Archive for the 'Audio & Video' Category

Jul 16 2010

Bose Acoustimass 16 Series, This is One Terrific Home Theater System

Published by under Audio & Video

When it comes to theater systems Bose has been delivering the goods for quiet some time. Most people know Bose for high quality sound systems, and they are terrific at that, but Bose is also known for integrating high quality sound into home systems like the Bose Acoustimass 16 Series.


What makes this home theater system so good? Well there are so many things to mention but we will just go over the main attributes of this system. The Bose Acoustimass 16 Series is a 6.1 channel surround sound system. Most systems on the market, especially the lower priced home theater systems, are 5 or 5.1 channel systems. What does this mean?


Well the Bose Acoustimass 16 Series has a rear middle speaker that brings extra “life” to your surround sound system. This speaker is put in the rear of your home, many times completely hidden away, and makes sounds like passing cars, trains, people running, or anything moving sound like it is actually occurring around you! The realism of the sound is quite amazing.


Another feature of the Bose Acoustimass 16 Series is the front horizontal speaker. This keeps any dialogue front and center and focused on the TV. There is another speaker called the Direct/Reflecting Cube Speaker. This speaker helps surround you with stunning surround sound effects that you have to hear to believe.


The main thing you want out of any surround sound home theater system is great sound, and this system delivers big time. Remember this is a home theater surround sound speaker system, and that is it. No receivers, no hookups for your HD TV. This bad boy is just for sound.


One of the nice things about the Bose speaker systems is the ease of installation and the easy setup of the speakers. The Bose Acoustimass 16 Series Home Theater System is another in the long line of surround sound speaker systems produced by Bose.

Get more information on the Bose Acoustimass 16 by visiting Theater System Reviews

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Jun 28 2010

Best 3D Experience From a Panasonic 3D TV

Published by under Audio & Video

Positive reviews have been written about the Panasonic 3D TV. According to the many write ups, the picture quality projected by this TV is far better than those projected by other 3D movies released in the previous years.


Outstanding 3D Images


A lot also noticed that the 3D images are really outstanding and excellent. They say that the brightness and the sharpness of the images are just incomparable. Some even commented that the 3D images actually popped more than they do in the 3d theaters and cinemas. Hence, it could be derived that the Panasonic 3D TV is the one that could really provide the best 3D experience in the world.


This is such good news for Panasonic. They have only recently released their latest technological innovation, which is their own rendition of a three-dimensional television set, and they have been getting nothing but all positive reviews.


Panasonic with RealD Technology


Regarded for a very long time as one of the top producers of high quality high definition digital and electronic products, Panasonic still strives to improve the quality of their 3D TV by working hand in hand with RealD. RealD by the way is one of the leaders of today when it comes to the use of 3D technology in home, cinema and other applications.


Because of this very wise and very good combination, people can now enjoy a full high definition 3D viewing experience right in the comforts of their own home. RealD’s active shutter glass technology works well with Panasonic’s products, especially the full HD 3D Viera television set. The proprietary 3D plasma display panel technologies of Panasonic 3D TV function so greatly with the new three-dimensional eyewear made by RealD. Really, the combination of the two geniuses really benefits the 3D loving people really well, as much as the two companies benefit each other. The Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer or the CEO of RealD for example strongly believes that Panasonic is just very great. According to him, Panasonic really has the capacity to provide the viewers with the best 3D experience!


To end this, we have one thing to share about Panasonic that will really make you love the company even more. Even though they are still providing the public with, let’s just say, one of the most outstanding 3D TVs, they are still making it a point to make their prices as far as possible. Hence, you could really expect that you could get your money’s worth when you buy a Panasonic 3D TV.

Paul has been writing articles for the past 3 years. Check his latest website over at http://www.3dtvsguide.org/ which gives people the information they need about Panasonic 3D TV.

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Jun 21 2010

DVD Player Recorders For Your Home Theater Are an Endangered Species

Published by under Audio & Video

Recording programs are DVD player recorders are becoming extremely difficult to find, to the disappointment of many home theater owners. They are available in other parts of the world; they are just disappearing in the U.S. There’s a reason for this. It’s the movie studios and cable/satellite providers who are the culprits in this case. They put such restricting prohibitions on their products that it is no longer profitable to make or sell new DVD player recorders.


