Al Griffin

Al Griffin | Jul 13, 2011

At 3D theaters, you’re handed lightweight passive glasses that work in tandem with a polarizing filter positioned over the projector’s lens. When viewing at home with a 3D TV, you use bulky, battery-powered glasses with active shutter liquid-crystal lenses. Passive glasses in theaters are cheap and easily replaced. But at an average cost of $100 per pair, glasses used at home represent a sizable investment. Better to put them in a safe place — and keep ’em away from kids!

Streaming Device Reviews Blu-ray Player Reviews

Review: LG BD670 Blu-ray Disc Player

Al Griffin | Jul 13, 2011

Blu-ray players are becoming less a means to play discs than a gateway to online services — and to any media stored on computers, smartphones, and iDevices lying around your home. Take LG’s BD670. You might pick up this modest-looking machine thinking you’d use it to play Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D discs, along with DVDs and CDs.

Review: LG 47LW5600 3D LCD HDTV

Al Griffin | Jun 16, 2011

TEST BENCH

Color temperature (ISF Expert 2 mode/Warm color temperature preset before/after calibration):

20-IRE: 6,817 K/6,431 K
30-IRE: 6,816 K/6,499 K
40-IRE: 6,819 K/6,548 K
50-IRE: 6,796 K/6,527 K
60-IRE: 6,720 K/6,515 K
70-IRE: 6,726 K/6,495 K
80-IRE: 6,685 K/6,492 K
90-IRE: 6,638 K/6,464 K
100-IRE: 6,572 K/6,405 K

Primary Color Point Accuracy vs. SMPTE HD Standard

Custom Installation How-To

Buffalo Technology CloudStor Network-attached storage Server

Al Griffin | May 26, 2011

Blu-ray Player Reviews

Review: Oppo BDP-93 Blu-ray player

Al Griffin | Mar 23, 2011

With A/V streaming gaining ground on packaged media, those shiny plastic discs that arrive regularly in your mailbox might soon become a thing of the past. Physical formats like Blu-ray and CD are likely to stick around for at least a few years; even so, it’s probably time to put some thought into what machine you’ll use to play your disc collection in the future. Instead of maintaining multiple players, doesn’t it make sense to own just one that can handle any media you throw at it? Also, since we’re talking about the long haul here, shouldn’t you buy a sturdy model that’s unlikely to break down after a few short years of service?

Maximum iPod

Al Griffin | Feb 14, 2011

Plug and Play

Q: How do you attach an iPod or similar MP3 player to a stereo receiver or AVR to maximize playback quality? I’m a longtime subscriber, but I only remember seeing you give examples of the “minimalist” approach using small speakers and docks designed specifically for iPods.

--Ronald V. Tancredi | Farmingdale, NY

Review: Avatar 3D Blu-ray

Al Griffin | Jan 28, 2011

As anyone who saw Avatar in 3D at a theater

Continue

(especially an IMAX theater) can attest, it set a high bar for depth-enhanced cinema. And for people like me fortunate enough to have had access to a 3D TV in 2010, each of the meager disc offerings squeezed out by the studios inevitably stood in comparison with that benchmark experience. With few exceptions, all fell well short of my Avatar-fueled expectations.

Reading > n"> Test Report: Mitsubishi LT-46265 LCD HDTV Al Griffin | Jan 27, 2011

When I first checked out one of Mitsubishi's Unisen "Immersive Sound" LCD TVs (the LT-46153, reviewed here), I was struck by the ingenuity of mounting a full-featured soundbar into the set's cabinet. And when I eventually connected a subwoofer to the TV, powered it up, and let a movie rip, I was floored by the room-filling sound - something you don't expect from a flat-panel model.

-lcd-hdtv">Continue Reading > "> Test Report: GoldenEar Technology Triton Two Tower Speakers Al Griffin | Jan 26, 2011

The writer F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said there are no second acts in American lives. But what about third acts? Speaker impresario Sandy Gross is a cofounder of two of the best-known companies in the home theater/audio biz: Polk Audio and Definitive Technology.

y-triton-two-tower-speakers">Continue Reading > views-row-last"> CES 2011: Smart Stuff from Samsung Al Griffin | Jan 06, 2011

Search form

Al Griffin

Pages