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By Avi Greengart, reprinted with permission from Techsponential XGIMI recently launched its latest smart projector, the MoGo 2 Pro (press release) in New York. The projector belongs to a relatively new category of home entertainment display that combines front projection, portability, and smart TV streaming capabilities over WiFi. As with previous display technology shifts, smart projectors are leading to new companies and brands. XGIMI (pronounced, “ex-jimmy;” loosely translated from Chinese as, “excellence in square meters”) was founded nine years ago in Chengdu, China. IDC ranked it as China’s projector market share leader by 2018, and it has sold 4.5 million …

It's resting.

Time flies. I was looking for something I had posted a while ago and discovered that this site has been live and somewhat regularly updated since October 24, 2004. So I'm about a month late noticing, but this site is an eight year old! We're a tween!  My first post:  Welcome. Thanks for reading. Now I need to go out and buy a cake.

This.

CEPro has a new mini-article by Molly Gibson with four tips for selling custom installed home theater products to women, and Julie Jacobson links to an article of hers on the same subject. Here's the summary: Molly thinks that women need a soft sell based on listening to her needs and discovering how she thinks that the system will be used. She also rails against pushing features and future-proofing that goes beyond the buyer's needs, and pushes style as a critical part of the woman's buying criteria. Julie thinks that this has nothing to do with selling to women and …

Wisdom Audio has figured out a way to properly demo its super-high end architectural (in-wall) speakers: it's offering "qualified" prospects a free trip to its Carson City, NV headquarters. "Offer: Wisdom Audio will provide round trip transportation for a visit to our factory for someone with qualified interest in a large-scale Sage Series system. They will tour our factory with their dealer, meet the Wisdom Audio team and spend time in our sound room listening to their favorite music. (Limited to North America and must occur before January 31, 2011)" I've never been there – or heard Wisdom Audio's speakers …

CEPro reports that Quixel Research says home-theater front projector sales rebounded in the first quarter compared to a year earlier, with a 51% increase in unit sales and 17% increase in revenue. Woo hoo! Then again, sales are down consecutively from last quarter (the overall market value was $72 million at the end of the first quarter, down from $97 million in Q4 2009). Q1 sales declines are normal – most people buy projectors for Christmas, not the Super Bowl. Nice to see that the high end of the market is recovering overall.

Here's one from the mailbag: I’m thinking about upgrading my receiver. Currently I have a Denon AVR-987. It’s 3- 4 years old and does not have the current technology for blu ray. I’m thinking of going with a Sony STR-DA2400ES receiver. I have a 52” Sony XBR and a Sony BDP S-300 blu ray player. My speakers are Soundworks MC300 front/Soundworks original surrounds and JBL Northridge for the center. Any advice would be appreciated. It really depends on why you think you need the upgrade, but I wouldn’t do it. You’d be surprised, but your current receiver can handle Blu-ray …

I'm off to Apple's Special Event tomorrow. Journalists who want to contact me for comments afterwards can call me at 201 658 7729 or email me at agreengart @ currentanalysis com. Once Apple madness is behind us, more HTV posts are coming, including a post-CES wrap-up, VUDU review, and an end to my quest for an A/V receiver with enough HDMI inputs to serve as a test center.

I'm a bit backed up here at Home Theater View, both with posts (they're in my head but haven't quite made their way out of my head and onto the site) and with products to review. Logitech had sent over the Harmony 900 remote control just before it launched, but I first attempted to configure it last night.   The Harmony 900 is essentially an RF version of the IR-only Harmony One. In English, that means that the 900 is a universal remote control that looks nearly identical to another universal remote control in the Harmony line, but instead of …