Copy Protection


It’s the home-theater aficionados who buy these recorders. They want to view programs at their leisure and in the comfort of their own theaters. The movie studios and cable/satellite program providers use copy-protection to restrict severely not only what can be recorded but also how it can be recorded.


In some cases such as with HBO, the copy-protection is done randomly. “Record Once” is used to permit recording to a temporary storage device such as a hard drive but not to a permanent one such as a DVD.


Also, HBO or other premium channels are “Record Never,” a copy-protection tool to prohibit recording on DVD. It’s not the manufacturer of the DVD recorder who has brought this about; it’s the copy-protection of the content providers such as movie studios, and it’s supported by court rulings. You have the right to record, but they have the right to protect their copyrighted content from being recorded. More often than not, you cannot make a hard-copy recording unless you use a DVD ripper or a DVD decoder.


With a DVD ripper or a DVD decoder, the copy protection can be stripped and the DVD can be copied. This is usually done on a computer where the DVD can also be burned onto a burnable DVD disc.


Cable/Satellite


Cable/satellite DVDs and TiVo permit recording of most programs for home theaters, but the recordings are made on a hard drive, not a disc, so they are not saved permanently. These are, of course, profit-makers for the cable/satellite providers. If you want to record “Record Once” programs, you’re forced to buy and pay for these added services of the cable or satellite company.


Should you happen to have a DVD recorder/hard drive combination (increasingly scarce), you can record on the hard drive of the combo but you can’t copy it to a DVD. The hard drive, of course, fills up fast, and you’re back where you started.


Blu-ray Disc Recorders


At the moment, standalone Blu-ray disc recorders are not available for home theaters in the U.S. The increasing use of TiVo accounts for this. Also, the movie studios are concerned about consumers recording high-definition video content in permanent form.


Home theater owners can obtain Blu-ray disk recorders in Japan. They are showing up in other countries. Most manufacturers of Blu-ray recorders don’t want the expense and hassle of dealing with the recording restrictions in the U.S.


Concluding Thoughts


Some TV, cable, and satellite programs that are popular with home theater owners are not affected by these copy-protection schemes. You can still record these programs although you can’t know ahead of time whether or not you can record them. It’s a matter of trying and failing before you can find out. The VCR era when we were able to record any and everything for our home theaters seems to be relegated to the history books.


So now, if you live in the U.S., you know why you can’t locate a DVD recorder for your home theater unless you shop in Japan or elsewhere.

- Dave


Larger than life 1080p projectors, Americas Home Cinema. http://davesprojectorworld.com

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May 04 2010

Media Storage – What’s Out There?

Published by under Audio & Video

Media Storage is the housing, organization and protection of media. Today’s standard definition is “Digital Media” as magnetic recordings are few and far between these days.


Media Storage comes in a variety of shapes and forms, but 90% of media storage is for home use. Here are the different types of media storage that you might become familiar with. Knowing these different types and styles will help you make an educated purchasing decision.


The DVD Rack: The DVD rack is the most common home storage solution for a variety of applications. These can include DVD movies, CD music, Video games, Family photo’s, important documents or any other information that you store on a CD disc like media platform.


The DVD Storage Cabinet: The DVD Storage cabinet serves many of the same purposes as a DVD rack and will store the same types of media. It however is typically a closed door design and therefore isn’t easy to use for discs that you need to browse or get regular access to. This is where a rack stands out.


The CD Storage Case: The Cd Storage case is a case made to travel. They are typically zipper shut vinyl or nylon cases that will hold between 10 and 300 discs. These are very rarely ideal unless you work in a business that demands you to carry a large amount of digital information with you at all times. These offer the least amount of protection, are the hardest or organize but are the only portable option if you have to take your information on the go with you, such as a DJ might have to do nightly.


Hopefully you will know what you need in your home or office and will have great success finding it.

Sean has written a variety of great reviews. Check out his latest review and finds on Media Storage.


Media Storage can help your organize your home or office with ease.

