SVC_Connected Home: Upgrading from DVD to Blu-ray: The Movie Collector's Dilemma

Residential AV presents Connected Home

January 20, 2009 | A Penton Media Publication

Ins and Outs of Acoustics in Challenging Environments
Every AV systems project must contend with the facilities' acoustics. Success measured by the user's ability to understand the communicated media is dependent on the room's response to sound. Register for the webcast, to be held Jan. 29 at 2 p.m. EST .

	Top Story: Connected Home

Upgrading from DVD to Blu-ray: The Movie Collector's Dilemma
By Jason Bovberg

Chances are, if you're reading this, you're a movie collector. And if you're like me, your movie collecting really began in earnest with the introduction of the DVD format. That's when the very notion of home theater began to realistically dawn on us. Of course, film projectors at home were never a truly viable option for most of us, and VHS (and even Beta) always felt like a compromised medium, with its cropped image and degrading delivery mechanism. Some of us remember laser discs fondly, but most of us never thought those giant, analog, LP-sized flipper discs quite hit the home-theater sweet spot. No, it was DVD that revolutionized the market—old news, to be sure, but worth repeating now that we're wandering a strange purgatory between DVD dominance and Blu-ray emergence. more>>

	In Depth: Residential AV

CES Wrap-up: 3D Gets Serious
By Rebecca Day
If you thought the opening ceremony of the Olympics were impressive in HD, try catching a clip in 3D. Panasonic wowed attendees at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this month in Las Vegas with a demo of 3D clips on its 103in. plasma, showing off the in-your-face excitement of next-gen video on everything from animation and film to the Beijing Olympics. more>>

	Installation News

Increasing Installer Efficiency in a Down Economy
By Chris Mauzy
There is no doubt that we are in a difficult economy right now. As small-business owners, employees, and consumers, we are all keeping our wallets closed these days. However, as professionals in the electronics industry, we have recently been receiving mixed messages, causing some confusion about the current state of the consumer electronics industry. Some reports claim HDTV sales are slowing, but the Consumer Electronics Association says flatpanel TV sales were up 40 percent in October. more>>

	New Products

Draper Introduces Fine Art for FlatScreens

A leading provider of motorized projection screens, window coverings, and projector lifts has joined forces with the world's largest weaver of tapestries. Screen manufacturer Draper, Inc. and Fine Art Tapestries introduce Fine Art for FlatScreens, which conceals a flatscreen television with a stunning work of art and reveals it at the touch of a switch or wireless controller. more>>

Firefly Design Group Helps Dealers Quickly Qualify Clients and Define Budgets with Salez Toolz Software
Firefly Design Group, the premier engineering and systems consulting firm in the custom electronics industry, has announced it will now offer Salez Toolz software to professional systems contractors. In providing Salez Toolz's fully-customizable platform, Firefly Design Group provides dealers with a proven tool for enhancing the selling process. more>>

Meridian Launches New HDMI Audio Processor
Meridian is pleased to introduce the Meridian HD621 HDMI Audio Processor. The clever design provides a 6-into-1 video switch allowing all HDMI-equipped components to be fed via a single cable to the display. Going a step further, the processor also separates up to 8 channels of audio signal from the data stream at the HDMI source and provides audio-only outputs for connection to an existing Meridian Surround Controller. more>>