home theater setup

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Holiday Gift Guide 2008: Budget home theater setups

Holiday Gift Guide 2008: Budget home theater setupsYou can always try to get a brand-name on a budget.My husband and I were able to get a brand new 52" Sharp 1080P LCD HDTV for just $1199 a week ago. Most budget brands cost more than that. You just...

Tags: Home entertainment, TV & Home Theater, Consumer electronics, Branding, home theater setup, Holiday Gift Guide 2008, Holiday Gift Guide, home theater

Discussion threads 2008-12-17

Holiday Gift Guide 2008: High-end home theater setups

Holiday Gift Guide 2008: High-end home theater setupsDid this article say "High-end" home theater??High-end by whose standards...someone who usually shops at Walmart? I mean c'mon - high end Blu Ray player for $350.00? Denon and Marantz both have Blu Ray players that are over $3,000.00 to start. The stuff listed...

Tags: Home entertainment, Consumer electronics, TV & Home Theater, Blueray, home theater, Holiday Gift Guide 2008, home theater setup

Discussion threads 2008-12-05

Additional Resources

Logitech Harmony 700

When Logitech released the Harmony One in early 2008, it instantly became one of our favorite universal remotes to date. But at $250, it wasn't exactly an impulse buy for the average consumer. With the Harmony 700, however, Logitech has delivered a model that offers the bulk of the...

Tags: Monitors & displays, Cable, setup process, Logitech, Harmony 700

Product reviews 2009-11-18

Zvox Z-Base 575

Photo gallery:Zvox Z-Base 575Sound bars feel like they've been around forever now, but they're still a relatively new product; consider that the groundbreaking Yamaha YSP-1 debuted back at CES 2005. Since then, the exterior design of the units hasn't changed much, with the vast majority still consisting of a long...

Tags: TVs, TV & Home Theater, Zvox Z-Base 575, HDTV, TV

Product reviews 2009-11-16

Zvox Z-Base 525

Photo gallery:Zvox Z-Base 525Surround sound and its accouterments tend to dominate a living room, requiring an AV receiver, several speakers, stands, and wires to make the whole thing work. That's why many people choose to skip surround sound, opting instead for the tinny acoustics of their TV speakers. Single-speaker solutions...

Tags: TVs, TV & Home Theater, Zvox Z-Base 525, speaker, HDTV, TV

Product reviews 2009-11-11

Onkyo HT-S7200

Photo gallery:Onkyo HT-S7200"True" home theater fans may look down on home-theater-in-a-box systems, but sometimes that elitist attitude is unwarranted. The Onkyo HT-S7200 may technically be an HTIB, but that's just because it comes in a giant box; the system is composed of two separate components, the SKS-HT870 7.1 speaker package...

Tags: speaker, Onkyo HT-S7200, Onkyo, HTIB

Product reviews 2009-10-27

Onkyo HT-RC160

Photo gallery:Onkyo HT-RC160Comparing the features of competing AV receivers is already a difficult chore, but many manufacturers, such as Denon and Yamaha, invite more complexity by offering two lines of nearly identical AV receivers: a custom-install-friendly line and a more-consumer-based line. For better or worse, Onkyo has followed suit with...

Tags: Onkyo HT-RC160, receiver, Onkyo

Product reviews 2009-09-30

Denon AVR-790

Editors' note: This review is nearly identical to the Denon AVR-1910, as the two products are extremely similar. The only differences are slightly different cosmetics and the AVR-790 lacks IR inputs/outputs and the ability to drive "B" front speakers.The capability to upconvert analog video sources has become standard on midrange...

Tags: Denon, Denon AVR-790, receiver

Product reviews 2009-09-29

Samsung SP-A900B

Samsung, with the help of video guru Joe Kane, again delivers outstanding performance in the high-end front projection DLP category with the flagship SP-A900B. This 1080p resolution, one-chip DLP projector sports the latest Dark Chip 4 chip from Texas Instruments, but otherwise appears virtually the same as the SP-A800B that...

Tags: Projectors, Network technology, picture menu, menu system, Samsung SP-A900B, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., projector

Product reviews 2009-09-14

Windows 7, Vista exposed to 'teardrop attack'

Vulnerable by default?[i]Exploit code for a remote reboot flaw in Microsoft's implementation of the SMB2 protocol has been posted on the internet, exposing users of Windows 7 and Windows Vista to the teardrop attacks that used to be popular on Windows 3.1 and Windows 95.[/i]I presume this attack is able...