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Apr 08 2010

Picking The Right TV Wall Mount

Published by under Audio & Video

Almost all flat-panel plasma and LCD TV’s come with a pedestal or a stand. This is all well and good if you are looking to rest your precious flat screen on a cabinet; however, it does defeat the purpose. One of the many attractions of flat plasma and LCD TVs is that they are light and thin enough to mount on the wall like a priceless Monet, making them highly efficient when it comes to maximizing space. It also gets rid of the unsightly bulk that the old television model has when it is not in use.


Not all manufacturers see the convenience and logic of having TV wall mounts with plasma and LCD TV’s instead of the usual pedestal, so you have to buy these TV wall mounts separately. There are many types of TV wall mounts that go in accordance to the size of the TV.


Kinds of TV Wall Mounts
Units range from the usual fixed-mounts that hold your flat screen up like a picture on the wall, to the ones with swivel power, allowing you to direct where your TV is facing as you move around the room. When picking a TV wall mount, consider the kind of design that you want. Would you prefer something fixed to a wall or something that allows a bit more flexibility in terms of viewing? Think about how the TV would look like when it’s turned off. Will it bother you that it’s protruding from the wall? Would you prefer something discreet that is affixed to your wall?


The cheapest and most basic kind of TV wall mount is the flat mount. It attaches the TV to the wall with as little as an inch of an allowance. Because it is fixed, you’re the one who has to do the moving when you want to watch television. Flat mounts are ideal for flat plasma TV’s that tend to be wider.


Tilt mounts are similar to the flat mount, except that they allow for more swivel (mostly up and down) to follow your line of sight and perhaps control the glare coming from the lighting in the room. The gap between the wall and the TV is a little over an inch father than the traditional flat mount to allow some tilting room.


The accordion-type tilt or swivel mount allows you to adjust the TV set from side to side, giving the user room to adjust the television according to their preferences. It’s great for people who tend to watch TV from different areas in the room.


The articulating mount combines the strength of the swivel mount and the flat mount by allowing you to adjust the screen from left to right as you prefer, then push it back towards the wall when not in use. It’s the best of the 3 TV wall mounts, so far.

You can read more about TV Wall Mounts at http://www.hifipage.com

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Mar 16 2010

TV Wall Mounts – Selecting the Best Room Location

Published by under Audio & Video

A TV wall mount is a specialized piece of audio/visual hardware designed to safely hang a modern flat screen TV on a wall in your home or office. This kind of installation offers a number of advantages that more than compensate for the cost and effort involved.


From an interior design standpoint, a wall mounted TV display can greatly enhance the look and style of a room overall. The wall mount itself is typically concealed behind the TV so the viewer is presented with a screen that appears suspended in mid air. This can be very eye catching, and is frequently used in environments where audience attention is paramount.


For the home theater enthusiast the use of a TV wall mount to position a flat screen TV against a living room wall is an obvious choice to maximize the movie theater experience and free up more living space.


Unfortunately, the full benefits of a wall mounted display are all too often lost by a poor mounting location. This problem is further compounded by the fact that few owners are willing to incur the cost and time of moving the mount to a better location. They simply learn to live with the deficiencies.


Understanding the basic capabilities of the various mount options available can help anyone select the optimal position for both mount and TV and get the most out of their entertainment investment.


To begin, make a careful review of the room where the TV will be installed. Pay special attention to lighting, windows, seating and overall room size.


If the viewing area is clearly defined and unlikely to change, then a fixed mount is a simple, and cost effective option. Fixed flat screen mounts have the advantage of low profiles (the distance between the TV and wall) and low maintenance. Since they have no moving parts, once they are set up they are unlikely to require any further attention.


For best results make sure you can position the screen at the correct height and viewing distance and the room lighting will not produce any screen glare.


In situations where the screen must be placed above the normal viewing plane, a tilting mount is a practical choice. Tilting TV wall mounts allow the screen to be angled a fixed number of degrees downward, and in some cases upward.


Restaurants, bars and waiting rooms are prime candidates for tilting mounts. High up mounting avoids unwanted equipment tampering while still allowing for an excellent viewing angle.


The final category is known as the articulating or universal mount. These mounts offer the greatest range of motion and are usually the most expensive.


The typical articulating mount allows the screen to pan left and right, tilt up and down and move away from the wall by means of a cantilevered arm assembly (usually referred to as ‘extension’). Extension combined with the pan and swivel axis allows the screen to be positioned at 90 degrees to the wall. For modern, open plan homes, this single capability is usually the main reason to select an articulating mount.

