Podcast #485: Painting Your Projector Screen

For many, a true home theater is one that has a projector and screen. This type of setup can range in cost from a few thousand to tens of thousands or dollars. Most of the cost goes into the projector but a good percentage is also taken up by the screen. Ara’s Black Diamond II screen goes for about $2700 online. Today we are going to discuss a way to save as much as 95% on the cost of screen and still have a high quality experience. All you need is some specialized paint, elbow grease, and a weekend. We’re talking about painting your screen onto a wall.

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Podcast #484: The Next Next Big Thing

It seems the Home Theater industry has a new “next big thing” every few months. We read articles and blog posts from authors who claim anything Apple releases will be the next big thing that will revolutionize something somewhere. Others think anything that comes out of Google will reshape the modern technology world. We’re going to go out on a limb and talk about something that doesn’t come from either company.  We know, we know …crazy.

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Podcast #483: Over the Air TV Signals - Are They Still Needed?

On the last two shows we discussed comments made by CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro stating that, "using huge swaths of wireless spectrum to deliver TV to homes no longer makes economic sense. Congress should pass legislation to allow for incentive auctions so free market dynamics can find the best purposes for underused broadcast spectrum, such as wireless broadband." In the CEAs findings they stated that only 8% of the US population EXCLUSIVELY receives their TV signals through the air. We feel that this number is artificially stated as low. The survey polled 1,256 adults but it did not say where the respondents were located. If the survey was done in rural communities that number may be as high as 25%.

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Podcast #482: The Best HDTV Widgets

An HDTV Widget is an application that runs on an Internet-connected HDTV, sometimes called a “Smart TV” or other home-theater device, like many Blu-ray players, a Roku, the Boxee Box or a Google TV, that offers functionality beyond the traditional TV watching experience. There are a plethora of these widgets, some useful, some not so useful. We’ve assembled our list of the best, or most useful, HDTV Widgets available right now.

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Podcast #481: 720p vs 1080p or More Compression vs Less Compression

Last September Apple released the AppleTV 2 and one of the things people complained about was that it was only 720p. We have talked on this program many times that resolution is not the most important specification of a good display or projector. Especially when you talk screen sizes less than 50 inches. There is study after study that says MOST people need to sit six feet away from a 50 inch TV to see the difference between 720p and 1080p.

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Podcast #480: What is RVU?

DirecTV recently began testing what they’re calling a new “media center” that will allow customers to watch live and DVR recorded programming on any TV in the house without the need for a set-top box in each room. This new media center is built on a technology called RVU. But what exactly is RVU? There’s an RVU Alliance, but what do they do? What does “RVU” even mean?

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