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A World of Home Theater
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Vizio VW37L Television Review–And Another Out of Nowhere Surprise
Hey Guys! Get A Great Emerson TV Cheap At Walmart!
Sweet Home Theater Setups - The Multipurpose Basement
Is It Monkey Abuse If They Have a Netflix Account?
The Motley Fool Asks, Is Blockbuster The Next Circuit City?
Olive4 HD Hi-Fi Music Server
Classic Projector Looks Like Darth Vader’s Mask
ELAN D12 and D16 Multi-Channel Amplifiers
MSI Wind Top AE2220 All-in-One Desktop
It’s been a week packed with surprises for me, folks, as I discover yet another brand I hadn’t seen very many entries from, Vizio, make an out of nowhere play with a deeply surprising, high quality entry, the Vizio VW37L.
The Vizio VW37L is a thirty seven inch 720p LCD television that includesa component input, a composite input, an S-video input, a PC input, and two HDMI inputs.
I’ll be honest with you, folks, I was just plain old amazed by this television. It had a great picture and sound to match, with simple to use controls. In fact, about the only downside to this television is that it’s somewhat limited in its ability to be a fully featured home theater setup television. it just doesn’t have the ports for it, you understand–two is somewhat minimal without some juggling around. But still, there’s more than enough to like here, and the price, five hundred bucks on Amazon (though if you’re willing to go used I’ve seen it hit much, much less.) isn’t too bad for what you get here.
The Vizio VW37L is a solid entrant, if not exactly top of the line.
Special thanks goes out to alert reader Alex, who made a comment on my earlier–back in September earlier–review of the Emerson LC320EMX television. You’ll all remember that that’s a thirty two inch 720p LCD television with plenty of bells and whistles that I called a good buy at three hundred and forty eight bucks.
Well, Alex got word, and I just spotted it myself in a Walmart Black Friday ad, that they’re going to be knocking down the price on the Emerson LC320EMX from three hundred forty eight bucks to TWO hundred forty eight bucks.
Now, folks, this was a good buy back at three hundred forty eight. This is nothing short of a GREAT buy at a hundred dollars less. Even I’m planning to get out for this one and under normal circumstances NOTHING would peel me out of my turkey coma. So if you’re looking for a fantastic bargain that day, Walmart might be your first stop.
Ah, the multipurpose basement. Sometimes called the playroom in times past, it represents a great, truly sort of American utility in which families troop down into the basement to do most of their playing. The kids have their friends over, the folks might have a party, family game night usually goes on down there. But sometimes, the multipurpose basement takes on a whole new life as a home theater setup.
Considering that this particular multipurpose basement had about twenty five hundred square feet of space to work with, there was more than enough for lots of accoutrements like a bar, an exercise area, and of course a home theater. It seats a dozen people, for crying out loud. It’s also right in the middle of everything, so it’s almost a focal point of the room.
Plus, there’s plenty of fantastic media goodies in here too, like a Sony projector, a Stewart filmscreen, Sonus speakers, a Sony Blu-ray player, and plenty more.
You add up the sheer utility found in this room, considering that it’s only a very small part of the whole, and you come to one inescapable conclusion–it’s one sweet home theater setup.
Monkeys love home theater too, folks, no mistake about that.
But here’s the funny thing–apparently, PETA’s up in arms about a group of monkeys who are currently the test subjects of a NASA experiment involving radiation. Here’s a bit from The Salt Lake Tribune describing it:
Greger drills holes into monkeys’ heads, places microelectrodes on their brains and deprives them of water to coerce them to “cooperate” in his experiments. They spend their lives in tiny cages and are driven insane by the traumatic laboratory conditions. But Greger defends all of this by boasting that the monkeys used in his experiments have plenty of toys and a Netflix account.
Say what you will about the whole issue of animal testing and animal cruelty. We’re not here for that. We’re here for home theater news, and one thing is clear–the monkeys in Greger’s test have one.
So what’s your call? Is it monkey abuse if they have a Netflix account? Do they decide what’s in their queue? Can they reorder? Is it full of monkey movies? Will Netflix gain subscribers if they change their slogan to “Netflix: Abused Monkeys Love Us. So Will You.”? Many questions, and as yet, few answers.
By that of course they mean “Is a collapse imminent?”. I maintain my earlier position, no, because frankly, Blockbuster already has a massive library of titles, a huge array of brick-and-mortar outlets, and could EASILY shutter most of them in favor of an entirely online operation via their Blockbuster Online service.