TV wall mounts offer flexibility and convenience far beyond a regular TV stand. Position your big screen TV for optimal viewing virtually anywhere in your home or office and free up valuable living space at the same time.

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Feb 13 2010

Home Audio Equalizers

Published by under Audio & Video

Getting your home stereo or home theater system sounding great can be frustrating, but there is one component that can really help make your music and movies sound magical…the audio equalizer. An equalizer gives you control over different parts of the frequency spectrum. Having the ability to adjust certain “bands” or groups of frequencies allows you to adjust the sound in relation to the system it is played through or the room it is played in.

An equalizer is just like the tone control on a home or car stereo. In fact, the tone control IS and equalizer. The bass adjusts the low frequency level, the mid adjusts the mid range frequencies, and the treble adjusts the high frequencies. It that instance, the tone controls make up a 3-band equalizer…low, mid, and high.

Most separate audio equalizers will have 7 bands, 15 bands, or even 31 bands of equalization. The more bands, the more control you have over the sound. In most instances, 7 or 10 bands is plenty for a home stereo equalizer. Keep in mind, an audio equalizer will typically have separate controls for the left channel of audio and the right channel of audio. So a 15-band stereo equalizer will have 15 bands for the left channel and 15 bands for the right channel. Given that most music and movie audio has already been mixed and mastered, any adjustments you make on the equalizer should be made to both channels to maintain the proper stereo image.

The room your stereo system or home theater is in and how your system is set up will determine what the best equalizer for your system is and what the best equalizer settings will be. A well designed room and proper speaker placement can sometimes eliminate the need for an equalizer at all. But most home stereo systems and home theaters will need some equalization.

Sometimes a room will sound too “boomy”. In this case you would want to reduce the low frequencies that are causing the boominess. Try taking out a little 250 Hz or 400 Hz and see how it sounds. The frequency bands will be labeled on the equalizer. Each slider will have a number which is the frequency band that slider adjusts. After just a little time spent listening and adjusting, you will be able to identify a problem frequency and make a correct adjustment on your equalizer. Do the vocals sound a little funny? Try a dip at 2.5 kHz to smooth out the vocals and get rid of that “honk” you sometimes hear in the vocal frequency range.

Of course the sound will change with every song and every movie will sound a little different, but adding a home audio equalizer can effectively “tune” your system to compensate for any acoustic problems in the room and shape the sound of your other components to help keep the audio as natural sounding as possible, which should be your main objective when setting up a sound system.

Find more “how-to” information and great deals on new and used EQs at http://www.audio-equalizers.com

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Feb 12 2010

RCA Home Theater System

Published by under Audio & Video

Having been around since 1919, RCA has been one of the leaders in the entertainment and electronic industry. Making everything from professional video cameras used for televised sporting events to personal portable CD players to brand new technology such as the USB Turntable which allows you to play old vinyl records and convert the audio from them into mp3 files on your computer’s hard drive, RCA deals with just about every form of electronic devise and keeps one step ahead on the latest technologies available. One of their more popular items is the various forms of RCA home theater systems.

With an RCA home theater system, you have a wide range of choices. Television monitors range in size from 22 inches to over 50 inches. Surround sound comes in either 5.1 surround sound or 6.1 surround sound. Along with a great range of options, when you get an RCA system you’re getting some of the most top notch, top of the line, most up to date technology around. You can pick from various DVD players, radios, speaker wattage… it’s a veritable mix and match of what you can chose to have in your living room, all while having the satisfaction that you’re buying the best on the market at a great price.

An RCA home theater system is also energy efficient, making it better for the environment than ever before. In 2008, all models were compliant with Energy Star regulators, and were even equipped with a Dynamic Room Light Sensor which is able to detect any ambient light in the room (such as sunlight coming in through a window or a lamp in the room being on) and automatically adjust the brightness of the screen accordingly, using less power to showcase your favorite TV show or DVD. These allow you to be entertained with TV (America’s number 1 pastime) as you have before, but by using less energy you’re saving the environment as well as lowering your electric bills (which helps save your bank account!).

