Content – Page 3 – Devices View

Kaleidescape Ships Blu-ray Server (Sort of)

December 14, 2010 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

First a bit of background: Kaleidescape is a high end media server vendor. They make boxes you have a custom installer put in one spot, which connect over a wired network to smaller boxes your installer connects to each TV and projector in your home. You – or your installer – copies all your DVDs onto the big box, and then you can watch all your movies anywhere in your home. Basically, it's Sonos for movies for rich people. How rich? Kaleidescape was actually the reason I instituted a policy not to review anything I could not reasonably afford. Years …

Computing / DVD

Buy a Blu-ray Player. Now.

December 9, 2010 - by Avi Greengart - 2 Comments.

Philip Berne's latest Slashgear column provides a well argued view for buying a Blu-ray player despite the rise of downloadable and streaming content. Full disclosure: I also write columns for Slashgear. If you click on the link, I get… nothing. So I guess that's more of a plug than a disclosure.

RIP Snell, Escient

July 14, 2010 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Not sure where I was when this crossed the wire back in April, but I was saddened – but not surprised – to learn that D&M Holdings shut down both Snell and Escient. Snell was a high end speaker brand without enough brand recognition. Selling $30,000 speakers in a recession is extremely hard. Selling $30,000 speakers from a brand that only involved enthusiasts have heard of is basically impossible, no matter how terrific they measure and sound (Snell was famous for rigorously achieving ridiculously flat frequency measurements). I suspect that the recession did in Escient, which made well regarded music …

Audio / Computing / Music

Sonos Goes Stereo

May 18, 2010 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Just a quick note today: Sonos just started shipping a new software update that adds some new Internet radio options, crossfading between songs, some new language support, new alarm settings, and the ability to use two S5's as a stereo pair. None of the features is critical on its own (though the S5 stereo feature is quite cool; when everything is digital, you can do all sorts of neat things) but Sonos already built the best multi-room component system. I sent back my Sonos review system so I can't test this personally. Sigh. With the Sonos gone, we've been using …

DVD

Cheap Blu-ray Upgrades from Warner

November 18, 2009 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Well, this is nice: some of us have felt like suckers, buying the same titles over and over as formats have shifted from VHS to letterbox VHS to laserdisc to DVD to special edition DVD to Blu-ray (and I probably missed a few format changes in there). If you've got a bunch of Warner DVDs and feel compelled to upgrade them to Blu-ray, check out this Warner Brothers site: http://www.dvd2blu.com/. You'll have to physically mail in your DVDs, and shipping charges apply if you have less than four to upgrade, but if you have four or more from the list …

More Inputs, Please!

August 12, 2009 - by Avi Greengart - 2 Comments.

I was talking with Microsoft about the XBOX 360 earlier this week, and one of the things they said will drive consumers to their console vs. the competition is the integration of multiple features into Live, such as Netflix streaming, gaming, and other content. At Current Analysis our Digital Home service covers game consoles from the perspective of connected services; we treat a PS3, XBOX, or Wii like the fancy set top boxes (that not coincidentally also play games) that they have become. However, I thought we were a bit ahead of the curve – most consumers haven't fully embraced …

E3 Wrap-Up

June 5, 2009 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

I'm in charge of Consumer Devices at Current Analysis, which is actually composed of two separate groups: Mobile Devices and Digital Home. I've been in charge of the devices portion of our Digital Home service since the beginning of this year, and while I intend to continue posting here about home theater, I thought I'd plug noteworthy Digital Home reports on this blog as well. This year's E3 (the electronic gaming show) crossed over both of my coverage areas. I stayed home this year – I'm on the road a lot as it is – but Bruce McGregor, our Senior …

DVD

Blu-ray Not Dead?, Part Whatever

January 21, 2009 - by Avi Greengart - 2 Comments.

CNET lists 9 Reasons Why Blu-ray Will Succeed.Jeremy Toeman says CNET is wrong.Jeremy is right. Look, it's a great format, and I certainly try to rent Blu-ray (from Netflix) and buy Blu-ray discs in the rare cases where I'm buying. I'm even upgrading a few discs from DVD to Blu-ray: Groundhog Day is coming out on Blu-ray on January 27! We watch that one at least annually. When Star Wars comes out on Blu-ray, yeah, I'll buy it yet again even though the DVD is pristine. The thing is, even CNET admits that the only reason a consumer would buy …

Home Theater Basics: 720p vs. 1080p, Analog/Digital Switchover

October 19, 2008 - by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

Here's one from the mailbag: Avi, We want to buy a 37" LCD TV. Is there a significant difference between 720P and 1080P? Yes, there is a significant difference between 720p and 1080p – though it depends on what you’re watching on it, and even then you may not be able to see the difference. The bottom line is that you can almost always get away with buying a 720p set and saving the money, but nobody seems to believe this answer, so here’s a slightly more involved one: First, two quick definitions: 1. the “p” in 1080P …

CES 2008: High Def Disc Format War Over, Thin TVs, and Steve Jobs

January 11, 2008 - by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

Well, I’m back from Las Vegas, but my body is still on the wrong time zone. There were three main stories at this year’s CES: The death of HD-DVD. With Warner’s announcement that it will no longer sell HD-DVD movies, the high definition disc format war is effectively over with Blu-ray as the victor. Toshiba (one of HD-DVD’s primary backers) offered a weak reaction, saying that it is stunned and upset, but that HD-DVD has been declared dead before. That’s true, but formats are only as valuable as the content that they are tied to. With Warner gone, only Paramount …