Gear Patrol

If you’re like us, you have a long list of gear you’d love to own. But reality (almost) always steps in, along with bank accounts and eagle-eyed spouses, leaving your gadget desires unfulfilled. Gear Patrol’s series “Want This, Get This” presents a lust-worthy piece of gear along with a more affordable alternative that scratches the same itch. In this installment, we put the Sharp Elite PRO-60X5FD and the Panasonic TC-PST60 head to head.

The JVC Black Sapphire HDTV ($1,350) may have the surname of an exotic dancer, but when your brand reputation is worth less than a busy night at the club, you need to go bold or go home. While competing manufacturers duel over pixel counts and apps, JVC’s new JLE55SP4000 120Hz 1080p 3D TV is focused…

Since 2008, Slingbox has served as media middleman for TV-addicted travelers. Capitalizing on under-used, over-priced cable service was great at first, but standard definition streaming is something not even the lowest rent smartphones do anymore. The Slingbox 350 and 500 ($180+) give you your fix in full 1080p HD. The Slingbox 350 ($180) is the…

The future may not be televised in 3D after all, so how about 4k? Earlier this year, we saw a few prototypes at CES, and now Sony has officially announced its first set, boasting 3840 x 2160 resolution chops in the form of the 84-inch, 4K goliath: the Sony XBR-84X900. Since virtually no content out…

Sony’s latest flagship KDL-55HX850 bundles internet connectivity, immersive 3D capabilities and Motionflow XR960 to into a 55” LED backlit beast. Add in Skype, Netflix and Pandora at a button press away, and all those set-top boxes littering your living room can be moved elsewhere; and believe us, that’s a good thing. The “monolithic design” results…

In life, somethings are better off small — think artificial hearts and improvised explosive devices. TV is not one of those things; hence, the Sharp LC-90LE745U 90-inch Aquos LED Smart TV, a.k.a. the biggest LED TV currently in production. We introduced you to its little (80-inch) brother last September, and the big bro obviously has…

We kicked off 2012 by visiting not-so-beautiful Las Vegas to attend CES, with the hope of getting a head start on the exciting new products that will launch over the coming year. While we’ll continue to highlight gadgets revealed there on a regular basis, one of the best parts about being on the ground at…

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…

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…

There are cutting edge TVs, and then there’s Toshiba’s Regza 55X3 (known as the ZL2 in Europe) whose spec sheet reads like it was DeLorean-ed back from 2015. The 55-inch set is one of the first consumer TVs to sport a 4096 x 2160 pixel resolution (or Quad Full High Definition), which already gives it…

As rabid movie, music fans and gamers, we’re always on the hunt for gear that can push our home entertainment experience to 11 (much to our better half’s chagrin). This roundup includes some of our favorite home theater products out today that we’d love to host in our living room. Continues after the jump.

Owning a 55-inch flat screen TV seems pretty damn sweet — that is until you mount it next to Sharp’s Nimitz-class LC-80LE632U. With an 80-inch diagonal, this full LED backlit HD 120Hz TV features more than double the screen area of the now belittled “big screen” we just mentioned, or four times the screen area…

The season for fire building is something we’re all trying to forget now, but planning ahead never hurts. This striking wall installation is actually composed of a free-standing steel structure that can contain either a gas or wood burning fire pit on the left hand side. A 37-inch Lowe LCD sits encased in an insulated…

We’ve put men on the moon. We’ve broken the sound barrier many times over, both in the air and on land. We’ve even cured Polio and managed to inject sweet cream into golden cake sticks of deliciousness that can remain edible for centuries. So it’s about damn time that some company focused on building weatherproof…

Sick and tired of seeing those black bars diminish your television’s big cinematic ego? So is Philips. After raking in praise from the home theater community for their first attempt at a cinemascope 21:9 HDTV, Philips has now released the Cinema 21:9 Platinum ($6,420). Like its predecessor, the 58-inch, 400 Hz Clear LCD unit is…

Logitech may have struck first blood in the Google TV race with their Revue set-top box, but the Sony Internet NSX-GT1 series is the world’s first HDTV line powered by Google TV. Here’s the skinny.