RCA home theater systems have some of the most affordable prices around while having more features than the competition including richer video quality on higher resolution 1080p HDTV systems, clearer more crisp audio with their high quality 5.1 or 6.1 surround sound speakers, and universal remotes to help you operate every function of your home entertainment center with a single device. It’s no wonder RCA is one of the top brands in the electronics world today.

Lillian G. W is a marketing executive for global consumer brands, media, and high tech businesses. She loves writing about shopping, product reviews, fashion, travel, green innovation, arts & entertainment. She spots consumer trends, explores and assembles ideas, and provides creative solutions to business challenges. Currently, she writes for IMshopping.com

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Feb 11 2010

Wireless Home Theater System

Published by under Audio & Video

A home theater system can enhance your TV and movie watching experience by adding a great looking television set and surround sound audio. It can be great to watch alone, or used to impress all your friends that come over to watch the big game. It can even be your own at-home movie date. But many of these miniature living room theaters have the drawback of many unsightly cables running across the floor and along walls, making the area look overly cluttered. Recent technology has been able to fix this eyesore of a problem with the advent of the wireless home theater system.

Unfortunately, no wireless home theater system is completely 100% wireless. They do however severely cut back on the amount of wires needed, which is great for the look of the system and the room it’s put into for those that don’t have rooms that are pre-wired for speaker systems. Despite the name “wireless”, there are several connections that have to be made via wire and cables including attaching the transmitter box to your TV, often the front speakers need to be connected via wire to the transmitter, and the rear speakers will need to be plugged in for power as will the transmitter itself.

Often times these wireless home theater systems will have a signal that reaches no more than 100 feet. This is more than adequate if you’re just planning to keep your video and/or audio experience in one room. However, if you want to expand it into other rooms, you may need a more expensive system. You may want to look at a slightly pricier system instead of the cheaper base systems anyway. The phrase “you get what you pay for” really does ring true when it comes to wireless systems as the sound quality of cheap wireless speakers is nowhere near as good as the ones that come with all the wires. However, many of the pricier systems have sound quality that is good enough to become almost indistinguishable from the wired speakers.

Wireless home theater systems are much simpler to install than the wired counterpart. For starters, being nearly without cables, there are far less connections to have to figure out and pay attention to. Set up is fairly simplistic and straight forward and in many cases is just a matter of hooking up the transmitter to the television, plugging it in, and turning it on.

Lillian G. W is a marketing executive for global consumer brands, media, and high tech businesses. She loves writing about shopping, product reviews, fashion, travel, green innovation, arts & entertainment. She spots consumer trends, explores and assembles ideas, and provides creative solutions to business challenges. Currently, she writes for IMshopping.com

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Nov 06 2009

A Good Home Theater Isn’t Just About Your Picture, You Also Need A Quality Sound System

Published by under Audio & Video

When you are making your first home theater it is natural to be mostly concerned with the image that you will be getting. Of course it is very important to make sure that the projector or TV is the best that you can get for you budget, but it is also important to think about the sound that will be getting as well. A good quality speaker system can make a huge difference to the quality of your home theater. Although the image is obviously the main component, a good audio will make sure that you get that big screen experience in your home theater. What you really need is a good surround sound system. This really allows you to get the full benefit of the movie soundtrack.

If you do not have a good speaker system then it really can spoil the whole movie, so it is well worth spending a good portion of your budget on a really high-quality set up. You really need two or four speakers at the front of the cinema and two at the back to give you the surround sound. You will also need a sub woofer for the deeper tones and a center speaker. This should make sure that you get the full benefit of the soundtrack.

But you do not only need the right speakers; you also need to make sure that they are of a good quality as well. There is no point in spending a large amount on a good projector and then having poor speakers. But you do not have to spend a lot of money to get a good quality system There are some really good systems by some suppliers such as Panasonic and Dell and you can get some really good deals if you look around. It is also possible to some good second hand systems that can give you good quality at a low cost. The best place to look for these are on eBay. You might have to have an older model but just because there is a newer model out, that does not mean that there are not some very good older models as well.

If you get the sound system right then it can really add to your enjoyment of your home theater system and it is well worth doing a bit of research to make sure that you have got the best deal for your money.

For more helpful advice and information on finding the best home theater speakers visit ShoppingForHomeTheaterSystems.com where you will find important tips and money saving home theater reviews you can trust.

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