HDTV and Home Theater Podcast

Handheld Movie Server We both took vacations recently and decided to leave the laptops behind. But that didn’t mean we didn’t want to take our content with us. If you have an iPad you are limited to 64GB at present and with Andriod many devices allow you to add storage through SD cards. While that gives you a potentially unlimited amount of storage its impractical for large libraries. What are you to do? All (or most of your) Movies in the Palm of Your Hand Seagate has got you covered. They sell the Seagate Wireless Plus. Its a hard drive with a built in web server that can stream your content to all your mobile devices. The 1 Terabyte version sells for $160 (Buy Now). They also have a 500 GB and 2TB version selling for $140 and $199 respectively. Features: Wirelessly streams your favorite digital media to tablets, smartphones, computers and more Synchronizes with Dropbox and Google Drive to bring the cloud with you Streams up to three different HD movies to three devices at the same time Connects throughout your home to DLNA devices, Samsung Smart TVs, and AirPlay Integrates with the free Seagate Media app for iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire, Windows 8/TR tablets and computers, and Android tablets and smartphones Delivers up to 10-hour battery life Setup The drive was connected to our home base computer and nearly 500GB of video and music were copied to it. The copy went pretty fast with the USB 3.0 interface. Since we were on a Mac we did have to reformat it so that both Macs and PCs could read and write to the drive when connected via USB. We copied the music to a music folder and the movies to a movie folder. When done the device indexes the content and presents the name and any album art that the file may have with it. We then disconnected and turned on the wifi feature and saw the Seagate Wireless Network show up when we scanned wifi networks. We connected with no issues and immediately were able to stream content via the Seagate app on our mobile devices. You can mix and match OS as well as mobile device platforms. The first thing we did was select the settings widget and change the SSID and add a password. If you are using the device where wifi is available you can have the Media Server share the internet connection so you don’t lose Internet access while connected to it. Performance Navigation was simple, you can select content by Music, Movies, Photos, then by genres if you want. There is a nice search feature as well. Finally you can just browse the drives folders if you wish. Once the selection is made the media starts playing in a few seconds. On the airplane we had three people connected and we streamed HD content that was recorded at about 8Mbps. We observed no issues with the data whatsoever. On our cruise ship we had four people connected and had no issues either. You mileage may vary as that environment was pretty quiet as far as noise goes. The iOS app worked quite well but we seemed to like the web interface better. You simply put seagatewireless.com in the URL and you are presented with an interface that is similar to the app version. The battery life was nowhere near the 10 hours that is on the packaging. It was more like four hours of continuous use. Conclusion The Seagate Wireless Plus drive is a great solution for those who want to carry very large media libraries with them and have access to them from any mobile device. Small and easy to carry, simple to use, and decent battery life make this an HT Guys favorite!

When it comes to home technology trends, there is much to talk about – Google, Apple, DIY, the “learning home,” protocol overload, voice and gesture control, smart TVs and so much more. But here we focus on just three important trends that should be particularly interesting to home systems integrators and other professionals involved in home technology.

Interview - Mohu CEO We are big fans of Mohu products. We have reviewed just about every antenna they have sold: Podcast #489: MOHU Paper Thin HDTV Antenna Podcast #528: Mohu Leaf Plus Amplified Indoor HDTV Antenna Podcast #580: Mohu Sky HDTV Antenna Ara has the Mohu Sky HD antenna on his roof and is picking up signals from Los Angeles (55 miles) and San Diego (90 miles) away. Today we talk to the Mark Buff of Mohu about his company and the cutting edge technology they use as well as the yet to be released crowd funded Mohu Channels product.

4K TV Options 4K or UltraHD technology is starting to approach mainstream, and the options for 4K TVs is getting better all the time. In a quick glance at the choices selling right now at Amazon.com, we were surprised to see how many there are, and how affordable the have quickly become. Of course, Vizio isn’t in the list yet, so if you’re waiting for that like a certain HT Guy might be, you’ll have to keep waiting. But if you need a new TV now, 4K might be within reach. Four options from Seiki Amazing prices, good reviews. Seiki SE39UY04 39-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz LED TV $339.00 - 4 stars - 495 reviews Seiki SE50UY04 50-Inch 4K UHD 120Hz LED HDTV $549.98 - 4 stars - 495 reviews Seiki SE55UY04 55-Inch 120Hz LED 4k UHD TV $699.99 - 4 stars - 495 reviews Seiki SE65UY04 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz LED TV $1,352.00 - 4 stars - 495 reviews Multiple options from Samsung The perennial powerhouse has a few options that don’t require you to sell a child. They come in a plethora of sizes and flavors. Samsung UN40HU6950 40-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz Smart LED TV $997.99 - 5 stars - 5 reviews Samsung UN50HU6950 50-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz Smart LED TV $1,497.99 - 5 stars - 5 reviews 3D Version (UN50HU8550) - $1,797.99 - 4 stars - 47 reviews Samsung UN55HU6950 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz Smart LED TV $1,997.99 - 5 stars - 5 reviews 3D Version (UN55HU8550) - $2,297.99 - 4 stars - 47 reviews Curved 3D Version (UN55HU8700) - $2,797.99 - Not reviewed Samsung UN60HU8550 60-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz 3D Smart LED HDTV $2,797.99 - 4 stars - 47 reviews Samsung UN65F9000 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz 3D Smart LED TV (2013 Model) $3,099.00 - 3.5 stars - 78 reviews 3D Version - 2014 - (UN65HU8550) - $3,297.99 - 4 stars - 47 reviews Curved 3D Version (UN65HU8700) - $3,797.99 - Not reviewed Sony brings several Sony XBR49X850B 49-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz 3D LED TV $1,998.00 - 5 star - 6 reviews Sony XBR55X850A 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz 3D Internet LED UHDTV (2013 Model) $1,982.97 - 4 stars - 44 reviews 2014 model - (XBR55X850B) - $2,298.00 - 5 star - 6 reviews 3D Smart Version - (XBR-55X900A) - $2,399.00 - 4 stars - 74 reviews Sony XBR65X850A 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz 3D Internet LED UHDTV (2013 Model) $2,892.10 - 4 stars - 44 reviews Sony XBR65X850B 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz 3D LED TV 2014 model - $3,298.00 - 5 star - 6 reviews Sony XBR65X850A 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz 3D LED HDTV Media Player Bundle $3,298.00 - Not Reviewed A few models from LG Electronics Life’s Good - especially when you’re watching in 4K. LG Electronics 49UB8500 49-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz 3D Smart LED TV $1,299.00 - 4 stars - 20 reviews LG Electronics 55UB8500 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz 3D Smart LED TV $1,599.00 - 4 stars - 20 reviews LG Electronics 55LA9700 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz 3D Smart Nano LED TV (2013 Model) $1,899.99 - with Sliding Sound Bar - 3.5 stars - 7 reviews 2014 Model - (55UB9500) - $2,299.00 - 4.5 stars - 2 reviews LG Electronics 65LA9700 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz 3D Smart Nano LED TV (2013 Model) $2,899.99 - with Sliding Sound Bar - 3.5 stars - 7 reviews 2014 Model - (65UB9500) - $3,299.00 - 4.5 stars - 2 reviews And a Few Others TCL LE50UHDE5691 50-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz LED TV $799.00 - 4 stars - 64 reviews TCL LE50UHDE5692G 50-Inch 4K Ultra HD120Hz Smart LED TV $1,099.99 - Not Reviewed Toshiba 58L9300U 58-Inch 4K Ultra HD 3D Smart LED HDTV (2013 Model) $2,260.84 - 3.5 stars - 20 reviews Toshiba 65L9300U 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD 240Hz 3D Smart LED HDTV (2013 Model) $2,999.00 - 3.5 stars - 20 reviews Sharp LC-70UD1U 70-inch Aquos 4K Ultra HD 2160p 120Hz 3D Smart LED TV $3,497.99 - 5 star - 13 reviews Future Models coming from Vizio Not ready yet, but the pricing and brand reputation may make them worth waiting for. “With advanced local dimming technology, featuring a backlight that consists of 64 Active LED Zones, HEVC Codec for Ultra HD streaming and VIZIO’s V6 six-core processor that combines a quad-core GPU and dual-core CPU for unparalleled performance and maximum speed, VIZIO’s P-Series has been engineered to deliver the full range of Ultra HD content consumers want.” VIZIO P-Series Ultra HD Full-Array LED backlit LCD Smart TVs P502ui-B1 - 50” - $999.99 (MSRP) P552ui-B2 - 55” - $1,399.99 (MSRP) P602ui-B3 - 60” - $1,799.99 (MSRP) P652ui-B2 - 65” - $2,199.99 (MSRP) P702ui-B3 - 70” - $2,599.99 (MSRP)

Pioneer VSX-44 Elite 7.2 Home Theater Receiver Back in May of 2013 we reviewed one of Pioneer’s entry Elite models the VSX-70. At that time we were impressed with the sound quality but the MSRP of $750 may have been a barrier for some. Now Pioneer has introduced two new entry Elites (VSX-80 MSRP $700 and VSX-44 MSRP $500) that have more capability and lower prices. We take a closer look at the VSX-44. Features: 7 - Discrete Power Amplifiers each producing 80 watts per Channel (20 Hz – 20 kHz, THD 0.08 % @ 8 ohms FTC) 6 HDMI (5 Rear, 1 Front) / 1 Out HDMI 2.0 Compatibility with Ultra HD Pass-through Roku® Ready with access to over 1000 stations, Internet Radio, Pandora and Spotify iControlAV5 Remote control app Powered Zone 2 Audio Setup: We do this quite often and can swap out a receiver in about 20 minutes. Your time may vary but our setup went like this; remove the receiver from the box, connect the speakers, connect the inputs, connect power, and run the auto calibration. Performance: There wasn’t much to test in the way of video. No upconverting or video processing. In our opinion that’s a good thing. Unless you use the higher end chips we find the video processing in low cost units are a waste. This unit passes the 4K signal through to the TV for processing and upconverting to be done there. The audio calibration produced results that only needed tweaking in the subwoofer. We found that it turned down the level too much for our tastes. We watched and listened to our standard fare of content that consisted of 256 Kbps AAC audio, Blu-ray, Satellite TV, Streaming content from our AppleTV. In all the VSX-44 sounded good. But bearing the Elite name we were hoping for more. We understand that the receiver only costs $500 one whole penny more than the Pioneer VSX-1024-K. The two units are spec for spec identical. So why would Pioneer put the Elite name on this unit? We even asked them but never got an answer. Is the VSX-44/VSX-1024-K worth the money? If you are mainly using it for home theater, then the answer is yes. Movies Every modern receiver in this price range better produce good quality audio especially with blu-ray. The VSX-44 is no exception. Dialog was clear and present. Effects made the room come alive. We looked for scenes that did not use too much subwoofer to better evaluate the audio. To be honest the receiver did a great job but we can’t say that it was better or worse than any other receiver in its price class. Its getting to the point where each $500 receiver is as good as other $500 receivers. We think that’s due to the auto calibration software that receivers now have. Music The VSX-44 did well with classical music and acoustic performances. Rock sounded good too. In all the Elite wasn’t inspiring but adequate in its handling of music. If you are really into music we would suggest one of the higher tiered Elites to this unit. Odds and Ends iControlAV5 Remote Control App for Android and iOS devices. The app is nice and has more info and functionality than most people will need or use. You can even use the app to select music from your phone to play on the receiver Airplay and HTC Connect - We streamed music from our iOS devices to the VSX-44 via Wifi with no issues. You can also plug an iPhone into the USB port on the front of the panel and control it from a full color GUI. DLNA - The VSX-44 supports DLNA 1.5 Internet Radio, Pandora and Spotify - All are supported but the user interface was so difficult to navigate we decided that its better to use a separate external device like a Roku or AppleTV for these features. Adapters - Both Bluetooth and Wireless adapters are available if you do not have a hardwired connection. Conclusion The VSX-44 is a solid receiver that is not overloaded with features that you would never use. Sound quality is good and will let you enjoy whatever you are watching. The real question is what is Pioneer trying to do with this unit. The have a model in their standard line of receivers that has identical specs for one penny less. Its probably someone in marketing suggesting that some people will only buy this model if it has the Elite badge on it. Perhaps Pioneer agrees with our earlier assertion that a $500 receiver is a $500 receiver. With that said, we no longer will review receivers under $1,000 unless there is some compelling reason. There is just too little differentiation in that space and it comes down to brand loyalty, aesthetics, or what’s on sale.

Oppo BDP-103D Blu-ray Player, Darbee Edition Review Oppo Digital has long been a favorite of the HT Guys. There have certainly been more expensive and exotic Blu-ray players built, but we’re yet to find a competitor that packs the functionality and features of an Oppo, with the same build quality at the same price. Dollar for dollar, Oppo makes what is probably the best Blu-ray player you should ever need to buy. Our last Oppo review was the BDP-93 on Podcast 463 back in January of 2011. Since that time, Oppo released a couple new players, the BDP-103 and the BDP-105 that introduced support for 4K up-scaling, 2D-to-3D conversion and an extra HDMI input so you can take advantage of the Oppo video processing capabilities with other video sources. These players were met with the same critical acclaim as their predecessors. But that wasn’t enough for the good folks at Oppo. Sure their players could meet or exceed the specifications of any television or projector you could connect them to, but they kept looking for ways to make them even better. That led to the release of the BDP-103D and the BDP-105D. Both are nearly equivalent to the earlier models, except for the inclusion of Darbees Visual Presence. That D in the name adds an extra $100 to each model, putting them at $599 (Buy Now) and $1299 (Buy Now) respectively. Features Darbee Visual Presence Universal Blu-ray disc player with Blu-ray, DVD, SACD, DVD-Audio, CD, VCD, HDCD, AVCHD, MP4, AVI, and MKV support Content streaming from Netflix, VUDU, CinemaNow, Pandora, Rhapsody, Film Fresh, YouTube Leanback and Picasa Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio 4k Up-conversion 2D-to-3D Conversion True 24p Video Advanced Picture Controls Dual HDMI Inputs and Outputs MHL-Compatibility DLNA SMB/CIFS Wireless N 7.1-Channel Analog Audio Dual-core processor provides quick startup and fast loading times Darbee Visual Presence Many love it, many hate it, many couldn’t care less about it. Whatever you opinion of Darbee Visual Presence, odds are you’ve met someone with a passionate stance on the technology. Darbee has a different take on video processing that improves depth and detail in an image by increasing or decreasing the local pixel luminance. They essentially use light to increase the details by adding additional light some cases or additional shadow in others, to the image on screen. This is different from the contrast enhancement technologies you may have tried in the past that just adjust the overall white or black levels. Those never work and should always be turned off. But Darbee works at the pixel level, so it is quite different. Other sharpness or edge enhancing technologies tend to introduce a lot of artifacts to an image. They typically add sharpness where you don’t want it and make things just look strange or pixelated. Darbee is different from those as well. Knowing that it is a totally different technology from the picture enhancement options we tell you to always turn off, the question is: will Darbee be something we recommend you leave on, or will it fall in with the rest of them as an option you typically don’t want to use. The technology whitepaper at the Darbee website goes into great detail if you're interested in reading it. Functionality We don’t yet have a 4K television or projector in any of our test setups, which is something we plan to remedy very soon, but due to the lack of a screen for it, we couldn’t review the 4k Up-conversion function of the player. Beyond that, we aren’t huge fans of 3D, so we opted not to review the 2D-to-3D Conversion either. This review really came down to the Darbee processing and how much we thought it added to or detracted from the standard Blu-ray experience. To get the Darbee chip into the BDP-103, Oppo had to remove the Marvell QDEO Kyoto-G2H video chip. Fans of the QDEO chips may find that hard to swallow, but it was for a good cause. They added a dedicated Darbee button to the remote so you can have quick access to your Darbee settings to make easy adjustments on the fly. What adjustments? Beyond just on or off, you can choose from three different processing modes, Hi-Def, Gaming, and Full Pop, and within those modes you can dial in the amount of Darbee from 0 to 120%. The BDP-103D even has a great demo mode that allows you to see a split screen showing the impact Darbee will have on your video. This made the review so much simpler. We could dial up some content, apply Darbee at a ton of different settings and watch the difference. There is no doubt the Darbee has an impact on the video. Those who have said they don’t see much impact may be watching on a smaller television or just aren’t looking close enough. We did see the most dramatic impact on our 100” projector screen. Results There were times where we were astonished by the Darbee technology and others were it seemed to make things worse. In some cases, we saw detail we would have had no idea was ever there - skin pocs, whiskers, blemishes. It was astonishin

Interview with Mark Ely CEO of SimpleTV There has been a lot in the news about cutting the cord lately especially in light of the recent supreme court decision regarding Aereo’s business model. We learned that its a copyright infringement if a company leases you equipment that captures OTA signals, transcodes them and then sends them to you via the Internet. But its not against the law if you do that yourself. There are a few products on the market that can do this. One of them is Simple.TV. SimpleTV is a TV server that records and streams live HDTV to up to 5 of users no matter where they are, provided that you pay for the Simple.TV Premier service which runs $60 for the year or $150 for lifetime service. The SimpleTV device sells for $200 and you need to use your own hard drive.

Dolby Atmos Enabled Speakers and Receivers When we first read the press release about Dolby Atmos enabled speakers, we’ll admit, it sounded a bit puzzling and we found ourselves scratching our heads. Atmos enabled receivers? Sure, that makes sense, but what does it take to make an Atmos enabled speaker? We’ve never heard of a Dolby TrueHD enabled speaker, or a DTS-HD Master Audio enabled speaker. So what is the difference with Atmos that it needs, or can even provide, a special speaker? Background Dolby Atmos is a killer system for delivering multi-dimensional sound that can place and move specific sounds anywhere in the room, including overhead. It can even do this without the need for new speakers mounted overhead. The result is a captivating experience that can bring movies and TV shows alive all around you, in a movie theater and very soon, in your own home theater. Pioneer announcement Pioneer Electronics has announced a dedicated line of Dolby Atmos enabled Elite speakers and Elite SC series home theater receivers that will be Dolby Atmos upgradable via a firmware update available by the end of the year. The new for 2014 flagship Elite SC receivers will provide the multi-channel processing and necessary power required to transform your home theater into a Dolby Atmos theater. If you haven’t been to an Atmos equipped movie theater, you owe it to yourself to check it out. The experience is impressive. You get so much more out of the movie when it is brought to life with an even more encompassing, multi-dimensional audio experience. Dolby Atmos brings the soundtrack to life, with sound coming at you from all directions, including overhead. It takes the notion of 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound to the next level. Getting this technology in the home will be awesome. But does it really require special speakers? It doesn’t sound like it. The press release states that they are a new line of specially designed speakers that “will produce exceptional sound quality that brings the technology to life.” Does that mean other speakers won’t also be able to bring the technology to life? Of course not. But will they be good speakers that work really well for the kinds of surround effects and experiences you want from Dolby Atmos? We’d venture to guess that they will be. Chris Walker, the director of AV product planning and marketing for the Home Electronics Division of Pioneer Electronics provided a little more detail in the press release. He said, “To ensure the best Dolby Atmos experience possible, Pioneer not only produced a series of ultra-high end receivers dedicated for the task, but also appointed Andrew Jones, our top speaker engineer, to design a speaker system worthy of the Elite brand and that can reproduce the sound quality that only Dolby Atmos can deliver.” So bottom line, they designed, built and tested them together to make sure they provided the best possible Atmos experience out of the box. Probably a marketing ploy, but an understandable one. Pioneer’s claim is that their years of experience and expertise in home theater gave them the opportunity to develop a complete Dolby Atmos system with both receivers and speaker products. They believe that the availability of a single Pioneer branded system will provide better control of the Dolby Atmos experience and the advantage in delivering the technology. Excitement for Retailers as well “Dolby Atmos is the next step in home entertainment and it’s really something you have to experience for yourself to understand how truly amazing it is,” said Michael Crane, Senior Director of Merchandising for Magnolia Home Theater and Design Centers. “We’re looking forward to demonstrating the technology in our Magnolia locations through Pioneer’s complete Dolby Atmos-enabled system.” Bottom line The truth, at least what we hope will be the truth, is that Dolby Atmos will probably be pretty cool in your home. Will you need the special Atmos enabled speakers? No. Will they somehow enhance the experience? Our honest gut reaction is that they won’t, unless you’re upgrading from inferior speakers at the same time. We’ll have to wait and listen to them for ourselves, but on paper, we just aren’t seeing it. Get the receiver, listen to the speakers for yourself. Not just Pioneer And of course, the Atmos technology isn’t unique to Pioneer. Onkyo has also announced a line of Atmos-enabled receivers. The THX Select2 Plus-certified 9.2-channel TX-NR1030 Network A/V Receiver will have an MSRP of $1,699, the 11.2-channel TX-NR3030 Network A/V Receiver will sell for $2,399, and the THX Ultra2 Plus-certified PR-SC5530 Network A/V Controller will go for $2,499. All three are expected to be available in August and will all support HDMI 2.0, HDCP 2.2, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, DTS Neo:X and ISF Video Calibration support. Onkyo press release: “With Dolby Atmos, sound comes alive from all directions, including overhead, to fill the home theater with astonishing clarity, power, detail, and depth. Dolby

