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AV Rant #320: Mr. Liz

January 8th, 2013 12 comments

Rob H. and Will take over the podcast this week for an extra nerdy episode. Samsung has a new “unprecedented” TV design, and a way to make your “old” Smart TV smarter. Meanwhile LG is finally shipping OLED, and has smarter TVs, too. Intel is getting into set top boxes andIPTV. Rob thinks he knows why. And Will knows why it probably won’t work. A very small and inexpensive AirPlay hack? Sounds good to us! But what if you want to store and organize way more content? We deep dive on Synology NAS, and Will promises to keep us updated.Marantz has a new pre-amp. Emotiva has new amplifiers to go with it. And we wrap up with rants about Bose, Surround speakers, and market forces.

 

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AV Rant#319: Happy New Year!

January 1st, 2013 2 comments

This week, Lee Overstreet guest co-hosts with Liz over the holiday weekend. We discuss favorite new Christmas presents (Lee got a printer, Liz’s family got tablets). LG is offering a new TV line with embedded Google TV. Lee thinks Apple will be forced to reinvent the internet-connected television. Liz thinks the Houston Texans are in a Richard-measuring contest with the Dallas Cowboys, and really loves 3D printing technology, especially when it can print LPs.Lee gives an in-depth look at his 2012 and 2013 projects — archiving and sharing home media — Cassettes, records, VHS, you name it.  

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AV Rant #318: Merry Christmas

December 25th, 2012 18 comments

Rob H flies solo  to host a special Christmas episode for this week. Flat Panels, Sound Bars, Low Cost Speakers, Entry Level Audio, Room Acoustic Treatments, Power Conditioning, Front Projectors, Projection Screens, Subwoofers, Speakers, Receivers and Amps – Rob totally geeks out to bring you his take on Home Theater Value, and the products he thinks are worth your attention and dollars. This is pure Gear Lust, people! Happy Holidays! Links to all the products mentioned are below the cut.

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AV Rant #317: Live from New York!

December 20th, 2012 2 comments

Ok, not quite live. But the good news is for this week and next, Liz and Rob are on the same continent for easy podcasting. Tom is off exploring the world, so Rob steps in once again. This we we talk about television news. Nielson will be partnering with Twitter to get show metrics. Liz is excited, Rob not so much. The FCC CALM Act comes into effect this week (but cable companies who can demonstrate hardship still have a year to comply). Rob is pumped, Liz reminds you that your volume button and your dynamic range features may still get some use. The BBC Red Button now comes via the internet on your Tivo, rather than embedded in the show. Liz is going to check it out when she gets back to London. Rob saw The Hobbit in the theatres: his take on 48fps, and coverage of the furor around the Dark Knight Rises Blu-Ray aspect ratio inside. Let us know your thoughts if you’ve seen either! Rob answers a listener question about DIY HTPCs and your set-top box options. A list of the products mentioned is below the jump.   

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AV Rant #307: Sick as a Dog

October 12th, 2012 5 comments

Tom is deathly ill this week so Rob H does us all a favor and steps in on short notice. The podcast is a bit heavier on the hardware than in the past couple of weeks, with a listener question from Facebook about speaker spikes, the new Harmony Touch Remote and second-gen entry-level Pioneer Andrew Jones speakers that Rob can’t stop raving about. Here’s the interview Rob mentioned with Andrew Jones and the Home Theater Geeks. We’ve also got the low down on our favorite scammers and Liz still thinks that second screen might be a nifty new cool thing, except that Sony doesn’t seem to understand the concept of an open platform.

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