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How to Position Speakers for the Best Sound
Thomas J. Norton  |  Jun 30, 2020  | 
I recently responded to a question from a reader on proper speaker placement, a complicated subject that can never be given enough attention. It involves not only how you or I might prefer to position the speakers, but also possible veto by the décor committee. Here are some tips on where to put speakers for the best possible sound.
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A/V Veteran
How to Train Your Drogon
Tom Norton  |  May 23, 2019  | 
If you don’t understand the pun above, don’t be confused. Even though 30 million viewers in the U.S., and untold millions more around the world, watched every one of the over 70 episodes of HBO’s remarkable series Game of Thrones, most of the world remains oblivious to this noteworthy achievement — or perhaps actively avoiding it…
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How to Use an AV Receiver to Add Surround to a 2-Channel Setup
Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 14, 2023  | 
There's a surprisingly wide range of preferences among audio-video fans. I'll categorize them here into two broad groups: classic 2-channel audiophiles and home theater fans. Not that these groups don't overlap. They often do. But there are listeners in each group who don't intersect with the other. For fans of 2-channel music who are open to adding surround sound as long as it doesn't hamper their enjoyment of listening to stereo recordings, there's a fairly easy way to make that happen.
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How to Use EQ & Measurements to Tame the Effects of Your Room
Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 12, 2019  | 
Whether you live in a McMansion, a hovel, or something in between, the most influential component in your audio or home theater system is the room. A look at how it affects performance and what you can do to ensure the best possible sound.
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Idol Thoughts
Thomas J. Norton  |  Mar 24, 2007  | 

We may be gear heads here at UAV, but the not-so-secret secret about the consumer electronics business is that it's about music and movies. In other words, it's Show Biz. Without that connection, our equipment racks would be filled with expensive boat anchors.

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IMAX Enhanced Home Theater Certification: What We Know So Far
Thomas J. Norton  |  Oct 30, 2018  | 
IMAX and DTS stirred up a bit of a hurricane at September’s CEDIA Expo when they announced the launch of a new home theater certification program called “IMAX Enhanced.” Here’s what we know…
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IMAX Enhanced: IMAX Comes Home
Tom Norton  |  Dec 14, 2021  | 
IMAX, as most people experience it, is a high quality movie format used in specialized theaters worldwide. But its history, and development, is complicated. Here's the low-down on a relatively new home theater format that trades on the IMAX name.
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In the Black
Thomas J. Norton  |  Dec 09, 2005  | 

Joel Brinkley's recent comments on black level issues with the new digital video displays was right on the mark for flat panel displays, but things are looking up, at least a little, with front and rear projection sets. I'm currently working on reviews of two new models, the front projection Sony VPL-VW100 SXRD projector and the Hewlett-Packard md5880n DLP. Both of these are 1080p displays—though only the HP will accept 1080p through its HDMI inputs.

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In the Black II
Thomas J. Norton  |  Dec 17, 2005  | 

In my previous blog, "In the Black," I stated that the new Sony VPL-VW100 SXRD projector would not accept 1080p directly. That was the impression I obtained at its press introduction at last September's CEDIA. But I subsequently learned, in completing Part I of my review of that projector, which will be posted on this site tomorrow (Sunday, December 18, 2005), that it will indeed accept 1080p/60 at its HDMI and DVI inputs.

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Infinity Cinema Now?
Thomas J. Norton  |  May 29, 2018  | 
Ah, summer movies. The summer blockbuster tradition is relatively new, but summer moviegoing likely became a big thing when air conditioning was new and “Air Conditioning” on a theater marque guaranteed an audience.

But as I sat in a nearly empty local theater last week watching Avengers: Infinity War (it was a weekday afternoon and the movie had been out for 2 weeks), I wondered if the now ubiquitous Marvel Universe has painted itself into a corner. There are now too many characters to squeeze into a single film, even if some of the lesser lights were sidelined in this one (on holiday, perhaps—after all, only the future of the universe was at stake). So you have a gaggle of actors, each one of which is expecting significant screen time by getting his or her own little slice of the pie. That means a few meaty and/or witty lines for each of them and then off to the next battle. And if there’s one thing this movie isn’t lacking, it’s a next battle. And the next. And the next...

