Archive for the ‘Home Theater’ Category

The DarbeeVision Darblet – Home Theater’s Magic Bullet?

The DarbeeVision Darblet – Home Theater’s Magic Bullet?

We home theater enthusiasts have a tendency to be obsessive tinkerers, constantly upgrading our equipment, recalibrating and adding new devices to eke just a smidge better performance out of our audio and video gear. Over the years, many companies have attempted to capitalize on this by marketing (typically expensive) gizmos and doodads that claim almost magical abilities to solve problems we may not have even known that we had. My first instinct is to approach such things with inherent skepticism. Recently, a company by the name of Darbee Visual Presence entered the fray with a device called the DarbeeVision Darblet, which is said to instantly and decidedly improve the image quality of any video source on a high-definition display. What’s more, the Darblet is very simple to install and use, and isn’t terribly expensive. Could this be the real deal? I decided to try one and find out.
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Posterizing: Searching for Alien Boogers

Posterizing: Searching for Alien Boogers

In this edition of Posterizing, we have a pretty eclectic mix of new movie posters. Some are good, others decent, and yet others just weird.
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Are You Ready for Atmos?

Are You Ready for Atmos?

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Dolby’s new theatrical surround sound format, called Atmos, that promises to revolutionize the way that movie soundtracks are created and presented. At the time, I’d received a brief demo of the system at Dolby Labs’ headquarters in San Francisco, and was pretty impressed by it. This Friday, Dolby officially rolls out Atmos to 14 test theaters in conjunction with the theatrical release of Pixar’s ‘Brave’, which is the first full feature film to be mixed in the Atmos format. Want to experience this for yourself? If you live near one of these locations, you can.
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Douglas Trumbull May Have This Frame Rate Thing Figured Out

Douglas Trumbull May Have This Frame Rate Thing Figured Out

A couple months ago, I posted the news that an audience test screening of footage from Peter Jackson’s upcoming ‘The Hobbit’ film was widely greeted with negative reactions, primarily due to the director’s experiment with shooting the movie at a higher 48 frames-per-second photographic rate. Viewers who’ve grown accustomed to the so-called “film look” of 24 fps photography over the decades found the more “video-like” appearance of the higher frame rate unnatural and disturbing. Now, visual effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull has invented his own high-frame-rate photographic process that may just solve this dilemma.
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Mid-Week Poll: Will You Upgrade Your Home Theater to 4k?

Mid-Week Poll: Will You Upgrade Your Home Theater to 4k?

Now that 1080p is pretty well entrenched as the current home theater standard for HDTV and display resolution, the consumer electronics industry is already making moves to push us to new 4k screens. At a resolution of 4096×2304, that’s four-and-a-half times the number of pixels than we’re using now. Are you willing to make this leap, or do you question the need for it?
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Perhaps Wider Isn’t Always Better

Perhaps Wider Isn’t Always Better

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m a proponent of Constant Image Height display in my home theater. Just last week, I posted about an interesting new technology that could improve the resolution of Blu-ray discs to benefit CIH projection. However, even I have to concede that the aesthetic advantages of a Cinemascope-shaped screen must sometimes give way to practicality. To that end, I don’t really understand the point of Toshiba’s new 21:9 aspect ratio Ultrabook computer.
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Mid-Week Poll: Do You Watch or Skip TV Commercials?

Mid-Week Poll: Do You Watch or Skip TV Commercials?

In recent lawsuits, major broadcast networks NBC, CBS and Fox have all attempted to sue Dish Network over the satellite provider’s so-called “Auto Hop” feature that allows viewers to automatically skip TV commercials. This makes me wonder: How many of you actually watch commercials?
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“Folded Space” Squeezes More Resolution into a Blu-ray Image

“Folded Space” Squeezes More Resolution into a Blu-ray Image

Constant Image Height projection may still be a small niche within the home theater hobby, but its advocates (myself included) are passionate about the benefits of a proper “scope” presentation for movies on a 2.35:1 screen. One potential drawback of this practice, however, is the limited resolution available on a letterboxed Blu-ray disc. A new process called Folded Space may provide a solution to this problem by “hiding” additional pixels within the video image.
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Mid-Week Poll: Wearable Electronics

Mid-Week Poll: Wearable Electronics

The recent development of a new material called GraphExeter, described as “the most transparent, lightweight and flexible material ever for conducting electricity,” has been hailed a significant breakthrough for the field of wearable electronics. Several major companies, including Google’s “Project Glass,” have been working to create electronic devices (such as computers, smartphones, MP3 players or even video screens) that can be integrated into a person’s clothing or eyeglasses. My question to our readers is: Would you even want such a thing?
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Posterizing: Holy Fiery Bats, Batman!

Posterizing: Holy Fiery Bats, Batman!

As the summer rolls along, we get to see more new posters for some of the year’s soon-to-be biggest hits. A few indie films have also been peppered in with them for good measure.
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