Audio / Computing

Product Review: Axiom Audio Audiobytes and EPZero Subwoofer

- by Avi Greengart - 7 Comments.

Axiom has been trying to get me to review a set of speakers from their home theater surround lineup, but I asked to start with something smaller, so they suggested their Audiobytes PC speaker system. I’ve been using what counts as “high end” speaker systems in the PC world on my media center PC for nearly a decade. My primary PC speaker system is a Klipsch THX Pro Media 5.1, which I have pitted against a 5.1 THX setup from Logitech, 2.1 systems from Altec Lansing, and others over the years. Axiom’s Audiobyte system consists of up to four pieces: …

Product Review: Axiom Audio Audiobytes and EPZero Subwoofer Read More
Audio

Product Review: mStation 2.1 Stereo Tower

- by Avi Greengart - 4 Comments.

Against my parents’ wishes, all my aunts and uncles got together and bought me a cheap stereo system as a Bar Mitzvah gift. (My parents would have preferred a set of Talmud, a computer, sports equipment – literally anything that wasn’t a stereo system I could use to blast horrible rock and roll and annoy my father. Yes, I grew up in the movie Footloose.) It was a thing of beauty: a Fisher record player/tape deck/am/fm radio and a pair of speakers that were at least three feet tall. Oh, those speakers were huge, and the system could play much …

Product Review: mStation 2.1 Stereo Tower Read More
Accessories / Audio / Displays / HDTV

Product Review: Accell 4×2 HDMI Switcher

- by Avi Greengart - 3 Comments.

HDMI was supposed to bring the home theater world from the confusing age of multiple cables for audio and video (and sometimes multiple audio cables and multiple video cables) down to just a single cable from each component to your display. If your display doesn’t have enough HDMI inputs for all your sources, you need an HDMI switcher or a receiver which has an HDMI switcher built in. Then you need an HDMI cable from the each source to the switcher or receiver, but just one from there to the display. Fortunately, even some budget receivers now have HDMI switching …

Product Review: Accell 4×2 HDMI Switcher Read More
Displays

Come on in, the 1080p water’s fine!

- by Avi Greengart - 2 Comments.

Evan Powell over at ProjectorCentral has a short article on the massive drop in 1080p projector prices and he notes that this, plus the end of the format war, makes now an ideal time to buy. He’s not kidding. In some cases prices on models introduced just four months ago have fallen by hundreds of dollars as newer models have hit the market. The price on the Panasonic PT-AE2000U I bought at the end of the year seems to be holding steady; I’m not sure whether that means there is higher demand for this model — certainly a possibility — …

Come on in, the 1080p water’s fine! Read More
Uncategorized

HD-DVD is dead, but did Blu-ray win?

- by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

The quick post-mortem on HD-DVD: It was a better standard in almost every way but capacity (and double layer HD-DVD discs made even that a moot point). Blu-ray can be spectacular, but the specification is still evolving. HD-DVD died  because consumers bought more Blu-ray discs. Consumers bought more Blu-ray discs because there were more Blu-ray players sold. There were more Blu-ray players sold because most of those were Sony Playstation 3’s (PS3). Thus, Sony’s decision to include a Blu-ray player in the PS3 was the primary factor in the death of HD-DVD. That doesn’t mean Sony won. First, Jeremy Toeman …

HD-DVD is dead, but did Blu-ray win? Read More
Industry

CES 2008: GizmodoGate

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

[Warning: rant coming] GizmodoGate really bothered me. I was at that Motorola press conference. This was Moto’s first time talking to press/analysts in the post-Zander era, and they kept starting and stopping and starting and stopping. It was annoying for me to watch, and very hard for them to tell a smooth story. If Gizmodo had characterized this as a prank gone badly wrong and apologized, it might have been forgivable (after all, some of us do have a sense of humor). Instead, Gizmodo’s unrepentent response left a really bad taste in my mouth. I’ve been a marketing professional in …

CES 2008: GizmodoGate Read More
Computing / Displays / DVD / HDTV / Industry

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

- 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 …

CES 2008: High Def Disc Format War Over, Thin TVs, and Steve Jobs Read More
Displays / HDTV / Industry

RIP: First CRTs, now RPTVs

- by Avi Greengart - 7 Comments.

The AP is reporting that Sony is now exiting its "money losing" RPTV business  to focus exclusively on flat panel displays; Sony’s technologies of choice are LCD and OLED. (As an aside, I thought Sony’s TV business had finally pulled into the black after years of losses – the Playstation business was supporting everything else until the PS3, and then the situation reversed. I guess the flat panels were profitable but the big sets weren’t.) This is the second major television technology/form factor to get the boot – outside of mass merchandisers its pretty hard to find a CRT any …

RIP: First CRTs, now RPTVs Read More
Uncategorized

Last Minute Holiday Gift Guide 2007

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

My "Last Minute Mostly Non-Obvious Tech Holiday Gift Guide" for 2007 has been posted over at LiveDigitally. (Also, AT&T Tech Channel interviewed me and pulled excerpts out into four video segments: 12/10/07 – Power, 12/12/07 – Web browsing and music, 12/14/07 For the videophile, and 12/17/07 – For the road warrior. A mirror of the text can also be found at Greengart.com.) Happy shopping, -avi

Last Minute Holiday Gift Guide 2007 Read More
Displays / HDTV

CES 2008: Vizio to launch 50″ 1080p plasma for $1499

- by Avi Greengart - 2 Comments.

Usually the invitations you get from PR firms are either a) inflated and non-specific or b) specific, but require a non-disclosure agreement. For an example of Type A: "come see how we will revolutionize the digital music industry." I actually got an invitation with this exact wording this year. Since it didn’t have any details or come from a company with even an outside shot at revolutionizing anything, it mostly served to amuse me for a second before I hit "delete." I can’t provide an example of Type B, for obvious reasons, but many vendors will give you a preview …

CES 2008: Vizio to launch 50″ 1080p plasma for $1499 Read More