Now this being The Motley Fool, they’ve got all sorts of business-y terms to figure out why Blockbuster just looks totally screwed, blued and tattooed, and I’ll break it down for you.
Their ratio of debt to equity, or stuff they owe to stuff they own, is about four to one. For every dollar they have, they owe four, basically.
There’s also massive losses in total revenue and revenue per share, both profoundly worrisome to anyone who follows stock prices. But I maintain that Blockbuster has the necessary position and materiel to at least become Netflix’s nemesis. So don’t look for Blockbuster to bow out yet…but do look for a change in the way they do business. A fairly big one, too.
Olive Media Inc. has unveiled its first HD Hi-Fi music server for home theater systems, creating a totally new category with the HD category. The Olive 4HD offers listeners hardcore audio thanks to its 24-bit sound and 192 kHz sample rate which is pegged to be 250 times more than the average resolution of CDs. It comes with a control center that makes it easy for you access any digital music library and also two terabyte hard drives which can store up to 6,000 CDs or 20,000 hi-res 24-bit tracks. Music can easily be copied to the Olive 4HD via the built-in CD mechanism, or from a PC or Mac through its wireless or wired network connection.
The Olive 4HD Hi-Fi music server is now available from Olive for $1,999. It includes 12 of Chesky Records’ best HD tracks for free.
(Source) Press
It may be retro but this projector is indeed a classic. Taken out of the pages of 1950s’ gadgets, the Stereo Realist Model 81 3D slide projector looks every inch like Darth Vader’s head of the Star Wars fame. Made by Davie White Sales Company of Milwaukee, it features dual lenses and operate on 500-watt bulbs cooled by two separate heater fans. Now if you are a collector of old school stuff, this classic projector is available at eBay. There is one bid at the moment but the reserve price has not been met yet so you can still take a crack at it!
(Source) Gizmodo
Compact, powerful and cool-running are the words that best describe the new D12 and D16 multi-channel amplifiers from ELAN. The company has already started shipping the D12 Amplifier, followed by the D16 Amplifier in March 2010.
The D12 delivers 115 watts at 4 ohms into 12 channels, while the D16 delivers 75 watts at 4 ohms into 16 channels. Both these multi-channel amplifier features high-efficiency output and low-power standby with instant turn-on. For increased speaker protection, the amplifiers feature software lockable gain settings. The IR volume control application allows stand-alone use of the amplifiers.
The D12 is already available at an MSRP of $2,400, while the D16 will be available in March at an MSRP of $2,600. Both these amplifiers come with two-year manufacturer’s warranty.
MSI has launched a new all-in-one laptop that promises to deliver all the full HD movies and video games you want. The computer will offer your features like a 21.5-inch 16:9 display, 1,920 x 1,080, multitouch support, an Intel Core 2 Duo or Pentium Dual-Core processor, NVIDIA Ion graphics, 4GB of RAM, 500GB HDD, USB 2.0, eSATA, Ethernet, HDMI and VGA ports, WiFi and even a TV tuner if you want one.
The new Wind Top AE2220 is available today with prices starting at $749.99. What do you say? Can it match your computing needs?
via Press
Apex LD 4008 Television Review–An Unexpected Delight
Sweet Home Theater Setups–Smaller Than You Think
Blockbuster Digital Download Kiosks Get Tested
Sweet Home Theater Setups - The Two Month Race
Manage Your Netflix Queue on Your Nokia Phone
NuVision Lucidium FX5LS LCD HDTVs
ATI Radeon HD 5970 Graphics Card
Epson MovieMate 60 Projector
Samsung Overtake Vizio in LCD Sales
After spending some time with the literally out of nowhere Westinghouse television, I began to wonder if things could get any stranger in terms of what I was going to find next. Well, along comes a television from none other than APEX to prove that things can always get weirder. And worse yet, this is actually better than a lot of Sonys and Samsungs I’ve seen.
Today we’re talking about the Apex LD 4008, a forty inch 1080p LCD television with two composite inputs, two component inputs, three HDMI inputs, one S-video input and one PC input.
There aren’t a whole lot of proprietary bells and whistles with this television, but rather, what there IS is a fantastic picture, fantastic sound, and a fantastically easy to work with control setup. I’m downright stunned by the quality on this no-name from South Nowhere. This was the first time I could even remember SEEING an Apex in the last several months, and here’s a model that’s easily top of the line.
And considering you can get one of these for six hundred bucks, well, it’s hard NOT to recommend it.
You see that picture? That picture to the right? Yeah.
