CES 2012

Barb Gonzalez | Jan 15, 2012 |

This year most TV manufacturers are pairing tablets with TVs to create what they call a “second screen” or “Dual Screen” experience. Why interrupt what you are watching to bring up menus that shrink the screen or overlay TV guide grids that block your picture, when you can bring up the menus and guides on your tablet?

Toshiba, Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, LG and others showed up their apps that run on tablets to control and enhance your TV viewing experience. Although they would like you to buy their tablets, the apps will run on any Android or iOS device.

CES 2012

Tablets as Media Servers/Media Renderers

Barb Gonzalez | Jan 15, 2012 |

Along with control and second screen capabilities, TV manufacturers are pairing their tablets to TVs allowing users to send media to their big screen directly from their tablet.

The TV apps make it possible to “fling” photos, music, or movies that are stored on the tablet towards the TV and have it play on the big screen. Most apps will be able to find media stored on other sources--computers, media servers--in a home network and push that media to the TV (Media Renderer capabilities).

Both the tablets apps and the TVs are DLNA certified which makes the media sharing possible. While this is possible on other DLNA certified media apps, the paired apps will undoubtedly create a seamless experience.

CES 2012

Tablets as Remote Controls

Barb Gonzalez | Jan 15, 2012 |

Your universal remote control may become a thing of the past. TV manufacturers are creating apps that can not only control the TV, but can be programmed with macros to control your whole home theater system.

Remote control apps have been appearing over the past year. These apps work over wifi to control connected TVs and devices.

This year, Sony and Samsung are showing tablets with IR (infrared control), that can send commands to most any home theater device.

What do you think? Are you ready to chuck

Pricing is $399, and it’s available now.

Continue

Play, pause or stop the current movie you

Voice recognition can be used to tell the

Details of the LG voice recognition’s

your home theater remote for an app on a tablet?

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CES 2012

Take It Outside, Kids Darryl Wilkinson | Jan 11, 2012 |

Russound showed off the company’s AirGo Outdoor Sound System, which Russound says is “a portable amplifier speakerdock for an Apple® AirPort Express”. (You supply the AirPort Express.) The single-point stereo speaker sounds fantastic, and the incorporation of the AirPort Express means you can stream music from any compatible device to the AirGo wherever you can connect to your network. Since AirPort Expresses can simultaneously be used as a WiFi repeater, the AirGo will also act like a local hotspot and extend your network for backyard parties. Because the amplifier is a beefy 40 watts, anything but a car battery (pretty difficult to carry) would be drained in short order. So the AirGo Outdoor Sound Station is designed for AC use only. Not to worry, the speaker is fully weather-resistant (don’t plan on submerging it, though). According to Russound, the AirGo Outdoor Sound Station is just the beginning of a series wireless and outdoor products.

CES 2012

Talking Dog Dominates Onkyo Reportage Mark Fleischmann | Jan 10, 2012 |

This is Mishka the talking dog saying "I love you" on YouTube. No kidding. If it's on the internet, you know it must be true. This was actually a demo of InstaPrevue, a feature being built into Onkyo's network-enabled a/v receivers. The cool part, aside from the talking dog, is that you can view picture insets showing the content of source components as opposed to prosaic text labels like HDMI1, HDMI2, or that classic of the genre, HDMI3. The talking dog (have we mentioned the talking dog?) was being streamed from an iPhone via MHL, or Mobile High-definition Link, another new Onkyo receiver feature. Onkyo was also talking up cloud storage capability for receivers via its partnership with MP3tunes. The first two gigabytes are free.

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CES 2012

Tech Trends 2012: Headphone Haven Michael Berk | Mar 27, 2012 |

THERE WERE countless headphone exhibitors at CES 2012: familiar names showing incremental upgrades to longstanding models, Chinese OEMs showcasing suspiciously familiar designs under house brands, upstart firms testing the waters with hybrid driver designs and innovative fit systems, automotive and furniture firms muscling their way into the latest hot retail category.

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CES 2012

Tell Your LG TV What You Want Barb Gonzalez | Jan 14, 2012 |

LG smart TVs will have voice recognition capabilities in 2012. LG’s new magic wand remote will act as a microphone that can be used to speak commands to your TV. are streaming. Or change the channel with simple voice commands. LG to search for a specific movie title or TV show. It can also be used to dictate tweets or Facebook updates. full capabilities and features will be announced when the TVs are released in Spring 2012.

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CES 2012

Ten Tips for the CES Noob Geoffrey Morrison | Jan 06, 2012 |

The massive Consumer Electronics Show is in Las Vegas next week. It will be my 12th. Twelve is a pretty good number (a dozen, if you will), but compared to most, I know this is paltry. Brent’s first CES was in 1886, when Westinghouse unveiled their steam-powered discombobulation defenestrator. I believe they also announced a tablet.

