Ad: Manage updates with the Download App
ie8 fix

dg

i3DG puts 3D video on your iPhone, iPod Touch

Getting 3D video playback on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad could be as old-school simple as tilting a mirror at an angle. And that appears to be what media artist Jitsuro Mase has done, employing three half-silvered mirrors to create the illusion of 3D display, an idea that picked up an honorary mention at the Ars Electronic Festival 2010 in September.

Bringing 3D minus the clunky 3D eyewear to the handset ahead of other phone makers, the i3DG Palm Top Theater is a small, box-shaped accessory that plugs in to an iPhone or iPod Touch for playback. It claims to be capable of supporting a gamut of applications from 3D videos to accelerometer-based games. … Read more

Double vision on the third dimension:
Acer's 3D laptop and Nvidia's 3D Vision

With a burst of renewed interest in 3D technology, Acer seems to be slightly ahead of the curve with its Aspire 5738DG laptop, featuring a special combination of hardware and software to add 3D to games, photos, and videos. Thanks to projects such as James Cameron's Avatar, upcoming 3D TV monitors, and Nvidia's 3D Vision project, consumers are hearing more about 3D than any time since the 1950s.

The $779 Acer Aspire 5738DG takes a different approach than the 3D Vision product from Nvidia. While the Nvidia rig requires a desktop PC with a high-end video card, a … Read more

Sony and Pioneer receivers edge out the competition in CNET shootout

Back in November, I asked the question, "What's the best midpriced AV receiver?"--but had to confess that we hadn't reviewed as many as we would've liked. Since then, Senior Associate Editor Matt Moskovciak and resident Audiophiliac Steve Guttenberg sequestered themselves in the CNET listening room and put several models to the test.

When the smoke cleared, the Sony STR-DG920 was at the top of the heap, with the Pioneer VSX-1018AH and Onkyo TX-SR606 impressing us as well. The Denon AVR-1909 sounded great and was packed with features, but that model's confusing remote control … Read more

Review: Sony STR-DG920 a top-notch AV receiver with four HDMI inputs, GUI

Picking out a receiver used to be almost as easy as picking which one sounded the best, but that's hardly the case now that AV receivers are responsible for so many video duties. The Sony STR-DG920 is well-suited to its new role, offering up four HDMI inputs and 1080p analog video upconversion. In addition, the STR-DG920 is one of the only receivers in its price range to offer up a full graphical user interface, rather than the more common text-only interface.

On the downside, the STR-DG920 doesn't offer any multiroom functionality and we felt that its sound quality … Read more

What's the best midpriced AV receiver?

Update (February 12, 2009): Check out our follow-up story, with full reviews of all the products mentioned here.

I receive a lot of e-mail asking why we haven't reviewed many AV receivers in recent months. First off, let me say: mea culpa. Reviews coverage of this category has suffered, mostly because AV receivers are among the most time-consuming products to analyze (because they now need to be examined in detail for their audio and video performance). But enough of the excuses; here's what we're doing to remedy the situation. … Read more

Which AV receiver should I buy?--Ask the Editors

The most common question we get at CNET is, "what should I buy?" Unfortunately, instead of just spitting out a product name, that question usually forces us to follow-up with our own questions--how much do you want to spend, what features are important, and so on. However, last year when people asked "which audiovisual receiver should I buy", we actually had a pretty simple answer: the Onkyo TX-SR605. At $400, it was right in the "budget" sweet spot, and it included more next-generation features--such as onboard Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding, and analog upconversion--than any other receiver in its price class. Unless you were looking to spend a lot more money, the TX-SR605 was by far the best value.

So which AV receiver should you buy in 2008? Well, it's not that easy this year.… Read more

Apple cloning: Worth it?

It doesn't take much to put Apple in the news, and this afternoon's excuse is that a Miami-based company called PsyStar is selling a Mac clone.

Its Web site was down earlier--ostensibly because of the overwhelming reaction to its product. As Computerworld's Gregg Keizer reports:

Before its site went dark Monday, PsyStar was pitching an Intel-based system it said could be configured to run Leopard, Apple's Mac OS X 10.5. The machine, which was priced at $399 minus Leopard, $554 with it already installed, is powered by a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor … Read more

Sony's new budget AV receivers packed with features

When Onkyo released the budget TX-SR605 AV receiver last year, it rocked the industry with its low price and high-end features such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-Master Audio decoding. Other manufacturers pretty much had to stay on the sidelines as TX-SR605s flew off the shelf, but it looks as if Sony is ready to fight back with its new line of budget AV receivers. The company's 2008 line of AV receivers includes four new affordably priced models--the STR-DG520, STR-DG720, STR-DG820 and STR-DG920--and they look pretty good from the spec sheet. Here are the details:

The STR-DG520

Key features of the Sony STR-DG520:

5.1 channels, 100 watts of power Two HDMI inputs Supports 1080p pass-through at 60 and 24 frames per second Available in March for about $200

The STR-DG720

Step-up features on the STR-DG720:

7.1 channels, 105 watts of power Three HDMI inputs… Read more