If there’s one thing Internet users like, it’s a good list. Whether it’s the top 10 ways to tell if your man is cheating or five killer iPhone apps for foodies, as Internet users, we’re drawn to random bulleted rankings like college kids to dollar drafts.

While scouring the Internet recently, we came across an interesting story by Geoff Morrison from Sound and Vision titled Seven Home Theater Myths Debunked that highlighted some obvious and not-so obvious beliefs people have about the gear and performance that makes up their home theaters or media rooms. Most people know that owning an HD TV doesn’t guarantee your watching HD content. You need an HD equipped source component (like a Blu-ray or HD cable receiver) and the necessary cables. File that under obvious.

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While the market is slowly making a rebound according to CEPro’s State of the Industry 2011, both existing and new homeowners are still looking to maximize their dollars. The funds might not be in their budget for lavish vacations in faraway lands, resulting in more families spending time together at home. In doing so, their meeting place often tends to be in the family room, on comfortable couches and in front of large HD televisions.


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AV products follow a hierarchy of coolness. You could argue a Kaleidescape or Sooloos server are at the cool end of the spectrum while products like HDMI cables, adapters and interconnects skew towards the necessary, but not worth talking about to your friends end of the spectrum. In between are all the myriad of output devices like projectors, HD TVs, speakers, Blu-ray players and more.

The funny thing about defining a AV coolness factor is that sometimes the most mundane sounding products actually allow other AV devices to improve their coolness factor, even adding new functionality that wasn’t there before. Case in point: IOGEAR’s new 2-Port Dual View Dual-Link DVI KVMP Switch may just look like a small black box with a variety of inputs and outputs, but take a closer look, and one can envision dozens of practical applications for this KVM product, both at home and in commercial settings.

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In the previous post, we made the argument that it’s time to redefine the meaning of TV because on-demand services , media center applications, gaming consoles, Internet connectivity and more are changing what can be managed and consumed with a TV. However, to benefit from all this magical convergence, proper AV accessories are required.

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A few weeks ago, we commented on the potential setbacks that may be experienced around Google TV, due to its requests for TV makers to delay their planned Consumer Electronics Show (CES) January 2011 introductions. It looks like these software refinements may open the door for other companies and technologies to make their stake in the next-generation TV-watching experience.

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by Barry Lieberman
 Advantage Plus Marketing Group, Inc.

Overview of Requirements

My vision was to set up flat-panel TVs in two rooms that would allow my family to watch full HD television, have Internet access, Blu-ray DVD viewing, and PC access using those TVs.

The front room would have a Samsung 55″ 8000 Series flat panel TV with 5.1 surround sound. I wanted that TV to be able to double as a PC monitor, an on-demand movie display (Internet Streaming), Blu-ray display and, of course, display full HD TV from our DVR.

Then the game room would have a Samsung 46″ 8000 Series flat panel TV. That TV would also have access to the same PC, Blu-ray player, its own digital HD cable box, and on-demand movie display (Internet Streaming). That room would also have 5.1 surround sound.

Lastly, I wanted all the source equipment housed in a “media” closet. The media closet includes the following equipment:
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The Consumer Electronics Show is quickly coming up next month in Las Vegas, January 6-9, 2011. Among the exciting new products and technologies that have been expected to make news at the show is Google TV. Simply put, this new web-based TV product brings Web video and other computer smarts to TV sets.

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The greatest challenge of putting together a home entertainment system is often choosing what components to install. Display devices alone give you the options of LCD, plasma, OLED, projectors and 3D. Once the display is in place there’s Blu-ray players, digital audio convertors (DAC), gaming systems and a myriad number of A/V cables and other components, each with its own specific feature set and appeal to the end user.
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An interesting thing happened recently. The number of U.S. households that subscribe to cable and other paid TV services fell for the first time since the dawn of cable – by about 335,000 households over the last two quarters out of about 100 million.

Time Warner Inc. also recently commented that it expects its HBO pay-TV service to decline by 1.5 million subscribers this year. Whether this projected decrease can be pinpointed on economic changes or promotional pricing as Time Warner indicated, one thing is clear – technology has been developing in such a way that consumers have been able to replace their cable subscriptions with content streaming from the web.

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Stable and interference-free wireless HD streaming has been a pursuit of hardcore AV enthusiasts over the last several years. New devices such as the Boxee Box and content sources such as Hulu and Youtube have inspired fans of home entertainment to search for the perfect combination of routers, connectors, controls and more to achieve wireless streaming bliss.



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