ATSC 2.0 Over the Air gets Better... But is it too late? Before there was HDTV there was NTSC (National Television System Committee) or as it was known by most people today standard definition. That was the standard developed in 1941 and was in effect until it was superseded by ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee standards) which brought us high definition television which in turn gave rise to this podcast! ATSC was a dramatic step forward in picture quality and capability. But being first meant there were limitations. For instance ATSC is mpeg 2 which does not compress as nicely as mpeg 4 which is used in Europe and other parts of the world. At the time ATSC was developed, 1990s, 1080p and 4K were not really on the radar. At least we had accurate color and clear pictures! Technology moves on and broadcast standards have a hard time keeping up. At least the ATSC is trying. The latest version of their broadcasting standard has a lot of improvements that we’ll discuss. The main question, however, is it already too late? What’s in ATSC 2.0? The main features of the standard are: Non Real Time (NRT) Services - This can be ads targeted to viewers based on time of day, what the viewer is watching, or specific data about the viewer. The broadcaster can also provide a VOD service that is delivered over the air. Watch your network content when you want without a DVR. The broadcaster can even deliver content in advance and have it ready for viewing at a specific time. Two Way Communication - Now when viewers watch a voting based show they will be able to vote without the use of a telephone. They’ll be able to get more information about advertised products. This will tie into the NRT services and have that content delivered for viewing on demand. Better and more accurate viewership numbers can be obtained which may save some shows that may otherwise get canceled. Watch Multiple Channels Simultaneously - You will be able to set up your screen with multiple views that include widgets or other channels. You can have weather forecasts, Twitter, or Facebook along with news and sports. Essentially turning your plain old over the air system into an advanced set top box without the need for the Internet. If you have Internet the capabilities are further enhanced! Mobile Broadcast - Current ATSC does not work when the receiver is moving. That will change in 2.0. Mobile devices are becoming the norm and we can see the day when you cars will come from the factory with antennas that can receive ATSC signals making it possible for your children to watch their favorite cartoons on the go. These are just a few of the features available in the ATSC 2.0 spec. If you want more information its available ATSC.org. When do I get all this cool stuff? You know it took broadcasters a few years to roll out HDTV to everyone. We don’t even think about those dark days any longer. The specification will be approved later this year and then its anyone guess when broadcasters will implement them. It will be at least a few years so don’t count on anything before 2016 or 2017 at the earliest. And even then, it won’t be ubiquitous. Does it even matter? Much of what is proposed in the new standard is already available today through cable or satellite augmented with the Internet. Mobile over the air broadcast sounds like it would be pretty cool but with faster data networks and more broadcasters going online with content its not really a game changer. Higher resolution, 4K, content is not even slated until ATSC 3. By then, Netflix will be streaming 4K on much of its offerings. Fast internet is the key and rural areas not serviced well by Internet providers will lag. Its also likely that the rural areas will be slower to adopt the next ATSC standard as well. We believe that most of the country will be serviced by reliable high speed Internet before broadcasters embrace ATSC 2.0 and 3.0. And at that point will broadcasters even have incentive to roll out new more costly services? Let us know what you think.

Sonos Playbar and Sub Review We’ve reviewed multiple soundbars in the past, from a wide variety of companies, but we’ve never reviewed a Playbar. What is the difference between a soundbar and a Playbar? Quite a bit as it turns out. Knowing Sonos we expected big things, and we weren’t disappointed in the slightest. The Playbar sells for $699 (shop now) and the optional Sub for an additional $699 (shop now). Setup If you already have any Sonos equipment in your home, setting up the Playbar and Sub is ridiculously easy. If you don’t have any Sonos gear, don’t worry, setup goes from ridiculously easy to quite easy. There’s simply not that much to it. First step is to connect the Playbar itself or the optional Sonos Bridge ($42) to your home network via wired Ethernet. Our review unit included a Bridge, and Braden already had one as well, so we went the Bridge route. The one Sonos device you connect to wired Ethernet allows the rest of your Sonos devices to be placed anywhere in the home with no need for any wires other than power. Once you have that main device connected to the network, you can download the Sonos app either to your iOS device, your Android device, or to your personal computer. You use the app to connect to your main device - it becomes your controller - and add music sources to listen to. Once you have a main Sonos device and the app to control all your Sonos gear up and running, adding new devices, like a Playbar or a Sub, is as easy as telling the app you want to add a new device, clicking a button on that device, and watching it show up. You can assign the new device to a room (by room name), and you’re ready to start listening to music. Since the Playbar is a little different, setup is slightly more involved. The app asks you a set of questions to help calibrate the speaker for your room, walks you through setting up your remote so the volume buttons will control the Playbar volume. You connect the Playbar to your theater equipment using a single optical audio (toslink) cable. So if you have multiple sources, you’ll still need something in place to switch between them before sending the audio to your Playbar. Adding the Sub is just as easy as adding the Playbar itself. Tell the app you want to add a Sub to your Playbar, click a button on the Sub and that’s it. You can place the Subwoofer itself anywhere. It just needs power. The app asks a couple quick calibration questions and you’ve just added all the booming bass you need for those big explosions. Performance As is true with just about any soundbar, the Playbar is clearly better than any TV speaker we have. Adding just the Playbar itself will improve your HDTV experience. When you add the Sub along with it, you get a new dimension in sound you would never come close to in a built-in TV speaker. The Playbar and Sub cannot compete with a dedicated Home Theater receiver and good, separate left, center and right speakers, but it isn’t intended to. For rooms that don’t have the full surround sound system, like a loft, a study, a game room or a bedroom, the Playbar is perfect. For movies and HDTV the Playbar was as good as almost any other soundbar we’ve used or reviewed. The only one that stood out in our minds as better was the Yamaha Sound Projector from a CES demo a few years ago. But that was an almost $2000 device that was intended to simulate surround sound, The Playbar doesn’t try to simulate surround effects. It is clearly packaged and sold as a 3.0 system: left, center and right. Since we’ve had lackluster success with simulated surround in the past, the idea of sticking to 3.0 doesn’t bother us. Where the Playbar really excels is with music and versatility. As a pure music playing device, the Playbar is excellent. Compared with other soundbars that seem tuned and designed for TV viewing, the Playbar almost feels like it is built for music. Every genre we threw at it, from Rock to Classical, sounded great. It was crisp and vibrant, not overly hushed in the higher tones or muffled in strange ways in the midrange. It just sounded clean. And versatile. As a member of the Sonos family, the Playbar jumps right in with the rest of your gear to play and stream any of your music sources. It can stream your home media collection, including iTunes, and all of your online sources like Pandora, Spotify, Beats Music, Google Play, iHeartRadio and more. It can also sync with any other Sonos player to get the same music going in multiple rooms at once. For as many times as we’ve used or reviewed Sonos, we’re yet to have music synchronization issues with multi-zone playback. But wait, there’s more… This isn’t just an ordinary soundbar review, nor is it a typical ‘soundbar with a sub’ review, nor is it a ‘soundbar with a sub that can stream your music to in sync in multiple rooms’ review. Turns out this review is also about full 5.1 surround sound without wires … without speaker wires at least. You can actually add two additional sonos players to the

Slingbox Sharing You know we are fans of the Slingbox (Buy Now $265) and have used them to “Sling” our local TV from one side of the world to another. Ara spent a week in India and never watch a single minute of local television opting to watch football from the USA instead. Slingboxes are quite simply the easiest way to watch your local content wherever you want, provided that you have an internet connection. This got us thinking, wouldn’t it be nice if we could watch other people’s local content. Say you want to watch news from say Chicago or Seattle, a Slingbox makes that possible but what are you going to do? Set up A slingbox in every city you may have an interest in? No, of course not. But you do have a few options: AmericanTV2Go.com With AmericanTV2Go you actually signup for a DirecTV subscription of your choice and are provided a dedicated Slingbox to access it with. You pay for the DirecTV subscription just as you would if you were living in the states. Then you pay an additional $80 a month for the hosting service. That service provides you with: A top-of-the line Slingbox Unlimited upload bandwidth A second network address for your DVR - This enables remote scheduling of recordings and access to over 7,000 On Demand shows and movies The ability to reboot your system instantly, 24/7/365, via our easy-to-use self-serve system Customer support This service is probably best suited for the expat who wants to stay connected with the US. If you want to watch the American football you can purchase the Sunday Ticket package for additional fees. No word on local channels but they may be available for the Virginia beach area. Virginia Beach is the home of AmericanTV2Go.com. Live American TV LiveAmerican.TV is similar to AmericanTV2Go but rather than using DirecTV they use cable services. The best we can tell is that you get a Comcast or FiOS account. LiveAmerican.TV offer customers a fully managed Slingbox hosted television service from New York City and San Francisco. There is no hardware to worry about as LiveAmerican.TV hosts and maintains all the equipment. Your account includes a DVR box as well as a Slingbox when you sign up. No other fees are necessary. VPNs - Watch shows normally reserved only for viewers in the US, wherever you are in the world. $5/month or $45/year. DAILY RENTALS - Any San Francisco package tailored to your needs including MLB Extra Innings, NBA League Pass, NFL Sunday Ticket, NBC Sports Live Extra or BeIN sports. $8/day PREFERRED HD - Local (San Francisco Bay Area), news, entertainment, sports, kids, travel and non-stop music channels. 300+ channels. $90.00/month. PREMIER HD - Same as Preferred HD but with thousands of hours of on demand content, Playboy TV and tens of sports and movies channels. Add a 100-hour dual-tuner DVR for only $10/month extra. $120.00/month. ULTIMATE HD NYC - Over 300 channels in total. Includes the most High Definition channels available. All movie channels like HBO, Starz, Showtime etc. Includes Dual Tuner HD-DVR so you can watch all your shows anytime. All NYC local and Sports channels. Full access to all Free On Demand that FIOS offers. SPECIAL - Only $149.99/month. Slingsharing.com You can try and roll your own by using forums that join Slingbox owners from around the world. Slingsharing.com is one of those site that has two thousand members from around the world. The way it works is you read the forums that grouped by regions, USA, Canada, Asia, Australia, Europe, and South America. People are either looking for or offering Slingboxes for viewing. Typically its a trade. I grant you access if you do the same. It seems fairly safe, just be sure not to give out your administration password. You may want to avoid this if you have bandwidth caps as someone can really rack up the bits if they are constantly on it. We see a day when content will be available to the entire world simultaneously. That may be a few years away. But for now Slingboxes are the best way to bring the world closer together! Now lets all hold hands and sing Kumbaya.

Glasses-free 3D projector concept Nothing says “the future of display technology” like holograms. If you’re a Star Wars or a Star Trek fan, you know that someday we’ll have holograms for real, interacting with us. But until now that notion has existing only in science fiction and our imaginations. But fueled by the same dreams you have, over the past three years, researchers in the Camera Culture group at the MIT Media Lab have steadily refined a design for a 3D video technology that doesn’t require glasses at all. The MIT group believes their concept has the potential to provide a cheaper, more practical alternative to holographic video. And they don’t think it’ll take decades to get there. They’re using a technique called multiperspective 3D, which is quite different from the stereoscopic 3D technology common in homes and movie theaters. So this isn’t stereoscopic 3D without glasses, which some of us have seen and not been impressed with. This is a completely different approach. Watch the video The MIT researchers have built a prototype of their system using off-the-shelf components. There’s nothing exotic about the system, so the cost shouldn’t be prohibitive in mass production. They also built a prototype of a new type of screen that widens the angle from which their projector’s images can be viewed. The technology will be unveiled at this year’s Siggraph conference in Vancouver this August (Aug. 10-14, 2014). Siggraph is the major international conference in computer graphics and interactive technologies. Much like the holograms in your science fiction imagination, objects depicted by a multiperspective 3D display actually show different perspectives as the viewer moves about them, just as the objects would in the real world. While stereoscopic 3D tricks your brain into perceiving depth that isn’t there, multiperspective 3D draws a visual representation of the object from multiple angles, providing more of a “floating” image than a perceived depth. Next step: the Holodeck. How it works We encourage you to read the full news release at mit.edu for all the details. We’ll do our best to present a summary of what they have put together, but we certainly aren’t MIT researchers, nor do we try to play them on the podcast. The projector uses two liquid-crystal modulators, which are essentially tiny LCD displays, positioned between the light source and the lens. The first LCD is used to adjust the angle of the light passing through it. So the video information (which is the the light passing through it) reaches the second modulator only at particular angles. The combinations of the patterns displayed by the two modulators enable a viewer to see slightly different images from different angles. “For every frame of video, each modulator displays six different patterns, which together produce eight different viewing angles: At high enough display rates, the human visual system will automatically combine information from different images. The modulators can refresh their patterns at 240 hertz, or 240 times a second, so even at six patterns per frame, the system could play video at a rate of 40 hertz, which, while below the refresh rate common in today’s TVs, is still higher than the 24 frames per second standard in film.”. Added bonus: Better contrast and resolution It turns out that passing the light through the two modulators can actually improve the contrast of ordinary 2D video as well. We all know about the challenges LCD displays have had representing true black, and one of the reasons we lament the loss of plasma as much as we do. The problem stems from the fact that a little bit of light always leaks through even the darkest regions of the display. One of the MIT researchers, Gordon Wetzstein, explains it like this. “Normally you have contrast of, let’s say, values between 0 and 1. That’s the full contrast, but in practice, all modulators have something like 0.1 to 1. So you get this ‘black level.’ But if you multiply two optically together, the black level goes down to 0.01. If you show black on one, which is 10 percent, and black on the other, which is also 10 percent, what you get through is 1 percent. So it’s much more black.” Not only an improvement in contrast, but by changing the way the two modulators are used, you can actually heighten the resolution of the resulting image. If the patterns displayed on the modulators are slightly offset from each other, you can spread the pixels so that the the light passing through them will interfere with itself in ways that produce a higher resolution image. As you can imagine, the team at MIT has come up with a way to calculate the patterns needed on the modulators to produce that effect on the fly, in real time. The MIT team believes these two factors could make the technology an excellent bridge for theater operators - even before there is content available to take advantage of the multiperspective 3D capabilities. They can install projection systems now that

Lone Survivor - Blu-ray Review 4.8 Stars (out of 5) - Rated R Synopsis Based on the failed mission "Operation Red Wings" which tasked four members of SEAL Team 10 on June 28, 2005 to kill Taliban leader Ahmad Shah. Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Ben Foster, Emile Hirsch, Alexander Ludwig, Eric Bana Director: Peter Berg Blu-ray Release Date: June 3, 2014 Subtitles: English, Spanish Rating Overall rating weighted as follows: Audio 40%, Video 40%, Special Features 20%, Movie - its just our opinion so take it with a grain of salt Audio 5.0 Stars (out of 5) Dolby and DTS Demo Discs used as basis for comparison ● Subwoofer - 5.0 Stars ● Dialog - 5.0 Stars ● Surround Effects - 5.0 Stars ● Dynamic Range - 5.0 Stars English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, DVS 2.0, Spanish: DTS Digital Surround 5.1 The surround effects are amazing, bullets whizz by your head, helicopter blades whip around the room, and debris fly in all directions. Sometimes they perform so well I couldn't tell if an airplane was flying outside or if it was the movie. Every once in a while it was hard to make out lines of dialog, especially if it was over the radio. The subwoofer gets a lot of action with sounds of gunshots, helicopter engines, and of course exploding grenades and RPGs. Video 5.0 Stars (out of 5) Spears & Munsil Benchmark Blu-ray Edition used as basis for comparison ● Color Accuracy - 5.0 Stars ● Shadow detail - 5.0 Stars ● Clarity - 5.0 Stars ● Skin tones - 5.0 Stars ● Compression - 5.0 Stars Codec: MPEG-4 AVC, Resolution: 1080p, Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1, Original Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 Colors are warm but natural, and make features pop on the screen. Trees in the forest are lush and green, blood is deep red on faces and legs, the skies are a beautiful hue of blue, and balls of fire glow bright red. Dark scenes are handled perfectly and never loose any important details in the shadows and show no compression issues. The clarity is remarkable and make it easy to see individual beard whiskers, clothing textures, grime and cuts on skin, and flying debris. Bonus Features 4.0 Stars (out of 5) ● Will of the Warrior: An in-depth look at Marcus Luttrell, the real-life Navy SEAL who received the Navy Cross and Purple Heart for his actions in Operation Red Wings. ● Recreating the Firefight: Reveals how Lone Survivor’s action-packed stunts were choreographed and shot. This featurette includes interviews with Director Peter Berg, Actors Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Ben Foster and Emile Hirsch and stunt coordinator and 2nd unit director Kevin Scott. ● Learning the Basics: Watch as Mark Wahlberg, Emile Hirsch, Taylor Kitsch and Ben Foster go through rigorous SEAL training in weapons handling, communication/patrolling and simulated attack drills. Along with Marcus Luttrell, Peter Berg enlisted the help of active Navy SEALS to help the actors accurately portray the fallen soldiers of Operation Red Wings. ● Bringing the Story to Light: Marcus Luttrell’s story of survival under extremely dire circumstances is an inspiration to anyone who hears it. Director, producer and writer Peter Berg, Producer Sarah Aubrey, and the four lead actors (Mark Wahlberg, Emile Hirsch, Taylor Kitsch and Ben Foster) reveal their passion for the project and why it was so important to them to tell this story. ● The Fallen Heroes of Operation Red Wings: Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Ben Foster and Emile Hirsch profile the real-life heroes who inspired their characters: Marcus Luttrell, Michael Murphy, Daniel Dietz and Matthew Axelson. Family members provide intimate accounts of what these brave men were like in their private lives, as well as perspective on their decisions to join the military and make the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Also included is a tribute to the team of Operation Red Wings, using personal photos. ● The Pashtun Code of Life: Learn why Marcus Luttrell’s rescuer, Mohammad Gulab, risked his life and the lives of everyone in his village in order to save Marcus. Movie - 4.0 Stars (out of 5) Review Lone Survivor is a gritty realistic movie based on real life action heroes in the Navy Seals. The movie does a great job of showing team brotherhood and the banter between them is entertaining and engaging. The tension and action feel real because you actually care about the characters and you know what you are seeing really happened. Just to prove how real the action is, several times during the movie my wife screamed, "No" at the TV. The movie has one of the best firefights I have ever scene on film. Not only did it sound amazing, but it was directed in a manner that made you feel like you were there. Overall, the movie is action packed and heartbreaking, but it’s a good monument to the tough men who fought in "Operation Red Wings".

