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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Chris Chiarella  |  May 06, 2022
Picture
Sound
Extras
Nostalgia--that "twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone" as Don Draper famously explained it--can be a potent ally to the modern filmmaker. With its risky and highly publicized meta-twist (which I won't spoil here, just in case), Spider-Man: No Way Home managed to complete director Jon Watts' arachno-trilogy on an epic scale, capping not only this story arc but one far grander, much as Avengers: Endgame did for the whole of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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Spatial Audio File
Hey! Ho! Let’s Spatial Audio!
Mike Mettler  |  May 06, 2022
Can it really be 20 full years since singer/songwriter/piano ingenue Norah Jones burst on the scene with her stunning, multiple-Grammy Award-winning February 2002 debut album, Come Away With Me? This breakthrough album is currently being properly feted with a 20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition that contains bonus tracks galore, but the immediate impact of its lead-track sensation “Don’t Know Why” is what sealed Jones as the real deal in the first place—and it mesmerizes the ears (and soul) even more fully in its Dolby Atmos incarnation.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
New Gear Roundup: Spring 2022
Bob Ankosko  |  May 05, 2022
We round up the latest gear from the bustling world of home and mobile entertainment.
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Projector Reviews
LG HU710PW 4K Laser DLP Projector Review
Al Griffin  |  May 04, 2022

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
PRICE $2,499

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Impressive contrast
Flexible zoom and lens shift range
Built-in streaming platform with HDMI eARC
Minus
Limited brightness necessitates dark room viewing
Smart interface not for everyone

THE VERDICT
LG’s 4K laser DLP projector delivers impressive picture quality and value, but its limited brightness requires a dark room for best performance.

LG has been at the vanguard in manufacturing "smart" projectors—models that, like more traditional offerings, sit at the back of the room and beam images to a separate screen, but also provide the streaming and voice control features you'd find in any smart OLED or LCD flat-panel TV. In 2021 we reviewed the company's HU810PW ($2,999), a single-chip (0.47-inch) DLP projector that delivered 4K images via pixel-shifting. Now, we have that model's sibling, the HU710PW, a similarly featured projector that arrives with a lower 2,000 ANSI lumens brightness spec, but also a lower price ($2,499 MSRP).

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Audio Video News
An Evening With Satchmo at the KEF Music Lounge
Howard Kneller  |  May 04, 2022
KEF’s April 30, 2022 “An Evening with Satchmo” event, featuring special guest Grammy winner Ricky Ricciardi, Director of Research Collections at the Louis Armstrong House Museum and Archives, marked the first time that I wore a suit since the pandemic’s start. Although the manufacturer events that I’ve recently attended have each raised the bar on luxury, this one promised to significantly up the ante. It featured not only a semi-formal dress code, but high-end food and spirits and Louis Armstrong music and video clips in an elegant setting—KEF’s Marlboro, New Jersey Music Lounge, which the company describes as an “idea, training, and experience center” that’s physically attached to its U.S. corporate headquarters.
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Stream On
Can Tidal Stem the Tide of Its Hi-Res Challengers?
Mike Mettler  |  May 03, 2022
Streaming giant Tidal continues upping its sound quality game. But can the company stem the tide of its many hi-res challengers? Mike Mettler takes the streaming service for a spin to find out.
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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Denon Builds Sub into New Soundbar to Simplify Setup
Bob Ankosko  |  May 02, 2022
Denon has simplified setup of its latest soundbar by building the “subwoofer” into the bottom of its enclosure, forgoing the need for a separate bass module.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
RoboCop
Chris Chiarella  |  Apr 29, 2022
Picture
Sound
Extras
Let's get right to the point: This new RoboCop boxed set gets my highest recommendation. For starters, director Paul Verhoeven's cheeky tale of a crimefighting cyborg is still thrilling, still funny, and still uniquely satisfying.
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Spatial Audio File
Everybody Got to Elevate Spatial Audio
Mike Mettler  |  Apr 29, 2022
Spoiler alert: Rush’s February 1981 masterpiece, Moving Pictures, is my personal No. 1 favorite album of all time, so I was very much looking forward to hearing the entire album in its full glory in Atmos. Interestingly, stellar Atmos mixes of two great Pictures tracks, “Tom Sawyer” and “Limelight,” were released last year on Apple Music in anticipation of celebrating the album’s 40th anniversary, but the balance of its seven tracks were held back until now, mostly due to supply-chain issues in order to align with the physical release of the Moving Pictures Super Deluxe Edition box set that finally came to market earlier this month—a mondo-disc collection that features a 24-bit/96kHz Atmos mix of the entire album on its included Blu-ray.
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Audio Video News
Best Gear of April 2022
Bob Ankosko  |  Apr 28, 2022
As April winds to a close, we review our Top Picks for the month, which include a budget soundbar system from a well-known American speaker brand, a top performing integrated amplifier, and the latest THX-certified subwoofer from an accessory-turned-audio-brand that’s growing by leaps and bounds.
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