Blu-ray technology is still in the young stages but the clamor has been growing. Some may have problems with cost but now a trade-in program may yet offer some scintillating deals which should also address the matter of what to do with your old DVDs. Warner has announced the DVD2Blu trade-in program where you can surrender you old DVDs which will be valued between ($7.95 to $9.95) then add a bit for shipping ($4.95) and you can get the HD version in about 4 to 5 weeks. But before you do anything, check out the 55 titles available and then select which DVDs you are ready to part with.

(Source) Slippery Brick

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.

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.

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.

This may be one of the sweetest home theater setups I’ve talked about in some time, and I’ve talked about some pretty sweet ones.  I’ve talked about theaters that feature huge sound systems, cost seven figures, and do things you’d never imagine.

But today, I’ve got a home theater setup that isn’t sweet because of its costs or anything like that.  No, this one’s sweet because of where it puts the television.

Oh, sure, there’s some sweet gear in here like Niles speakers and a Niles subwoofer, plus a Denon receiver and a Sony Blu-ray player.  But the centerpiece of the setup is the Aquavision aquarium.  Yes, that’s an actual saltwater aquarium you’re looking at.  The rear panel of that aquarium is a thirty four inch Toshiba LCD television.

See what I mean?  That’s sweet.  I’ve never heard of any such thing before, and just looking at it downright amazes me.  And when a home theater setup amazes me, I know that it’s got to be a sweet one.

The short answer is no.

The long answer, however, involves a discussion of the various ARMS of Blockbuster, but one thing’s clear enough--Blockbuster’s days IN ITS CURRENT FORM are numbered.

Video store guys (and ladies), pay attention–your jobs are likely doomed.  Blockbuster, not too long after announcing that several hundred of its stores would be shuttered permanently to kick off 2010, also came out with the announcement that they just saw huge losses in third quarter 2009.

And there’s likely a good reason.  There are simply so many replacements available for Blockbuster chain stores that it boggles the mind.  On demand, iTunes, and let’s not forget that dynamic duo of Netflix and Redbox–even the neighborhood video store still has a place in most people’s lives (especially as they so effectively combine movie and video game rentals, and let’s face it, Gamefly is still woefully deficient on that score).

But I don’t think Blockbuster will collapse.  I think it’ll finally shutter its brick and mortar stores and go strictly online.  It might even keep the local stores as warehouses for their stock, and gain a serious size advantage on Netflix while also reducing costs.

Whatever happens, they’d better do something soon, or else the whole operation’s going down.

Oh yes, we all know the fervor of the day you decide to get started building a home theater setup.  Especially if you want to build a really sweet one.  You crave nothing so much as to get started, because deep in the back of your mind, all you can think is: “Sooner started, sooner done”.

But for Steve Caesare, that temptation was one he fought down, because his home theater projected lasted an awe-inspiring three years.  And that’s why we call it the three year home theater.

What went into this, besides a lot of time and, naturally, cash?  Good question–let’s get you an answer.  This home theater setup includes a  Da-Lite one hundred thirty three inch screen, a Pioneer receiver, JBL speakers, Samsung Blu-ray player, and a Sony projector.

Between three years of careful handcrafting, research, and consideration of the perfect product for every available slot, well, it’s clear enough that this is one sweet home theater setup.

Well folks, Best Buy has shown its hand in the upcoming shopping bacchanal that is Black Friday, and is it ever a doozy for home theater enthusiasts like us.

Let me give you a rundown of these patently fantastic bargains!

For those of you in the market for a new television, consider the Samsung forty six inch 1080p LED HDTV for sixteen hundred bucks.

If you’re thinking about the home theater PC concept, try the HP Desktop AMD X4 Quad Core, with eight gigs of RAM , a terabyte of hard drive space with 20” Monitor, an HP Deskjet DJ350 Color Printer with Windows 7 Home Premium for just under five hundred bucks.

How about a new Blu-ray player?  Just a hundred bucks!

And finally, if you’ve had your eye on a complete home theater package, well, Best Buy is prepared to oblige with a Samsung 5.1 Channel 1000W home theater system with Blu-ray player for the shockingly low price of four hundred bucks.

All this and more awaits you if you’re willing to brave the hordes of holiday shoppers on the day after Thanksgiving.

I say possibly, of course, because it isn’t like this is the first time Netflix managed to link up with a device provider to make their streaming video a bit easier to deal with.  Samsung, a host of Blu-ray players, lots more.  So now Sony’s Bravia television becomes one more brick in Netflix’s wall of streaming video.

All you’ll need is an internet capable Bravia, and the latest software upgrades, and you’ll be able to stream from Netflix’s pretty well massive library of at last count over a thousand titles.

