Home Entertainment & Automation Services in Matthews, NC.
Home Entertainment & Automation Services in Matthews, NC.
Home audio and Video Services in Matthews, NC.  TV installation, Surround Sound, Home Entertainment Systems
Are Plasma TVs Still Alive?

LG and Panasonic are trying to revive plasma displays.

CRT TVs. Laserdisc. VHS. Beta. CED (bet you have to look that one up).

All of these once represented a state-of-the-art technology, but have since made their way to that big home theater in the sky.

Many consumers think plasma displays also are dead, or are on their way out. But plasmas shouldn’t be relegated to the book-ends of the display market just yet, at least not as far as LG Electronics and Panasonic are concerned.

LG is releasing eight new plasmas, including its INFINIA line. Trying to kick the stereotype that plasmas are thick and heavy, the INFINIA series includes a 60-inch model that’s only 2-inches thick and only 95 pounds. These models will feature:

-LG NetCast for access to Internet streaming media like YouTube, Netflix, Pandora, and more
-“Wireless Media Hub” design that allows components, such as Blu-ray players, to be connected to a hub that wirelessly transmits the signal up to 90 feet
-THX certification
-Light-sensing automatic calibration
Panasonic will release more than 20 models, including four 3D-capable TVs that range from 50-65 inches. The 3D sets, which won both “Best In Television” and “Best In Show” at CES 2010, will include one pair of 3D glasses. Other features include THX certification, NeoPDP picture enhancements, and Viera Cast network streaming.

Plasma won’t take back the middle of the flat-panel TV market, but it will look to continue to be the meat of many high-end display lines and an important part of the push for 3D in the home.

by Stephen Hopkins

http://www.electronichouse.com/article/are_plasma_tvs_still_alive/

Custom Installation Services, LLC – Home Theater, Audio and Video Services, Home Automation  in North Carolina and South Carolina

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Top 10 Blu-ray Releases for February 23

Some two-fer releases and some good titles you may have missed in the theater highlight this week’s new Blu-rays.

Director Steven Soderbergh has a pretty good track history. So does actor Matt Damon. So how is it that so many people missed out on The Informant! when it was in the theaters?

Whistleblower movies are always entertaining and informative, and this one seems like it would make for good viewing. Maybe not as gritty as The Insider, but a good look at big business nonetheless. It’s based on a true story.

Another lesser-known screener is about a big-mouthed football manager – football as in soccer – in the demanding English Premier League. It’s called The Damned United, a dark comedy about the brief tenure of the manager of reigning champ Leeds United. Should be a must-see for sports fans, and with the screenplay by Peter Morgan, who also wrote The Queen and Frost/Nixon, it should be engaging for most viewers.

If it’s horror that you’re after, take a gander at George Romero’s The Crazies. Yup, same tale as the movie you’ve seen advertised on TV a bunch lately, except this is the original from the master zombie movie director, with stark grit as only early 1970s horror can provide.

Also this week several two-fer Blu-ray offerings will hit shelves. You can double-dip on Chevy Chase (Funny Farm/Spies Like Us), Harrison Ford (Presumed Innocent/Frantic), Sandra Bullock (Miss Congeniality and sequel), Clint Eastwood (Dirty Harry/Magnum Force), De Niro/Crystal (Analyze This/Analyze That) and Grumpy and Grumpier Old Men.

For classical music fans, there are also a slew of classical and operatic releases this week for your listening pleasure.

 Here’s the full release schedule this week (listings and synopses courtesy of Blu-ray.com):
Analyze This/Analyze That
Birtwistle: The Minotaur
The Box
Cavalli: Ercole Amante
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant
The Crazies
The Damned United
Dead Snow
Dirty Harry/Magnum Force
Funny Farm/Spies Like Us
Google Me
Grumpy Old Men/Grumpier Old Men
Ichi the Killer
The Informant!
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths
Miss Congeniality/Miss Congeniality 2
Motherhood
Mozart: Don Giovanni
Neil Diamond: Hot August Night
Nurse Jackie: Season One
Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead
Presumed Innocent/Frantic
Rossini: Il Turco in Italia
Sorority Row
Schumann: Symphony No. 4 – Piano Concerto
Trailer Park Boys
The Universe: The Complete Season 4
Verdi: Un Ballo in Maschera
Wagner: Götterdämmerung
Wagner: Siegfried
Wrong Side of Town

by Arlen Schweiger

http://www.electronichouse.com/article/top_10_blu-ray_releases_for_february_23/

Custom Installation Services, LLC – Home Theater, Audio and Video Services, Home Automation  in North Carolina and South Carolina

Posted in Blu-ray, Flat Panel TV's, Music and Movies, News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment


Top 10 Blu-ray Releases for February 16

ran300A gem from Akira Kurosawa along with several Criterion Collection releases mark this week’s Blu-ray arrivals.

Valentine’s Day has come and gone—did you watch any of our 15 favorite romance flicks on Blu-ray?—and we’re getting into the winter doldrums. Without a theme for Hollywood studios to latch onto this week, the Blu-ray releases are a tad weak.

However, the true movie buff will be delighted, because in has stepped the Criterion Collection to offer a handful of releases while the big boys take a break. With titles like Hunger and Revanche, we’re not saying these will be name films that you’re going to run out and buy … but Criterion has become well known for its phenomenal restoration process of audio and video and great packaging to accompany its Blu-ray releases. Plus it’s willing to go on a limb and give you movies you’ve never heard of but chances are will be thought-provoking and leave you on the edge of your seat.

And if you have any doubt about the Blu-ray authoring, just look for Academy Award nominee The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which many have hailed as reference-quality Blu-ray material.

Anyway, it looks like the story of an Irishman’s hunger strike, Hunger, could be a winning Criterion pick this week.

Speaking of lavish-looking movies, famed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa was known for stunning epics and this week we get to see the high-definition treatment of his 1985 film Ran, released by Lionsgate. Expect the usual sweeping vistas and attention to details.

Also, if you’ve missed it in an earlier release version, there’s a 20th Anniversary edition of GoodFellas on its way to shelves this week. We’re never real fond of double-dip releases, but you can’t really go wrong with GoodFellas. If it’s more gun action you’re looking for, check out the Dirty Harry Collection that arrives this week as well.

Here’s the complete release schedule for the week of February 16, courtesy of Blu-ray.com:

Black Dynamite
Cabin Fever
Claymore: The Complete Series
Coco Before Chanel
A Concert by the Lake
Contempt
Dirty Harry Collection
Freeway Killer
GoodFellas (20th Anniversary Edition)
Halo Legends
Herioc Age: The Complete Series
Hunger
The Ladykillers
Law Abiding Citizen
Lola Montes
Ran
Revanche
Women in Trouble

by Arlen Schweiger

http://www.electronichouse.com/article/top_10_blu-ray_releases_for_february_16/

Custom Installation Services, LLC – Home Theater, Audio and Video Services, Home Automation  in North Carolina and South Carolina

Posted in Blu-ray, Home Theater, News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment


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