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Inflation Now! Will A/V Prices Increase?
Thomas J. Norton  |  May 18, 2021  | 
In case you haven't noticed, prices in the consumer world are creeping up. It's not yet a tsunami, but the signs are there. This should be a concern for everyone, and audio- and videophiles won't be immune from it. Some of the rising costs are due to unexpected events, such as the hacking of an oil pipeline, which might settle back in time. Others are due to government monetary policies, for better or worse in the unsettled time of Covid-19. Inflation is always produced when too much money chases too few goods. And there's no money tree in the back room of the Capitol in Washington. We're borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, but Peter can't object; he's just a printing press. The typical payback is inflation, a hidden tax on everyone.

Economics is a boring, black art, but it could inevitably affect our own little A/V corner of the wider world...

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Is it 4K Yet?
Thomas J. Norton  |  Mar 13, 2018  | 
Any flat screen TV advertised as 4K will actually display the full 8 million pixels in a 4K (3840 x 2160) source. You can't be certain about how well it will do a wider color gamut or high dynamic range—the other keystones of Ultra HD—but it will put 8 million discrete pixels on the screen. Whether or not the 4K source material is actually true 4K from the camera to your Ultra HD disc is a different issue for another discussion.

But with projectors there are two versions of 4K resolution...

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Is This the Videodisc Apocalypse?
Thomas J. Norton  |  Feb 26, 2019  | 
The recent decision by Samsung to cease selling Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray players (at least in the U.S.), reported elsewhere on this site, has been taken by many as foreshadowing the death of video on physical media. Add in Oppo’s cessation of player manufacturing last year, and the statistically significant falloff in disc sales (confirmed locally by a recent, dramatic reduction in the shelf space devoted to video discs at my nearest Best Buy), and, the news certainly isn’t encouraging.

But the imminent death of the disc isn’t yet in sight. The disc market is still profitable, and the studios haven’t yet slowed down churning out both new and older titles. Check out The Digital Bits website for their weekly lists of releases and then tell me that video discs are on life support. They may be limping, but as a wise man once said, “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over.”

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A/V Veteran
It Costs How Much?
Thomas J. Norton  |  May 15, 2018  | 
Every year there’s a major high-end audio show in Munich, Germany, held in a large convention-center type facility. By all reports it’s the biggest such event in the world, though it began as a modest hotel show in Frankfurt (also Germany, not Kentucky). I actually attended two of those 80s shows when I was stationed in Germany in the Air Force, an hour’s drive from Frankfurt.

But this isn’t about audio shows, though from what I’ve heard about the Munich event it’s more about viewing than serious auditioning. And since home theater isn’t nearly as significant in Europe as it is in the U.S., Munich is mainly about 2-channel audio. I have no issue with that; I’m a fan myself. But the high-end 2-channel market isn’t doing itself any favors with the current trend toward crazy pricing. While a new, $250,000 pair of monoblock amplifiers from an industry icon may be an outlier, it’s symptomatic...

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A/V Veteran
It's a Laazzeer...Projector
Thomas J. Norton  |  Nov 29, 2013  | 
Lasers, or Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, have been with us for half a century. A laser produces a highly focused (spatially coherent) beam of light having a very specific wavelength, the latter depending on the design and application. They’re used in medicine, industry, laser printing, barcode scanners, CD, DVD, and Blu-ray players, laser light shows, and innumerable other applications.

Lasers can also be used as a light source for digital projection. While this is still under development, we’re likely to see it first in movie theaters. Lasers can not only produce a much brighter image—which can help overcome the dimness of 3D presentations—but also offer cost benefits to theater owners. Conventional xenon lamps are expensive to replace, and have a useful life of perhaps 1000 hours (some theaters try to stretch this as much as possible, often with negative effects on picture quality). A laser light source can stretch this by at least twenty-fold or even more. While replacement lasers will likely be significantly more expensive to early on, they’ll still be cheaper per hour of use. Another possible cost saving might come from using a centralized “light farm,” with the light from a single remotely located bank of lasers routed to multiple projectors via fiber optics.

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