Tabla de contenidos para Apr-13 en Home Theater

It’s not unreasonable that any regular reader of Home Theater may lust, if only in his heart, for a two-piece projection system that genuinely matches, if only at a smaller scale, the experience we have in our local multiplex. By experience I mean an image that delivers contrast, color saturation, and a level of detail reasonably close to that associated with cinema, and sound quality that is as equally engaging, powerful, and unfatiguing. For the longest time, getting this at home was a rich man’s game. When I started writing about these products years ago, bulky and underperforming CRT projectors (by today’s standards) were the only way to play, and you could easily spend the cost of a small home on a projector (or pair of projectors, required for brightness),…

Samsung Rang Up healthy revenues and profits in the third quarter of last year, rising 91 percent over the previous year’s third quarter. While much of that was in the company’s mobile communications business, TV panel shipments were still up 10 percent, and in October 2012 alone, the company sold a record 1.15 million TVs... Samsung and Yahoo! are bringing the latter’s Connected TV platform to the former’s 2012 Smart TVs. It outdoes conventional apps by turning smartphones or tablets into remote controls and embellishing TV programming with interactive goodies... Samsung and Amazon are bringing the latter’s Instant Video to the former’s 2013 Smart TVs. Download the app, and you can pay à la carte for more than 140,000 movies and shows—unless you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, in which case…

Price: $300 At a Glance: Stream 1080p live TV and recordings from your DVR • Complete control of your settop box from any device • Displays photos and videos from smartphone on TV Sling Media Slingbox 500 Media Shifter PERFORMANCE 3.0/5.0 FEATURES 4.0/5.0 ERGONOMICS 4.0/5.0 VALUE 3.5/5.0 While cable and satellite companies often tout their ability to let you start watching a recording in one room and finish it in another, you can forgo the cost of these multiroom systems with a Slingbox. The original TV place-shifter, Slingbox allows you to access your cable or satellite set-top box and all of its content from mobile devices, media players, and computers—from across the house or across the country—by using the SlingPlayer app. Hoping to save some money in box rentals, I…

If you absolutely must have your download of Kung Fu Panda on the same date as the disc release, M-Go is for you. Created under the aegis of Technicolor and DreamWorks, it has the support of Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures, Paramount, Universal, and Relativity Media. Launched last year, it appears in TVs, Blu-ray players, and tablets from both Samsung and Vizio, along with Vizio digital media players and Intel-based ultrabook laptops. M-Go is an authorized UltraViolet retailer for cloud storage and access. Initial titles include Shrek and Madagascar from Dream-Works and The Raven, Mirror Mirror, and Act of Valor from Relativity. Release-date parity for download and disc must be contagious. Fox is now dropping hot titles three weeks before their disc and on-demand debuts, starting with Ridley…

A speaker-festooned remix-mobile raised eyebrows in London. It collected ambient sound with a roof microphone, processed it into a pseudo-musical form, and blasted the real-time mix through numerous speakers and horns. The project by sound artist Yuri Suzuki was designed to plug AIAIAI Capital Headphones. See links below for more about the stunt, the sound artist, and the Danish-made headphones. • makethecitysoundbetter.com • yurisuzuki.com • aiaiai.dk/store…

Pearl Harbor (Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment) “I love the attack scene in Pearl Harbor,” Russell says. We do, too. In fact, when describing the disc and its soundtrack years ago in the pages of HT, I said, “Pearl Harbor’s spectacular battle sequences, presented in first-rate THX-certified DTS/Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, call your home theater to arms.” I love quoting myself. Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Paramount, also on Blu-ray 3D) For this second robots-in-disguise sequel, Russell created a spectacular 7.1-channel complement to a wildly original action sequence. “In Dark of the Moon, the driller coming through the building and toppling it over is a pretty incredible experience. And them sliding at the top of the building and down into the building and almost out of the building, et cetera.…