CES is rather overwhelming for the first-timer, so I offer these sage words of advice to help you navigate the miles of lightly carpeted floors, brightly lit booths, and slightly malodorous humanity.

CES 2012

That’s Easy for You to Say

Darryl Wilkinson | Jan 11, 2012 |

I don’t know what this means, but considering its prominence on the Nyko booth wall this must be something very profound.

CES 2012

The Incredible Shrinking THX Certification

| Jan 13, 2012 |

Got modest plans for a modest home theater using modest-sized speakers but want a THX-Certified experience? At CES, THX announced the company’s latest certification program, the THX Compact Speaker System Certification. The new specifications are designed for systems used in rooms up to 1,000 cubic feet and cover two-channel (2.1 - two speakers and one subwoofer - is the minimum requirement) all the way to full-blown 7.1-channel systems.

In the company’s suite, the THX people showed off a sample of a new MK sub/sat 2.1 system based on the MK M7. The speaker hasn’t finished the certification process yet, but THX expects that MK will be the first company to begin selling THX Compact Speaker System Certified speakers. The matching subwoofer was not on display. Expected pricing was not available.

CES 2012

The Insight of Wisdom

Tom Norton | Jan 15, 2012 |

Wisdom launched several new in-wall speaker systems that would be well-suited to a home theater setting, particularly one using a perforated screen. The demoed units were the P4i ($1500 each) and L8i ($5000 each). While neither could match the sheer majesty of the Wisdom LS4s, both of them (with a smaller Wisdom subwoofer) provided sound of a quality I never thought possible from small in-walls,m with none of the usual in-wall colorations. One caveat here is that the temporary walls used in the demonstration may not be typical of real walls, either in the size of their internal cavities (the Insights do not use a backbox) or in rigidity and lack of resonances (the walls here appeared to be made of MDF, not the sheetrock of most residential construction).

CES 2012

Thiel Restoration

Tom Norton | Jan 12, 2012 |

Thiel Audio is ready to restore any of their speakers you might have on hand, or find in a garage sale or Aunt Minnie's attic. Like this 1970s vintage pair of CS1.2s, for example.

CES 2012

Thiel Shows New Entry-Level Floorstander

Mark Fleischmann | Jan 10, 2012 |

The first development project to follow the death of the late, great Jim Thiel is the CS1.7, which will replace the decade-old CS1.6 as the company's entry-level floorstanding speaker. Its aluminum drivers include a one-inch tweeter and a 6.5-inch woofer with the familiar vibration-controlling star diaphragm. A CS7.3 flagship tower will follow eventually. Given Thiel's traditionally long and pensive development philosophy, it's anyone's guess when the larger speaker will arrive, but the smaller one is very tentatively slated for the first quarter of this year at around $5000-5500.

CES 2012

THX Media Director Gets Real

Mark Fleischmann | Jan 10, 2012 |

THX's long-promised Media Director technology has finally found its way into products including two Sharp Elite LCD TV models and the Acurus ACT4 preamp-processor. Media Director automates the selection of video parameters for Blu-ray and DVD titles, saving the less tech-savvy consumer a giant pounding headache. This can be something as basic as selecting 2D or 3D mode or something more subtle. In the example somewhat fuzzily shown, under "Video Processing Flags," are two entries reading: "Video content is intentionally noisy." And: "Video content contains film grains" [sic]. It works not only with Media Director encoded content but also with regular content when the disc is played in a BD-Live enabled Blu-ray player which will go online to grab the data from the THX database. If you're not ready to ante up for a top-line TV for the kitchen, you might still get limited Media Director functionality in a non-Media Director product. It's great that this newbie-empowering technology is finally seeing implementation.

CES 2012

THX Rethinks the Power Amp

Mark Fleischmann | Jan 10, 2012 |

THX has been applying its grey cells to the power amplifier, as THX grey eminence Laurie Fincham explained. The prototype shown uses what he calls a Class ABC topology with newly tweaked rail-switching power supply and compact ceramic (as opposed to bulky electrolytic) capacitors, all run off a lithium iron phosphate battery (yes, iron, not ion). In the picture you see a super-skinny two-channel output stage; adding capacitors would make it only 25 percent larger. Anyway, the result is a powerful low-profile amp that runs cool and efficient, avoiding both the power piggery of Class A and the problematic performance of Class D. And yes, it sounded great with Sonus Faber speakers and Steely Dan's "Gaslighting Abbie," achieving both well controlled bass and a high degree of overall transparency. Why this, why now? Fincham points out that his team is liberated from the tyranny of the product development cycle, enabling them to take a longer view and to incorporate ideas from the entire history of audio going back to the 1920s but also including the latest tricks. For example, the type of battery used is relatively new to audio but has been deployed in things like power tools and electric bikes. The THX amp design has yet to be built into licensed product but current licensees are getting their first look at this show. Potential uses include everything from inexpensive compact products to BD-receivers to high-end multichannel amps.

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CES 2012

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