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Home theater

The greatest audio and video products of the 20th century

It's hard to imagine now, but there was a time when audio and video products were introduced that were so revolutionary that their impact was felt literally decades after their introduction.

Take the JBL L100 Century. It was the first speaker I fell in love with. Its brilliant orange "waffle" foam grille and white 12-inch woofer looked so cool in the early 1970s when the competition's speakers were all drab brown boxes with boring cloth grilles. The JBL was the ultimate "rock" speaker of the era, so my Hendrix and Led Zeppelin LPs never … Read more

Poll: Is stereo on its way out?

What does a 120-year-old Thomas Edison cylinder record player have in common with a brand-new $299 Big Jambox Bluetooth speaker? Both play music in monophonic sound. Everything old is new again.

Home audio was strictly a single-speaker pursuit from the dawn of recorded sound through the late 1950s, when stereo changed the way we listen to music. Multichannel home theater's popularity peaked in the late 1990s, but starting with iPods and sound-bar speakers, mono was back in style. More recently sales of battery-powered, mono Bluetooth speakers started to take off. While these lo-fi systems may contain stereo pairs of … Read more

Reuse an old router to bridge devices to your wireless network

Many smart or connected devices come with wired-only connections (Ethernet), like your TV, game console, DVD player, TiVo, or other streaming-media device. Unless your Internet modem or wireless router happens to be at the same location as those devices, connecting them to your wireless network can be a challenge.

Possible solutions include, power-line adapters, dedicated wireless adapters for each device, or installing Ethernet jacks. Unfortunately, those options can get expensive and each has its unique drawbacks. Another option is using a wireless bridge. A wireless bridge connects two wired networks together over Wi-Fi. The wireless bridge acts as a client, … Read more

1080i and 1080p are the same resolution

There still seems to be some confusion about the difference between 1080i and 1080p. Both are 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution. Both have 2,073,600 pixels. From one perspective, 1080i is actually greater than Blu-ray. And, you can't even get a full 1080p/60 source other than a PC, camcorder, or some still cameras that shoot video.

True, 1080i and 1080p aren't the same thing, but they are the same resolution. Let the argument commence... … Read more

Have an Apple TV? Don't miss these four new features

Apple released an update for the Apple TV shortly after iOS 6 was made available for iOS devices. You should have already been alerted to update your black box to Apple TV software version 5.1. If not, you can manually update by going into Settings > General > Update Software. The update should take less than 20 minutes, depending on the speed of your Internet connection.

Here are four new features the update brings to your Apple TV, each with a link to a guide covering how to use them.

Rearranging icons Finally! Up until now, Apple TV owners … Read more

How to add, manage multiple Apple IDs on the same Apple TV

The recent software update to the Apple TV, version 5.1, allows users to add more than one Apple ID to the little black box. Access to multiple Apple IDs makes it easier for family members to view movies and TV shows purchased by family members.

To add another Apple ID to your Apple TV, you'll first need to make sure it's running software version 5.1 (Settings > General > About). Once you have verified it's running the latest software update, you can then go into Settings and select iTunes Store. At the top you'll … Read more

Use your Apple TV to view movie showtimes in nearby theaters

Being able to watch a movie trailer while deciding which movie to go watch the same night, or in anticipation of a new release isn't a new feature on Apple TV. You open the Trailers app, select the trailer you want to watch, and it's streaming in just a few minutes on your HDTV. Up until now, though, you couldn't view local showtimes if you found a movie you wanted to go watch. Thankfully, showtimes have been added to the Apple TV with software update 5.1; and it's very easy to access.

As you can … Read more

How to enable Shared Photo Streams on Apple TV

Last week Apple released an update to the Apple TV, bringing plenty of iOS 6-like features to it. One of those features is the ability to view Shared Photo Stream albums on your TV. You'll need to make sure your Apple TV is running the most current version of the software by going into Settings > General > About. The software version should be 5.1. If it's not running 5.1, go back to the General settings section and select Update Software.

To enable Shared Photo Streams, select the Photo Stream icon from the main screen of … Read more