OPPO BDP-105 BLU-RAY 3D PLAYER BD-LIVE: Yes, 1 GB internal storage BONUSVIEW: Yes, 1 GB internal storage FIRMWARE VERSION: BDP10X-38-1220 3D: Yes AUDIO DECODING: DOLBY: Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD DTS: DTS, DTS-HD High Resolution, DTS-HD Master Audio OTHER: 7.1 PCM up to 192/24, 5.1 DSD HDMI VIDEO RESOLUTIONS: 480i/480p/576i/576p/720p/1080i/1080p/1080p24, 3D frame-packing 720p/1080p24, 4K x 2K COMPATIBLE PLAYBACK FORMATS: BD-Video, Blu-ray 3D, DVD-Video, DVDAudio, AVCHD, SACD, CD, HDCD, Kodak Picture CD, CD-R/RW, DVD±R/RW, DVD±R DL, BD-R/RE DIMENSIONS (W X H X D, INCHES): 16.8 x 4.8 x 12.2 WEIGHT (POUNDS): 17.3 PRICE: $1,199…

PRICE: $5,493 AT A GLANCE: Shapely Italian styling • Exceptional soundstaging • Surprisingly affordable Sonus faber Venere 2.5 Speaker System PERFORMANCE 4.5/5.0 BUILD QUALITY 4.5/5.0 VALUE 5.0/5.0 Could this sleek, lacquer-finished, curvaceous new Sonus faber Venere loudspeaker have originated anywhere other than in Italy? Well, no and yes. With its soothing, elegant curves and glossy finish, Venere whispers “Italy,” but the scant $2,498/pair price tag of this 43-pound, 3.5-foot floorstander shouts “China.” In fact, this new Sonus faber speaker is truly an international product. It was designed in-house at Sonus faber’s Arcugnano factory near Venice, Italy—a building as stylish as the designs emanating therefrom—using bespoke drivers designed by Sonus faber. The midwoofer and woofer cone material is curv, a proprietary self-reinforcing 100-percent polypropylene composite manufactured by Germany-based Propex, while the…

AUDIO DECODING: DOLBY: TrueHD, Digital Plus, Digital 5.1, Digital Surround EX, Pro Logic IIz DTS: DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, DTS, ES Discrete 6.1, ES Matrix 6.1, 96/24, Neo:6 OTHER: DSP modes LOW-VOLUME LISTENING: Audyssey Dynamic Volume, Audyssey Dynamic EQ 3D: Yes THX CERTIFIED: No NUMBER OF AMP CHANNELS: 7 RATED POWER (WATTS PER CHANNEL): 105 into 8 ohms, two channels driven; 135 into 6 ohms, two channels driven SPECIFIED FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 10 Hz to 100 kHz (+1/–3 dB) AUTO SETUP/ROOM EQ: Audyssey MultEQ XT DIMENSIONS (W X H X D, INCHES): 17.1 x 6.4 x 17.1 WEIGHT (POUNDS): 24 PRICE: $900…

FULL-ON/FULL-OFF CONTRAST RATIO: 5,649:1 All of the testing and viewing was done with over 100 hours on the projection lamp. Except where noted, the measurements presented here are for 2D. The charts shown are for 2D only. The full-on/full-off contrast ratio above was measured with the projector set up to produce a 96-inch-wide picture on a Stewart StudioTek 130 screen (gain 1.3). The projector-to-screen throw distance for the measurements was approximately 14 feet (for much of the actual watching, it was about 18 feet). The projection lamp was on Normal (as it was for all of the measurements and viewing), the Contrast set to –15, the Brightness to +3, the Gamma to Advanced3, and the Dynamic Iris engaged. The peak white level under these conditions was 20.9 foot-lamberts and the…

PRICE: $5,000 AT A GLANCE: Improved 3D performance • Quasi-4K performance at a lower price • Industry-leading contrast JVC DLA-X55R 3D D-ILA Projector 2D PERFORMANCE 4.5/5.0 3D PERFORMANCE 4.0/5.0 FEATURES 4.5/5.0 ERGONOMICS 4.5/5.0 VALUE 4.5/5.0 JVC has steadily maintained as Home Theater’s standard bearer for reference-quality, high-value displays these past few years, with one model or another finding its way into the reference systems of several members of our reviewing staff. There are projectors out there that outperform it in one way or another, but you’d be hard pressed to find any full line that performs as consistently well overall as JVC’s. This year’s lineup doesn’t introduce a lot of new features but does offer refinements to last year’s already strong line. For this review, I looked at the newest…

