TVs & Projectors

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Test Report: Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 5010 3D Projector

Taking on the big guns in the projector brightness wars.
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted March 19, 2012
- 2
This is my second time writing this review. I don’t mean that I tweaked and changed it a lot and that this is a second draft. I mean I had to completely rewrite it. No computer error: I simply found something so bizarre, so transformative about Epson’s Home Cinema 5010 projector that it radically changed my opinion of it. So much so that I had to start over completely.
And I almost missed it.

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Tech Trends 2012: The TV Report

Ultra-thin and higher-resolution TVs took center stage at CES
- By Al Griffin
- Posted March 19, 2012
INEVITABLY, WHEN something cool comes out, it will influence everything that immediately follows. That’s what happened with Avatar. In 2009, we all went to see it in 3D, and the following year stores were packed with 3D TVs and 3D Blu-ray players.

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Projectors for Imperfect Rooms

A big name and an up-and-comer join forces to offer new options in video projection
- By Brent Butterworth
- Posted March 14, 2012
I’ve been covering video projection since the early 1990s, but last week was the first time I walked into a product display and had a hard time figuring out which projector was showing which picture.

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Up Close and Personal with the Samsung Smart TV Lineup

The accent is on personalized control at Samsung's TV rollout event
- By Al Griffin
- Posted March 9, 2012
Though we got a good peek at them at the recent CES, Samsung’s 3/6 event in NYC gave Sound+Vision a chance to get even more up close and personal with the company’s new LCD and plasma Smart TVs.

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Review: Boxee Live TV

A new USB dongle brings over-the-air HD content to the popular streamer
- By Michael Berk
- Posted February 29, 2012
- 1
If you're a Boxee Box owner, you probably noticed the revamped and streamlined main menu in the latest iteration of the OS, Boxee 1.5. The company's new USB stick goes that one better, adding live TV to the do-it-all streamer's ever-expanding repertoire.

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TiVo and DirecTV: Reunited, and it Feels so Good

Star-crossed lovers — or a marriage made in heaven?
- By Leslie Shapiro
- Posted February 15, 2012
- 3
Tristan and Isolde, Romeo and Juliet, Rachel and Ross, Brad and Angelina, Mac and Cheese. All great couples. Each individual may be fine on their own, but together — well, they’re magic. Okay, so a few end up dead, but if it’s written in the stars, then so be it.

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What’s the Deal with Color?

Two steps forward, one step back.
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted February 3, 2012
- 2
Did you read that headline in Seinfeld’s voice? While contrast ratio, black level, and light output all rightly occupy the top of the list of specs one considers when purchasing a new display, color is often completely overlooked.
Good color reproduction usually won’t make or break a display, but it can make one that’s good into one that’s great.
Yet for all its importance, it’s rarely understood — and it's regularly done wrong.

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New Gear: Audio Solutions TVAM3.1A Audio Mount

Thin TV giving you thin sound? A new mounting solution ups your wattage and keeps everything tidy.
- By Michael Berk
- Posted February 2, 2012
It's pretty clear that TVs are going to keep getting thinner — the hot sets at CES this year were downright wraithlike, measuring mere millimeters in thickness (Bose has been bucking the trend with their Videowave, but that's another kettle of fish entirely). That doesn't leave much room for amps and speakers, so built-in audio can't help but suffer. Sure you can add a full system, but what if you're challenged for space in the first place, or looking to outfit a secondary viewing room? Audio Solutions has a new all-in-one wall mount and sound system that might fit your needs.

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You Will Love Channel 1984

Did you know that your flat-screen TV, computer, and phone have all become other windows into your life?
- By Ken C. Polhmann
- Posted February 2, 2012
- 1
“There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. . . . But at any rate, they could plug into your wire whenever they wanted to.”

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Test Report: Sharp Elite PRO-60X5FD 3D LCD HDTV

Sharp keeps the focus on video performance with its Elite LCD line.
- By Al Griffin
- Posted January 30, 2012
I won’t assume that everyone will know what I’m talking about when I drop the word “Kuro,” but longtime Sound+Vision readers may recall a line of high-end, and accordingly high-priced, Pioneer Elite plasma TVs that we heaped praise upon back in the day.

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Review: JVC DLA-X90R 3D HD Projector

4K or Faux4? Pixels count with JVC’s newest projector.
- By Geoffrey Morrison
- Posted January 30, 2012
- 3
Ready or not, here comes 4K. . . sort of. Having maxed out HD resolution years ago and flogged the 3D horse ’til everyone got bored and went back to their coffee, TV manufacturers are now going above and beyond. Above and beyond the ATSC HD maximum resolution spec, that is, to 4K.

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CES 2012: The TV Report

The state of the screen as we saw it in Vegas last week
- By Al Griffin
- Posted January 19, 2012
- 1
There was no shortage of cool stuff being pitched by TV makers at this year’s CES. While 55-inch OLED sets around 4 millimeters thick nabbed the spotlight (rightly so, since they weren’t prototypes but actual products scheduled to come out in 2012), we were also surprised by the number of 4K models — some of which were also real products on target for a 2012 release.

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