Emotiva UPA-700 Seven-Channel Power Amplifier One of the best thing about producing this podcast each week is knowing that our listeners go on the same journey that we do. Our current journey is that of separates. A few weeks ago we reviewed the NuForce AVP-18 processor and MCA-20 Amplifier (Podcast #631). This week we continue the journey by reviewing the Emotiva UPA-700 Seven-Channel Power Amplifier (Buy Now $499). The UPA-700 is ideal for those wanting to move into separates without breaking the bank. When you consider there are single channel amplifiers that sell for more than $1500, you may ask, how good can a seven channel amp that costs one third the price actually sound? Well we’re here to tell you pretty darn good! Features: Seven-channel amplifier 100 watts / channel (4 ohms; all channels driven) 80 watts / channel (8 ohms; all channels driven) Advanced engineering with short signal path class A/B design topology. Top quality parts and construction. Real power on tap to easily drive complex loads. Heavy duty power supply with oversized toroidal transformer. Gold-plated five-way binding post output terminals. 15mm solid milled aluminum faceplate. Channel status LED’s. Stealth mode (status LEDs and Standby button halo lighting can be switched off). Remote trigger input and output. 115 VAC or 230 VAC with automatic detection and switching. Full protection from all common input and output fault conditions. Setup: Setting up an amp is truly trivial. You connect the speakers, power, pre-outs, and the 12V trigger from the receiver. If you have your speaker wires on banana plugs the whole thing takes three minutes! At that point you can power on the receiver and go. But you know its never really that easy. The UPA-700 was connected to a Pioneer Elite VSX-94TXH receiver. The Elite is 125 watt beast that has served Ara well for a few years. He has been quite happy with the sound but now that we are exploring separates he was willing to try the $500 amp that has been highly recommended to him by Ray Coronado (SoCal HT Audio/Video Calibration and Consulting). With the 12 volt trigger connected to the Elite the 700 is supposed to turn on when the Elite is turned on. This was not the case. It turns out that the Elite must be told to trigger the 12 volts per input. Once the settings were updated all was good. The UPA-700 was glowing Blue which let us know everything was good to go. By the way, if you don’t want to see the Blue power light or channel LEDs you can turn them off with a manual switch on the back panel. The last thing to do was to rerun the auto calibration and then we were off to the races! Performance: As stated earlier the VSX-94THX already sounded quite good and we were not expecting a big improvement in audio quality but we were hoping for something. What we found was crystal clear audio that brought a smile to our faces. We listened to intricate classical pieces that spanned as much of the frequency range that we could find. Lows and mids sounded incredible. the highs were a bit bright but that could be the EQ. Ara’s go to classical piece is Beethoven’s 9th Symphony "Ode to Joy”. The triangles are what he keys on and they sounded like they were right in the room with you. We listened to Rock and Roll from CD and Blu-ray. You could hear each instrument clearly regardless of how loud we were playing it. Movies were another place where the amp shined. Dialog was crystal clear and effects seemed to come alive. In all its not like we could say that the UPA-700 was x% better than the Elite. It was more like we had a better listening experience overall. The Elite is a very good receiver and the UPA-700 is at the lower end of Emotiva’s line so the fact that we heard any perceived improvement speaks to how good Emotiva’s amplifiers are. If you were going from a lower end to mid tier receiver our opinion is that you would hear a bigger improvement in audio quality. Another area that has concerned a few readers/listeners is that the UPA-700 is only 80 Watts. Understand that Emotiva rates their amplifier with all channels running simultaneously. Some manufacturers only rate their system with two channels. For Ara’s room which measures 16 feet by 20 feet the UPA-700 could overpower the room. Sometimes people feel more is better and in many cases that is the truth but in this case more is just wasted. For the record the 125 watt 94THX will produce less than 3dB more sound than the UPA-700 and the human ear will barely be able to hear a difference. If you have a larger room Emotive also has a three channel amp (XPA-3 Buy Now $799) that puts out 200 watts. you can run your surrounds off your current receiver and put the front wall on the XPA-3. That way the speakers that get the most use with the most important material have the best amplification. Conclusion: There is no doubt in our minds that a good AV receiver is a great way to listen to your music and watch your movies. But when you are ready to take your

Music to Show Off Your Theater We received an email from Martin who asked us to take a look and listen at the Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds concert that is available on Blu-ray. According to Martin: The sound is astonishing, like you are sitting right there. I have heard many concert discs but this is something else. Shows off my system even better than a pacific rim or transformers. Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds: Live at Radio City Music Hall [Blu-ray] (2007) We totally agree with Martin’s assessment. So we thought it would be fun for one episode to pick three concert Blu-rays and discuss them on a show. All six will put you right in the middle of the concert and will make you happy that you invested in Blu-ray! Rodney’s Picks Adele – Live at The Royal Albert Hall Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Even though this concert is performed in front of decent sized crowd, it sounds great and still feels intimate. Adele has an amazing voice and this Blu-ray captures it perfectly, it almost sounds better than the studio recording. There isn’t much subwoofer action, but the audio is extremely crisp and clean. (Buy Now $24.87) Alicia Keys – VH1 Storytellers Audio: LPCM 5.1 This concert has a small crowd and has a very intimate setting. Colorful curtains and backdrops set the scene for Key’s soulful music. The low-end is tight and sometimes even vibrates the couch. Her voice is sometimes sounds strained and a little congested but she still gives a solid performance. However, the star of the show was listening to her play the piano. The room was filled with every keystroke and making it more of an experience than just watching a concert. (Buy Now $13.88) Foo Fighters – Live at Wembley Stadium Audio: LPCM 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit) There’s nothing like being a huge concert. Screaming crowds filled with energy and loud blaring rock music. This Blu-ray is the quintessential rock concert captured on Blu-ray. The Foo Fighters have so many hits, this concert runs 2 hours long and even had a special appearance from Jimmy Page. The audio performance isn’t the best though. Vocals are a little echoy and muffled, low end is a bit muddy, however this is what most rock concerts sound like. (Buy Now $20.34) Ara’s Picks The Eagles - Farewell Live From Melbourne Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 If you like the Eagles then this Disc is for you! Not only do you get the classic Eagles you also get the best from the band member’s solo stuff. The concert was in 2004 so no need for restoration. Just crystal clean audio and video. I couldn’t help smiling through the whole thing. Audio was clear and tight! My favorite by a long shot! (Buy Now $16.88) Heart - Live Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 This was a Soundstage concert made specifically for DVD/Blu-ray which made me leery of buying it. I was worried that they wouldn’t bring the energy. Fear not! The ladies brought it and put on a great show that included their classic songs as well as some great Zeppelin covers. The video was good quality but the audio put you right in the middle of the audience. Mixed with the music coming from the front and crowd from the surrounds mad for an enjoyable disc. (Buy Now $9.99) Dire Straits - Alchemy (20th Anniversary Edition) Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 I bought the Album and recorded it to cassette. Then I bought on CD and played it over and over again. I had never seen the concert but I knew it like the back of my hands. Seeing the concert made me so happy as now I could accurately imagine the scene. Unfortunately the video was 4:3 and not really the best. It was still better than SD but not on par with the other discs on the list. The audio wasn’t as good either. But it was certainly as good or better than the CD. I think I enjoyed this disc the most even though it was not technically as good as the others. That just goes to show you how powerful music is! It should always be enjoyed in the highest quality you can find! (Buy Now $25.78)

Wireless Audio: Products, systems, tips and tricks for selecting the best wireless music system for your home. Can be downloaded here: http://www.electronichouse.com/article/free_special_report_understanding_wireless_audio_systems/

Interview with a Broadcaster about Aereo This week Ara spoke with a broadcaster from the Birmingham AL about the internet streaming upstart Aereo and how their model is essentially to steal content from broadcasters and sell it for profit. For those who are not familiar Aereo is a company that lets you record and stream local television in the cloud. More info about Aereo available on their website. Broadcasters feel that Aereo should be considered like a cable or satellite company and pay retransmission fees. Aereo says they are renting equipment to capture free over the air content that is available to the public. The Supreme Court will hear this case which can have major impact to how we receive our entertainment in the future. Will the broadcasters take their programming off the public airways? We’ll have to see.

Use an AVR for Pre/Pro or a PreAmp? We recently reviewed the NuForce AVP-18 all-digital HT dedicated preamp/processor (MSRP $1095) paired with the NuForce MCA-20 multi-channel amplifier (MSRP $1995). Our goal was to compare the performance of separates with the performance of a high quality AVR to see how they’d stack up. We used to hold the position that for just about everyone, the AVR would be more than good enough. In may be an overstatement to say that we did a complete 180 on our position on separates; but we have certainly changed our tune. While the all-in cost of the NuForce setup would run a cool $3090, and is a tad higher than we’re used to paying for a self-contained AVR, the performance and quality are there to back up the price. Is it worth it for everyone? Of course not. Is it worth looking into if you want great audio quality? Absolutely. Not so fast… But wait, many modern day receivers actually include PreAmp outputs so you can bypass the internal amplifiers altogether and run the sound through an external amp like the NuForce MCA-20. Essentially turning the AVR into simply a dedicated Pre/Pro (Pre-Amplifier / Processor). What if you already had a Receiver you loved and you could simply run the audio through an external amp - would that give you the best of both worlds? We decided to put that question to the test in a follow up to the NuForce review. We again stacked the Pioneer VSX-1120-K and the Denon AVR-3806 against the AVP-18, but this time used the same MCA-20 for all comparisons. What would it sound like if we simply used different processors to do the same job? After all, they’re all converting the same audio formats, like Dolby TrueHD or DTS Master Audio, from digital to analog, so shouldn’t they all be roughly the same? Background We’ve heard people claim in the past that any processor decoding dolby digital is going to sound the same as any other processor performing the exact same job. Of course we know this isn’t true, but it is a common belief. There are even those who believe all amps basically sound the same. But that’s like saying all 300 horse-power engines are alike. We know this simply isn’t true. For all of the cases. But could it be closer to the truth for some than others? Results The results didn’t really surprise us. Please keep in mind that we review according to our perceptions - according to how we hear the sound with our ears. The tests aren’t scientific as much as they are anecdotal. Your mileage may vary. But if you forced us to choose a hypothesis before beginning the experiment, it wouldn’t have been too far off from what we experienced. Bottom line, both the Denon and the Pioneer sounded better when using the external MVA-20 amplifier. We tested using the same Klipsch Reference and HSU Research speakers as the last comparison. The Denon sounded the best of the two receivers, but we felt like the Pioneer actually got the biggest boost in overall audio quality from the test. To our ears, the Denon starts out sounding better, and it ended up that way as well. The Pioneer, however, either has lesser quality internal amps, or was able to do a better job running the external amps, and it showed the biggest improvement. But, when it was all said and done, neither the Denon nor the Pioneer sounded better than the NuForce - to our ears at least. They were closer, and actually in many areas harder to distinguish differences than the last round, but still not quite as good. In the spirit of openness and honesty, Braden was so impressed by the first round of NuForce review that he decided to acquire the pair for use in his own home theater. It’s entirely possible his ears were experiencing a little bit of irrational exuberance as a result of the purchase. But removing any irrational exuberance, the final conclusion makes logical sense. A device purpose-built to deliver the best possible audio experience for the price outperformed the devices engineered to pack as many features into a price point as possible. Yes, you sacrifice features by going with the dedicated PreAmp, and yes it may age out a bit quicker as a result of that. But from a pure sound experience, it was top notch. Conclusion If you have an existing home theater receiver with PreAmp outputs, will you get a sonic benefit by pairing it with an external amplifier? In our limited experience, yes you will. The amount of difference you get is based on the processor itself, the amps it has bundled internally, the amp you choose to pair it with externally, and the speakers you’re driving with it. But is it a good first step toward dedicated separates? You bet it is. There are trade-offs to any home theater upgrade or investment. Some will produce higher dividends than others. You have to weigh all the factors when choosing where to invest your hard earned cash. For some, moving to separates, or even baby-stepping there by running an external amp with your existing receiver, is the next, right investment. for othe

SONY 4K UHD TVs On the last show we read a news story that SONY announced pricing and availability for their new line for 4K TVs. This week we thought we discuss in a bit more depth the latest from SONY. For starters there are a total of nine UHD TVs. The nine TVs are tiered on entry, mid, and high and range in price from $2,100 up to $25,000 All support HDMI 2.0 and the HEVC codec which cover two of the three must have features for a UHD TV according to HD Guru. The other being HDCP 2.2 which we couldn’t verify. The TVs are also MHL 3.0 compatible so you can watch 4K content from your smartphones or tablets. All the new TVs will support Netflix 4K streaming as it becomes available on the Netflix service. The SONY developed X Reality PRO picture engine, TRILUMINOS color spectrum, and X-tended Dynamic Range PRO technology are marketing terms for 4K upscaling, deeper color palette, and higher contrast. Entry Level For the entry level 4K market are four models in the XBR-X850B series: 49“ for $2,099 55“ for $2,999 65“ for $3,999 70” for $5,499 Mid-Tier For the Mid-Tier 4K market are three models in the XBR-X900B series: 55” for $3,999 66” for $4,999 79” for $8,999 These TVs use Edge lit LEDs and something SONY calls X-tended Dynamic Range technology to achieve better contrast than the entry level TVs. One thing that many people complain about with thin TVs is that the audio is bad. On these models SONY uses wedge shape design which maintains thinness and provides for better richer sound. Flagship SONY’s flagship 4K UHD TVs the XBR-X950B series comes in two models: 65 “ for $7,999 85” for $24,999 The top tier SONYs use direct lit LEDs and something SONY calls X-tended Dynamic Range PRO technology for the highest contrast ratio among this year’s line of 4K TVs. SONY has developed a unique backlighting algorithm to further enhance picture quality.

NuForce AVP-18 Processor and MCA-20 Amplifier We don’t need to repeat ourselves, but we will anyways: Home Theater without surround sound isn’t really Home Theater at all. It’s only half of the experience. Without surround sound, you’re just watching moving pictures on the wall. But we’ve also stated that modern AV receivers are good enough and going the separate processor and amp route is overkill for most people. Today we put that theory to the test. We caved under continual listener pressure and decided to take a pair of separates from Fremont, CA based NuForce for a test drive. They were nice enough to let us use the AVP-18 all-digital HT preamp/processor (MSRP $1095) paired with their top of the line MCA-20 multi-channel amplifier (MSRP $1995). All-in the setup would run a cool $3090 - a bit higher than we’re used to paying for a self-contained home theater receiver. You can buy them online from a couple authorized resellers, but not Amazon, and not at a discount. Setup Setting up the pair of separates is in some ways a bit more work than a standard AVR, but in other ways actually much simpler. The one extra step is the RCA cables you have to run from the processor to the amp, one per channel. Audiophiles would recommend “high quality” cables for this. In reality you can use just about any RCA cable you have and never hear a difference (more on that later). You can pick up some good, short, RCA interconnect cables at Amazon for only $5.60. Each cable supports two channels, so you only need 4 of them for a 7 channel system. and a subwoofer cable. Once you get your interconnects plugged in, you simply plug your speakers in to the amplifier like you would any other receiver (don’t forget the banana plugs), hook up your HDMI sources and your HDMI output (TV or projector), and you’re done. The part that is much simpler is the elimination of all the extra bells and whistles you get on the typical AVR these days. The features you get but never use. All the extra inputs you have to navigate through or figure out how to disable in a menu option somewhere. NuForce is all about the audio. But the AVP-18 isn’t without all the features you’d want to see in a great audio device. It does have an auto room calibration option and includes the mic to make it work. The calibration works like most other AVRs - just plug in the mic and hit go. Once that is done, setup is complete and you’re ready to watch movies, listen to music or anything else that delights your ears. Features AVP-18: Fully HDMI 1.4 compliant Supports the standard audio decoding from Dolby and DTS, and the latest HD audio decoding; including Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS Master, DTS Hi Res, etc. Automated or manual room acoustics/speaker equalization option Eleven programmable, fully parametric equalizers per channel Four HDMI inputs and one HDMI output employing high-speed switching technology Supports HDMI 1080P, YUV, RGB, DVI, HD audio, and 8 CH LPCM 3D video playback compatibility HDMI CEC control, HDMI ARC audio return Video input compatibility: HDMI/DVI, 480P, 576P, 720P50, 720P60, 1080i 50, 1080i 60, 1080P 50, 1080P 60, 1080P 24 Support RS232 control for custom installation Support HD Headphone Surround Sound Please note that the AVP-18 DOES NOT support USB Audio (as in a USB DAC). The USB connector (B-style) is used for firmware upgrades only. The USB connector that looks like a USB-3 marked 'Bluetooth' is reserved for a future Bluetooth audio option that will soon be available from NuForce. MCA-20 features and specs: Proprietary high-speed, negative feedback design Very high efficiency PWM circuit topology Power Output: 278W/Ch. X 8 (4 ohm), 150W/Ch. X 8 (8 ohm) Peak Power Output:352W/Ch. X 8 (4 ohm), 187W/Ch. X 8 (8 ohm) Gain:26.5 dB Input Impedance:20k ohm Sensitivity: 0.89 V to rated power Frequency Response:10 Hz - 50kHz Performance We compared the AVP-18 and MCA-20 combo with a few home theater receivers we had around; a Pioneer VSX-1120-K, a Denon AVR-3806 and an Onkyo TX-SR608. All three of the AVRs would have been significantly less expensive if bought brand new when they were released. The Denon, at $1300, would have been the most expensive but still not quite half the price of the NuForce setup. That said, we still went into the review not expecting to hear much of a difference, if any at all. And we were wrong. We tried the comparison with Klipsch Reference speakers, HSU Research speakers and even some KEF T-series speakers. In all cases, when paired with high quality audio like we get from a typical Blu-ray disk, the NuForce system sounded better. The striking difference was the clarity of the sound. It almost felt as if we could hear subtle details in a soundtrack that we just weren’t picking up before. And at high volume the detail remained crisp and intact. Nothing went muddy or mushy just because we were pushing it harder. We had the biggest impact with the HSU speakers for some reason, with lesser impact noticed on the K

Amazon Fire TV Review Last week Amazon released a set top box the Amazon Fire TV Fire (Buy Now $99) to compete with the likes of Apple, Roku, and a host of others. And of course the HT Guys got a hold of one and put it through its paces. This will be a shorter review than previous boxes because we have done so many and they are essentially the same. Today we’ll focus on the differences. Features: Prime Support — Unlimited access to over 40,000 Prime Instant Videos on your HDTV, including Amazon exclusives like Downton Abbey and Justified Large Selection of Content - Over 200,000 TV episodes - and movies, millions of songs, and over a hundred games. Voice search — Say the name of what you want to watch and start enjoying in seconds. Specifications — Quad-core processor, 2 GB of memory, dedicated GPU, plus 1080p HD video and Dolby Digital Plus surround sound Easy to set up and use — Pre-registered to your Amazon account so you can enjoy favorite titles and personalized recommendations Instant streaming — Exclusive new feature ASAP predicts what movies and TV episodes you’ll want to watch and buffers them for playback before you hit play Parental Controls — Amazon FreeTime lets you easily limit screen time and create personalized profiles just for kids (coming soon) Games — Play titles like Minecraft-Pocket Edition, The Walking Dead, and Monsters University, plus free games and Amazon exclusives. Paid games start from just 99 cents Performance: The Fire TV works like all other devices in this category. You connect it and start watching content. A nice touch is that if you buy this yourself, as opposed to getting it as a gift, it comes connected to your Amazon account so you can start watching Prime instant videos or ordering paid content through your Amazon account. You can go from out of the box to watching movies on demand in minutes! The user interface is what we would call basic. Its fast and laid out nicely but is not what we would call elegant. Perhaps in a subsequent release. For now, it gets the job done. Hulu and Netflix are supported but you have to download the apps as opposed to being pre-installed. That adds about a minute to the install for each application. Logging in requires you to type with an onscreen keyboard. It would be nice if there was a remote app that allows you to type on your phone instead of using a D-pad controller. Both apps produced video quality that was similar to AppleTV and Roku. There are about 180 apps available for the Fire TV ranging from video content to games. The notable apps for video include: Netflix, Hulu, Watch ESPN, Youtube, Vimeo, and Showtime Anytime. There are also music apps like Pandora, and a bunch of radio apps. For a full list check out Amazon’s website (http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=7031433011) The Fire TV also has games which makes it a great choice for casual gamers. There is a game controller that looks like your typical game controller for an additional $40 (Buy Now). We did not test the game controller however, we did download Asphalt 8 and attempted to play it with the remote control. Graphics looked good and game play seemed fine. We are not gamers by any stretch but for a $99 box mainly used for watching content having a fairly high quality game aspect to it seems like a major plus. While it won’t replace an X-Box or Playstation it sure will satisfy many who don’t need all that hardware. We suspect that as more games come online this aspect will only get better. The remote is a typical remote for a device like this. It has has directional buttons, select, home, play/pause, ffwd/rew, and a menu button. What makes this different is that the Fire TV also has a voice search button. With this button you press and hold while you speak what you are looking for and if it exists within Amazon it will show up on screen. If it is free with Prime it will be indicated otherwise you will have to pay. What would be nice is if the search worked across all content platforms. Some content is free on Netflix but costs money on Amazon. Audio sounded great. It was so nice seeing the Dolby Digital + light up on our receiver. High quality audio streamed through the set top box for $99 sounds like a good deal to us! Conclusion There are a lot of set top boxes out there competing for your eyeballs. No one of them is the perfect for everyone. Having access to a easy to use store where you can buy high quality audio and video is a major plus that the Fire TV and AppleTV have. Throw in an easy to use game market and a slight edge has to be given to the Fire TV. With that said, if you are not an Amazon prime subscriber you will be better served with the Roku 3. If you are an iTunes user, well we probably lost you after the first paragraph. If you are like Ara, you may as well buy both! Cut the price in half and its a must have for everyone!

