Podcast #587: CE Pro Brand Analysis 2013 and Home Theater Design Tips & Mistakes

CE Pro, the magazine for professional consumer electronics installers, is back with another annual installment of the CE Pro Brand Analysis. They put out the survey every year to determine what brands dealers, integrators and resellers offer the most. While we were checking out this year’s update, we came across another White Paper about Home Theater Design Tips & Mistakes that covered some points we thought would be worth talking about.

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Podcast #586: Denon AVR-2313CI and HSU VTF-3 MK4 Subwoofer

If you have been listening to the show for the last few weeks you probably know that Ara added some new gear to his home. In the family room he added a Denon AVR-2313CI 7.2 AVR ($600 Buy Now) and in the media room he added a HSU Research VTF-3 MK4 Subwoofer ($649 Direct from HSU Research). This episode gets into Ara’s impression of both products.

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Podcast #585: Rec. 2020: UHD Decoded

There’s a lot of buzz in the home theater industry around the forthcoming Ultra High Definition, or UHD televisions, sometimes called 4K TVs. It turns out the UHDTV specification, often referred to simply as Rec. 2020, gives us quite a bit to be excited about, quite a bit more than just a bump in resolution. When we’ll ever get content for it, or whether or not televisions will really be able to take advantage of it anytime soon remains to be seen. But the spec looks good.

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Podcast #584: Plasma vs LED

We have been talking about the demise of plasma for at least three years. But with each passing year manufacturers come out with plasma TVs that are simply the best TVs on the market. In a CNET article titled Best HDTVs Overall, the top 5 TVs were plasma, and that doesn’t even include the forthcoming Panasonic ZT60 which won best of show at CES. In this episode we’ll try to compare and contrast plasma and LED LCDs and see if there is a real reason why LEDs are putting plasma out of business.

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Podcast #583: OLED vs 4K for your next TV

We’re willing to admit, and we probably aren’t the only ones, that 3D simply is not the next big thing in home entertainment. Sure it sounded cool on paper, but in reality 3D at home just doesn’t provide the immersive 3D experience you get in a theater. Couple that with eye fatigue, headaches and seizures and 3D hasn’t delivered. Of the two options vying for the title of next big thing, OLED and 4K, which one has a better chance of claiming the throne?

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Podcast #582: Pioneer VSX-70 7.2 Home Theater Receiver

Recently manufacturers announced their new AVR lines. Pioneer was no exception. We were able to obtain one of their entry Elite models the VSX-70. The VSX-70 has an MSRP of $750 and is available now.

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