ELITE LUNETTE & SCREEN INNOVATIONS BLACK DIAMOND G2 4K PROJECTION SCREENS Both the Elite Lunette and the Screen Innovations Black Diamond G2 4K screens were measured against our Stewart Filmscreen StudioTek 130 reference for both color consistency and brightness loss from the center to the sides. These measurements include the effect of both the screen and the projector. We have no way to reliably isolate the two, so these measurements should be used for comparison only. All measurements here were made with our meter located at a centered position, just behind the projector. A center reading was taken first, then readings at 75 percent left and right. The measurements on all three screens were somewhat worse at the right side of the screen than the left, suggesting that the differences…

Alfred Hitchcock was a supremely gifted and innovative filmmaker and master of suspense…and a bit of a psycho in his own right, according to recent biographies on him. His films are the benchmark standard that nearly every suspense thriller since has taken its cues from. And in 1954, Hitchcock shot Dial M for Murder in the 3D format at a time when the novelty of 3D films was waning. Ray Milland plays a notable society man with financial problems who discovers that his wife (Grace Kelly) is cheating on him and devises a seemingly foolproof plan to have her murdered and collect the insurance money. Adapted from a popular stage play in which the entire story takes place in one room, Hitchcock deliberately does little to elevate the material beyond…

Within the first few minutes of E.T., old-timers like me who remember seeing it on the big screen 30 years ago can’t help but recall why this movie was a bona fide cultural event, the likes of which we seldom see anymore. Oft copied, never equaled, it is an exquisitely crafted piece of cinema by a virtuoso at the top of his game. E.T. tells the tale of a lost, lonely visitor and his equally lonely host, an ordinary boy named Elliott. It celebrates the universal childhood fantasy of a secret best friend…and that other one about the flying bicycles. Rough around the edges though it may seem by today’s standards, this 1982 original version remains one of the most profoundly moving films most people will ever see. The restored,…

When your breakout movie, Seven, ends with Gwyneth Paltrow’s severed head in a box, what do you do for an encore? 1997’s psycho thriller The Game is director David Fincher’s emphatic answer. Nobody plays a cold, callous one-percenter better than Michael Douglas. His Nicholas Van Orton here is clearly intended as a through-the-looking-glass play off of his iconic, late-’80s portrayal of Gordon Gekko in Wall Street. Douglas again plays a captain of finance in control of all things, but this time he’s disassembled before our very eyes (a device that plays at least as well in today’s socioeconomic climate as it did in 1997). On his 48th birthday, Nicholas is a man apart, living alone in the huge mansion where his father killed himself at that very same age. Nicholas’…

WE WELCOME QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS. E-mail them to editor@hometheater.com. Please note: Be sure to check the FAQ page on our Website (HomeTheater.com) to see if we’ve already answered any questions you might have. Questions about the features and functions of a particular product are best directed to the manufacturer. Questions about what product you should buy are best directed to a dealer who knows all the details of your system, your preferences, and your personal habits. All submissions are considered the exclusive property of Home Theater magazine and Source Interlink Media. Due to the volume of mail that we receive, we regret that we cannot respond to every letter. But First…a Word From Our Sponsor Editor’s Note: We were recently honored to be contacted directly by Greg P. Russell, one…

In the past, we’ve shown you options on how you can decorate your home theater with movie-prop replicas from some of your favorite blockbusters. But how about we take that a step further with props that were actually used on set? Hold the knife that Arnold Schwarzenegger wielded in Terminator 2, sport a helmet used in a battle scene in Gladiator, or try on one of Jet Li’s costumes from The One. Then show them off to your friends when they come by for a weekend double feature. Screen Captured is a Georgia-based company that specializes in the sale of high-end movie props—primarily from action flicks—that have been used by the actors on screen. Items are available from titles such as 300, Batman Begins, Hancock, Kill Bill, and more. “We…