This is, of course, awesome.  But as far as I can see it’s like polishing the brass on the Titanic.  There’s still a huge portion of the populace that can’t use this service, or can only use it in vastly reduced quantities because they plain old don’t have the bandwidth.  It’s great that the number of devices that can access this service increases almost with every passing week, but until that basic hurdle is overcome, there’s just no way it’ll get as far as it can.

A lot of people aren’t fond of widescreen.  I heard the moaning often enough during my video store clerk days about letterboxing and suchlike, and I doubt it’s improved much sense.  But for guys like Wayne Hanson, widescreen isn’t a format–it’s a challenge.

While most home theater owners dream about 16:9, Hanson went for the brass ring that is 2:35.

And get it he did–you can see it at right.  But this isn’t just about the monstrous girth of Hanson’s screen, no sir!  This is about plenty of other choice gear included in the setup, like a BenQ front projector in DLP (probably better given the screen he’s on), M&K speakers, a Da-Lite hundred and thirty three inch screen, a PS3 straight out of Sony and plenty more.

Just managing to get a 2:35 screen makes for a pretty sweet setup, but when you’ve got all that other stuff in there too, you end up with something that’s almost past sweet.

Anyone else remember that scene from Get Smart where Max Smart has to walk through a series of corridors and passageways before finally being able to access the phone booth that provides access to CONTROL?  Well, today’s sweet home theater setup is a lot like that, except not quite so convoluted.

Today’s sweet home theater setup owner, you see, installed–get this!–a FINGERPRINT LOCK on his home theater.  You literally cannot get in without the man’s fingerprint or the willingness to tear hell out of locked doors.

And it’s probably a good idea he’s got that lock on there, because there’s a panoply of high-powered hardware in there.  Just for example, he’s got a homemade hundred and ten inch screen, a Panasonic projector, Polk speakers, Denon receiver and an Xbox 360 with HD DVD add on.  In retrospect, the owner jokes, it was a bad move.  He’s actually planning to bring in a PS3 for the Blu-ray capabilities.

But between the lock and the choice gear, it’s definitely a sweet home theater setup.

Jeremy Hummer’s love of movies began when he was a kid, much like most of ours did.  He actually began collecting films–and I mean ACTUAL FILMS, like sixteen millimeter film–but quickly branched out to video when he discovered that collecting actual film was a difficult and downright painful process.

But as he went on, and his love of movies carried on, soon he found himself the owner of a house with a five hundred square foot garage…or the perfect home theater to be.  And this set him down a path where, eventually, he would use that garage home theater as the centerpiece, and the showpiece, of his own home theater installation firm.

So what does he have in this incredible theater?  Oh man, you’ll hardly believe it.  He’s got Monitor Audio speakers, Velodyne subwoofers, a JVC projector, a VuTec one hundred ten inch screen, Oppo DVD player, Marantz Blu-ray player and plenty more to boot.

That’s one sweet home theater setup you’ve got there, Jeremy, and if that’s the kind of thing that your company, Electronic Home Designers, does, then even I’m interested.  And you know from experience I’m one cheap individual.

One truly awesome thing about the sweet home theater setup is that it, like movies, are a universal language.

It’s even spoken in Norway!  Want proof?  That’s okay, I can provide.  A guy by the name of Bjorn Kristensen set up his own sweet home theater setup in his two hundred twenty square foot garage.

This particular setup set him back twenty large, and includes the costs of construction and fresh components.  But here’s what he GOT for that twenty large–not only the pictured theater above, but also its contents, which include Infinity speakers, a Sony Blu-ray player and projector, plus a Yamaha receiver and DreamScreen one hundred and twenty inch screen.

I don’t care what language you speak–that’s sweet no matter where you hail from.  And for putting together a great theater setup that should serve him well until the next format change (and even then he’ll probably just have to swap out a couple components) he’s earned the title of sweet home theater setup.

Okay, so on the surface, five thousand bucks sounds like a lot of cash.  But if you break it down over the course of a year, you’re actually only talking about a hundred bucks a week.  And if you’re willing to put aside that kind of cash for that whole year, then you too can have a home theater setup like Mark Wiener’s.

When I read about this one I was pretty well surprised.  He mostly paid for electronics and furnishings, doing most of the construction work between himself and his father in law, which was probably a good bonding experience for the duo.

But that five grand went a pretty long way, putting up a Toshiba DVD, VCR and HD DVD player (though that one probably doesn’t see much use any more), a Panasonic Blu-ray player and 720p projector, KLH speakers and a B-tech ninety inch screen, and plenty else.

With some careful planning, you too can put in a really awesome home theater setup and without breaking the bank to do it.  That makes it, especially these days, doubly sweet.

Or at least, cheap for blu-ray.  Seems that the folks at LG are set to put their LG BD370 out for a hundred and fifty bucks.

