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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Straw Dogs
Josef Krebs  |  Oct 06, 2017
Picture
Sound
Extras
From the get-go in this hugely provocative and highly challenging essay on violence, there’s a disconcerting, menacing montage of images that tilts you off balance. The setting is a small, insular, isolated, Wicker Man–ish Cornish community where Deliverance-like locals sit and wait.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
F8: Fate of the Furious
Corey Gunnestad  |  Oct 06, 2017
Picture
Sound
Extras
I never understood why MI-6 always gave James Bond the most expensive and exotic sports cars on the planet to take with him on his missions. Q Branch must know by now there’s no way in hell that thing is coming back in one piece. That same basic logic applies to the Fast & the Furious films: Why would you ever give a Lamborghini to someone who’s going to a demolition derby?
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Focal Launches Lower-Priced Reference Headphones
SV Staff  |  Oct 06, 2017
Focal, the French manufacturer of speakers and headphones, today introduced a new lower-prices set of open-back circumaural headphones aimed at audiophiles.
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Ears On
The Little Book That Could
Mark Fleischmann  |  Oct 06, 2017
It has been seven years since I last wrote a blog shamelessly promoting my book Practical Home Theater: A Guide to Video and Audio Systems. In fact, I've never told the whole story of why I wrote the book, why I update it every year, and why it's lasted so long—the latest edition, dated 2018, is the 17th. Addicted as I am to numbers divisible by five, I might have waited for the 20th edition. But this blog is long overdue. Think of it as a delayed reaction to the 15th.

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Audio Video News
Recording Academy Addresses Lack of Production Standards for Hi-Res Music
SV Staff  |  Oct 06, 2017
The Producers & Engineers Wing of the Recording Academy will present new guidelines for hi-res music production at the upcoming AES New York Convention as part of its continuing efforts to deliver music to consumers in its highest quality form.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
NAD Reimagines a Classic Amp
SV Staff  |  Oct 05, 2017
NAD today announced that it will ship an integrated amplifier in November that recalls one of the most famous amps in audio history: the NAD 3020, introduced in 1978.
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Projection Screen Reviews
Stewart Filmscreen Phantom HALR Ambient Light Rejecting Screen Review
Michael P. Hamilton  |  Oct 05, 2017
Performance
Setup
Value
PRICE $4,132 as reviewed

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Excellent off-axis light rejection
Wide viewing angle maintains color saturation
Very good calibration accuracy
Minus
Cloudy artifacts with camera pans on bright scenes
High price

THE VERDICT
A paradoxical hybrid that blends excellent contrast management for challenging viewing environments with a frustrating callousness about pristine image fidelity.

Two years ago, Sound & Vision contemplated how pairing sub-$2K projectors with innovative ALR (ambient light rejecting) screens might compete as similarly priced replacements for large flat panels in multipurpose environments. Compelling, immersive, life-size projected images for the same currency swap as a diminutive, backlit, uh…TV?

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Throwback Thursday
Flashback 1982: World's First CD Player Arrives
SV Staff  |  Oct 05, 2017
A momentous occasion in the history of consumer electronics took place 34 years ago this week when Sony offered the CDP-101 for sale in Japan.
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Ask S&V
How Do I Get the Best Picture and Sound From an Apple TV 4K?
Al Griffin  |  Oct 05, 2017
Got a tech question for Sound & Vision? Email us at AskSandV@gmail.com

Q I just bought the new Apple TV 4K streaming box and am wondering how to get the best picture and sound from it. My system consists of an LG OLED Ultra HDTV and a Marantz SR7010 receiver. Should I route the signal from the box through my Marantz receiver via HDMI, or connect it directly to the TV? —Mike Franchek

A I would connect the Apple TV 4K directly to your TV — for now. Here’s why.

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Audio Video News
Integra Announces Dolby Vision Update
SV Staff  |  Oct 04, 2017
Integra has announced that a Dolby Vision update for a number of current and new AV controllers and receivers will be available by end of the year. The firmware update will enable the passthrough of high dynamic range (HDR) content encoded in the Dolby Vision format.
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