Back during the analog TV era, a well-regarded manufacturer offered me a rear-projection set—not for review, just for my own use. I turned it down. I didn’t want one of those big, butt-ugly things in my living room. In later years, RPTV went high def, slimmed down, and became the best buy in big-screen TV in terms of inches per dollar. But that wasn’t enough to save it. In the closing jingle-bell months of last year, the one remaining RPTV manufacturer pulled the plug, and the product category quietly passed into history. That was Mitsubishi, whose 73-to 92-inch DLP and LaserVue DLP sets were the only ones on the market. The move was not unexpected. Mitsubishi had declined to unveil any new RPTV models in 2012, instead liquidating its inventory…

Jim Winey didn’t set out to design a new type of speaker, just a better electrostatic speaker. He worked evenings, weekends, vacations, whenever he could starting in 1966, while he was still working for 3M as an engineer. His experiments with flexible bar magnets and Mylar led Winey to invent and patent the planar magnetic speaker. The original speakers had wires mounted on large but super-thin Mylar diaphragms placed in a magnetic field created by a vertical array of bar magnets. There was no cabinet or box, just a flat, medium-density fiberboard panel with cutout spaces for the Magnepan drivers. Unlike electrostatics, Winey’s speakers don’t need to be plugged into an AC power outlet, and there’s no transformer between the amplifier and the speaker’s driver. Winey left 3M in 1969…

JDR. WHO SONIC SCREWDRIVER UNIVERSAL REMOTE CONTROL You gotta love it—a gesture-based universal remote control modeled after the Mark VII Sonic Screwdriver used by time traveler Dr. Matt Smith in England’s long-running sci-fi TV show Dr. Who. You can program the remote to execute up to 39 commands using 13 gestures, including up/down, left/right, push/pull, and clockwise/counterclockwise. Each motion triggers a pulsating green light and a different alien sound effect—unless your wife makes you turn on the quiet mode. The wand runs on two AAA batteries and comes with a display stand and clear cover. Great Geek Gift: Made by The Wand Company and available through ThinkGeek, the Sonic Screwdriver is perfect for home theater geeks who love tech toys and classic sci-fi. Price: $100 ThinkGeek • (888) 433-5788 •…

Challenges are nothing new to systems integrators. However, retrofits generally require more out-of-the-box thinking than new construction. “The creation of a home theater during construction is relatively easy,” says Ryk Schoonheim, owner of the Sarasota, Florida–based Sights, Sound and Such. “Transforming an existing space is another story.” Each retrofit offers a unique set of problems, and so it was with this Port Charlotte, Florida, home theater installation. While the room was more than wide and deep enough for a suitable theater (18 x 22 feet), the rear of the room was irregularly shaped. Had the crew installed the traditional reclining chairs in the front with a second tier and more chairs, there would have been a huge octagon-shaped gap in the rear of the room. It would not only have…

PRICE: $1,500 AT A GLANCE: Three folded-diaphragm tweeters, four woofers • 5.1 Dolby Digital, DTS processing • Wide dispersion, limited dynamics MartinLogan Motion Vision Soundbar PERFORMANCE 4.5/5.0 FEATURES 4.0/5.0 ERGONOMICS 3.5/5.0 VALUE 3.0/5.0 My system is perpetually a work in progress. The speaker stands are always serving new guests (with martinis). Surround receivers slide in and out of the rack’s guest-receiver berth to bedevil me with the GUI of the week. But once in a while, I can’t resist the temptation to yank every cable out of every back panel, throw them onto the middle of the floor, and marvel as the mountain of copper snakes gets higher and higher. Last year, my system spring cleaning yielded a record haul: More than half the cables I pulled out didn’t go…

L/R Sensitivity: 90 dB from 500 Hz to 2 kHz Center Sensitivity: 90.5 dB from 500 Hz to 2 kHz Surround Sensitivity: 83 dB from 500 Hz to 2 kHz This graph shows the quasi-anechoic (employing close-miking of all woofers) frequency response of the Venere 2.5 L/R (purple trace), Venere Center center channel (green trace), Venere 1.5 surround (red trace), and REL T-7 subwoofer (blue trace). All passive loudspeakers were measured with grilles at a distance of 1 meter with a 2.83-volt input and scaled for display purposes. The Venere 2.5’s listening-window response (a five-point average of axial and +/–15-degree horizontal and vertical responses) measures +2.65/–8.17 decibels from 200 hertz to 10 kilohertz. The –3-dB point is at 52 Hz, and the –6-dB point is at 39 Hz. Impedance reaches…