Now, admittedly, that’s not as good a deal as the recently announced special from Best Buy in which they were offering their Insignia brand NS-BRDVD3 blu-ray player for a whopping ninety nine bucks, but there is actually a reason to consider picking this one up.

Again, like the insignia, it’s compatible with Netflix’s streaming video.  But the difference here is that LG was the FIRST to do it.

You might be able to wonder if “first”, otherwise known as the most annoying post on any message board, is worth an extra sixty bucks.  And you’d be right to do so, but I ask you to consider just one point:  if LG did it first, then aren’t they most likely to know how to do it BEST?  And that likelihood is probably worth an extra sixty bucks.

If you think the VHS player/recorder is dead, guess again. For some reason, the JVC-DR-BH250 continues the legacy. Not only does it continue to play the usual VHS tapes, it can even record blu-ray and some other content as well. And if you are worried about storage, never fear. It even comes with a 250 GB hard drive to save those recorded video formats. The JVC DR-BH250 is slated to arrive in Japan by November and will carry a $1,400 price tag.

(Source) Ubergizmo

So this guy by the name of Jeff bought a 1921 Georgian colonial house nine years ago, and it wasn’t exactly in the best shape when he got it.  Well, if you were eighty years old you probably wouldn’t be in the best shape either, so don’t laugh.

Anyway, Jeff set out to gut the house and renovate it to suit his needs.  Now, I know that this is how a lot of horror movies started, but for him it worked out just fine.  He added a new master suite, an exercise room, a guest suite…and of course, what we came here for, a sweet home theater setup.

He’s got plenty of awesome equipment in there, including fully TWELVE Acoustic Innovations Deco recliners (those red and pink things you see in the foreground), a Denon Blu-ray player, a JVC VHS deck, an Oppo DVD player, a Panasonic Blu-ray player, Klipsch speakers, a Sony projector and a monster screen from–where else?–Stewart Filmscreen.

For gutting most of his home and adding on like no tomorrow, Jeff’s definitely managed to add on a truly sweet home theater setup.

ADVANCE WARNING: THESE ARE SOME REALLY GOOD DEALS. IF YOU HAVE A HEART CONDITION OR SIMILAR CHRONIC ILLNESS I RECOMMEND YOU READ SOMETHING ELSE RIGHT NOW.

Maybe I’m going too far, but I dug up Sears’ Black Friday deals.  They’re clearly out to NOT get outclassed by Office Max, and best believe there will be PLENTY of joy for all my home theater heads.  So assuming you’re still reading this far, check out this incredible slice of awesome.

How about a forty-two inch Zenith plasma TV for just under five hundred bucks?

Not good enough?  Okay, how about a Sony Bravia 5.1 Channel 1000 Watt integrated home theater system (a home theater in a box kind of thing) for just under three hundred thirty?

STILL not good enough?  Oh, you’re killing me, but lucky for you I got plenty more–try this one on, true bargain shopper: your choice of a Samsung or Sony Blu-ray player for just a hundred and fifty bucks.

Yeah, I figured that’d get you.  So if you were thinking about sleeping off the turkey coma on Black Friday, you may want to think again, because these are some incredibly SWEET deals.

For the people looking for reliable Blu-ray writers in the market, Buffalo has released another one today but unfortunately for the Japanese market. The new model is the Buffalo BR-PX68U2-BK external Blu-ray writer, a device that measures just 137mm x 142mm x 20mm and weighs only 340 grams. It makes use of USB connectivity and has write speeds of up to 6X for BD-R, 4x for BD-R DL, 2x for BD-RE SL/DL, 8x for DVD-R/+R/+RW, 6x for DVD-RW, 5x for DVD-RAM, 4x for DVD-RW/+RW DL, 24x for CD-R and 10x for CD-RW.

The Buffalo BR-PX68U2-BK will be available in Japan by November for about $340.00.

(Source) Slippery Brick

Need a player that supports a variety of playable discs and formats? Check out the new XV-BP11, an entry-level Blu-Ray player by JVC. It is a versatile high definition player that offers playback of high definition Blu-ray discs and various other formats.

The JVC XV-BP11 Blu-Ray player offers playback of the AVCHD format, the high definition format widely used for HD camcorders. The playable discs supported by the player include BD-Rom, BD-R/RE, DVD-Video, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, Audio CD and CD-R/RW. For video output, the player has composite HDMI V1.3 and for video, it has Analog L/R, coaxial, HDMI V1.3. Plus, a USB host is situated at the front panel of the player for easy connectivity.

Other convenient features of the JVC XV-BP11 Blu-Ray player include quick loading, camera zoom, slim design and parental lock. The XV-BP11 high definition player is available at $199.95.

Via: JVC