theater

At CES in January, Sony announced several LCD TVs with "Triluminos," a new backlighting method that they promise offered "rich, authentic color, and excellent red and green reproduction." Digging deeper, it turns out Triluminos includes an optical component produced by QD Vision, Inc. called "Color IQ" which uses quantum dots to help create light.

OK, so what are quantum dots?… Read more

This is an update of a deal I posted last summer.

Juggling is meant for circus folk, not home-theater owners. Yet that's exactly what you're doing if you have more than one device and, ergo, more than one remote.

Regular Cheapskate readers know I'm a fan of Logitech's Harmony series of universal remotes. One of the better models, the 700, has a list price of $119.99 (or used to -- it's been discontinued). Ouch.

For a limited time, and while supplies last, TigerDirect via eBay has the refurbished Harmony 700 universal remote for $59.99 shipped.… Read more

Let's say you're at your father-in-law's house and he just got a new TV. You're stuck in a corner, having recommended the TV, and you're the only person who knows contrast from composite. What to do?

In an ideal world you'd have a setup disc on hand to set it up for him. Better yet, you'd have the number of a local calibrator instantly available and pop-in-law is willing to spring for a full calibration.

But that's not always possible. Here are a few tips that will help you get the picture settings on his TV close to ideal -- or at least closer than it was.… Read more

Do movies look weird on your new TV? Does everything have a hyper-real, ultra-smooth motion to it? Are you sure something is happening with the TV's image you don't like, but you can't figure out what?

Chances are, what you're seeing is called the "Soap Opera Effect," as descriptive a moniker as we get in tech, in that this feature makes everything on your TV look like a cheap soap opera.

Here's what it is, what it does, and how to turn it off.… Read more

As we all expected, the big news at CES this year was Ultra HD 4K displays. It seemed that every TV manufacturer had one, ranging from massive LED LCDs to midsize LED LCDs to midsize OLEDs.

We've talked about this before, but now with more info, and definitive product announcements, let me explain in exacting, excruciating detail why 4K TVs are still stupid. … Read more

New TV? Old TV? New gear? Old gear? Are you sure all your settings are correct? Even if you're not planning on watching the big game, it's worth taking a moment to ensure you're getting the most out of your TV and assorted A/V gear.

Think of it like getting the oil changed on your car, or a visit to the dentist, except there's less chance of screaming and/or a tragic dental floss mishap.… Read more

Let's say you want to throw the ultimate football-watching party for the last game of the year. (Alas, using the name of said game is fraught with copyright challenges, so we're playing it safe.) Will a single big-screen TV suffice? Maybe. But what if you want to go really hard core, and have a few dozen people over. Can they all see the screen? Would the party be even better with multiple TVs in different rooms?

I'd say yes, and it's easier than you might think.… Read more

You've just sat down to watch "Les Miserables" and Russell Crowe's opened his mouth to bark, when the air is filled with the sound of... marimba? As you scramble to switch your phone to silent, you can look forward to Microsoft's vision of a future in which phones silence themselves when they realize they're in a movie theater.

Microsoft has filed a patent, spotted by InfoWorld, that allows your phone to put itself into "an inconspicuous mode of operation" in certain circumstances. Inconspicuous mode makes it sound like KITT going invisible when … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Usually at CES time, you can expect Panasonic to roll out slightly updated versions of its Blu-ray home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) solutions, featuring six-to-eight plasticky speakers and a whole lot of proprietary speaker wire. But CES 2013 is different.

Panasonic is ditching its standard assortment of HTIBs, opting instead for three new sound bar and convertible sound bar models. The SC-HTB770 and SC-HTB370 both feature a similar design; you can use them in the traditional horizontal alignment or you can break apart the sound bar and use the pieces as separate speakers. The SC-HTB770 converts into a 3.1 system, with … Read more