Audio Video News

Amazon’s New Fire TV is a cube-shaped dongle that brings Ultra HD to a middling price point of $70. Does it speak Alexa? Of course!...

Comcast Is Upping the cost of its Broadcast TV and Regional Sports Network services by $3.50 to $14.50 a month. These very charges have attracted a class-action consumer lawsuit claiming Comcast “secretly and repeatedly” increased them and employees “explicitly lie” by calling them government-related fees and taxes...

Integra Added Dolby Vision to seven 2016-vintage surround products including the DRX-R1, -7, -5, -4, -3, and -2 receivers and the DRC-R1 pre/pro. It has also updated such models as the THX Ultra–certified DRC-R1.1 pre/pro and THX Select–certified DRX-R1.1 and DRX-7.1 AVRs, all with Atmos, DTS:X, and UHD HDBaseT...

Broadcast-Only TV Homes have risen by 41 percent to 15.8 million over the past five years, says a study by Nielsen and broadcaster ION Media. They have a median age of 34.5, versus 39.6 in total TV households...

Cord Cutting Is Rampant among new pay-TV sub- scribers, with a quarter of them likely to cancel within six months, a TiVo study finds. With streaming options proliferating, they may view pay-TV as an “antiquated service”...

Online Viewing is the only kind a quarter of viewers under 35 are interested in, says an Adobe Digital Insight study. Another 30 percent say they expect to cut the cord within two years...

DirecTV Now added streaming of CBS and CW local channels in a dozen markets including Detroit, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, raising the roster of local channels to 155. You can also get Showtime for another $8 a month...

Dish Brought Netflix to the Hopper 3 DVR in 2016. Now Netflix also works on up to six 4K Joey boxes, making Dish the first pay- TV outfit to make the popular streaming service multi-room...

Roku’s Streaming Stick+ ($70) has UHD, HDR, and four times the range of previous models. Save, if you must, with the merely HD Express+ ($40) and Express ($30)...

Netflix HDR Support now reaches iPhone 8, iPhone X, and iPad Pro devices and includes Dolby Vision HDR. Android users were already getting it on the LG G6, Samsung Galaxy Note 8, and Sony Xperia ZX Premium...

The Fire HD 10 is Amazon’s first tablet to feature the Alexa voice platform. It boasts a 1080p display and Dolby Atmos speakers, starting at $149 for 32 GB and $189 for 64 GB...

A Roku Smart Speaker may be in the works. The company is recruiting experts on audio, voice recognition, and a “voice user interface designer,” reports Variety...

Bose Added Google Assistant to its QuietComfort 35 II noise-canceling headphones ($349). Just press the handy Action button on the left earcup...

Yamaha MusicCast now integrates with the RTI and URC home control platforms. That will enable it to work from in-wall and tabletop touchscreens along with lighting and other functions...

Philo is the name of a sports-free skinny streaming bundle that will feature programming from Viacom, AMC, A+E, Scripps, and Discovery for less than $20 a month. It’s named after Philo Farnsworth, inventor of television...

Pioneer Added Dolby Vision to the 2016-vintage Elite SC-LX901, -801, -701, -501, VSX-LX301, and -101; and the non-Elite VSX-1131 and -831. 2017 models have it on board...

T-Mobile’s Data Throttling threshold has risen from 32 to 50 GB per month. That compares favorably with Sprint (23 GB), AT&T, and Verizon (both 22 GB)...

The Holiday Shopping Season was over in September for 8.3 percent of forward-thinking shoppers, said the annual survey of bestblackfriday.com. Last year the figure was 9.6 percent...

Harman International laid off 650 U.S. and European employees in the wake of its acquisition by Samsung. Audiophiles fervently hope the budget- cutting ax will spare the legendary research and testing facility in Northridge, California, which has done so much to expand the science of audio...