Editor's Eye

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Editor's Eye
High Dynamic Range for Everyone
Al Griffin  |  Apr 26, 2019  | 
As someone who has spent the past two-plus decades writing about and reviewing TVs, projectors, and associated gear, I have to say that the addition of high dynamic range to video is among the more impressive developments I’ve encountered. Not since high-definition TV took over the airwaves back in 1999 and then made its way to Blu-ray (and HD DVD) discs a few years later have video enthusiasts been treated to such a massive leap in visual quality. Oh right, there was the launch of Blu-ray 3D back in 2010, a format that required a new player and TV, goggles, and a 50 percent hit in screen brightness, but…oh, never mind.
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Editor's Eye
Home Entertainment 2016: A Drone’s Eye View
Rob Sabin  |  Feb 01, 2016  | 
I’ve had almost a month to ponder CES 2016 and what strikes me most as I look back is how a show that was once strictly about audio/video has grown into an enormous and wild Mardi Gras of tech, encompassing everything from drones and hoverboards to smartphones and digital health wearables and much more.

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Editor's Eye
Home Is Where the Theater Is
Al Griffin  |  Aug 20, 2020  | 
TAP, TAP, TAP. . . is this thing on? We’re back! If you’re a print subscriber I’m sure you’re wondering what happened to the June/July issue of Sound & Vision so here’s the deal.
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Editor's Eye
Home Theater To Become Sound & Vision
Rob Sabin  |  Jul 24, 2013  |  First Published: Jul 25, 2013  | 
Readers who follow developments in audio/video electronics might have heard back in May that Home Theater's parent company, Source Interlink Media, acquired its chief competitor Sound & Vision. These were the two biggest print magazines serving the A/V enthusiast.

It was announced on Monday that, beginning with the October issue, Home Theater and Sound & Vision will be merged, and only one magazine will go forward under the Sound & Vision brand.

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Editor's Eye
How Home Theater Plays The Ratings Game
Rob Sabin  |  Oct 03, 2011  | 
Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value
A lot of consumer electronics editors and reviewers have a love-hate relationship with product ratings. The love side comes from knowing they make readers happy. Assuming the ratings structure is well thought out (that is, simple and easy to understand) and the ratings are applied with fairness and accuracy, they wrap the whole product up in a nice little ball and tell you, at a quick glance, whether it's a winner, loser, or in-betweener. Perhaps most important, a good rating, or a good rating coupled with a seal of approval like our Top Picks designation, is validation that the product is worthy of the money you plan to spend on it. Given the sea of black boxes, identically thin TVs, and similar speaker systems out there, we recognize that giving you this validation is really the essence of our job at Home Theater.
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Editor's Eye
How Retro Can You Go?
Rob Sabin  |  Jan 26, 2018  | 
As we turn 60, it’s all about analog. Who’da thunk?

There’s some real irony in our February/March print issue, and it wasn’t planned. Well, maybe a little...

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Editor's Eye
Image Is Everything
Rob Sabin  |  Jul 29, 2016  | 
There aren’t too many to choose from, but bipole and dipole speakers are a special breed that I've long admired. Here's why.
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Editor's EyeAudio Video News
IMAX Opens Virtual Reality Center In NYC
Rob Sabin  |  Jun 12, 2017  |  First Published: Jun 13, 2017  | 
The company best known among cinephiles for entertaining big audiences with big screens and big sound has gone the opposite way with its latest big idea: Virtual reality (VR) centers to provide one-on-one entertainment to walk-in customers at cineplexes and other venues nationwide.

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Editor's Eye
In Search of the Perfect Audio Demo
Al Griffin  |  Aug 22, 2019  | 
In May I had an opportunity to attend High End in Munich, Germany, an event considered by many to be the world’s leading hi-fi show. It was the second consecutive Munich show I had attended, and this one was even more bustling with activity than the last. While the show does provide trade-only days, it’s primarily a consumer-focused event — audiophiles from all over Europe flock in to look at and listen to the latest gear, much of it on active display in rooms that pump out nonstop music.
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Editor's Eye
Is Your Wi-Fi Network Ready for Wireless Speakers?
Rob Sabin  |  Jun 30, 2017  | 
In a recent post I chided manufacturers for releasing Wi-Fi-based speakers that failed to perform reliably. But then I began to wonder about the role of our Wi-Fi networks and whether the demands of these new products are outpacing the capabilities of today’s “average” network. Ravi Rajapakse, founder and CEO of Blackfire Research, sheds some light on the subject…
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Editor's EyeTrack One
It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times
Rob Sabin  |  Jan 29, 2014  | 
Panasonic’s Departure from the Plasma Market is Heartbreaking, and Inevitable

There is both irony and tragedy in the fact that this year’s much-deserved prize for our Top Pick product for all of 2013 goes to TC-P65ZT60, whose short life and lineage will begin and end with the 2013 model year...

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Editor's Eye
John Lennon Remembered
Al Griffin  |  Dec 08, 2020  | 
It’s hard to believe 40 years have passed since John Lennon was fatally shot outside his home on Manhattan’s Upper West Side on this very day. We’re marking the anniversary of Lennon’s untimely passing with a review of the new Gimme Some Truth: The Ultimate Mixes box set and Matt Hurwitz’s story on the production of tracks remixed in stereo, 5.1, and Dolby Atmos.
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Editor's Eye
Let’s Get Physical
Al Griffin  |  Nov 16, 2018  | 
Even though streaming long ago supplanted playing discs as my go-to method for listening to music, physical media is still relevant.
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Editor's EyeAudio Video News
LG OLED Sweeps 2017 TV Shootout
Rob Sabin  |  Jul 14, 2017  | 
Photo by Matt Murray, Courtesy Value Electronics

In what appears to be an ongoing trend, LG took top honors Thursday at this year's TV Shootout at CE Week in New York. This marks the 4th consecutive year that LG's current top OLED model, this time the 65-inch E7, was declared the annual "King of TV" — a title even more deserving than in year's past thanks to the set sweeping all three of the judging categories.

But despite what by now seems like a familiar or expected result, this year's event was more competitive and interesting than in recent years, with at least one set that very nearly equaled the LG, and others that failed to come as close as we'd have expected.

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Editor's EyeAudio Video News
LG's OLED Wins 2016 Value Electronics TV Shootout
Rob Sabin  |  Jun 24, 2016  | 

ISF's Joel Silver presenting at the 12th annual Value Electronics TV Shootout.

For the third consecutive year, LG's OLED technology has found itself atop the heap at the annual TV shootout held by Scarsdale, NY-based retailer Value Electronics.

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