You probably recognize it right off as one of our sweet home theater setups. Of course you do–you’ve been here. You know how we roll. Anyway, what would you say if I told you that that sweet home theater setup is in a room that measures fourteen by sixteen feet?
That couch you see measures exactly fourteen feet in length, and it occupies an entire wall along the back edge of the room. It was custom made for that room. It’s also a place where the bass from the speakers tends to collect, so special measures like six bass traps were included to help diffuse the sound.
And it’s not just the furniture that makes this ultra-small home theater as awesome as it is. There’s also loads of choice components in here too, like an eight foot wide filmscreen from Stewart, Triad speakers, a Panasonic Blu-ray player, and plenty more.
When you consider what an achievement that home theater represents, it’s hard to call it anything but sweet.
So the plan is going forward–Blockbuster’s ready to offer its limited-duration digital downloads of movies at its kiosks, and NCR, the national vending company, is conducting the initial testing.
Apparently, the kiosks were already “digital download ready” from their inception; they just didn’t have it ready to go. There’s some talk of expansion, too, so maybe some are just more ready than others. Now, if you were hoping to download them to your SD-compatible laptop or cell phone, I’m sorry to dash your hopes like this, but it’s JUST to your television for now. Future tests will expand outward, but if you don’t have an SD card port on your television, just forget about this round of tests.
They’ll be offering as many as fifteen hundred titles by 2010, and you’ll have thirty days to watch the movie from when you first purchase it. But once you start, you’ll have forty eight hours to finish it.
A little too limited to do much good, especially at the opening stages of the game, but hopefully the future versions will open it up a bit.
Remember how I was talking about slow and steady winning the home theater race? How great it was that some people took their time and learned everything they could about home theater before they installed theirs? Well…for Audiovisual Concepts And Solutions’ Andy Caraballo, that means less than nothing.
This guy actually had a two month deadline, start to finish, and he was working under a handicap that would balk most of us–the client in question was an interior designer.
Yeah. Basically, this is the equivalent of trying to remove a doctor’s appendix, or trying a lawyer’s tax case. But as you can see from the picture at right, Caraballo definitely came through. And what did he put in there? Well, there’s a lot of sweet gear in there–he’s got Acoustic Innovations home theater seating, a SIM2 projector, a Da-Lite projector screen and speakers from James Loudspeakers.
For putting together a home theater setup that made an interior designer happy, well, that can only be called sweet.
If you’re one of the owners of a Nokia E72, E71x, 5800, N97, or N97 mini (and I’ll tell you this, the N97 is an unbelievable phone with more features than a Swiss army knife) then you have a whole new reason to be happy you shelled out seven hundred bucks on a cell phone (yeah, that’s what they cost)–you can now manage your Netflix queue from any one of them.
Netflix released the Nokia app just Monday, and it allows you to browse titles, manage your queue, and even watch video previews of upcoming releases.
At last report, Blockbuster Online doesn’t have anything even vaguely similar to this, so that’s one more nail in their coffin. I’m not sure why Netflix felt the need to come out with this one, though–it’s not like they really needed the help. They’re pounding most everybody into the ground already, so why spike the ball? Not that I’m complaining, mind you–it’s a great idea whose time has truly come. But the why of it does elude me somewhat.
Well, not that it even matters. It’s available, and it’s awesome.
Looking for a new addition to your home entertainment system that won’t take up much space in your living room? Have a look at the new NuVision Lucidium FX5LS LCD HDTVs. Available in 40-inch, 46-inch and 55-inch screen sizes, these deep black lightweight LED/LCD HDTVs measures merely 1.5-inches in total depth.
All three models use NuVision’s powerful FX5 120Hz video processing that helps create an effective rate of 120 frames per second. For clean and crisp images, the TVs come integrated with LED to produce pure white light. Compared to CCFL sets, the FX5LS models require 40% less power to operate.
All the Lucidium FX5LS models include four HDMI inputs and feature an ATSC/NTSC/QAM tuner. The Lucidium FX5LS 40 inch, 46 inch and 55 inch HDTVs cost MSRP of $3,499, $4,499 and $5,999, respectively.
Tagged as the fastest graphics card yet, AMD has released the ATI Radeon HD 5970 graphics card which has been designed to support ultra-high resolutions and higher image quality. It comes with an unlocked overclocking potential which should address better HD viewing as far as photo and video viewing through PCs is concerned. The ATI Radeon HD 5970 also launches today in new Alienware Area-51, Area-51 ALX and Aurora desktop PCs.
(Source) Press