Sharp 2014 Quattron+ Televisions We mentioned the upcoming Quattron+ technology from Sharp in our CES roundup earlier this year.The tech just got real. Sharp has announced several new LED LCD models for 2014 that feature the technology. Along the lines of JVC’s e-Shift technology we discussed a couple episodes back, Quattron+ looks like a clever bridge between the 1080p LED LCD televisions of today and the 4K and/or OLED televisions of tomorrow. CES Information Sharp Aquos Quattron Plus TV - At half the price of a 4K TV of the same screen size the Plus has 10 million more sub pixels than a regular 1080p TV. Retina Display for TVs?? The TV will accept 4K content and will scale 1080p content to make use of every one of the 10 Million sub pixels! Sharp claims they have put more TVs over 60 inches into American homes than any other manufacturer. What is Quattron+? Sharp has long held the belief that a fourth sub-pixel, a yellow one, in addition to the standard red, green and blue ones, makes all the difference in how vivid and real your TV can look. While a standard 1080p TV with red, green and blue sub-pixels has a total of about 6.22 million of them, that fourth yellow subpixel bumps that total up to roughly 8.29 million. But that’s just plain old Quattron; that’s yesterday’s news. Quattron+ goes quite a bit further. These new displays use the same four horizontal sub-pixels (yellow, red, green, and blue) but also add an additional row of sub-pixels for every main pixel, effectively doubling the sub-pixel count to a total of 16.59 million and dramatically improving pixel density. Does that sound like JVC e-Shift to anyone? If not, you may want to take a listen to Episode 627. The Models Sharp has announced several TVs that will incorporate Quattron+ tech, ranging from the large to the really freaking large. There are three 60 inch TVs, three 70 inch sets and one 80 incher. The 60 and 70 inch sets come in three model ranges, the entry level SQ line, the middle tier TQ line and the top end UQ line. he 80 inch set is only available in the top of the range UQ line. For price comparison, the top-end UQ line breaks down like: LC-60UQ17U is a 60-inch set with MSRP of $3000. You can find it at Amazon for $2499. The LC-70UQ17U is 70 inches, goes for MSRP of $4000 and is available for $3297 from Amazon. The big daddy, the 80 inch LC-80UQ17U has a suggested retail or $6500 and has landed on Amazon for $5499. Every set in the lineup features: The Highest Resolution Full HD TV 10 million more subpixels than conventional Full HD for more detail, depth, and color Plays 4K content; upscales any content New SmartCentral 3.0 with integrated guide & search, mobile connectivity, and all the best apps Quattron technology for finer details and a billion more shades of color Native 1080p resolution, 240 Hz refresh rate, 3D capable 4 HDMI ports with Audio Return Channel, 4K input (4K/30fps), HDCP 2.2 and MHL The UQ line adds: Dynamic Contrast Ratio of 12,000,000:1 (vs. 8,000,000:1) AquoMotion 960 Refresh Scanning Rate Sharp ‘Super Bright’ technology THX Certified 2 pairs of 3D glasses None of the seven sets listed at Sharp’s website claim support for HDMI 2.0 nor HVEC. So while they may be future proof in some categories, they certainly aren’t on others.

4.1 Stars (out of 5) - Rated R Synopsis American Hustle tells the story of brilliant con man, who along with his equally cunning British partner and lover are forced to work for a wild unhinged FBI agent who pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia that's as dangerous as it is enchanting. Starring: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Jeremy Renner, Jack Huston Director: David O. Russell Blu-ray Release Date: March 18, 2014 Subtitles: English, English SDH Rating Overall rating weighted as follows: Audio 40%, Video 40%, Special Features 20%, Movie - its just our opinion so take it with a grain of salt Audio 4.1 Stars (out of 5) Dolby and DTS Demo Discs used as basis for comparison ● Subwoofer – 2.5 Stars ● Dialog – 5.0 Stars ● Surround Effects – 4.0 Stars ● Dynamic Range – 5.0 Stars English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 The audio performance suits the movie but it’s still nothing to show off to your friends. The subwoofer is only active when music is being played in the score and in a club scene. You are treated to a slight rumble during a tiny kitchen incident. Surround effects see a little more action and are active with sounds of dry cleaner machines, club music, an exploding microwave, and music from the score. The star of the audio presentation is the dialog. In fact, it’s was so good I didn’t need to strain to hear when characters were whispering. Video 4.9 Stars (out of 5) Spears & Munsil Benchmark Blu-ray Edition used as basis for comparison ● Color Accuracy - 4.8 Stars ● Shadow detail – 5.0 Stars ● Clarity – 5.0 Stars ● Skin tones – 5.0 Stars ● Compression – 5.0 Stars Codec: MPEG-4 AVC, Resolution: 1080p, Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1, Original Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 There’s a good amount of film grain, to give it a nostalgic 70’s look. The film grain does not affect the clarity, it’s easy to see the wiry hairs in beards and mustaches, details in tacky hotel wallpaper, and patterns in wild colorful clothing. There are a few dark scenes and details don’t get lost in the inky blackness. Colors are very warm and make blue eyes look dreamy, loud colored walls look stylish, and bright red lipstick and nails look luscious. Bonus Features 2.5 Stars (out of 5) ● Deleted and Extended Scenes (HD): Cry British (4:51), Brick (0:57), Carmine On Stage Singing (1:24), Backhand Like a Whip (2:48), Bad Sign (1:30), Stoop to Conquer (1:34), Live and Let Die (3:26), Evil Ways (4:01), Carmine on the Street (1:11), Richie is Duped (0:47), and Carmine Returns Home (0:54). ● The Making of American Hustle (HD, 16:35): An examination of the character complexity and the life they exude, David O. Russell's vision for the film, and the core love story/love triangle. ● Previews: Additional Sony titles. Movie – 3.8 Stars (out of 5) Review American Hustle is a well make entertaining film that tries to imitate some of the spirit of Goodfellas, but falls short of the mark. The story itself is slow moving and dragged in some parts, but it always did a great job of building the characters. If the first half of this film was not narrated I would have not been able to pick up the plot. All of the performances are stellar and the director did a decent putting together this meandering story. I feel like people like this movie because it was designed for us to. It’s full of today’s biggest actors, has a popular director, and is about corruption. When you add all those things together it makes a good movie, but not one that I’ll watch all the way through again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST7a1aK_lG0

New Pioneer Receivers If you are tired of the long cold Winter then these product announcements from Pioneer should warm your soul. What better way to welcome Spring than with new receivers? Pioneer introduced 5 new models. Pioneer introduced three receivers in their VSX line. At the lower end is the 5.2 channel VSX-824 followed by the VSX-1024 and 1124 both of which are 7.2. These are the first receivers that support HDMI 2.0 which allows for higher data rates and better color that 4K TVs benefit from. The receivers have a built-in MHL port and are Roku Ready. Plug in a Roku Stick and use the Pioneer iControl AV5 app to access your favorite Roku channels. The VSX-1124 incorporates the ES9006S DAC (192kHz/24-bit) for high quality audio performance. They also added playback support for 96kHz 24-Bit 5.0- and 5.1-channel FLAC and WAV files on the VSX-1124. The receiver also supports other high-resolution music files including AIFF, WAV, FLAC, DSD (2.8 MHz), Apple Lossless, MP3, WMA and AAC The VSX-1124 supports the next generation 4K2K Ultra HD resolution standard to help provide the highest quality video image available, with the ability to pass through 4K video signals of up to 60 frames per second to any HDMI 2.0-equipped 4K display. It can also upscale lower resolution signals for viewing on 4K Ultra HD TVs. The new Pioneer receivers will be available at the end of March with suggested prices of $399 (VSX-824), $499 (VSX-1024) and $599 (VSX-1124). Pioneer also debuted two new entry-levelElite branded receivers, the VSX-44 and VSX-80 7.2-channel receivers. Both models include HDMI 2.0 support and are Roku Ready. Like the 1124 the VSX-80 also supports high quality audio and video. What you get for the additional $100 is advanced home theater control. The VSX-80 is compatible with the most popular custom control companies, Crestron® and Control4®, and offers custom installation features including full two-way RS-232C-over-IP control, with the ability to receive metadata from network and iOS connected devices. The new Pioneer Elite receivers will be available at the end of March with suggested retail prices of $500 (VSX-44) and $700 (VSX-80).

We haven’t spent too much time talking about 4K projectors because, to be blunt, they’re just too expensive to be within reach for us, and for the majority of our audience. While they’re cool to think about, and maybe drool over, why spend too much time on them when you know you’ll never drop $28,000 on a projector? But what if they were a fraction of that cost? At a recent stroll through our local Magnolia Home Theater store inside Best Buy, we happened across a JVC 4K projector for only $5000. The JVC DLA-X500R sounds like an amazing deal, but there has to be a catch. It turns out that when you read the fine print, JVC isn’t really selling 4K projectors, they’re selling simulated 4K projectors. The difference is subtle, but real. The Projectors JVC has three models in their 4K lineup, the entry model, DLA-X500R, for $5000. The mid-range DLA-X700R for $8000 and the top of the range DLA-X900RKT for $12,000. Magnolia carries them all, but they weren’t all available in our area; only the X500R. JVC points out very clearly on their website that these projectors, projectors in the Procision line, are not sold online. If you find one online, it isn’t coming from an authorized dealer. The specs for all three projectors are fairly similar, with obviously some improvements in specs and technology as you move up in the models. We’ll go over the specs for the top of the line X900RKT to see if the same thing we noticed when we started to look into them, jumps out to all of you... DLA-X900RKT specs Improved 150,000:1 Native Contrast Ratio New Intelligent Lens Aperture for Dynamic Contrast Ratio of 1,500,000:1 New 4K e-shift3 provides 3840x2160 projected image New Native 4K HDMI inputs that accept: 3840x2160 at 24P, 25P, 30P and 60P; and 4096x2160 at 24P New Clear Black Processing improves local area contrast New Upgraded Clear Motion Drive works in 2D, 3D and 4K New Adobe sRGB provides expanded color space Improved Multi Pixel Control (MPC) with New Auto Mode. MPC improves 2K to 4K up-conversion New Matched 6th Generation 1920x1080 DILA devices 1300 Lumens Did you notice that there’s no mention of a native 4K resolution? Only a reference to a 4K projected image and a set of 4K compatible inputs. As it turns out, if you read between the lines, these projectors aren’t truly 4K at all. Instead they’re a special blend of two 1080p imaging chips that work together to improve pixel density. The technology does an incredible job eliminating any notion of pixel lines in the image, like retina for your 120” screen, but not a true 4K image. What the …? So what exactly is JVC selling? They’re selling a future proof 1080P projector that outperforms almost any other 1080P projector in terms of image quality, but they aren’t selling a 4K projector. The secret is JVC’s e-Shift technology. E-Shift produces 4K levels of pixel density by utilizing two separate 1080P chips diagonally offset from each other by half a pixel. Pixel density, or Pixels per Inch, is great for producing very clear images with no visible pixel lines, but it’s different than resolution. It turns out that since the projectors only have 1080P imaging chips in them, everything has to be converted to 1080P before being passed through e-Shift for the 4K-like display. Even the native 4K inputs have to go down to 1080P before being blast back out in Ultra density. The result is a very impressive 1080P display that approaches 4K in clarity, but from what we’ve heard and read, doesn’t stand up too well if you compare side by side with a native 4K display The trade-off makes sense when you compare their prices with Sony, who is selling a true native 4K projector. After all, these projectors are 10 to 20 thousand dollars cheaper. But not for long. Sony has the new VPL-VW500ES available for around $10,000 that may force a change in JVC’s approach. But until more manufacturers are making 4K projectors for less than $5000, JVC will continue to have a marketable offering. More than just pixels But as with any TV or projector, resolution isn’t the whole story. There are so many other factors that go into how well a projector performs: contrast and black levels, color reproduction, smooth motion, the list goes on. When you consider contrast and black levels, especially at the $5000 price point, the JVC D-ILA technology is hard to beat. The quoted contrast ratios on the three projectors are 600,000:1, 1,200,000:1 and 1,500,000:1 Dynamic or and 60,000:1, 120,000:1 and 150,000:1 Native. That’s pretty awesome. And the colors are great as well. The JVC LCOS technology, what they call D-ILA, has always been impressive, all the way back to the rear projection days of yore. (Yes, Braden still owns one). And that carries on in their projectors, and Ara owns one of those. Color representation is great; among the best you can get on a consumer-priced projector. Bottom line If you’re in the market for a new Home Theater projector and were thinking 4K was too expensive, you can pick up a pret

Interview with Jack Sharkey of Kef Speakers This week we sit down and talk with Jack Sharkey of Kef Speakers. Jack shares his experience in making a room that is acoustically unfriendly into a place where Kef can showcase their products. Its a six part series: THE SOUNDROOM PROJECT PART 1. GETTING STARTED. THE SOUNDROOM PROJECT PART 2. THE MIRROR TEST & BASS TRAPS. THE SOUNDROOM PROJECT PART 3. BADA BOOM ON DA BASS. THE SOUNDROOM PROJECT PART 4. SUBWOOFERS, REAR CHANNELS, AND OTHER THINGS. THE SOUNDROOM PROJECT PART 5. ABSORPTION VS. DIFFUSION. THE SOUNDROOM PROJECT PART 6. THE FLOOR AND CEILING

Ender’s Game - Blu-ray Review 4.9 Stars (out of 5) - Rated PG-13 Synopsis 70 years after a horrific alien war, an unusually gifted child is sent to an advanced military school in space to prepare for a future invasion. Starring: Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Ben Kingsley, Abigail Breslin Director: Gavin Hood Blu-ray Release Date: February 11, 2014 Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish Rating Overall rating weighted as follows: Audio 40%, Video 40%, Special Features 20%, Movie - its just our opinion so take it with a grain of salt Audio 4.9 Stars (out of 5) Dolby and DTS Demo Discs used as basis for comparison ● Subwoofer - 5.0 Stars ● Dialog – 5.0 Stars ● Surround Effects – 4.5 Stars ● Dynamic Range – 5.0 Stars English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1, English: Dolby Digital 2.0 The bass performance in this film is a spectacle to behold. When it’s needed, the couch vibrated with every explosion and rumbles of spaceship engines. Punches even land the heavy thuds and a few random rumbles are thrown in for extra measure. This action drama relies on dialog just as much as bass and surround, and it handles each line in the script perfectly. The rear speakers could have been used a tad bit more, but they are used often enough to envelope you with sounds of whizzing spaceships, echoing voices on intercoms, weird alien clicks, and random computer noises. Video 5.0 Stars (out of 5) Spears & Munsil Benchmark Blu-ray Edition used as basis for comparison ● Color Accuracy - 5.0 Stars ● Shadow Detail – 5.0 Stars ● Clarity – 5.0 Stars ● Skin Tones – 5.0 Stars ● Compression – 5.0 Stars Codec: MPEG-4 AVC, Resolution: 1080p, Aspect ratio: 2.40:1, Original Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 This MPEG-4 AVC codec is clean and helped bring out the details in sharp edges on cold steel, details on a huge tattoo, graphics on computer screens, pimples and freckles on young teen faces, and wrinkles and moles on AARP members. Color temperatures change depending on location. Earth colors are extra warm, living quarters are neutral, and in space everything is cold and blue. Some colors stand out a little more than others like blue skies, bright glowing direction lights, and those awful bright colored yellow jump suits. There are several dark scenes, and this Blu-ray handles them beautifully. Nothing gets lost in the shadows and no compression issues are visible. Bonus Features 5.0 Stars (out of 5) ● Audio Commentary with Director Gavin Hood. ● Audio Commentary with Producers Gigi Pritzker and Roberto Orci. ● Ender's Game: The Making of Ender's Game (1080p; 49:04) Eight featurettes that explore various subjects, such a adapting the book for the screen, casting, and some of stunts. ● Deleted/Extended Scenes (1080p; 10:49) with or without optional commentary by director Gavin Hood. ● Inside the Mind Games (1080p; 3:50) looks at some of the motion capture techniques utilizes to forge the games that Ender plays on his tablet. ● Theatrical Trailers include Trailer A (1080p; 1:55) and Trailer B (1080p; 1:57) Movie – 3.8 Stars (out of 5) Review Ever since the huge financial success of the Harry Potter series, movie studios have trying to find another teen book series that can translate into major dollars on the big screen. Ender’s Game is an entertaining, smart, and sometimes dark movie, but I don’t expect to see a second installment. At it’s heart Ender’s Game is a futuristic war movie with kids, however it mostly takes place in military school where they climb the military rank ladder. The film isn’t really about the war itself, it’s about how difficult it is for children to emotionally handle a cruel adult world. The acting is top notch from the young cast and from the Oscar nominated veterans. The plot seems thin but by the end of the film the story feels much richer. The movie is good but not great, several scenes are related to the aliens leave you scratching your head asking, ”What does this mean?”.

Gefen TV Wireless Extender for HDMI 60 GHz Through the years we’ve had the opportunity to check out several wireless audio, video and wireless HDMI systems. Everytime we do it, the quality goes up and the price goes down. This week we’re adding one more option to your list of choices for wireless HDMI. It’s the Gefen TV Wireless Extender for HDMI (GTV-WHD-60G). List price is $449. But if you look around, you can find it for around $300 online. The first Gefen wireless HDMI system we reviewed back in 2009 had a list price of $999. Setup Setting up the GefenTV unit is just as easy as any other wireless video system. You plug your source equipment into the sender, marked with an ‘S’, plug your display device in the receiver, marked with an ‘R’, and you're done. The two units find each other automatically, link up and work with minimal intervention. The sender and receiver units are quite small, maybe the smallest of any set we’ve tested, making them very easy to place almost anywhere. Features Wireless extension of HDMI up to 33 feet (10 meters) Supports resolutions up to 1080p Full HD HDCP pass-through 3DTV pass-through CEC pass-through Dolby® TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio™, and LPCM digital audio streams up to 7.1 channels Lip Sync Uncompressed High Definition A/V from source to display Near zero latency (less than one frame) Field upgradable via USB port Frequency Band Range: 60 GHz Performance The manufacturer recommends a maximum of 33 feet (10 meters) between the receiver and transmitter and also requires direct line of sight between the two. This makes it a bit less flexible than other units we’ve tested. We’ve had units that could go 50 feet and almost 30 feet through walls. The GefenTV won’t do that. We got a reliable connection at 25 feet line of sight and in that regard, in work exactly as advertised. The marketing spin is that this allows you to run multiple wireless HDMI systems in adjacent rooms or close proximity. We think it would be more convenient if it could go through walls or cabinet doors. The GefenTV is very finicky on the line of sight requirement. It doesn’t just want the two units to be visible to each other, they need to be pointed at each other. Turning one to face a different direction kills the signal. We didn’t have any trouble getting them to work in normal installation scenarios, but it’s something you need to keep in mind if one will be in a TV equipment stand and the other up high near a projector, or perhaps facing down or sideways mounted near a flat panel TV. It also cannot be mounted behind the TV,but needs to be next to, above or below the TV depending on where your sender will be located. Despite the installation speedbumps to overcome, the GefenTV really shines in where it counts: audio quality, video quality and reliability. It is a champ. Other units we’ve looked at have been good, in fact, we’ve even made the statement that we couldn’t tell the difference between an actual cable and the wireless version. That was mostly true, specifically from a pixelation, loss of signal perspective. But with the GefenTV it is as close to a reality as we’ve ever seen. We even did some blind taste tests with a few family members and they couldn’t see or hear a difference between wired HDMI and the Gefen. We had a strange overscan issue with the Gefen on one of our test TVs, a Vizio LCD, that we didn’t see with any other sources on the same TV. We didn’t experience the same issue on a different test TV or on our test projector. It was tough for us to blame the TV or the Gefen, and could have just been a compatibility weirdness between the two. We tested using HDTV, Blu-ray and a Windows 7 laptop. With a good signal, the video quality was great. We even tried 3D and it worked as expected. Movies and TV looked and sounded great. Video games played without a hitch. Web surfing and documents and spreadsheets worked, and had no delay, but lacked the fine detail resolution you typically want for that kind of activity. Web video,however, like Netflix and Hulu, was great., No matter what we threw at it from a video perspective, it handled the task with ease. Conclusion The $449 price point is still a bit high, the $300 street price is closer to many other wireless HDMI units on the market. Sometimes, however, you get what you pay for. If you need a solution that will go 50 or 60 feet, or allow you to hide your devices in a closet somewhere, the Gefen isn’t the right choice for you. But if you want to run a front projector or mount a flat panel TV, and want the best possible video you can get from a wireless HDMI solution, the GefenTV is pretty awesome. Not as flexible, but it makes up for it in quality.

