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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Licorice Pizza
Josef Krebs  |  Aug 19, 2022
Picture
Sound
Extras
Oscar-nominated for best picture, direction, and screenplay, Licorice Pizza is a story of first love between a 15-year-old kid and a woman of 25 who's working at his high school. From their first conversation, Gary (Cooper Hoffman) pushes for a date, which Alana (Alana Heim), resists aggressively, but having already become a minor TV and film star and successful entrepreneur, he's soon able to charm her.
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Projector Reviews
JVC DLA-RS1100 4K D-ILA Projector Review
Thomas J. Norton  |  Aug 18, 2022

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $7,000

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Deep blacks
Exceptional resolution
Dynamic tone mapping
Minus
So-so remote control
Dense owner's manual

THE VERDICT
With its exceptional overall performance, JVC's DLA-RS1100 projector defines the law of diminishing returns where increasingly subtle improvements command dramatically higher prices.

True native 4K projectors have only been widely available — and reasonably affordable — for the past few years. Prior to that, most home projectors used a process called "pixel shifting" to produce 4K images: A 2K imaging device first presents half of the pixels in each 4K frame, shifts the image by less than the distance of a single pixel, and then displays the other half of the pixels. All of the pixels in the 4K source appear on screen — just not at the same time. The shift takes place so rapidly that it is undetectable to the human eye.

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Music and Soundtrack Features
Remaster Class – Black Sabbath: Paranoid
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 17, 2022

"We Sail Through Endless Skies"

The key to the enduring appeal of Black Sabbath’s career-making second album, September 1970’s Paranoid, doesn’t only reside within its fist-pumping, headbanging, metal-genre-establishing bonafides. Actually, the secret sauce can be found via something you may not have even considered — Black Sabbath’s inherent sense of melody. And where might that come from, you ask? Two words — The Beatles.

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A/V Veteran
Laserdiscs, Blu-rays...and Egypt
Thomas J. Norton  |  Aug 16, 2022
I've written early and often about where the current mania for streaming will take us, and the slow, possible demise of packaged media. Yes, new and re-releases on disc are still common, to which anyone who follows the website The Digital Bits website can attest. But what does the future hold for disc-based entertainment?
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Signals
What Does Music Look Like? (Part 2)
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Aug 15, 2022
In a previous blog, in an attempt to create images of music, we discussed Supreme Court decisions, oscilloscopes, and Jerobeam Fenderson. The images were certainly entertaining, but our depiction was confined to oscilloscope green screens and the “music” creating the pictures was not always exactly musical. This time, let's try a different approach.

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EISA Awards
EISA Home Theater Audio & Video Awards 2022-2023
SV Staff  |  Aug 14, 2022
EISA, or the Expert Imaging and Sound Association, is an organization representing 60 of the most respected special interest publications and websites from 29 countries that cover Hi-Fi, Home Theater Video, Home Theater Audio, Photography, Mobile Devices, and In-Car Electronics. Every year EISA's Expert Group members, including editors from this publication, test a very wide range of new products from their field of expertise before comparing results and voting to decide the cream of every product category.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
1776
Chris Chiarella  |  Aug 12, 2022
Picture
Sound
Extras
Long before Lin-Manuel Miranda set the American Revolution to music, playwright Peter Stone and composer/lyricist Sherman Edwards gave us an entertaining history lesson of their own, set in 1776. An unpopular John Adams, poetic Thomas Jefferson, and impish Ben Franklin are focused on a future free of British oppression, despite the danger of such a declaration, but when the decision is made that such a vote must be unanimous, the challenge becomes much more difficult. While a far cry from the hip-hop beats of Hamilton, the songs here do a remarkable job of conveying facts and weaving a compelling story worth telling again and again.
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Power Amplifier Reviews
Trinnov Amplitude16 16-Channel Power Amplifier Review
David Vaughn  |  Aug 11, 2022

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $12,500

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Convenient one-chassis design
Superb dynamics and soundstage
Channels can be bridged to double the output
Minus
Amp runs very hot
–No legacy inputs

THE VERDICT
Trinnov’s Amplitude16 packs 16 channels of serious power in a standard size component and brings music and movie soundtracks to life in a thrilling way.

Last year I had the good fortune of reviewing Trinnov's Altitude16 surround-sound processor and loved it so much it became a permanent fixture in my A/V system. At the time, I raved about its performance and, after more than a year of daily use, I can honestly say that this 16-channel pre-pro is one of the best upgrades I've ever done in my theater.

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Audio Video NewsNew Products
New Gear: Late Summer 2022
Michael Antonoff  |  Aug 10, 2022
One way to take your mind off the dog days of August is to browse through the latest set of new product offerings in audio and video. As you read up on these projectors, earbuds, speakers, record players, headphones, and outdoor screens, just drop a fistful of ice cubes into a tall beverage of your choice.
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SmartStream
Will Free Ad-Based Streaming Replace Broadcast TV?
Barb Gonzalez  |  Aug 10, 2022
Free Ad-Supported TV (FAST) has become the focus of streaming services and studios. More channels are being added to free linear “live TV” services like Pluto, Tubi, Xumo, PLEX, Roku Channel, and others. Established stream-on-demand services like Netflix, Disney+, and Warner Bros. Discovery are exploring lower-priced ad-supported tiers. Streaming is beginning to look more and more like traditional broadcast TV.
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