Two channels driven continuously into 8-ohm loads: 0.1% distortion at 126.8 watts 1% distortion at 152.1 watts Five channels driven continuously into 8-ohm loads: 0.1% distortion at 77.7 watts 1% distortion at 90.8 watts Seven channels driven continuously into 8-ohm loads: 0.1% distortion at 74.3 watts 1% distortion at 84.3 watts Analog frequency response in Pure Direct mode: –0.13 dB at 10 Hz –0.03 dB at 20 Hz +0.02 dB at 20 kHz –2.76 dB at 50 kHz Analog frequency response with signal processing: –0.57 dB at 10 Hz –0.18 dB at 20 Hz –.034 dB at 20 kHz –18.76 dB at 50 kHz This graph shows that the AVR-2313CI’s left channel, from CD input to speaker output with two channels driving 8-ohm loads, reaches 0.1 percent distortion at 126.8…

PRICE: $4,000 AT A GLANCE: Superb detail resolution • Superior blacks and shadow detail • Solid color performance • Includes spare lamp Sony VPL-HW50ES 3D SXRD Projector 2D PERFORMANCE 5.0/5.0 3D PERFORMANCE 4.5/5.0 FEATURES 4.5/5.0 ERGONOMICS 4.5/5.0 VALUE 5.0/5.0 In Sony’s pantheon of projectors, the VPL-HW models are the company’s solid middle-class family. While a product selling for $4,000 or nearly so isn’t likely to be found at Target or Walmart, in the projector world it sits nicely between bargain basement and “if you have to ask” pricing. Last year’s VPL-HW30AES was a favorite at Home Theater. The new VPL-HW50ES may look identical on the outside and isn’t dramatically changed overall. But with some significant refinements, not to mention freebies that were options last year, it offers even better value…

FULL-ON/FULL-OFF CONTRAST RATIO: 43,100:1 All of the measurements were taken with the projector in the User 1 preset with the Cinema color profile and low lamp mode. The Gamma control was set to Custom 1, and Custom 1 in the Custom Gamma menu was set to 2.4. All of the calibration was done with the lens aperture at 0 (open), but the contrast ratio measurements were done in a variety of different settings for the iris as noted below. The lamp had 88 hours on it during the calibration. All viewing and measurements were done on a 120-inch-diagonal Stewart StudioTek 130 screen (1.3 gain). The full-on/full-off contrast was measured with a Minolta T-10 meter 4 inches away from the lens face. I tested various configurations in both high and low…

Three-time Oscar winner Oliver Stone has made some interesting choices in his career, from instant classics (such as 1987’s Wall Street) to real head-scratchers (2010’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps). Leaning more into the latter camp is Savages, a beautifully photographed romantic crime drama about equally beautiful people who just so happen to be drug dealers by trade. Adapted from the Don Winslow novel, it introduces us to Ben (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), the hippie brains of the operation, and soulless Chon (Taylor Kitsch), the muscle, both of whom share the lovely O (Blake Lively) as their live-in girlfriend. They grow and sell some amazing marijuana for huge profits, and life is good—until a ruthless Mexican drug cartel invites them to become international partners, an offer they can’t refuse. But they try…

If you aren’t a fan of 1980s rock music or musicals, stop reading right now and save yourself a few minutes because you’ll absolutely hate this movie otherwise. For those of you who have stuck around, you’ll absolutely love this movie—as long as you aren’t turned off by actors bursting out in song in the middle of a scene. Based on the Broadway musical of the same name, Rock of Ages follows the journey of Sherrie (Julianne Hough), a small-town girl who moves to Hollywood to chase her dream of being a singer. Within minutes of her arrival, she meets a city boy named Drew on the Sunset Strip who helps her land a job at the famous Bourbon Room, a local nightclub that helped launch the career of the…