Channel Master DVR+ Review If you are a cord cutter you know that one thing that is difficult to live without is a DVR. You can buy a Tivo Roamio and pay a smaller monthly service but you cut the cord so you wouldn’t have to pay a monthly charge. What most cord cutters are looking for is a way to record over the air HD without having to pay any monthly fees. Channel Master has you covered with the DVR+ (MSRP $249.99). The DVR+ is a subscription free DVR that allows you to cut the cord and still watch late night network TV on your terms. Features: Watch broadcast programming in pure, uncompressed HD - the highest quality available Easy installation with on-screen setup wizard Supports SD and HD video resolutions up to 1080i and 1080p Works with all digital TV antennas for instant access to broadcast programming Supports external USB hard drives (EHD) for full DVR functionality Dual tuners allow you to record one program while watching another or record two programs at the same time (using EHD) Records, pauses and plays back live TV up to 2 hours out of the box 4 See what’s on now or later with the user-friendly Electronic Program Guide (EPG) Easily search for shows and set timers with name-based recording Broadband connection provides automatic software updates, enhanced EPG and access to Internet video streaming services Get Wi-Fi connectivity with optional USB Wi-Fi adapter Supports Dolby® Digital Plus surround sound Ultra-low power consumption Setup: When you take the DVR+ out of the box the first thing you notice is how thin it is. Its barely bigger than the HDMI cable that you plug into it. You can pretty much put it anywhere with little issue. To physically install the device you need to connect power, HDMI, antenna, Ethernet, and an external hard drive. Without the external drive there is little that you can do as the DVR+ comes with 16GB internally. A Terabyte drive will get you about 160 hours of HD recording. We had a spare 80GB drive which was reformatted by the DVR+ and was ready to go in a few minutes. The physical install took about 15 minutes. You will need a network connection for the program guide or if you want to use the Hulu service. Right now that’s the only network service available. Channel Master says they will add more over time. If you don’t have a wired connection you can buy a Wifi adapter for an additional $40. Next we fired up the unit and scanned for channels. The DVR+’s two tuners found 45 digital channels which was better than the HD Homerun but not as good as the tuner in our Panasonic plasma television. All of which are connected to the same antenna. Twentyfive minutes after taking the DVR+ out of the box we had a picture on screen and were able to record anything coming over the airwaves! Performance: What can we say, the DVR+ works like a DVR you would get from your provider. The program Guide is provided by Rovi (no additional cost) which allows you to search or browse to find your programs. You can tune to a program if its currently on or you can mark it for recording. Season passes are set up based on title names, which is a little less sophisticated than say the Genie but it will get the job done. You can setup up the skip forward and skip back lengths in the menu so if you want to skip back 30 seconds and forward by one minute you can do it. The user interface is basic but very responsive. We recorded a few programs to the external drive. All but one recorded but that was on a channel that did not have the best reception. On channels that have a solid signal every timed based recording went off without a hitch. We even recorded two programs at the same time. Like we said, it works just like every other DVR we’ve ever owned. We had to turn on the DVR to see if it was recording because the record light does not come on unless the DVR is powered on. Yes, the device always has power and can record even if its “off”. But we would like to see the light come on anytime the DVR is recording something. Playback was flawless and skipping through commercials was easy. We had the skip forward set to one minute so it was usually five or six presses to get through a commercial break. Skips were instantaneous. The only drawback of a 60 second skip is that if you miss the entry point after the commercials you’ll have a lot of backing up to do so you may want a 30 second back button instead of the typical 10 seconds. This and That: The DVR+ has been designed to work well with the Slingbox 500. Current firmware does not allow you to set up a season pass that only records new shows. So you end up with some repeats that need to be deleted. The buttons on the remote are very small. But you’ll be using a Harmony anyway right ;-) There is no user guide so be prepared to hunt around through the menus to see what’s possible Conclusion: Up until now if you wanted to cut the cord and totally eliminate monthly fees you needed a HTPC. With the DVR+, a cord cutter can be free of cable and satelli

Home Theater Calibration Disc If you don't think your home theater looks or sounds as as good as it should, you probably want to calibrate it. Calibration is the process of dialing in all the settings on your TV and receiver to optimize the viewing and listening experience for your home. There are a ton of options for this, from buying a calibration disc for the do it yourselfers, buying a calibration system like SpyderTV for the almost do it yourselfers, to hiring a professional calibrator for those of the just do it for me persuasion. Your Options: Nothing beats the professional calibration, but if you want to save some money and give it a go on your own, there a bunch of discs to choose from. The website 2014 Best TV Calibration Disc Comparisons and Reviews gives you a quick glance at a few to help you make a more informed buying decision. Some of them may be available at your local library, or even via Netflix, if you don’t want to buy it for yourself. DVE HD Basics Buy now, $39.95 Created by home theater industry veteran Joe Kane, HD Basics is a great High Definition home theater calibration tool. It promises to improve your picture and give you an understanding of the concepts that are vital to getting the most out of your HDTV. Spears & Munsil High Definition Benchmark Buy now, $29.97 They claim that whether you're a home theater novice or a professional calibrator, you'll find all the tests you need to set up and adjust your HDTV in the Spears and Munsil HD Benchmark. The previous edition of the HD Benchmark was recommended by the New York Times, Widescreen Review, Home Theater Magazine and dozens of other print and online publications. Disney WOW World of Wonder Buy now, $19.99 The Disney WOW: World of Wonder disc is a "how to" guide for in-home high definition (HD) optimization of home entertainment systems featuring the help of classic Disney character Goofy and including HD demonstration clips from popular Disney titles including Toy Story, Up, Bolt and Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End. The easy to follow on-screen guide is designed to help consumers get the best quality experience from their home theater systems. Proximus Calibration Toolkit Cost, $25 if you can find it This disc appears to be out of print, or at least difficult to come by. It reviews quite well if you can find it. Use the Proximus Toolkit to help check the hookup and settings of any home theater system. The Proximus Toolkit allows you to adjust components for most screen imagery and multi-channel sound levels. PixelProtector Blu-ray Buy DVD Edition V2, $29.95 The Blu-ray edition isn’t available for sale as far as we can tell, but the DVD is. It is a DVD based premium screen diagnostic and calibration tool for all types of LCD, plasma and rear projection TV screens. Using test signals PixelProtector allows you to accurately adjust your screen to its full potential. Specific test signals are provided for aligning and calibrating Plasma, LCD, projection sets, over head projectors and rear projection. PixelProtector also has unique screen washes they say will recalibrate pixels uniformly and supposedly keep your TV's picture looking good for years to come. Avia II: Guide to Home Theater Buy now, $29.99 For years, the original AVIA Guide to Home Theater DVD was the gold standard for calibrating your entire home theater. AVIA II added new tutorials to make it easy for beginner and expert alike, and hundreds of video and audio test patterns and signals. But it’s still a DVD, not updated to Blu-ray yet. Adjusting your audio and video system for maximum performance is easy with AVIA's step-by-step instructions. Professionals (or those who want to learn more) can directly access advanced calibration signals with on-line explanations. Other options you don’t want to buy: These are all old or out of print. Some may be helpful, others are intended for standard definition TVs. They all are showing their age. But maybe check them out if they’re at the library... Sound & Vision Tune-Up Out of print. Buy it used for $3.47 The Ultimate DVD - Fine Tuning Buy now, $9.99 TV-Tuneup Calibration Disc Not available Monster/ISF HDTV Calibration Wizard Buy now, $7.98 Conclusion There’s a disc to fit the needs and budget of just about any do it yourself calibrator. Read the amazon reviews, they can be quite helpful if you need to decide which one is right for you. Some are more basic, others more advanced. Some are more helpful, others assume you know more about what you’re doing. Some are boring, some are fun. There are even some apps now that can help with calibration. Maybe we’ll take a look at them in a future episode.

Gravity - Blu-ray Review 4.9 Stars (out of 5) - Rated PG-13 Synopsis Dr. Ryan Stone is a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski in command. But on a seemingly routine mission, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalski completely alone—tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the darkness. Starring: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris Director: Alfonso Cuarón Blu-ray Release Date: February 25, 2014 Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese Rating Overall rating weighted as follows: Audio 40%, Video 40%, Special Features 20%, Movie - its just our opinion so take it with a grain of salt Audio 4.9 Stars (out of 5) Dolby and DTS Demo Discs used as basis for comparison ● Subwoofer – 4.5 Stars ● Dialog – 5.0 Stars ● Surround Effects – 5.0 Stars ● Dynamic Range – 5.0 Stars English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1, Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1 Some movies would say, in space no one can hear you scream. However, in this movie you understand your fear can be easily heard and understood. In large sweeping terms, Gravity has a minimalistic sound design that is emotionally driven. Surround effects include, communications from Houston, creaking and moans from crumbling space stations, communications from other astronauts, upset computers, and eerie silence of space. The low end does not have many opportunities to show off but, vibrations from suit touching anything, ambiance sounds, and the minimal thumping bass of the soundtrack bring ample bass to the party. It’s not enough to vibrate the couch, but its enough to make you feel the director’s vision. Gravity is difficult to judge in words, one major factor is you notice what’s missing. There is no swelling musical score or sounds of explosions. The effects seam scientifically real and remain unsettling. Video 4.9 Stars (out of 5) Spears & Munsil Benchmark Blu-ray Edition used as basis for comparison ● Color Accuracy - 5.0 Stars ● Shadow detail – 5.0 Stars ● Clarity – 4.8 Stars ● Skin tones – 5.0 Stars ● Compression – 5.0 Stars Codec: MPEG-4 AVC, Resolution: 1080p, Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1, Original Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1. Gravity does not have much of a color pallet, but that’s not a negative trait. Most of film is shown in tones of black and white. The only time you really notice color is when you see skin and when Earth is in the background. By the way, Earth looks beautiful from space. It’s looks like a huge marble filled with a blue water, white clouds, and brown land formations. City lights seen on the dark side of the world looks so distant it somehow brings a sense of aloneness to the emotional plot of the film. If you want to test your black levels and contrast this is the Blu-ray you should use. Space is empty and black without signs of compression or shadow issues. The pristine white space suits glowing from the light of the sun really help illustrate the stark differences between light and dark in this movie. Clarity is great and the sharpness is really noticeable when seeing menacing high speed flying debris, and distant stars twinkle in the background. Bonus Features 4.8 Stars (out of 5) ● Gravity: Mission Control (HD, 107 minutes): A long behind-the-scenes split up into 9 segments which include: ● It Began with a Story (16:21) ● Initial Challenges: Long Shots and Zero G (10:12) ● Previsualizing Gravity (11:38) ● The Hues of Space (10:41) ● Physical Weightlessness (7:48) ● Space Tech (13:02) ● Sandra and George: A Pair in Space (9:37) ● Final Animation (15:01) ● Complete Silence (12:13) ● Shot Breakdowns (HD, 37 minutes): Has 5 different breakdowns of the following: ● Behind the Visor (6:50) ● Fire in the International Space Station (5:42) ● Dr. Stone's Rebirth (7:54) ● The Sound of Action in Space (7:55) ● Splashdown (8:24) ● Aningaaq: A Short Film by Jonás Cuarón (HD, 10 minutes): Gravity co-writer Jonás Cuarón's created this short film that really has nothing to do with the movie. ● Collision Point: The Race to Clean Up Space (HD, 22 minutes): Actor Ed Harris narrates this documentary about the very real looming crisis that inspired the film's centerpiece disaster. Movie – 5.0 Stars (out of 5) Review Gravity is an astronaut film that isn’t really about space exploration. It’s about being isolated and confounded by life changing events alone and without confidence. It’s a weird emotion to capture on film, but Gravity does an outstanding job of doing it. I guess when you are alone in space with true cold and darkness the only thing left is the human spirit. This movie stars two Oscar worthy actors, but the true star of the movie is the director. There are scenes that shouldn’t be so tense, but are because the director was able to squeeze out every ounce of emotion on the screen. You could even watch the film at a technical level and marvel at how the film was made, and how some scenes last several min

Skybell Doorbell Last August a listener alerted us to an Indiegogo campaign for a Wifi doorbell that would allow you to answer the door from anywhere in the world provided you had an Internet connection. At that time to contribution was $125 and for that you would helping a startup company bring their product to the market. A product that was supposed to be available around Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then in time for the Holidays. We ended up getting our Skybell in late January but these are the problems of being an earlier adopter. Today, Skybell is available at Skybell.com and Amazon for $200. Features: Answer your door from select Android and iOS devices - Anytime, Anywhere. Exclusive Motion Sensor starts a call even when the person at your door doesn't press the button (Coming Soon) Quick and easy installation. Requires direct power and analog doorbell chime. Manage multiple cameras in the same account Setup: Please read the manual! Ara decided how hard is it to connect two wires and mount the doorbell so he did just that. Then he tried to sync the doorbell. Nothing! Total frustration. Then he finally decided to read the manual and that’s where he learned that the doorbell needs to charge a battery before syncing. That process takes about 10 to 15 minutes. Once the battery charged the doorbell synced with no issues. Ara’s install did have another issue, the Skybell draws a small amount of current to power the unit. This caused a humming noise to come from the doorbell transformer. For the short term the doorbell was disconnected which has not gone over well with the family. Ara is still looking for a solution. The phone app does make a doorbell chime when the front doorbell is pressed but you only hear that if the sound is on. On the tablet, the sound is a generic notification so if you have some of those laying around with the sound on you won’t know if the notification is a doorbell or you just got a sports score update. By the way, there is no native tablet app. The last setup nit pick. The camera is moveable so you can try to get an optimal viewing angle. It is very hard to move it so it requires the use of a screwdriver. There is a video at Skybell.com that shows how to adjust the camera angle. Use: Once installed the doorbell works as advertised. Within a second or two of the doorbell being pressed you get a notification on all the phones and tablets connected to the doorbell. At that point you can see who’s at the door and even speak to them. If someone else answers the door you won’t be able answer. Skybell will be adding a notification to let you know someone else answered the door. Picture and audio quality are adequate. There is a lot of background noise coming from the doorway. The picture quality allows you to see who’s there and you can take a snapshot if you choose. Night quality is terrible. Skybell is promising improvements including: Motion Sensor Activation Motion Sensor – On/Off Toggle Doorbell Sound for Push Notification Alert Alert that another user answered the call On-Demand Camera Access Special SkyBell Alert Tone Image Balance for backlighting Bottom Line: Being able to see who is at the door and speak with them while you are away from home is quite powerful and Skybell lets you do just that. The product as it stands seems a bit rushed to market and is missing a few features. The good news if you have already bought one is that your Skybell will be updated automatically. Our recommendation is that if you are an early adopter type go ahead and jump in. Skybell works, albeit with a few incomplete features. If you want something that’s been fully buzzed out. Wait a few months and then jump in.

Wireless Headphones You’ve probably heard us stress over and over again how important surround sound is to your HDTV and home theater experience. Without surround sound, it’s really just surveillance, not home theater. But we are regular guys too, and we leave in the real world. We know that sometimes you have to make sacrifices and compromises. You aren’t the only one in the house, or the building or the neighborhood. Sometimes that compromise means using a sound bar. Other times it may mean throwing on some headphones so you can still enjoy HDTV when the volume may otherwise disrupt the delicate balance of your ecosystem. Like many of you, Braden has young children. He has many of them, in fact. Sometimes it’s nice to let them sleep a little at night and headphones can come in quite handy for that. You have a couple major decisions to make when buying headphones for your home theater, the most important is how well they sound. But beyond that, there are some logistics questions, the main one being: wired or wireless? Wired have reliable quality, and no need to recharge batteries. But they have long cables that need to be stored, if the cable isn’t long enough, they can be uncomfortable, and so on. Wireless headphones are much more convenient and, provided you buy the right ones, can sound just as good. Sony MDRRF985RK Wireless RF Headphone Buy now: $86 Sony makes some of our all time favorite studio monitor headphones, the MDR7506 Professional Large Diaphragm Headphones that go for $102. They may not be the best headphones around anymore, but they are a tried and true classic, and still quite good. If you’re in the market for wired headphones, they’re worth checking out. But, for this round-up, we aren’t interested in wired, we’re going wireless. It may have been our sentimentality that pushed us to them, but the Sony MDRRF985RK are the first pair of headphones on the list. These phones from Sony give you the freedom to travel up to 150 feet from your sound source while delivering stereo quality sound. Hopefully your couch isn’t 150 feet away from your TV, but just in case it is, you’re all set. They run on the 900MHz RF wireless band, which is fine, but not the best choice. They have a 40mm driver for decent bass performance, and claim frequency response from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. They have an auto tuning feature that conveniently scans up and down the band to automatically tune in channels. And like most units on our list, they are rechargeable. They include Ni-MH rechargeable batteries with a max run time of 25 hours. You’ll probably pass out before they do. All-in-all a solid performer at a decent price. They won’t blow you away with their quality, but they will be reliable and that also won’t blow away your whole checking account. JVC HAW600RF 900MHZ Wireless Headphones Buy now: $54 These headphones from JVC are feature for feature nearly identical the the prior model from Sony. They run on the same 900 MHz RF frequency, but boast a slightly larger effective distance of 164 feet. They too have the auto tuning feature to hopefully provide the best quality sound at all times. Couple that with a 40mm driver for full-bodied sound and you’ve got a pair of headphones that are tough to distinguish from the Sony pair. The JVC HAW600RF does offer a convenient paging or voice call function that allows for voice communication from the base station to the headset user. So if someone wanders off wearing the headphones, or you simply want to play practical jokes on someone to annoy them, you’ve got that going for you. But what really got us to put these above the Sony is the price. They’re close to half the cost of the Sony model. Sennheiser RS120 On-Ear 926MHz Wireless RF Headphones with Charging Cradle Buy now: $80 In the bang-for-the-buck category, the RS120 may take the cake. It is a lightweight RF wireless headphone system with Open-Aire Supra-Aural design for hi-fidelity audio reproduction. They feature a transparent, well-balanced sound with solid bass reproduction, and are a great choice for both hi-fi and TV use. The transmitter has an “easy recharge” function for conveniently recharging the included headphone batteries. The RS120 headphones run on the 926 MHz frequency, which is still in the 900 MHz band, but for some reason they don’t seem to suffer the same interference issues that others on the 900 MHz band struggle with. And somehow this allows them to claim a 328 foot reception distance, even though walls and ceilings. Unlike other units on the list, however, these Sennheisers don’t have the auto-tuning functionality, but instead provide three user-selectable channels. If you want a pair of really good headphones without spending too much money, the Sennheiser RS120 would be our first pick in the under $100 category. Sennheiser RS 170 Digital Wireless Headphone with Dynamic Bass and Surround Sound Buy now: $198 If you’d like to step up from a solid performer to a stand out, you’ll want to look at the Sen

Revolv Home Automation Hub With 2013 being the year of home automation ;-) we saw a bunch of new products come on the scene to make our lives easier. Along with those products came apps for our mobile devices and before long we started suffering from app fatigue. Wouldn’t it be cool if a product could unite all those different technologies into one app! Well today we review a product that is well on its way to do so. The Revolv Home Automation Hub (Buy Now $299) is a new device that will allow you to control many of these devices with one smartphone app. Features: Works with product gateways and bridges to connect all your devices including Philips Hue lights, Yale locks, Sonos Hi-Fi speakers, and Insteon sensors and switches. The Revolv Hub has 7 wireless radios supporting 10 different wireless protocols. Easily create macros based on triggers from sensors, time, GPS location, or on-demand presets. Quick setup of Smartphone App and Wi-Fi Hub (Ethernet not required). Lifetime Service Included: No monthly service or subscription fees. Setup: This is where the Revolv Home Automation Hub excels! It was quite easy getting the Hub on our network. The first thing you do is download and launch the iOS app (Android coming soon). Next you plug in the hub. Finally you transfer the wifi network information to the hub via the iPhone’s camera flash. After the hub gets on the network it updates itself and then its ready to go. To add devices you select “Add Devices” from the app’s setup menu and then put the device you are adding into the configure state and bingo! There it is. The Revolve app adds an icon depicting the device and you now have immediate control. We went around the house adding Insteon, Z-Wave, and wifi devices. In all, within 30 minutes of the unboxing we were controlling multiple devices throughout the house. Actions “Triggers”: Like all good automation systems, Revolv has “actions” which can be activated in one of four ways: Sensor - And right now this means motion sensor. Revolv is constantly adding devices so you may see contact sensors in the future as well. Typical action could be turning on a light when a sensor is tripped. Time - This is a straight forward as it sounds. An action will take place at the desired time. Location - Right now there are two choices here, home and away. Come home and your air conditioner turns on. Leave and it turns off. Anything you can control can be triggered this way. Just do it - Essentially this is a macro. You can define a sequence of events that occur when you press the button. While not complete, its a good start for a version one application. We spoke with co-founder Mike Soucie who assures us they are working on adding functionality as soon as they can. He said conditional triggers or actions based on other devices on are on the road map. The company has an active forum where they solicit ideas and which devices to support from users. The most requested ideas/devices are given higher priorities. Controlling the Home: We’ve been using the Home Automation Hub for a few weeks now and it has performed flawlessly. When in the home, the response is quick. Over the Internet, its a little laggy but nothing that would cause anyone grief. We set up macros that mimic our Indigo setup and with a touch of a button our theater lights were dimmed creating a mood perfect for watching movies. Our porch light was scheduled to turn on at sunset and it faithfully did. It just would have been nice to have one of our sensors trigger our stairway lights to turn on at 20% only after 10:00pm. Perhaps in the next release. And that’s another nice thing about the system, it will be updated without you having to do anything. The hub is connected to the Internet and will receive updates in the background. Likewise, the iOS app will be updated through the app store adding more functionality. Limitations: While this is a good version one there are some areas that can be improved. We briefly mentioned in the previous section that conditional triggers would be nice. This would be something like turning on the kitchen lights at 6:00 in the morning if we weren’t in vacation mode. And that would be the other point, it would be nice to be able to set variables that can be manipulated manually or automatically based on actions. It would also be cool to get notifications. If my front door is unlocked I would like a notification or email. A web interface into the hub would also make setting up triggers and devices a little easier. Finally it would be nice if the GUI could be customized. What’s to come: As stated earlier we had a chance to speak with co-founder Mike Soucie who shed a little light on the future. We asked if there would be a web interface to set up devices and macros. He said that is possible for the future but didn’t give a timetable. We asked about variables and more complex triggers. Those too are on the roadmap but not expected soon. What we can expect in Q1 of 2014 are notification