Tags: Firewalls, Network security, SECURITY, NETWORKING, Microsoft Windows Vista, firewall, Network Address Translation, Microsoft Windows, software firewall, Microsoft Windows 7, attack

Discussion threads 2009-09-08

Oppo BDP-83

Photo gallery:Oppo BDP-83Ever since standalone Blu-ray players hit the market, there's been a great deal of anticipation for an Oppo Blu-ray player, mainly because of the company's reputation for making excellent upconverting DVD players. Oppo held out for quite some time, and in retrospect it was a smart move; almost...

Tags: Consumer electronics, Home entertainment, Blu-ray, DVD, Oppo BDP-83

Product reviews 2009-09-02

The Internet's migration to the TV

Or use Windows Media Centerand do pretty much everything you talked about now. Or a few years ago.And no, Apple won't do a DVR. Why let you record for free (well, what you are paying already) when they can try to sell it to you from iTunes?RE: The...

Tags: TVs, TV & Home Theater, TV, Internet, interactivity

Discussion threads 2009-08-26

LG LHB953

Photo gallery:LG LHB953When Blu-ray HTIBs first hit the market, they really didn't make sense as a product type. They were slow, and the value just wasn't there, as it was easy to put together superior systems from separate components. One year later, everything has changed; there are several excellent HTIBs...

Tags: subwoofer, speaker, LG LHB953, LG Electronics Inc., center channel

Product reviews 2009-08-14

Samsung HT-BD1250

Photo gallery:Samsung HT-BD1250DVD home-theater-in-box systems seem to offer a lot of value from the spec sheet, but are often seriously disappointing in use, with lackluster audio and video being the norm. So far our experience with Blu-ray HTIBs has been the exact opposite; almost all of the systems we've tested...

Tags: TV & Home Theater, subwoofer, center channel, Samsung HT-BD1250, Blu-ray HTIB, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., speaker

Product reviews 2009-08-14

Logitech Harmony 900

When we reviewed the Harmony One last year, we gave it an enthusiastic Editors' Choice and lamented only the fact that there was no RF option for people who had components hidden in cabinets or in closets. Well, over a year later, Logitech has given us what we asked...

Tags: Viruses and worms, SECURITY, Blaster worm, cabinet, Logitech

Product reviews 2009-08-11

Logitech debuts Harmony 900 universal remote with RF tech; $399

Logitech on Tuesday announced the Harmony 900 universal remote control, an RF-enabled version of the popular but pricey Harmony One remote that allows the unit to be used when your TV cabinet doors are closed. In addition to its...

Tags: Blaster Worm, Logitech, RF, Harmony 900, Viruses And Worms, Security, Andrew Nusca

Blog posts 2009-08-11

Panasonic SC-BT300

Photo gallery:Panasonic SC-BT300Panasonic released one of the first Blu-ray home-theater-in-a-box HTIB systems in 2008, the SC-BT100, but we didn't bother to review it. The reason: it was still a Profile 1.1 disc player and its high price tag made it easier to put together a great system of separate components...

Tags: sub, speaker, Panasonic SC-BT300, Panasonic, tall-boy speaker, Blu-ray HTIB, SC-BT200, center channel

Product reviews 2009-08-03

Panasonic SC-BT200

Photo gallery:Panasonic SC-BT200Although the technology debuted in 2006, for many consumers Blu-ray still feels like brand-new tech. That's why a home-theater-in-a-box HTIB system like the Panasonic SC-BT200 feels like such an incredible deal--with a street price as low as $450, you get a 7.1 speaker system plus a slimline AV...

Tags: center channel, sub, Panasonic SC-BT200, speaker, Panasonic

Product reviews 2009-07-31

Philips Streamium NP2500

Digital audio streamers generally come two ways: cheap solutions like the Airport Express that lack convenience, or expensive systems like Sonos that put all your music at your fingertips. Philips has always tried to find a middle ground; last year's NP1100 offered much of the performance of the Squeezebox Classic...

Tags: Monitors & displays, TV & Home Theater, TVs, Philips Electronics N.V., NP2500, Squeezebox Classic

Product reviews 2009-07-31

Sony BDV-E500W

Now that Blu-ray players are officially a $100 commodity, it's no surprise that manufacturers are trying to cram the technology into home theater systems at the lowest price possible. Sony's BDV-E500W ($800) takes a decidedly more high-end approach, offering Blu-ray playback in a 5.1 home-theater-in-a-box HTIB system, with step-ups like...

Tags: Home entertainment, Consumer electronics, surround speaker, Sony BDV-E500W, Sony Corp., speaker, home theater

Product reviews 2009-07-20