When Seymour Krelborn, a schlub working at Mushnik’s Skid Row Florists, finds a strange and exotic plant, his life suddenly takes a turn for the better. But when the plant begins to speak, it offers him a Faustian bargain, promising Seymour fame, fortune, and Audrey, Mushnik’s flower arranger and Seymour’s secret love. In exchange, Seymour must provide the plant, which he has named Audrey II, with the food it needs to grow—human blood. Little Shop of Horrors first appeared on film as a cheesy, 1960 Roger Corman flick remembered mainly for a young Jack Nicholson in a supporting role. Lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken later used the plot as the basis for their dark, Motown-inspired, 1982 Off-Broadway musical comedy. The stage version ended with the plant eating Audrey…

FLAT PANELS ENTRY LEVEL Samsung UN40EH6000 LCD HDTV, $850 Reviewed June 2012 Vizio E601i-A3 LCD HDTV, $1,000 Reviewed February/March 2013 Samsung PN51E550 3D Plasma HDTV, $1,160 Reviewed January 2013 Panasonic Viera TC-P55ST50 3D Plasma HDTV, $1,700 Reviewed July 2012 Vizio M3D650SV 3D LCD HDTV, $1,870 Reviewed February 2012 MIDRANGE Sony KDL-55HX850 3D LCD HDTV, $2,600 Reviewed November 2012 SunBriteTV Model 4660 HD Outdoor LCD HDTV, $2,795 Reviewed July 2012 LG 55LM8600 3D LCD HDTV, $2,900 Reviewed February/March 2013 HIGH END Sony Bravia XBR-55HX929 3D LCD HDTV, $3,500 Reviewed November 2011 Sony XBR-55HX950 3D LCD HDTV, $3,500 Reviewed February/March 2013 Panasonic TC-P65VT50 3D Plasma HDTV, $3,700 Reviewed October 2012 Elite PRO-60X5FD 3D LCD HDTV, $6,000 Reviewed January 2012 PROJECTORS ENTRY LEVEL Mitsubishi HD7800D 3D DLP Projector, $2,995 Reviewed September 2012 BenQ…

Video projectors that reside in the ceiling have long been a fixture of high-end home theaters and are usually accompanied by a screen that retracts into a wall-mounted sleeve or disappears behind a curtain—everything controlled by remote control. Flatpanel TVs can benefit from the same sort of crafty concealment. Take Inca’s Fold-Down and Swivel Ceiling Unit (model 900814-410-S, starting at $10,200 plus installation). Like a prop from a James Bond movie set, the motorized apparatus is designed to conceal a TV in the ceiling for the ultimate in stealth A/V. Made of steel and aluminum, the 300-pound unit can accommodate TVs with screen sizes up to 55 inches and attaches to the ceiling joists with eight bolts (professional installation heartily recommended). Control options include an RF (radio frequency) remote control…

King Crimson’s Larks’ Tongues in Aspic: The Complete Recordings is a reissue on steroids. It compiles all the major studio and live recordings of an intensely innovative but short-lived 1972 lineup that featured avant-garde percussionist Jamie Muir along with what became the surviving quartet of former Yes drummer Bill Bruford, bassist John Wetton, violinist David Cross, and guitarist Robert Fripp, the only founding member. Part of an ongoing 40th Anniversary Series, this is the only Crim album to have been singled out for a massive box set including 13 CDs, a DVD-Audio disc, and—in a first for indie label DGM—a Blu-ray Disc. The centerpiece of both the DVD-Audio and BD is a high-resolution 5.1-channel mix by Porcupine Tree leader and Crim fan Steven Wilson. The 5.1 mix comes in four…

Musicians of a certain age have long grumbled that digital audio shortchanges their art. Those complaints only intensified when the CD gave way to truncated formats like MP3. Now Neil Young is acting on his convictions by launching his own high-resolution digital music player and download service. Craig Kallman, CEO of Atlantic Records, has invested in Young’s idea and helped assemble a team to make it real. The name they’ve chosen is Pono, the Hawaiian word for righteous. Young appeared on Late Show with David Letterman to promote the scheme, showing the host a chunky yellow player that looked like an old iPod nano with buttons in lieu of a clickwheel. “It plays back master files,” Young said. “You can’t get better than this.” He added that Pono plays pretty…

