide) and Ginga, for user interactivity.” “Record the TV program that you like: You may record the program you are watching, so that you can see it again later, or share something you liked with others.” “Choose when to watch your favorite program: You may love a TV program but you may not necessarily be available to watch it when it plays. This feature gives you the ability to schedule it to be recorded, so that you can watch it later, when you like it.” However, “This application has been designed to work on the Motorola models that support Mobile HDTV.” That’s the catch. So how many Motorola devices support Mobile HDTV? Turns out we weren’t able to find any for the US market that include the necessary hardware. Google and Amazon searches for devices with built-in DTV tuners came up empty. There are a handful of external DTV tuner/antennas at Amazon, but they’re based on the now defunct Dyle TV platform. So what gives? TV on your Phone According to the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters), “The process of integrating mobile TV transmission with an existing ATSC broadcast TV plant is not difficult. These are the basic devices required for local origination and network services: A video (AVC) and audio (HE AAC v2) encoder for each added program stream An IP path into the facility (for remote component ingest) An IP encapsulator to encapsulate all program streams and non-real-time files into the appropriate transport protocol A service multiplexer to multiplex the conventional ATSC stream with mobile TV data A mobile TV enabled exciter to replace the existing exciter in the ATSC transmitter The Mobile TV architecture provides full compatibility with all industry-standard ATSC equipment. Additionally, the system is compatible with all current microwave and fiber STL systems.” And they list a ton of benefits for the broadcaster, “When a mobile TV system is implemented, broadcasters can expect the following operational and financial benefits: Leveraged investment in ATSC transmission Delivery of robust digital TV signals to mobile TV receiving devices Extension of local branding to mobile users The ability to redirect local news, weather, sports and traffic information to "consumers on the go" The addition of up to eight program (streams) of mobile content per station New revenue opportunities based on subscription, advertising and sell-through transactions” We (The HT Guys) started talking seriously about Mobile HDTV back in 2010 when a group called Mobile Content Venture (MCV), a joint venture of 12 major broadcasters, announced a commitment to upgrade TV stations in 20 markets in order to deliver live video to portable devices. Their goal was to deliver mobile video service in markets representing more than 40% of the US population by late 2011. That group eventually released a platform of hardware and applications called Dyle TV. But as of May 22, 2015, Dyle mobile TV is no longer in service, and Dyle-enabled devices and their apps will no longer be supported. Some may remember that Qualcomm tried and failed as well. They developed a technology called MediaFLO for transmitting audio, video and data to portable devices for mobile television and branded it in the US as FLO TV. But in October 2010, they announced they were suspending all new sales of the service to consumers and in December 2010, AT&T acquired Qualcomm's broadcast spectrum licenses in the 700 MHz band. FLO TV was officially shut down as a service in March of 2011. What gives? Many of us remember how many portable TVs were sold in the 1980’s. How many Watchman TVs Sony was flooding the market with. And back then you had to carry a separate device with you just to watch TV. Often they were only black and white screens, and sure they were “portable,” but not nearly as portable as today’s cell phones. How is it that free, over-the-air television, with no cost to consumers - no data charges, no minutes used - isn’t a feature on every cell phone and tablet in America? This is very different than the Aereo situation. With Mobile HDTV the same broadcaster is airing the same content in the same mar