What’s Hot Right Now (2014 Time Capsule) We didn’t update it in 2013, but back in January of 2012, we put together a snapshot of the then-current HDTV landscape we could refer back to in the future. Since we often look back at the technologies and prices of years gone by with shock and amazement, instead of simply trying to remember what things were like “back then” we built our time capsule. We’re going to update the time capsule and look back at our 2012 snapshot. As we did last time, we took some of the top sellers at Amazon across a variety of categories and got their prices. This gives us a good indication of what is hot right now and also what their prices are. Televisions 2012: 3D TVs In 2012 3D TVs were all the rage. Every store and manufacturer had them, and nobody really wanted them, although the industry hadn’t really figured that out yet. We had a whole section in our 2012 capsule devoted to 3D TVs. In 2014 we’d drop the 3D TV section and replace it with a 4K TV section instead. LG Infinia 55LW5600 55-Inch Cinema 3D 1080p 120 Hz LED-LCD, (was: $1282) Ranked #4 on the list. The 47” version of the same TV, the LG Infinia 47LW6500 47-Inch Cinema 3D 1080p 240 Hz LED-LCD HDTV, (was: $1077), was a few spots down the list at #12. Equivalent TV today: LG 55LA6200 55-Inch Cinema 3D 1080p 120Hz LED-LCD HDTV with Smart TV and Four Pairs of 3D Glasses, $999 Samsung UN55D8000 55-Inch 1080p 240Hz 3D LED HDTV, (was: $2058) Samsung held the next TV on the list at #11. Equivalent TV today: Samsung UN55F7100 55-Inch 1080p 240Hz 3D Ultra Slim Smart LED HDTV, $1498 We found 34 3D TVs in the top 100 made by LG, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, and Sharp. There were 27 Active sets and 7 Passive (LG, Toshiba). They ranged in size from 40” to 70” and ranged in price from $699 to over $3400. 2014: 4K TVs Seiki Digital SE39UY04 39-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz LED TV, $599 The first TV on the list, at position #42, is the 39” 3840 x 2160 Panel from Seiki that also supports 4K up-scaling. Despite what we thought we’d be able to load into the time capsule, there was only one 4K / Ultra high def TV in the top 100. This is something we’ll probably look back on in a few years in amazement, but 1080p still dominates the list, with a few 720p sprinkled throughout. 2012: Plasma TVs Two years ago plasma technology was showing signs of waning, but it was still going strong and winning awards, if not the hearts and minds of the average consumer. These days plasma is all but gone, so we’d probably replace plasma in our 2014 time capsule with OLED. Panasonic VIERA TC-P50S30 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV, (was: $799) The first plasma in the top 100 came in at #22 overall. Another slightly bigger Panasonic was on the list at #30, the Panasonic VIERA TC-P60ST30 60-Inch 1080p 600 Hz 3D Plasma HDTV, (was: $1400). Samsung PN43D450 43-Inch 720p 600 Hz Plasma HDTV, (was: $492) Again moving down a few spots to #35 we found our first non-Panasonic plasma set. Overall we found 14 plasma TVs in the top 100 in 2012, not a bad showing. They were mostly made by Panasonic and Samsung, with one LG unit in the list. They ranged in size from 43” to 65” and ranged in price from under $500 to over $2500. In 2014 we found just 5 of them in the top 100: 1 LG, 2 Samsung and 2 Panasonic plasmas. They ranged in size from 51” to 65” and in price from $800 to $3200. The first one, the LG, was on the list at position #53. 2014: OLED TVs Here’s another nugget to file away in the time capsule: no OLED televisions in the top 100. Only two OLED TVs appear in the “top selling OLED” category. Odds are this will be quite different when we revisit this capsule in the future. The two OLED models Amazon actually has available are curved sets. Wonder how that format will hold with time... They are: Samsung KN55S9C Curved Panel Smart 3D OLED HDTV, $8,997 This model has 4 HDMI, 2 USB, 1 LAN, 2 Component, and 1 Composite input. It is a Samsung SmartTV 2.0 with built-in WiFi and Smart Interaction 2.0 with a built-in Camera. Of course its still a 1080p display, but is 3D capable. Also boast a Quad Core processor for super fast app-tivity. LG Electronics 55EA9800 Cinema 3D 1080p Curved OLED TV with Smart TV, $8499 This LG set, being an OLED, offers what LG calls “Infinite Contrast’ that ranges from the most blazing white to the darkest black. LG's 4 Color Pixel technology adds an unfiltered, white sub-pixel to the traditional red, green and blue resulting in a brighter picture with a wider range of colors and superior color accuracy for more true to life and vibrant images. 2012: LCD TVs Of course the vast majority of sets in the top 100 list were LCD. Some of the notable sets in 2012 were: TCL L40FHDF12TA 40-Inch 1080p 60 Hz LCD HDTV, (was: $319) This was the #1 TV on the list at the time we built the 2012 time capsule. Sharp LC-70LE732U, (was: $2389) This is the biggest set in the list, but not the most expensive by more than $1000. It came in at #75. Samsung UN65D8000 65-Inch 1080p 240 Hz 3D LED

CES has come and gone so today we talk about what others have deemed “Best”. We rundown winners (home theater related) from the Digital Trends, Engadget, and CES Innovations. Follow the links for the complete list. Digital Trends unveils its “Best of CES 2014” Award Winners Home Theater: Audio: Philips Fidelio E5 Wireless Surround Speaker System Home Theater: Video: LG 77-inch Curved OLED Engadget BEST STARTUP: AIRTAME - Wireless HDMI for Everyone. With the AIRTAME HDMI Dongle you can display your computer screen (Mac, Windows or Linux) on your TV, Projector and Monitor - Wirelessly. BEST AUDIO PRODUCT: CLEARVIEW CLIO - Named after one of the nine goddesses of music, song and dance, Clio™ is thin, curved, clear and beautiful. Enjoy room-filling panoramic sound and the freedom of wireless connectivity with the first décor-friendly speaker that uses Edge Motion® technology to disappear into the aesthetic of any room or style. BEST VIDEO PRODUCT: DISH VIRTUAL JOEY - Virtual Joey is a software application that delivers the DISH Hopper® Whole-Home HD DVR experience on 2013 and 2014 LG Smart TVs, and Sony PlayStation® 3 and PlayStation® 4 devices. The app can be used instead of DISH’s hardware-based Joey, increasing installation options where coaxial or Ethernet wiring may be difficult to access. CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards VIDEO COMPONENTS - Sony FMP-X1 4K Ultra HD Media Player - The world’s first home media player to deliver hit Hollywood movies in 4K Ultra HD, with 4 times more clarity than HD. Pre-loaded with 10 feature films and a library of 4K shorts, the FMP-X1 is also the gateway to Sony’s Video Unlimited 4K service. HIGH PERFORMANCE HOME AUDIO - Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 18 - BeoLab 18 is conceived at an exceptional sound column introducing a refined symbiosis of form, craftsmanship and performance. VIDEO DISPLAYS - LG CURVED ULTRA HD OLED TV (77EC9800) - The 77EC9800 is the world’s first and largest curved 77-inch ULTRA HD OLED TV and features LG’s CINEMA 3D technology and powerful webOS Smart TV platform. VIDEO DISPLAYS - Samsung 65-inch Real 240Hz FHD Smart LED TV with Quad-core Multi-tasking Capability The UN65H7150 is the world’s only Real 240Hz Full HD LED TV with Quad-core Processor to enable more rapid Smart TV execution, a 1.3-second Instant On and Dual Screen for the perfect multi-tasking experience. HOME THEATER SPEAKERS - Philips Fidelio E5 wireless surround cinema speakers Philips Fidelio E5 wireless surround cinema speakers and their wireless active subwoofer, offer a phenomenal stereo music listening experience that can transform instantly into a true 5.1 wireless surround sound system.

Trends at this year’s CES Show: 4K TVs - Actually we saw a lot of this last year as well. Perhaps Braden’s prediction of a 4K TV year may actually come true! OLED TVs - Again, we saw OLED last year too. But this year we saw larger sizes. LG is a big player here. Sound Bars - Now you may be seeing why we decided not to go to CES. Sound Bars are big because the speakers on most modern thin TVs are terrible. But its genius!! This now gives manufacturers an opportunity to sell another piece of gear. Wireless Speakers - Offerings from manufacturers like Sonos and some other companies that you have never heard of before as well made an impact this year. Smart Home/ Home Automation - Nothing new here! Wasn’t last year the year of home automation?? Even more manufacturers to get into the automation game this year. Higher Resolution Audio - This is a new trend and we like seeing it. The only issue is that high quality audio typically comes a high cost. Samsung Samsung showed a 110” UHD TV - We talked about the 85” model that forced a family to sell one of their daughters into slavery so they could pay the $40K pricetag. It looks like the 110 inch model won’t be produced. At least at this time. Its more of a concept TV brought to CES to show what they can do. Will TVs like this ever get down in price to the point where projectors are no longer necessary? They also demonstrated an 85” that is “Bendable”. Turn it on and the edges curve towards you. Turn it off and its flat! Samsung to Unveil Secret Weapon at 2014 International CES - Samsung is reportedly planning to unveil its secret weapon, the V1 Bomb, a high-definition TV called Quantum-dot LED TV (QLED TV) at the 2014 International CES Samsung To Debut Wireless Streaming Speaker, Home Theater System, Portable Stereo And Two TV Soundbars Samsung unveils a new foundation for the smart home LG LG unveiled twelve 4K televisions for 2014 - They introduced the 105-inch 4K 105UC9 that has an aspect ratio of 21:9 and is powered by the webOS Smart TV platform. If you can’t find any 4K content for these spiffy new TVs have no fear. LG has developed something called Tru-ULTRA HD Engine Pro. Its supposed to improve overall Ultra HD picture quality. That along with a new proprietary upscaling chip will make SD and HD content look better on Ultra HD televisions. Well at least according to LG. On the Audio side of things, LG says it worked with Harman Kardon to develop premium audio systems for each TV. But seriously, with TVs like these are you really thinking about not using a receiver? The remaining lineup: LG UB9800 Series - 4K, WebOS, Tru-Ultra HD Engine Pro, IPS, passive 3D, 65, 79, 84, 98 inches LG UB9500 Series - 4K, WebOS, IPS, passive 3D, 55, 65 inches LG UB8500 Series - 4K, WebOS, IPS, passive 3D, 49, 55 inches LG EC9800 - 4K, WebOS, OLED, Bendable, 77 inches LG EC9700 - 4K, WebOS, OLED, 55, 65 inches Panasonic TC-AX800U series - 4K, edge-lit local dimming, 65 and 58 inches. The 58 inch is available now. The 65 inch will be available in the spring. TC-55AS680U - 1080p, 240Hz refresh rate TC-AS650U series - 1080p, 3D, 60, 55, and 50. Cool touch pad remote! Available Today TC-60AS660U series - 1080p, Home Theater System Bundle, Touch Pad Remote TC-AS530U series - 1080p, 60, 55, 50, 39 inches Available Now TC-A400U series - 1080p, 50, 39, 32 inches. Available Today - Entry Series ZT80 Plasma 50, 55, 60, and 65 inches. Available in our dreams! Sony All 4K TVs support Netflix 4K Streaming! XBR-X950B series - 4K resolution, direct LED local dimming 85, 65 inches XBR-X900B series - 4K resolution, edge-lit LED local dimming, 79, 65, 55 inches XBR-X850B series - 4K resolution, Triluminous display, 70, 65, 55, 49 inches KDL-W950B series - 1080p resolution, edge-lit LED local dimming, 65, 55 inches KDL-W850B series - 1080p resolution, Wedge design, 70, 60 inches KDL-W800B series - 1080p resolution, 55, 50 inches KDL-60W630B - 1080p resolution, Smart TV, 60 inches KDL-W600B series - 1080p resolution, Smart TV, 48, 40 inches Wireless Speakers SRS-X9 - 2.1 wireless speaker with a bi-amped subwoofer, high-res audio files, Bluetooth, aptX, NFC, Wi-Fi, AirPlay, and DLNA. SRS-X7 - Similar to the X9 but without high-res audio, Wi-Fi, NFC and aptX Bluetooth, Airplay and DLNA support, and compatibility with Music Unlimited, Spotify and TuneIn Radio SRS-X5 - portable, built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC, and can double as a hands free speakerphone when paired with your smartphone. Sharp SHARP delivers the first WISA compliant Universal Player - The SD-WH1000U Universal Player is the first, Wireless Speaker and Audio (WiSA™) Association, compliant component to transmit uncompressed sound at 24-bit/96kHz and video at Full HD (1080p) — wirelessly. The Sharp Universal Player has already been named a 2014 International CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards Honoree in the High Performance Home Audio category. The SD-WH1000U will have an MSRP of $3,999.99 and will begin shipping in the sprin

Predictions for 2014 Time for the HT Guys to look into our crystal ball and try and predict the HDTV and Home Theater landscape for 2014. Our crystal ball is never as clears as a good HDTV but we give it a shot nonetheless. No gimmies this year since we can’t even get those right! Ara’s Predictions: Netflix will have at least 50 4K titles for streaming - Its not really going out on a limb predicting that Netflix will have 4K titles. They’ve said as much. Its the number that I think is the real prediction. If you have a high speed connection and a 4K TV you will have some content display. Look for Youtube to have 4K content as well. OLED TV market share will remain insignificant - We have seen OLED TVs that have blown us away but when compared side by side with plasma or even the Elite LCDs they are not worth the huge price differential. Sure they can be extremely thin but is a ½ in too thick? Who cares if an OLED is half that size. Its a catch 22, until quantities go up price won’t go down. And since the quality differential isn’t worth the price I see no reason for quantities to go up. Cable and Satellite providers will offer cloud based DVR services - Imagine a world where you can have unlimited storage for your DVR recording. We see cloud storage all over the place so why not with your DVR. With better compression and a downspeed of about 4 Mbps you could watch most of your programs with little quality difference. Translate, anything the wife and kids want to record goes to the cloud. All of your programming goes to the hard drive at full quality! Aereo to win in the Supreme Court - This case has been going on for a while. The broadcasters would love to see Aereo shut down. I think this is the year that Aereo expands to new cities without the burden of lawsuits hanging around their necks. Illegal downloads to exceed traditional broadcast viewership for top three pirated shows - Game of Thrones is already illegally downloaded more than its watched on television. Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead are still viewed more on TV than downloaded illegally. Braden’s Predictions: The year of 4K - Manufacturers will push 4K as the new upgrade cycle for 2014. We’ll see many, many more models and prices will come down quickly. Driven down primarily by Chinese manufacturers. 3D didn’t do it; OLED is still too far off. Queue the endless debates and hand wringing over 1080p vs 4K, just like the 720p vs 1080p of yesteryear. I may have just described a few of our shows for 2014… Netflix will win at least one Content Award - Netflix is pushing into the original content space with a vengeance, trying to become the next online HBO. The industry will take them seriously this year and you’ll even see a Netflix show or Actor/Actress win an award. It may not be an Emmy, but maybe a People’s Choice or something else, but we’ll see Netflix get a trophy. 9 Channel Surround goes Mainstream - Most home theater receivers on the market are 7.1. The low cost, entry models are 5.1, some of the higher end units support 9.1. In 2014 we’ll see 9.1 receivers replace 7.1 as the standard and only the low cost, entry models will remain 7.1. The 5.1 receiver will be a relic. Dolby and DTS will both have native, discrete 9.1 support but it’ll take a while for it to show up in any content. Intel and Wal-mart Shock the World - If there are any companies big enough to pull off a major disruptive change in the home theater business, its Walmart and Intel. They’re already working together with Vudu and UltraViolet, so 2014 will see them take the next step to do something really unique. It could be first run TV shows available for streaming the same time they air, or an all-you-can-eat, a la carte TV subscription, or the ability to watch first run movies at home via... Virtual Movie Going Experience - The major studios will work in partnership with local movie theaters, to allow you to buy tickets but watch the movie in the comfort of your own home. The theater will sell the tickets, hopefully at a discount, so they share in the revenue, and everybody wins. This sets the stage to remove the theater as the middle man altogether.