When the technical specifications of a new but humdrum TV fail to come up to snuff, the model almost certainly will be priced less than the one with better resolution, faster processing, more connections, and so on. Whether it’s manufacturer or retailer, nobody interested in making a buck will promote the TV as “nothing special”—even if that’s exactly what it is. Sellers will likely spin the spec as “great value.” But not always. The most clever marketers of consumer electronics have never met a spec they couldn’t spin. Take screen resolution. Though Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) is now a given on any midsized and up screen, 720p panels are still offered. The manufacturer can rightly call it high def, just not Full HD. But there are other ways…

Spin a few of sound re-recording mixer Greg P. Russell’s movies on a proper 5.1 or 7.1 system, and you’ll soon realize that this guy loves home theater. Having worked on more than 200 movies, including every Michael Bay opus since The Rock (although he freely admits “Armageddon was over the top”), Russell has crafted some of the most thrilling soundtracks of our generation. But behind even the most bombastic scenes are a lot of consideration, artistry, and know-how. At press time, he has received a total of 16 Academy Award nominations, including one for Sound Mixing for his most recent accomplishment, a masterful mulitchannel mix of the latest James Bond outing, Skyfall, directed by Sam Mendes. Russell is the founder and CEO of Filmsound Unlimited, Inc., where he and…

PRICE: $1,199 AT A GLANCE: Reference audio and video processing for other components • Asynchronous USB DAC • Bit-perfect video playback performance Oppo BDP-105 Blu-ray 3D Player PERFORMANCE 5.0/5.0 FEATURES 5.0/5.0 ERGONOMICS 5.0/5.0 VALUE 5.0/5.0 Last year, I had the opportunity to review the Halo P 7 multichannel preamplifier from Parasound (Home Theater, June 2012). For that review, I mated the P 7 with Oppo’s then flagship Blu-ray player, the BDP-95, and it was a match made in heaven. I didn’t do a formal review of the BDP-95, but I made sure I conveyed how highly I thought of the reference Blu-ray player in the review and how its outstanding analog audio section was one of the best I’ve used. For this review, I got to try out Oppo’s successor…

This graph shows the quasi-anechoic (employing close-miking of all woofers) frequency response of the Motion Vision Soundbar (purple trace). The left channel was measured with grille at a distance of 1 meter. The Motion Vision’s listening-window response (a five-point average of axial and +/–15-degree horizontal and vertical responses) measures + 0.87/– 5.05 decibels from 200 hertz to 10 kilohertz. The –3-dB point is at 55 Hz, and the –6-dB point T is at 50 Hz. on the web Visit our Website for a detailed explanation of our testing regimen, plus a list of our reference gear.…

PRICE: $900 AT A GLANCE: Fabulous video processing • Audyssey MultEQ XT enabled • Apple AirPlay enabled Denon AVR-2313CI A/V Receiver AUDIO PERFORMANCE 4.0/5.0 VIDEO PERFORMANCE 5.0/5.0 FEATURES 4.5/5.0 ERGONOMICS 3.5/5.0 VALUE 4.0/5.0 With over 100 years of history behind it, Denon Electronics has high standards for any product it releases. And in my experience, it generally delivers the goods. Its AVRs (audio/video receivers) are often among the best on the market and run the gamut from the budget category all the way up to high-end models that will set you back a few months’ worth of mortgage payments. If I’ve had a complaint against Denon—and other AVR manufacturers—it’s that the company has too many models each year. Denon offers nine different models, seven of which run under $900. Whatever…

PRICE: $3,499 AT A GLANCE: Crisp and detailed picture • Good black levels Thorough but complex calibration controls Panasonic PT-AE8000U 3D LCD Projector 2D PERFORMANCE 4.0/5.0 3D PERFORMANCE 2.5/5.0 FEATURES 4.5/5.0 ERGONOMICS 3.5/5.0 VALUE 4.0/5.0 Panasonic entered the home theater projector market in 2001. But the company already had decades of experience in the business projector world, beginning with CRTs in 1975 and later moving into its current mix of LCDs and DLPs. All of the company’s home theater designs have used LCD imaging chips, however, and the PT-AE8000U is the latest link in a long chain dating back to that 2001 model, the PT-AE100. Around the Block The PT-AE8000U is average sized for a home theater projector. The case is well sealed, with no obvious light leakage from its…

