Geoffrey Morrison

Netflix announced this week that they were splitting their business, DVD/BD rentals on one side, streaming on the other. 

By all accounts, this seems like a perfectly crafted way to auger the company into the ground. Everyone hates it, customers are fleeing, there's no way it can work.

But. . . what if that's the point?

A few weeks ago I laid out all the reasons why I thought the "free" music streaming services Spotify and MOG were ghastly, malicious succubi suckling at the teat of artistic talent.

Since that post, I've been presented countering opinions by musicians and music producers alike, and I've come away with a slightly different opinion. Perhaps I went too far.

Perhaps they're not ghastly.

I've been living with my HTPC for just over a month now, and I've come up with enough new observations to warrant a new installment (well, maybe enough to fill a bunch of articles) so. . . behold!

Been setting up your own living-room computer? Read on for my latest tips, tricks, and plain old complaints. I think most of you will find some of these useful. And some of you - I hope - will find most.

I just finished a plasma TV review for an upcoming issue of S+V. As I was writing up its brightness and contrast ratios, I realized there could be some confusion about the numbers.

If you measure the contrast ratio of plasmas (all plasmas, not just this one) the same way you do other types of televisions - namely LCDs and projectors - they post poorer numbers than other technologies.

This isn't a performance issue as much as it's a measurement issue. And why that is . . . that's kinda interesting.