Deep picture for shallow pockets
Prices for quality projectors have dropped faster than Facebook’s IPO over the last few years, making the dream of mancave movie theaters much more realistic. The trouble is sorting out the deals from the doozies. For a street price of often less than $2,000, BenQ’s first full-HD 3D W7000 Projection System is a particularly good [...]
Curved for your pleasure
Admit it. If your wife/girlfriend was cool enough to let you put a hulking driving simulator in your living room, you wouldn’t hesitate for a nano-second. Well, if you do ever get the green light (good luck), behold the bank draining option that is the Motion Simulation TL1 Driving Simulator ($18,600). Built in collaboration with [...]
More bang for less buck
Building on an already full line of home theater receivers, Onkyo has fleshed out their mid-range offerings with the TX-NR818 and TX-NR717. As you’d expect, both beef up the wattage to 135W and 110W for the TX-NR818 and TX-NR717, respectively — making you even more popular with your neighbors (best to just invite them over). [...]
Bridging the gap
Apple previously described its foray into the living room as a “hobby”. Now that the tiny black puck has been launched side-by-side with the new iPad, it seems more like the ultimate tablet accessory. Given the new iPad’s crazy-retina display, the new Apple TV finally matches the 1080p output of competing set-top streamers like the [...]
Eyewear Turned Spywear
GoPro may be the leading provider of tag-a-long video equipment when crazy adventures call, but that doesn’t mean their solution is the only way to let your body be the camera man. Pivothead is peddling a new line of video recording eyewear. At the moment, four styles of glasses are available, all of which look [...]
Features on features
Onkyo has continually set the receiver bar when it comes to providing cutting-edge specs at obtainable price points, and with the 2012 TX-NR616, they show no signs of stopping. As the top of their mid-range offerings for the year, the 7.2-channel AV receiver boasts a graphical users interface, Audyssey DSX processing, THX Select2 Plus certification, [...]
Goodbye couch surfing, hello couch calling
Once 1080p televisions became ubiquitous, Smart TVs assumed the role as the next spec lure dangled in front of consumers for why they needed to upgrade. If you avoided biting on the marketing blabber back then (we’re looking at you Kuro owners), but would still like some of the web benefits of a cutting-edge set, [...]
One for all, all-in-one
People at the helm of Apple, like Jony Ives and the late Steve Jobs, tend to get all of the credit for the company’s constant innovation. Startups like the Nest Learning Thermostat and Flipboard, which were both founded by Apple alums, proved though that Cupertino’s talent pool is incredibly deep and certainly capable of innovating [...]
Two of the best get better
Samsung’s flagship TVs are always contenders for top honors in terms of picture quality and features each year. While their remarkable OLED TV garnered the lion’s share of the spotlight at this year’s CES, the company’s latest premier LED and plasma are still nothing to scoff at. The UNES8000 3D (shown above) is the new [...]
Cut the cord, keep the convenience
The Simple.TV is aimed at frugal households looking to save on cable costs without missing their generic investigative dramas. After connecting to a coax cable or HD antenna, a USB hard drive, and a home network, the device allows users to watch live shows in 1080p on their main TV, as well as on a [...]
Black bar banisher
We fawned over Vizio’s entry into the 21:9 fray last year, only to be bitterly disappointed when the set never made it to retail shelves. This year Vizio promises to actually deliver the ultrawidescreen goods to living rooms around the country with their updated 2012 line of 2560 x 1080 passive 3D HD displays. Besides [...]
Higher Def
4k resolution is still a long way off from replacing lowly 1080p as the new standard for high-definition, but Sony’s latest BDP-S790 Blu-ray player doesn’t mind standing on the cutting edge. Among the slew of players announced, this lone model packs the ability to up convert 1080p content to 4k resolution — which is great [...]
The world's first Android 4.0 Smart TV
After fizzling out with its initial release, Google TV is expected to make a resurgence this year at CES thanks to updated software and the renewed support of TV manufacturers. Lenovo’s 55-inch, LED backlit, IdeaTV K91 does include a touch of Google on the software side, but it’s a customized version of Android 4.0 (a.k.a [...]
Boxed-Up Box Office
Newbies in the display game rarely succeed given the variety of entrenched brands already doing well in the space. BryteWerks hopes to become an exception with their soon to be released Model One Cube, which takes a slightly more literal approach to the concept of a home theater in a box. Inside the sleek black [...]
Less plugs, same play
Roku’s current streaming accessories were already carnie hand friendly, but their new streaming stick manages to pack the same functionality into an even smaller dongle. The goal of the product is to make any TV with an MHL-enabled HDMI port into a smart TV. For those a little rusty on their jargon, Mobile-High-Definition link (or [...]