FULL-ON/FULL-OFF CONTRAST RATIO: 20,894:1 Except as noted, all of the measurements (and charts) here are for 2D operation and were taken on a 96-inch-wide Stewart Filmscreen StudioTek 130 screen (gain 1.3). The projector was in the low lamp mode, the Advanced Iris was on Auto Full, the Contrast Control was on 70, and there were approximately 160 hours on the lamp. The above contrast ratio was taken with the projector positioned at approximately 14 feet from the screen using a Minolta T-10 light meter to measure directly off the lens. The peak-white level on the screen was 17.58 foot-lamberts measured with a Minolta LS-100 light meter. From these two measurements, we calculate that the black level on screen was 0.0008 ft-L. (The LS-100 will not measure below 0.001 ft-L, thus…

On a recent visit to my local gigaplex, some nimrod in the projection booth accidentally hit the house lights 20 minutes before the end of Lincoln—and left them there through the climax and the credits. Fortunately, they weren’t all the way up, just to the level usually reserved for the trailers to keep latecomers from spilling their sodas and popcorn as they fumble around for seats. Nevertheless, even with dim house lights, there was a subtle loss of clarity in the picture. It was a momentary distraction, and no one clapped, hooted, or threw nachos at the screen—probably a reflection of the seriousness of the movie. If it had been Texas Chainsaw Massacre XXII, it might have been different, though I wouldn’t have been there to notice! A video projector…

Escaped from the Central Park Zoo, four animal friends were “rescued” and sent back to the wild, a humanitarian effort that turned into a whirlwind global adventure. The quartet has been on the savanna since the end of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, but lion Alex (Ben Stiller) still misses the zoo and so with his zebra, hippo, and giraffe chums, he’s off to collect the penguin masterminds from the birds’ Monte Carlo excursion and figure out a way home. But before long, the gang is on the run from an overzealous animal control officer, and their only hope is to run away with a down-and-out circus. An entertainment scout is looking to bring the show to the States, which would make everyone’s dreams come true, and so the newcomers need…

Wong Kar-wai, the greatest living Hong Kong filmmaker, is a weaver of smoldering dreams, and In the Mood for Love is his masterpiece. He may be the most intense practitioner of pure cinema. Very little happens in this film, but his brash colors (like something out of a Matisse painting), arch compositions (long shots at slightly off angles, slow tracking shots signifying the passage of time and the ache of waiting), and use of music (a languorous, longing string motif) sow a hypnotic tension and a charged passion (though its beautiful lead actors, Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung, barely touch each other and show not a smidgen of bare skin). The story, or more the situation, is about a man and woman, living next door to each other, who slowly…

It’s more than a little ironic that Tim Burton’s best film as a director, from top to bottom, is about one of the most notorious bad filmmakers who ever lived. Actually, Edward D. Wood Jr. (Johnny Depp) is known for two things: spectacularly bad sci-fi/horror movies that are ridiculously fun to watch, and being a cross-dresser before it was cool. Both traits are given full attention in Burton’s 1994 love letter to offbeat movies and their makers, Ed Wood. Ed Wood’s films are Saturday-night horror-show schlock that practically defy belief with their ineptitude. But what comes across in Ed’s films and Burton’s film about the man is an irrepressible love of the movies and for the life that comes with it, such as it was in Ed’s case. Ed and…

Denmark’s Bang & Olufsen has always had a knack for style, but the BeoLab 12 Series speakers just might be the most elegant-looking speakers you can put on a stand or—even better—hang on the wall next to a flat-panel TV in a modern room. From large to small, the line comprises three models suitable for stereo or surround sound—the 37-inch-tall 12-3 and the 24.5-inch-tall 12-2 and 12-1—the first two of which use B&O’s acoustic lens technology: A mushroom-like deflector disperses high frequencies in a 180-degree arc while minimizing floor and ceiling reflections that can muddle the sound. The result? A “deeper sense of space and realism,” according to B&O. The speakers can be mounted with the lens on the top or bottom, depending on the installation. The gently curved exterior,…