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SmartStream
TiVo Founders Announce Qplay Streaming App
Barb Gonzalez  |  Mar 26, 2014
The team that brought us TiVo, now release a new way to stream online video with the Qplay. Check out how it compares to other streaming devices including the Chromecast and whether it is as revolutionary as the TiVo duo claim.
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Remotely Possible
The Next Smartest Thing
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Mar 25, 2014
Even the best smart homes today aren’t much more than a cool collection of dumb gadgets managed by a controller with a good memory. Few, if any, of them aren’t intelligent enough yet to figure out when to do tasks on their own. Programming what actions should happen when and under what varying conditions or triggers is a large part of why home automation has been confined to the posh multi-thousand square foot homes of the rich and powerful or the often not-so-posh and much smaller homes of the electronic tinkerers and makers. (Of course, the cost of controllers, sensors, devices, and installation doesn’t help put home automation in the “mass market” category yet, either.)

Despite its relatively high price ($250 - or $3.2 billion, if you’re Google), the Nest thermostat is very popular (I saw one on the wall in a local Subway restaurant a couple of days ago) because - in addition to its Applish-elegance design - it “programs itself so you don’t have to.” Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it turns out that there are a lot of people out there who absolutely hate programming a thermostat; and hate it enough, apparently, that they’re willing to spend four-to-five times more $ on a “learning thermostat” than they would on an average 5-2 day programmable thermostat. So any smart home automation company looking to break into the big time needs to take note of this fact. Does anyone really believe that these same folks want to spend the time and effort to program an entire home of automated gadgets? “It programs itself so you don’t have to” needs to be the smart home mantra.

Recently a couple of smart home systems caught my attention because of their learning capabilities...

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Adore
David Vaughn  |  Mar 25, 2014
Picture
Sound
Extras
Lil (Naomi Watts) and Roz (Robin Wright) have been inseparable from a young age, growing up in a quaint coastal Australian community. When Lil’s husband passes away, the two grow even closer, and their two young boys, Ian and Tom, develop a similar close relationship. Roz’s husband takes a job in Sydney, and with him away, the quartet starts to spend even more time together going to the beach, eating dinner, and drinking heavily with each other. After a night of partying, Ian (Lil’s son) professes his secret love for Roz, she succumbs to his advances, and they wind up sleeping together. Unbeknownst to either of them, Tom spies his mom leaving Ian’s room and decides two can play that game and makes a move on Lil. This opens up Pandora’s box, and the lines between family, friendship, and morality all become blurred.
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Audio Video News
Pioneer Once Again a TV Maker
Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 25, 2014
In a surprise announcement, Pioneer revealed that it will re-enter the TV manufacturing arena. No, it won’t resume building its world-beating Kuro plasmas. But it will make LED-backlit, 1080p, Wi-Fi streaming sets of 55, 46, and 40 inches. Dixons Retail has an exclusive agreement to develop and sell Pioneer TVs in European markets through Currys & PC World stores. No word on whether Pioneer would resume making TVs for North America and other markets. Pioneer quit the television business in 2009 and licensed its Elite TV brand to Sharp in 2011.
Audio Video News
Crestron Home-Automation Integration Now Available for Select Denon and Marantz Receivers
SV Staff  |  Mar 25, 2014
Crestron has announced that select Denon and Marantz AV receivers can now be updated via firmware to seamlessly integrate with the company’s home automation systems. The update can be accessed via the receiver’s system setup menu.
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Audio Video News
Pioneer Entry-Level AVRs Incorporate HDMI 2.0
SV Staff  |  Mar 24, 2014
Pioneer has introduced three entry-level, 7.2-channel AV receivers equipped with HDMI 2.0, Roku Ready certification, and its proprietary iControlAV5 app. The new models will be available at the end of the month with suggested prices of $399 for the VSX-824, $499 for the VSX-1024, and $599 for the VSX-1124.
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Audio Video News
Poll Recap: Old AV Never Dies, It Gets Recirculated
SV Staff  |  Mar 24, 2014
John Sciacca offered a number of great suggestions for what to do with old equipment in his recent Old Electronics Get New Life column, which inspired us to pose this question to Sound & Vision readers: How do you get rid of old AV gear that’s past its prime.

Well, the results are in and 60 percent of the tally was a near toss up between 1) moving gear to another room, 2) giving it to a friend or relative, and 3) selling it at a garage sale or online through a site like eBay—all excellent ways to keep good used gear in circulation. Here’s the complete breakdown:

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Grace Notes
Review: Winegard FlatWave Amped HDTV Antenna
Leslie Shapiro  |  Mar 24, 2014
There are lots of ways to get television content into your home, and everyone makes it seem like it’s a simple matter of literally cutting the cord. Get your entertainment from online streaming, and use a pair of rabbit ears to get your local news fix. Easy, right? If you live in or near a big city, that may be true. But having recently left urbania for smalltown USA, I can attest that it’s not so easy after all when the nearest TV towers are miles and miles away. When Winegard announced FlatWave, a new line of flat, passive or powered HDTV antennas, I was all ears.

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A/V Veteran
A Harbor Cruise
Thomas J. Norton  |  Mar 21, 2014
Some time back I was in the South Bay area of Los Angeles to pick up some gear at our California headquarters in El Segundo, some 30 miles from my home in the Valley (that’s the San Fernando Valley, the pre- and near post- WWII home to hundreds of western movie shoots and, more recently, to freeways, mega suburbia, and Valley Girls). Even Angelinos may not be aware that El Segundo got its name from being the site of the second Standard Oil refinery built on the West Coast. As far as I know there’s no town immortalizing El Primero or El Tercero.

But I digress.

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Tech2
A Few Depressing Words on 4K Gaming
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Mar 21, 2014
One of the most common pro-4K arguments I’ve heard is in regards to 4K gaming. That with a 4K TV/monitor, one can just crank the resolution on their gaming PC and behold a new world of wonder.

Well… sort of. 4K gaming isn’t exactly what you’re dreaming about, especially if you think the new Xbone/PS4 are gonna do it.

More dreamcrushing after the jump.

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