Audio Video News

Control4’s Custom Airstream is rolling across the country to promote “Smart Design, Smart Living.” It features wholehouse A/V, smart lighting, intelligent safety and security, and voice control...(See the video tour here.)

LG, Samsung, and Sony are Netflix-recommended TV makers. Among other talents, their products can power up and start Netflixing within seconds, rapidly switch between Netflix and live TV, and display the Netflix interface in HD...

Vizio’s Acquisition by LeEco has come apart due to “regulatory head- winds” in China. The combined company would have taken third place in 2017 TV shipments...

Comcast’s Xfinity Instant TV streaming is designed to tempt young broadband customers who don’t opt for pay-TV. Now being tested in Boston and Chicago, the skinny bundle would go for $15 to $40/month including cloud DVR service...

Verizon May Launch a streaming video service that would tempt cord-cutters with skinny bundles. Bloomberg reports that the company has been quietly signing streaming deals with content providers...

HHGregg Closed after 62 years in business. The Indiana-based CE retail chain fell victim to an ill-advised IPO, national expansion, the rise of online retailing, and falling prices...

Pay-TV Subs Plummeted in 2016, with the biggest operators losing 795,000 customers, reports the Leichtman Research Group. The losers were cable and telco TV companies—the two satellite operators actually added 190,000...

Cable Ops Are Beating Telcos in new broadband subscribers, adding 3.3 million in 2016, says Leitchtman. It’s their best year since 2007 and more than compensates for the loss in video subscribers...

AT&T Fiber is reaching another 17 metro areas including Chicago, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Memphis, New Orleans, St. Louis, and others, raising the total to 51. One-Gbps service starts at $80/month, then $119 after a year, and bundles with AT&T-owned DirecTV and U-verse TV are available...

Charter Got Smacked with a class-action lawsuit claiming it sold the personally identifiable information of subscribers without permission from 2005 to 2014. ISPs claim they protect your privacy, though Congress just axed the FCC’s broadband privacy regs...

Consumers Are Gorging on news programs, with viewership up 18 percent in 2016, mostly due to a rise in cable news. But are we better informed?...

Netflix Downloads now work on Windows 10, lagging other platforms. Get update at Windows Store...

Showtime Added Downloading to Showtime Anywhere mobile apps. Choose 540p, 720p, or (for tablets) 1080p...

AMC Is Mulling an ad-free streaming service aimed at millennials who have not cut the pay-TV cord. Pricing may be $5 to $7/month...

Sling TV Beefed Up its sports programming with the addition of the NBC Regional Sports Networks, part of Sling Blue at $25/month. Oh—and Sling added Showtime...

Charter and AMC are teaming up to produce exclusive co-branded content for Spectrum pay-TV subscribers starting in 2018. Charter gets the initial window, while AMC gets subsequent (including international) rights...

The YouTube TV streaming service boasts a cloud DVR with unlimited storage, but it won’t skip ads on all channels. Content deals with the networks restrict ad skipping on TV episodes that are also on pay-TV VOD...

Amazon and NFL have brought Thursday Night Football to Amazon Prime. It’s a no-extra-cost addition to the $99/year service...

Logitech’s Harmony Elite, Companion, and Hub now support Google Assistant on Google Home. That enables you to use voice control to watch streamed video, pick a TV channel, adjust volume, skip forward or back, and use “activities” to control lighting color, a Nest thermostat, or play music...

DTS:X bitstream passthrough is now supported by Microsoft’s Xbox One gaming console, which includes a Blu-ray drive. DTS:X supports full 360- degree surround and adapts to any given speaker layout...

Dirac Live is now a standard feature (or free upgrade) for owners of StormAudio surround processors. The high-end room correction system tackles both frequency and impulse response...

Luxman America is the new U.S. arm of IAG-owned Luxman Corporation. Among the 92-year-old audio brand’s products are stereo integrated amps with wiggling needles that make our hearts beat faster...