Predictions Results for 2013 At the start of each new year we look into our high def crystal ball to make our best predictions on what we think the coming year will bring in the way of HDTV and Home Theater. The ball tends to be a bit cloudy, and each year we struggle to even get close to 50%. So let’s take a look at how we thought 2013 would shake out to see how we did. We listed a few “gimmes” up front. The funny thing is that our gimmes didn’t even come through for us: WRONG: Apple will release its first HDTV. MAYBE: What ‘business’? The plasma business? Another Japanese TV manufacturer will walk away from the business. NOT SURE, but PROBABLY: Netflix will use more Internet traffic during Primetime. RIGHT: 4K TVs will become cheaper. Ara’s Predictions: Social Media will determine whether a show stays on the air - let’s face it the way Nielsen measures ratings is old and antiquated. Time to move towards the future. With Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Google+ it should be easier to determine whether a show has a following or not. Producers should be able to use these services to help them not only sell but pinpoint ads to the exact demographic watching the show. Look for Nielsen to revamp how it measures ratings. SUCCESS! Product Placement will be big - With so many DVRs out there advertisers are looking for a way to put their brand in front of you. This year I am saying that it won’t be subtle but more in your face. Rather than just seeing the product look for dialog about how good the product is. There have been a few examples of this with Toyota and Bones. Look for the cell phone companies to talk about communications on any action/cop show. NOT REALLY. Still about the same as 2012. Apple will enter the home automation market - Since 2012 was the year of home automation ;-) Apple will make 2013 the year of plug and play automation. They are rumored to be interested in id8 Group R2 Studios Inc which is a startup company developing home media and automation technology. Look for Apple to tie your entertainment, lighting, and security together in a neat easy to setup package. So does this make 2013 the year of home automation? Fail. Maybe next year? We’ll see a “True” smart TV - I’m not talking an Internet connected TV but more of a TV that truly has some brains. Something that can sense who is in front of it and configure itself for that viewer. If more than one person is in front of the TV then maybe go into family mode or something like that. It will be voice activated. Actually it will be a cross between GoogleTV, AppleTV and a computer. Look for Samsung to develop the first True Smart TV. Fail. Didn’t quite happen yet. Movie Studios will eliminate DRM from their content - Following the lead of the music industry, the movie industry will see the err of their ways and make it easy for all of us to freely create video servers with legally owned content. This is my Hail Mary pass prediction. Probability of success.... less than 1% Total score: 1/5 for a whopping 20%. Braden’s Predictions: Adios Mother Plasma - Although plasma may have given birth to the flat screen revolution, the technology will be forced into early retirement in 2013. Success! Panasonic, the stalwart supporter of plasma technology for the last few years announced they will be exiting the plasma business for good. While plasma will remain in stock for a while, Panasonic's exit spells the end for a great technology. The technology that started the flat screen revolution. Panasonic's plasma TV exit is the end of a brilliant era. I’ll buy that for $300 - The average selling price for a 42” 1080p LCD TV will be $300 by the end of the year, down from $480 in 2012. Fail. Pricing stayed pretty flat, driven by advanced features and a push into LED technology. If the prices moved downward, it was only slightly, certainly not into the $300 range. Let’s be more than friends - As the economy continues to struggle and the price of electronics continues to plummet, 2013 will see at least one, maybe a few large mergers or acquisitions in the consumer electronics/home theater industry. Fail. Microsoft acquired Nokia otherwise nothing. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Bummer. Stream it to me - This year will see new release available via streaming in an all-you-can-eat subscription package. Fail. Lo and behold, this prediction still didn’t happen. Yet I continue to make it every year. It’ll be right eventually, you just watch. Sure you can get Prima Cinema in your home now, so maybe I should get partial credit here. But I just can’t see taking partial credit on a system that costs $35,000 and $500 per movie. If it was $3500 and $50 per movie, maybe. You can take it to grandma’s house - In 2013 someone will show the prototype for a truly portable tablet computer. Not something thinner and lighter but still 10 inches by 8 inches, but something that either rolls up or folds up so you can very easily take it with you anywhere. Fail. We got thinner and lighter, but still not

Ultimate Home Theater in a Box There are so many Home Theater in a Box systems out there many of which cost less than $400. But seriously, what can you get for $400. A good center channel typically costs more than most HTIB systems on the market today. Each year we try to assemble a Home Theater in many boxes that we would be proud to show off in our homes. Our system will have at a minimum a HDTV, Blu-ray Player, Receiver, and 5.1 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 system will look and sound great by anyone’s definition! Braden: Sharp LC-80LE757 80-inch Aquos Quattron 1080p 240Hz Smart LED 3D HDTV ($3688) It’s hard to pass up an 80” TV when you can have it for less than $4000. I was trying to keep the budget to under $6000 or so, but when you consider that an 80” TV is nearly front projection size, and it doesn’t suffer from ambient light issues or degrade at all during the day, the $3688 price is a great deal. It has the exclusive Quattron color technology that delivers a billion more colors, so you get a more powerful picture with brighter yellows, deeper blues, and richer golds. And it has a 240Hz Refresh Rate with AquoMotion 480 that doubles the effective refresh rate so you can see sharper fast-action movies and sports. And it’s a smart TV, so need need to add an external streaming player for apps. For those who want to save a little, scale down to a 70” TV, the VIZIO E701i-A3 70-inch 1080p 120Hz Razor LED Smart HDTV is just as smart, but only costs $1498. Denon AVR-X3000 7.2-Channel 4K Ultra HD Networking Receiver with AirPlay ($899) It’s no secret Denon is my favorite receiver brand, and the X3000 made our Receiver Buying Guide for a reason. It packs a ton of features, quality and big sound into a very reasonable price. It has 7 HDMI inputs and two HDMI outputs for multiple zone viewing. The X3000 comes with Audyssey’s Gold package so you can get your sound exactly the way you want it. The unit is Airplay and Windows 8 compatible and comes with Denon Remote app for mobile devices. The receiver's network functionality supports Internet radio services such as SiriusXM, Pandora, and Spotify. Like we said in the Buying Guide, there are many more features than we can’t list. It’s a very capable receiver and will last you for years. Klipsch RF-42 II Reference Series 7.1 Home Theater System ($1494) Going back to the trusty favorites, Klipsch has never let me down. They make incredibly high quality, supremely efficient speakers that sound great and are easy to listen to. The provide the detail you need for subtle soundtracks and effects in movies and the power you need for all the big explosions. Movies and music will sound just as they were intended to - no matter the room type or size - with the power, detail and emotion of Klipsch Reference II sound. This system includes: 1 RC-42 II Center Channel Speaker, 2 RF-42 II Tower Speakers, 2 RS-41 II Surround Speakers, 2 RB-41 II Bookshelf Speakers and 1 Klipsch SW-110 Subwoofer. This system gets you into 7.1 sound at a great price. There’s nothing keeping you from upgrading each of the parts over time, like the subwoofer or maybe a bigger center channel. Samsung BD-F5900 3D Wi-Fi Blu-ray Disc Player ($98) Unless you’re buying the OPPO, a Blu-ray player is a Blu-ray player. This Samsung unit ticks all the boxes for what you need in a solid performer, and it adds a couple uniques features as well. For example, S-Recommendation helps you find new things to watch, and Samsung Apps offer you new ways to entertain. It has a built-in web browser and Wi-Fi and allows you to stream from your other devices with AllShare. It supports 3D if that’s what you’re into and can up-convert your favorite DVDs to near Blu-ray quality. Of course it has all the standard apps as well, like Netflix, Hulu Plus, Vudu and Pandora, so there’s no need for a secondary streaming player. Miscellaneous You can’t have a good home theater without a good universal remote, so throw in a Logitech Harmony 650 Remote Control for $60 to round out the package. Sure it isn’t the best in the Harmony line, but it controls everything in the package: TV, Receiver, Blu-ray player, Set Top (for Cable or Satellite), with one slot left for a device to be added later. You have to provide your own batteries, but pick up a few rechargeables and you’re all set. Figure around $200 for miscellaneous cables and connectors, and the package is complete. Summary Total cost, not including shipping or tax, for a complete home theater with an 80” television and 7.1 surround sound comes out to $6439. I was shooting for a $6000 budget, and came pretty close. It’s difficult to fathom that a budget of $6000 can get you an 80” HDTV. If yo

HDTV Buying Guide 2013 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. We’re back with another annual edition of the HDTV buying guide. Staying true to form, we’re going to break the sets down into categories by screen size, just like we did last year. 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. It turns out waiting a year to buy a new TV doesn’t always allow you to stretch your budget any further. Toshiba 19” 720p LED for $129 RCA 32” 1080p LCD for $229 Sony BRAVIA 42” 1080p LED $548 VIZIO 60” 1080p 120Hz Razor LED Smart HDTV $999 Panasonic 65” 1080p Full HD 3D Plasma $2499 Up to 32" Depending on your situation, a 32” TV could work as your primary screen. But more often, these screens work out great for a secondary viewing room like your kitchen, bedroom, office or home gym. At this size, we’re focused on value and bang for the buck. VIZIO E241-A1 24-inch 1080p 60Hz Razor LED HDTV ($178) The 24” 1080p TV drops by $20 this year, or roughly 10%. This model is part of the new E-series slim frame design from VIZIO, providing what they call high-quality design and picture at the best value. Images look good and the action does well on the 1080p Full HD resolution screen. The slim frame design makes it a good match for just about any room or situation. Plus, as an LED TV, it’ll save you money when compared to same size 2012 LCD HDTVs lighted with CCFL technology. oCOSMO 32-Inch 1080p 60Hz LED HDTV ($215) Unknown value brand oCOSMO bumps off last year’s RCA for our 32” recommendation. The oCOSMO has all the same features and a better price. It also reviews very highly at Amazon based on the impressions of 47 customers. OK, so that isn’t a ton, but it helps. With the additional feature of a USB & MHL ports helps further expand the functionality of your TV, allowing users to listen to music and view digital pictures quickly and conveniently. Up to 42" This continues to be the sweet spot for TV sales, which makes it a very competitive category. You don’t have to look to hard to find some really good deals on very high quality televisions. LG Electronics 39LN5300 39-Inch LED-lit 1080p 60Hz TV ($347) We picked the LG for the value and the picture quality. It will do a good job for you without breaking the bank. the video quality is very good, but the audio performance is what you’d expect out of a TV speaker. It also offers easy self-calibration with on-screen reference points for key picture quality elements such as black level, color, tint, sharpness and backlight levels. This helps take the guesswork out of picture adjustments. It’s not a full calibration, but most people aren’t doing a full calibration on 39” TVs. VIZIO E420i-A0 42-Inch 1080p 120Hz Smart LED HDTV ($478) Last year’s 42” Sony cost $548. This year’s VIZIO drops that all the way down to $478 and even adds a few features for you. We aren’t huge fans of paying a premium for “smart” TV features, but when you get it for this price, why not? The built-in VIZIO Internet Apps allow you to enjoy online movies, TV shows, music, and apps without the need for an external box or dongle. It has Smart Dimming capabilities for better contrast, richer colors and more vivid details. And it carries on the slim frame design VIZIO has been promoting, to add to the aesthetics acceptance factor. Up to 50" Pricing in this category doesn’t move much from year to year. Last year this category has a plasma TV. This year, though it pains us to say it, we couldn't do it. LG Electronics 47LN5790 47-Inch 1080p 120Hz Smart LED HDTV + Free 60-Watt 2-Channel Sound Bar ($614) If you aren’t planning to connect your 46 or 47-inch TV to a surround sound system, this deal is a great option. You get the stunning picture quality of the LG television, and they’re throwing in a 60 watt, 2 channel sound bar for free to eliminate the negative experience associated with the built-in TV speaker. The price is ridiculously low, significantly lower than the 46-inch Samsung on last year’s list, and you get the soundbar. It also happens to be a Smart TV, so you get access to premium content providers like Netflix, Vudu, Hulu Plus, and YouTube direct from your TV. Samsung UN50EH5300 50-Inch 1080p 60Hz LED HDTV ($649) A 50-inch set is the primary viewing size for many households, and Samsung consistently makes some of the best televisions on the market. If you’re buying a main TV, don’t look for the cheapest, look for the best. It turns out this Samsung is also a really good price, but even if it carries a small premium, its worth it. You get everything except 3D, which in many circles is still considered everything. With this Smart HDTV, Smart Content provides new ways to explore and locate your favorite shows, movies, games, and more. A full web browser with WiFi built-in and innovative apps made for TV, along with Signature S

Receiver Buying Guide 2013 Its that time of year where we get to spend your money again! We kick off our holiday buying guides with receivers. Our goal with these guides is not necessarily about getting the latest product. Its 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. Less than $500 Sony STR-DH740 7.2 Channel 4K AV Receiver $275 In this price range you just want a basic receiver that can give you a surround sound experience and leave you some cash for speakers. That’s what this receiver is. It doesn’t do 4K but it will pass the signal through to the TV so it won’t prevent you from enjoying 4K, you know when we actually get 4k content. It comes with 4 HDMI inputs and can process all the advanced audio codecs. In all its a great starter receiver for less than $300!! Onkyo TX - NR609 7.2 Channel Network THX Certified A/V Receiver $400 Wow! Both of our budget receivers are 7.2. Onkyo really packs a ton of features in a unit and prices them for just about everyone. You get six HDMI inputs, iOS connectivity, Network streaming with a great mobile app, and if that’s not enough the receiver is THX certified! But what might really seal the deal is the Audyssey calibration and audio leveling technology. $500 - $1000 Denon AVR-X3000 7.2-Channel 4K Ultra HD Networking Receiver with AirPlay $900 Hard to believe this is what we would call mid-tier but its true. Some may say that a $900 receiver is not mid-tier, but in the larger scope of products out there, X3000 is right in the middle based on price. How about based on features? Well in that regard we would agree that it leans more towards the higher end units. It has 7 HDMI inputs, you know in case you have three Blu-ray players ;-) It also has two HDMI outputs for multiple zone viewing. The X3000 comes with Audyssey’s Gold package so you can get your sound exactly the way you want it. The unit is Airplay and Windows 8 compatible and comes with Denon Remote app for mobile devices. Honestly there are many more features that we can’t list here. This is a very capable receiver and will last you for years. Yamaha RX-A2020 9.2-Channel Network AVENTAGE AV Receiver $1000 This receiver is at the limit for the range but is a bargain at the price. The A2020 is all about audio quality. Sure it has the same bells and whistles of other receivers in its class but this unit differentiates itself by using the highest quality parts get the most out of the sound. Yamaha also spent time in the design layout like laying out the left and right channels so that the crosstalk is minimized. Yes it supports Airplay, Network Audio, and comes with a mobile app for setup and control. Yamaha includes the YPAO auto calibration system with Reflected Sound Control for easy setup and optimization. Like the Denon, there are so many features we can’t list them all here. The A2020 is also a receiver that will do the job for years to come! Pioneer VSX-1122-K 630W 7-Channel A/V Receiver $600 Our last mid-tier receiver is also the best bargain. At $600 its will probably be in the entry level range by summer. The VSX-1122 is certainly not a entry level receiver in terms of capability. It too is a 7 channel receiver that supports Airplay, iPad and iPods. For those with Windows it is certified to works with Windows 7 and DLNA 1.5. With an Internet connection you can stream Pandora and radio stations from around the world. Pioneer has their own auto calibration feature which will have you enjoying surround sound in no time. The iControlAV app gives you ultimate control of the settings on this receiver. So much easier than doing everything from the front panel. The 1122 will be the hub around which your home theater experience will center. Greater than $1000 Marantz SR7008 9.2-Channel 1080P and 4K Ultra HD Pass Through $2000 Our first unit is quite a bit more than the $1000 entry point for this tier. The reason for that is the mid tier really has about all the features you would want even for a greater than $1000 receiver. The SR7008 definitely has features. Its a 9.2 channel receiver that can be controlled with a mobile device. It supports Airplay and will upconvert video to 4K. There is Internet connected features like Pandora. It has seven HDMI inputs and three outputs! So why then would you want to spend a thousand dollars more than the mid-tier receivers? Its the sound. Don’t buy this receiver if you don’t have an equal amount in investment in speakers. To get the most out of it you will want speakers that can reproduce sound as precisely as the SR7008 can. With the Audyssey MultEQ XT32 your subwoofer will produce the bang for all the bucks you spend. This is a serious receiver for serious home theater lovers! Sony STR-DA5800ES 9.2 Channel 4K AV Receiver with Automation $2100 This is another receiver for serious home theater lovers. Along with similar features sans Airplay, the 580

What we're thankful for '13 Thanksgiving is a time to, well, to give thanks. So that's what we're going to do; give thanks for everything we have in our lives. The things we're most thankful for: our families, our health, our friends, and our wonderful listeners, don't make good topics for a show about HDTV and Home Theater. So as is tradition over the last five Thanksgivings, on today's show we give you our list of consumer electronics things we are thankful for. Aereo - While neither of us actually use the service, nor will we be able to anytime soon from the list of cities they’ve announced, we love the concept. We’re thankful for what the service represents, change and choice for the consumer. And we’re thankful that Aereo hasn’t folded like Superman on laundry day under the mounting pressure. They’ve stood their ground. Netflix - With Netflix there is literally always something to watch. In days gone by, you could sit for hours channel surfing, only to wind up watching the second half of the Matrix for the umpteenth time or a rerun of the Golden Girls. Not only does Netflix always have something to watch, we love the fact that they’re moving into original programming, bringing a new dimension to the service and possibly, like Aereo, shaking things up a bit. Insteon - Insteon happens to be our flavor of choice for DIY home automation, so we’re thankful for it, and for how easy it is. But Insteon represents the ability for common guys like us to automate our homes without having to spend a fortune. It is a fun hobby and provides tremendous reward. Nothing makes a house into your house like custom automation. It doesn’t make it a home, but it makes it pretty darn cool. The DVR - This little device has probably made our list every time we’ve done a Home Theater Thanksgiving show. No single device has changed the way we watch TV and gather together as a family quite like the DVR. We’re thankful for the easy and convenience, for the ability to skip commercials, and most of all, for how much more family time we get because we can watch shows on our schedule, not the broadcasters’. High Speed Internet - Most of the goodies and gadgets we’re thankful for require some sort of Internet access. It wasn’t too long ago, ok maybe it was a long time ago, but it doesn’t feel like too long ago that we had to use dial-up modems to access an Internet of static pages. Now we have always connected, blazing fast Internet that delivers movies, music, TV shows, and even packages (thanks Amazon!) instantly. 4K TV - One thing that never made out list was 3D TV. It isn’t gone, but the big push from all the manufacturers has disappear thanks to, in large part, the new push to 4K UltraHD TV. Anything that got us off the 4D kick deserves our thanks and gratitude. But beyond that, 4K could be great. The demos we’ve seen are awesome. We are thankful for those who move technology in the right direction, and 4K is certainly doing that. And of course we have our listeners to be thankful for. You make doing the show fun and, in a lot of cases, easier. Thank you for your news leads, story ideas, email, voicemail, everything you send that we get to turn right around and use as show content. And thank you so much for keeping us going by supporting our sponsors, shopping at our store and feeding our caffeine addiction! You rock!

Why are the networks upset with Aereo? We have been covering the Aereo story for a few months now. Aereo is a service that allows you to watch and record live television from anywhere within you home coverage area via an Internet connected device. What Aereo does is connect you to a dedicated antenna that pulls in OTA TV signals and then sends it to you via the Internet so long as you are physically in your local network coverage area. The networks are all in a huff about this service. They are sueing Aereo claiming that the service is infringing on their copyrighted material. So far the courts have upheld Aereo’s rights to provide the service. The fight will probably end up in the Supreme Court. But this got us wondering why its such a big deal? We understand that the networks make money on retransmission fees but what if this is the beginning of something that will generate even more money? People, and businesses, hate change. Here is our view on what Aereo could mean to the networks. Over the Air TV is Free isn’t it? There is no reason to pay for network TV since it comes over the air anyway. Anyone can put an antenna on their roof and pick up pristine HD broadcasts. If you are lucky enough to live close to the TV transmitters this can be done with some very cool indoor antennas like the Mohu Leaf or Solid Signal HD Blade. Otherwise you will need a larger outdoor antenna but you will still be able to watch your networks. The networks make their money by selling ads on TV programming and that’s how it was for years and years. Then in the 80’s cable TV systems sprouted up everywhere and you no longer needed an antenna. Plus you got a bunch of other networks that were only available on cable. In the 90’s Direct Satellite Broadcast systems also came on the scene and suddenly the country no longer needed over the air TV. In the transition the networks latch on to a new revenue source in the form or retransmission fees. If HD had never been invented no one would care about OTA broadcasting. Standard Definition broadcasts had all kinds reception issues that degraded the picture quality. Cable and Satellite TV really improved the experience and thus dramatically reduced the number of people watching over the air. With HD on the other hand, if you get the signal locked you have a perfect picture. In many cases better than cable and satellite. Fast forward to today and you see more and more people getting their signals over the air. With some viewers switching to Aereo there would be no net losses in viewers of network television. In fact there may even be an increase at certain times of the day. The networks should be able to charge the same amount for ads. The only potential loss would be the retransmission fees. But better to lose the fees than viewers. Losing viewers is what’s happening now. People are cutting the cord and watching their content online via legal and illegal sources. Why not allow a new means to view the content with those who have or will soon cut the cord? How Many of Aereo’s Viewers do not have Cable TV We’re not convinced that all of Aereo’s subscribers do not also subscribe to pay TV. In this case the networks get to double dip! They get the retransmission fees and the added eyeballs. Better Metrics Since Aereo is digital, the networks can get accurate and up to the second metrics about who is watching and what they are watching. This would allow the networks to insert targeted advertisements that would in theory command higher revenues. That sounds like a win for the networks. Larger Audiences Being able to watch network programming while you are out and about is a good thing. Whether its your kids watching children’s programming while you do the grocery shopping or a husband watching football while he goes shopping with his wife. Aereo can provide a larger audience to the networks. Larger audiences mean more ad revenue. That sounds like another win for the networks. Keep Cord Cutters in the Fold For the most part its cord cutters who are using the Aereo service and those eyeballs are lost to advertisers. If you block the service its unlikely that they will go back to cable. At least with Aereo you still have a chance to count their viewership and better yet sell directly to them. Cord cutters are going to cut the cord with or without Aereo. Might as well keep them in viewership counts. This is a break even for the networks. You might even say its a win since they don’t lose viewership. Keep People from Pirating your Content This is inline with keeping cord cutters in the fold. If people want your content and its not easily obtainable via legal means they will simply download it from the Internet. I (Ara) hate admitting this but I used to download music from Napster. My rationalization was that I had already paid for it on vinyl or cassette so why should I pay for it again in mp3 form. With that said I would have gladly paid 99 cents to buy only the tracks I liked. At the time nothing lik