Portable televisions have come a long way from the battery-powered-anvils they used to be. Witness the FLO TV. Measuring 4.4′”x3.0″x0.5″ and weighing just over 5 ounces, this sleek, pocket-sized machine brings in close to 20 TV channels including CBS, Comedy Central, Discovery, ESPN, FOX, MTV, NBC, and The Food Network; the content comes straight to…

Here at Gear Patrol, we’re nothing if not out-and out-video geeks. Our passion runs wild for television, movies, games, or anything else that you can put up on screen. Being men of various situations and needs ourselves, we can, however, respect that no one video-graphical solution is right for each and every man. Thus, we…

With thin being so “in” with HDTV’s right now, it’s no surprise that wall mounts are following suit. After all, what’s the point of paying what amounts to your left arm for a TV of Calista Flockhart-like proportions, only to mount it 3 inches from the wall? The Sansus LL11 & ML11 super slim low-profile…

Since its commercial deployment over half a century ago, no bit of household technology has enraptured the attention and the desires of man like the television. After all, we are exceptionally visual creatures. A man must love his TV; if not, he is genetically conditioned to go out (hunt) and get one (gather) that he…

High-end home theater projectors are clearly a luxury that not every man can afford. However that doesn’t preclude us from drooling like a village idiot every time the technology advances. On that note, Samsung has announced the release of it’s new flagship projector, the SP-A900. Touted as improving upon the design of its predecessor the…

By Gear Patrol Reader Kirk Ward So you went and bought the 13-inch MacBook based on the glowing article posted a few months ago. Kudos to you; that’s a great start. The only problem is, well, (screen) size is everything and this guy is only 13-inches. That’s where the Mini Display Port to HDMI Adapter…

Until OLED really takes off in the consumer market, LED backlit LCD screens (yes that’s what these TVs are, not LED TVs) like the Samsung UN46B7000 will be riding the cutting edge of HDTV technology. That’s because screens of this type have several advantages over their normal LCD & Plasma based brethren. First, their size….

The following is true: a man does not need a reason to pine for a beautiful new TV. In fact, he doesn’t even need much of an excuse to treat himself to one. Sure these are challenging economic times, but save up your pennies and make an investment in your own well being by way…

47 Inches Of Football Watching Splendor Gear Patrol already established that it’s football season and asked whether you follow NFL or College football. We showed you that subscribing to DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket will advance your football consumption to dangerous awesome levels and winning a Titlecraft Fantasy Football Trophy is one of the best rewards…

Voila. You’re new MacBook is now a portable television with DVR. The new Elgato EyeTV DTT Deluxe TV Tuner allows you to receive digital TV via a svelte USB adaptor that includes it’s own built in antenna aerials. You simply plug it in and your MacBook (or Pro or Air) is an HDTV (720p or…

This is an embarrassingly large television. Spanning 65 inches, the Sharp AQUOS Special Edition will light up your home viewing experience with blistering 27,000:1 dynamic contrast ration, 4 ms response time, 1080p resolution, 120Hz frame rate conversion, 15w speakers, built-in HDTV tuner, and an input for every device under the sun including an ethernet port…

Say hello to my massive friend. The newly announced 60 inch Pioneer Elite Kuro Plasma and it’s smaller siblings, rolling into our hearts and living rooms this June. The second-generation Kuro plasmas will have 5x deeper black levels than the previous dark-as-hell Kuro plasma units. The 50 and 60 inch standard Kuro PDP-5020FD and PDP-6020FD…

No man ever grows out of his gaming enthusiasm. He just realizes that there are other things more important, but based on our perspective of the ongoing boom in the video game industry, it’s taken very little to convince guys that a controller in their hand is the natural state of life. These gifts are…

When it comes to LCD televisions Sharp takes no prisoners. Setting the standard for resolution, clarity and sheer hotness Sharp knows their flat panels. The full 1080p (full high definition folks, none of this 720p business) AQUOS has dramatic black levels and a design that will satisfy all natures of admirers. What this means to…