2 Guns - Blu-ray Review 4.5 Stars (out of 5) - Rated R Synopsis When an attempt to take down a drug cartel blows up in their faces, two undercover operatives are forced to go on the run together, though neither knows that the other is a federal agent. Starring: Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Paula Patton, Bill Paxton, James Marsden, Fred Ward, Edward James Olmos Director: Baltasar Kormákur Blu-ray Release Date: November 19, 2013 Subtitles: English, French, Spanish Rating Overall rating weighted as follows: Audio 40%, Video 40%, Special Features 20%, Movie - its just our opinion so take it with a grain of salt Audio 4.6 Stars (out of 5) Dolby and DTS Demo Discs used as basis for comparison ● Subwoofer – 4.5 Stars ● Dialog – 5.0 Stars ● Surround Effects – 4.0 Stars ● Dynamic Range – 5.0 Stars English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English: Dolby Digital 2.0, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1, French: Dolby Digital 5.1, The low end sounds great, but it isn’t utilized as often as it could have been. When the sub is active it sounds pretty good, especially when trains rumble down the tracks, cars crash, punches thud, and when things explode. The film is heavy with dialog, and at no time did I need to rewind to understand what was said. Surround effects were only used in major action sequences, I didn’t notice any subtle ambient noises to help envelop you into the movie. However, the rear channels were loud and clear during action sequences which featured sounds of gunshots, revving engines, helicopters, and fire alarms. Video 4.9 Stars (out of 5) Spears & Munsil Benchmark Blu-ray Edition used as basis for comparison ● Color Accuracy - 4.8 Stars ● Shadow detail – 4.8 Stars ● Clarity – 5.0 Stars ● Skin tones – 5.0 Stars ● Compression – 5.0 Stars Codec: MPEG-4 AVC, Resolution: 1080p, Original Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1, Aspect Ratio: 2:40:1 Colors are natural and help bring out the neutral colors and green brush in the desert, fluffy white clouds, an orange sunset, and a few deep red swaths of blood. Black colors are truly black without bleeding into the light, however sunlight and lightbulbs seam to glow extra bright and sometimes make adjacent colors look pale. Clarity is crisp and clean which make it easy to see the details on beard whiskers, chipped paint, dust floating in the air, and deep canyon like wrinkles in Edward James Olmos’ weathered leathery face. Bonus Features 3.5 Stars (out of 5) ● Feature Commentary With Director Baltasar Kormákur and Producer Adam Siegel ● Undercover and Into Action (HD, 6 min.) – This is a basic behind-the-scenes featurette ● Deleted Scenes – 8 deleted scenes, most scenes are short but fill a few holes in the story. ● Click, Click, Bang Ban: The Making of '2 Guns' The Good, the Bad, and the Sexy (HD, 30 min.) – This is the entire making of featurette that begins with 'Undercover and Into Action,' but continues with ' The Good, the Bad, and the Sexy,' 'Finding the Vibe' and 'Living Dangerously.' Movie – 3.8 Stars (out of 5) Review 2 Guns is a fast moving action film that surprised me with how funny it is. Thankfully, it’s not a knee slapping comedy with unrealistic silly situations. Instead, the comedy comes from character interactions, or quick one-liners. There isn’t much action in this film, it spends most of it’s time building the plot and solving the mystery. The story is fast paced it can be a little complicated if you aren’t paying attention. The plot is solid except that a character showed they couldn’t be trusted and the beginning of the film and no one questioned them at all. The most enjoyable part of the movie was seeing the great chemistry between Washington and Wahlberg. Their pairing made this one of the best buddy cop movies I’ve seen in a long time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVNe3RK2fgI

Black Friday Preview 2013 As the years come and go, one thing remains the same, Black Friday has some killer good deals for the home theater enthusiast. 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. In 2013, it seems like you can get all of that, and more, for less than $1000. Our research came from our favorite goto sites for Black Friday circulars, including: www.bfads.net, www.blackfriday.com, and blackfriday.gottadeal.com. Best Buy Dell 24" Widescreen HD LED Monitor, $99.99 WD My Passport 2TB USB 3.0 Hard Drive, $99.99 Denon AVR-E300 875W 5.1 3D Home Theater Receiver, $274.99 Klipsch Icon Bookshelf Speakers (Pair), $124.99 Klipsch Icon Floor Speakers (Each), $174.99 Logitech Harmony 650 Universal Remote Control, $39.99 LG Smart WiFi Blu-ray Disc Player, $54.99 Insignia 24" 1080p LED HDTV, $79.99 Samsung 32" 720p LED HDTV, $227.99 Insignia 39" 1080p LED HDTV, $169.99 Sharp 42" 1080p LED HDTV, $299.99 Insignia 46" 1080p LED HDTV, $329.99 Sharp 50" 1080p LED HDTV, $399.99 Vizio 50" 1080p Smart LED 3D HDTV, $599.99 LG 55" 1080p LED HDTV, $499.99 Sharp 60" AQUOS 1080p LED HDTV, $799.99 Samsung 65" 1080p LED HDTV, $999.99 Select Blu-ray Movies, 160 Titles @ $3.99 Select Blu-ray Movies, 150 Titles (World War Z, Skyfall, More) @ $7.99 Wal-mart LG Blu-ray Disc Player, $38.00 Philips 3D Blu-ray 5.1 Home Theater in a Box, $118.00 Sony BDP-S2100 WiFi Blu-ray Disc Player, $48.00 Various Brands 32" 720p LED HDTV, $98.00 Element 23" 720p LED HDTV, $75.00 Samsung 32" 720p LED HDTV, $227.00 Element 40" 1080p LED HDTV, $178.00 Samsung 46" 1080p Smart LED HDTV, $497.00 Emerson 50" 1080p LED HDTV, $288.00 Samsung 51" 720p Plasma HDTV, $427.00 Samsung 55" 1080p Smart LED HDTV, $727.00 Vizio 60" 1080p Smart LED HDTV, $688.00 Vizio 70" 1080p Smart LED HDTV, $998.00 Select Blu-ray Combo Pack Movies, Over 35 Titles @ $9.96 Select Blu-ray Movies, Over 60 Titles @ $6.96 Select Blu-ray Movies, Over 89 Titles @ $3.96 Target Sony WiFi Blu-ray Disc Player, $54.99 Samsung 32" 720p LED HDTV, $227.99 Vizio 37" 720p LED HDTV, $249.99 Westinghouse 40" 1080p LED HDTV, $199.99 Vizio 47" 1080p LED HDTV, $379.99 Element 50" 1080p LED HDTV, $229.00 Samsung 55" 1080p LED HDTV, $697.99 Assorted Blu-ray Movie Titles (Flight, Talladega Nights, More) @ $4.00 Assorted Blu-ray Movie Titles (Hangover 3, Ted, World War Z, More) @ $9.00 Assorted Blu-ray Movie Titles (Zero Dark Thirty, Pacific Rim, Warm Bodies, More) @ $6.00 Sears Samsung BD-F5100 Blu-ray Disc Player, $57.99 RCA 32" LED HDTV, $179.99 Samsung 32" 1080p 60Hz LED HDTV, $279.99 Westinghouse 39" 1080p 120Hz LED HDTV, $249.99 Samsung 39" 1080p 60Hz LED HDTV, $369.99 Seiki 39" 4K 120Hz LED Ultra HDTV, $499.99 Samsung 40" 1080p 60Hz LED HDTV, $379.99 RCA 42" 1080p 60Hz LED HDTV, $299.99 Samsung 46" 1080p 60Hz LED HDTV, $499.99 Samsung Slim 46" 1080p 120Hz LED Smart HDTV, $649.99 LG 47" 1080p 60Hz LED HDTV, $469.99 Seiki 50" 4K 120Hz LED Ultra HDTV, $749.99 Sharp 50" Aquos 1080p 120Hz LED Smart HDTV, $749.99 Samsung 51" 720p 600Hz Plasma HDTV, $429.99 LG 55" 1080p 60Hz LED HDTV, $679.99 Seiki 55" 4K 120Hz LED Ultra HDTV, $849.99 Sharp 60" Aquos 1080p 120Hz LED HDTV, $799.99 Samsung 60" 1080p 120Hz HDTV, $899.99 Sharp 70" Aquos 1080p 120Hz LED Smart HDTV, $1,699.99 Sharp 80" Aquos 1080p 120Hz LED Smart HDTV, $2,999.99 K-Mart Samsung 500-Watt 5.1-Channel 3D Blu-ray Home Theater System, $167.99 Samsung Blu-ray Disc Player, $58.99 Proscan 28" Class LED/DVD TV, $199.99 RCA 32" Class LED HDTV, $179.99 RCA 32" Class LED/DVD 720p Combo HDTV, $199.99 Proscan 40" Class LED 1080p HDTV, $279.99 RCA 42" Class LED 1080p HDTV, $299.99 Proscan 50" Class LED 1080p Smart HDTV, $499.00 Seiki 50" Class LED 1080 HDTV, $399.99 Westinghouse 55" Class LED 1080p HDTV, $499.99 Westinghouse 60" Class 120Hz LCD 1080p HDTV, $588.00 Best Prices 32" LCD TV Wal-mart, Various Brands 32" 720p LED HDTV, $98.00 37"-39" LCD TV Best Buy, Insignia 39" 1080p LED HDTV, $169.99 Sears, Seiki 39" 4K 120Hz LED Ultra HDTV, $499.99 40-42" LCD TV Target, Element 40" 1080p LED HDTV, $178.00 46-52" LCD TV Target, Element 50" 1080p LED HDTV, $229.00 Plasma Sears, Samsung 51" 720p 600Hz Plasma HDTV, $429.99 60"-80" LCD K-Mart, Westinghouse 60" Class 120Hz LCD 1080p HDTV, $588.00 Wal-mart, Vizio 70" 1080p Smart LED HDTV, $998.00

4.8 Stars (out of 5) - Rated PG-13 Synopsis Clark Kent must keep his alien origins and fantastic powers hidden from the world at large. But when the Kryptonian General Zod plans to destroy Earth, the Man of Steel springs into heroic action. Starring: Henry Cavill, Diane Lane, Amy Adams, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Michael Shannon, Laurence Fishburne Director: Zack Snyder Blu-ray Release Date: November 12, 2013 Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin (Simplified) Rating Overall rating weighted as follows: Audio 40%, Video 40%, Special Features 20%, Movie - its just our opinion so take it with a grain of salt Audio 5.0 Stars (out of 5) Dolby and DTS Demo Discs used as basis for comparison ● Subwoofer – 5.0 Stars ● Dialog – 4.8 Stars ● Surround Effects – 5.0 Stars ● Dynamic Range – 5.0Stars English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, French: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1, Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1, Mandarin: Dolby Digital 5.1 It almost seems like the sound was designed for people who love home theater. The bass booms a little more than normal and the surrounds are always engaged. The subwoofer never gets any rest since it’s always delivering huge countless explosions, rumbles from spaceships, flying helicopters, sonic booms, crumbling buildings, and even random rumbling when nothing is even happening. This film would have gotten a perfect audio score if it weren’t for the dialog. I remember 3 different scenes were I had to rewind the movie or ask someone what an actor just said. The rear speakers get lots of attention and envelop you with sounds of thumping music, flying spaceships, slashing water, crashing cars, whipping helicopter blades, whistling wind, chirping crickets, whizzing bullets, breaking glass, and screams of people. Video 4.9 Stars (out of 5) Spears & Munsil Benchmark Blu-ray Edition used as basis for comparison ● Color Accuracy - 4.7 Stars ● Shadow detail – 4.8 Stars ● Clarity – 5.0 Stars ● Skin tones – 5.0 Stars ● Compression – 5.0 Stars Codec: MPEG-4 AVC, Resolution: 1080p, Aspect ratio: 2.40:1, Original Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 Man of Steel has a unique look, the colors are a tad cold, but really helps to show off blue tones. Like strikingly blue skies, Lois Lane’s blue eyes, Superman’s pajamas are deep royal blue, also the sunset on Krypton is breathtaking. Blacks are dark and inky but a small about of details are lost in the shadows. The film has a good amount of film grain, but it doesn’t effect the clarity. It’s clean enough to see beard hairs, wrinkles on skin, clothing textures, blemishes on faces, and the million of tiny pieces of flying debris. Bonus Features 4.5 Stars (out of 5) ● Strong Characters, Legendary Roles (1080p; 25:59) Takes a look at the history of the character, and also focuses on this film's reimagined version. ● All Out Action (1080p; 26:02) Behind the scene with actors detailing physical training and stunt coordination. ● Krypton Decoded (1080p; 6:42) A look at the visual effects sequence of the destruction of Krypton. ● Superman 75th Anniversary Animated Short (1080p; 2:03) ● New Zealand: Home to Middle Earth (1080p; 6:35). For some unknown reason the video is about the Hobbit. ● Journey of Discovery: Creating Man of Steel (1080p; 2:54:05) The feature film is presented again on a second disc with interviews and background featurettes. ● Planet Krypton (1080p; 17:18). Believe it or not this supplement about Krypton was created by the History Channel. Movie – 3.8 Stars (out of 5) Review This is the Superman movie I’ve been waiting for. It’s pensive, epic, and full of giant action, however it does have problems. The weakest link in movie is Clark Kent’s Earth parents, in particular his father. Not only does he tell Superman never to use his powers, but he also tells him not to help anyone. This version of Superman takes the subject matter very serious. So much so, that it is an action drama. It’s so somber that I only laughed twice while watching it. Director Zack Snyder is known for creating good action sequences, and the battles are huge, full of weight, and amazingly fun to watch. So many buildings in Metropolis crumble it’s hard not to see this film as a disaster movie but shows how powerful Superman is. It was casted so perfectly and the performances are so strong it makes this film my favorite Superman movie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6DJcgm3wNY

Subwoofer Basics aka Subwoofer 101 Its been a while since we talked about subwoofers and since the subwoofer has the single biggest impact in your home theater experience. We thought it would be good to go over some basics in what to look for and how to setup your subwoofer. How much subwoofer do I need? This is a hard question to answer because everyone has a different take. We’ll give you the HT Guys take. Get the biggest one you can afford!! If you think about it, having a larger subwoofer being used at lower levels is actually better for the unit adding to the reliability. Plus the larger subs have an easier time with producing lower frequencies. So if budget and wife acceptance are not issues go big, bigger than you need for your room. Otherwise here are some loose guidelines: Small room - 1200 - 1500 cubic feet (34 - 42.4 cubic meters) 10 inch sub Medium room 1500 - 5000 cubic feet (42.4 - 141.6 cubic meters) 12 - 14 inch sub Large room greater than 5000 cubic feet (141.6 cubic meters) 16 inch sub (possibly two) Where is the best place to put subwoofer in the room? Wherever the wife allows! In all seriousness this can be a form over function process. Typically we say in the front of the room in a corner. By placing it in a corner you can accentuate the deep bass that shakes you to the core! But if you like punchy bass, put the subwoofer close to you. Keep in mind that the room may cause unwanted reflections that can muddy the bass so finding the optimal placing may require you to do the subwoofer crawl. For this you need to place the subwoofer at the listening position and then crawl on the floor while listening to a familiar bass track. The spot where it sounds the best is where you should place the subwoofer. Now this may not be practical so your only other option is to use sound dampening techniques to stop the unwanted reflections. We talked about a few in Podcast #432 Home Theater Acoustic Treatments. How do I connect my subwoofer? There is a lot of talk on this subject. Some people claim that you need a special subwoofer cable that can cost in the hundreds of dollars. For this we turn to the experts at HSU Research. They state that all you need to connect their subwoofers to your receiver is a mono RCA cable. Less than $5! If your subwoofer has an LFE input plug the RCA cable into it. If it has L/R inputs use a y-adapter to plug the same signal into both the left and right inputs. What crossover frequency should I use? Before we talk about crossover we want to discuss setting your speaker size in your receiver and for this we turn to Ray Coronado of SoCalHT.com. He says make sure your speakers are set up as small. Ray says large speakers can reproduce sounds from 20Hz up to 20KHz and the vast majority of speakers can not do this. Now that you have your receiver configured properly for your speakers lets turn to crossover. If you have small (in size) speakers they typically can’t do much on the lower end so set your crossover at 100hz. You may want to go as high as 120Hz. Play some test material with a lot of bass and change the crossover. Settle on the one that sounds the best. If you have floor standing speakers you should set your crossover at 70Hz and work your way up. The typical setting is 80Hz. What is this Phase Knob all about? From the SVS Manual: Think of long bass waves as conflicting or enhancing each other, depending on the timing of their arrival at your listening location (either together, or not). Set phase to zero if your AVR offers settings for the distance from your seat to your subwoofer. Adjust in small steps for smooth sound with music playing if your AVR lacks a subwoofer distance setting. In other words your AVR’s EQ/Calibration process will adjust for phase issues. Speaking of EQ? Is it a good idea to use the Auto Calibration with my subwoofer? Yes, but make sure your subwoofer is is setup to output the flattest response it can from the factory. Like in the above section set the phase to zero and close the appropriate ports on VTF subwoofers. What is a Variable Tuning Frequency Subwoofer? Unlike a Single Tuning Frequency subwoofer where the bass characteristics are fixed. The Variable Tuning Frequency Subwoofer can vary is bass characteristics by using ports that can be opened and closed. You can set up the subwoofer for lower bass extension or more headroom. The main benefit is that you can get the exact subwoofer sound that you want! Course Summary Like we said at the top, these are just the basics. There is so much science that we didn’t even get into. Perhaps another day. In reality the science doesn’t matter for most of us as long as we can get the best sound out of our home theaters. We hope that this basic introduction will help you along the way!

Universal Devices ISY-994i Review You can control the volume on your surround sound system, it isn’t a simply on or off switch. You can control the brightness and the contrast on your television, you can even change channels, pause and fast forward and maybe even run web enabled apps and content. But your lights are either on or off. It’s time to face the facts, you have dumb lights. But they don’t have to be dumb. This may or may not be the year of home automation, but if you still haven’t given it a try for yourself, you really should. You bought a smart TV, so now its time to get some smart lighting and home control. But if you want to go beyond the basics of dimmers and plugs, you’ll want an automation server running to allow you to process events, customize activities and really make your home operate like you want. There are several great automation software packages like Indigo, the one Ara uses, and SmartHome’s own HouseLinc for Windows, the one Braden previously used. That’s the route we typically recommend. If you have an old computer sitting around, or can assemble one for relatively low cost, just buy the software and your automation server is done. You had the computer anyways, so what not turn it into a control server to make your home a little smarter? But there are drawbacks to the computer approach. You have to leave the computer running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That may be a little more power hungry than you’d like. If it isn’t always on, the events you want to occur may not happen. If your computer is set to automatically apply updates, it may restart on you, causing you to lose automation for a brief time. And if it was an old computer you had sitting around, it was probably sitting around for a reason, so it is really capable of doing everything you want in a reasonable amount of time? But don’t fret, you can have smart lights (and many other items in your home) without leaving a computer running all the time. You simply pick up an ISY-994i from Universal Devices for around $200 from SmartHome or Amazon and you don’t need to. In our case, because we use Insteon, we also had to purchase an Insteon control module, the Dual Band PLM 2413S. SmartHome sells them in a package for $300. Setup Installation is pretty simple. The PLM plugs into a wall outlet and has a cable connection that plugs into the back of the ISY-994i using a standard Ethernet cable. You run another ethernet cable from the ISY to your router for control, configuration and status over the network. Of course the ISY needs power, so you have to do that as well, but that’s it for installation. Once you’re all plugged in, you can connect to the ISY from any browser on any computer that’s connected to the same network. This is where things may get a little shaky. For many, the connection will “just work.” We weren’t so lucky. Our browser wasn’t able to find the server by name, so we had to look up the IP address in our router. Connecting with the IP address, however, was seamless. Once we got past that hurdle, we were ready to start programming. Step one in setting up the server itself is to add all your automation devices to it. This is as easy as telling the server to enter an “add devices” mode and walking around to all your devices and clicking their set buttons. You may grow weary after a while if you have a lot of devices, but that’s the price you pay for automating your home. Our devices added without a glitch, we renamed them to friendly, descriptive names, the promptly starting programming. Use and Programming As with most automation servers, you start with scenes. Scenes are collections of lights or other modules at pre-set on, off or dimmed settings. That allows you to turn on a group of lights, pre-configured for a specific usage, such as everything on and bright for ‘dinner party’ or just a couple on, really dim, to light your path to the kitchen for ‘midnight snack. Once you have a scene or two set up, you can change light switches, or IR commands from your universal remote, or buttons on your smartphone, to turn the scenes on or off as a unit. From there, you jump over to custom programming. This is where you can program lights or a scene to come on at dusk or at dawn, to activate at a particular time of day, or when another event occurs, like a motion sensor is tripped, a leak sensor is activated or a door is opened. Custom programs can turn lights on or off, send emails or even communicate with other external systems. Once you start programming, its hard to stop. Programming on the ISY-994i is quite simple. You have 3 main blocks, the IF block determines what will cause the program to run. For example, you can say “If the motion sensor is tripped and it is dark outside,” or “if it is dusk and a weekday.” After you’ve decided what will activate the program, you simply fill in the THEN block. These are the actions that will be performed, like tunr on a light or scene, send a notification, run a different pro