Innholdsfortegnelse for Oct-12 i Home Theater

Reviewers at Home Theater have a near-impossible task. Their job is to communicate, with words on a page accompanied by a few photographs, an experience with an audio or video component that can only be rightly conveyed viscerally. That is to say, in real life we don’t just listen to or view components, we react to them: physically, emotionally, intuitively. To suggest that we can make you feel what we feel when we get hands on with a piece of kit (as the Brits like to call it) is folly. At best we can convey some of the personal excitement and enthusiasm—or disappointment—our reviewer felt. That is very different than having you experience the component for yourself. The irony here is that the parts of our experience that are hardest…

SAMSUNG CLOUD GAMING BRINGS “family-friendly and AAA video games directly to owners of Samsung LED 7000 series and up smart TVs in the U.S.,” the company says, with no need to download, install, or update games. Beta testing was about to begin at press time... Harman Kardon’s First Headphones in eight years use Bluetooth and apt-X wireless technology to stream audio from smartphones and other devices. Models include the BT, rectangular-looking full-size cans ($249); the NC, an over-ear model ($299); the CL, another on-ear model ($199); and the in-ear AE ($149) and NI ($100)... Sharp Aquos HDTVs will use the Espial TV browser, based on HTML5 open standards. It will appear in Aquos LCD HDTVs in North American, China, and Japan... The Smart TV Alliance will bring together LG, TP…

The Sennheiser HD414 was a game changer in 1968. In those days hi-fi headphones were all big and bulky, closed-back designs, and the compact HD414 was the industry’s first “open aire,” on-ear (supra-aural) headphone. It looked, felt and sounded like nothing else and forecast the future direction of headphone sound. The first generation white HD414s didn’t light my fire, but the black ones with brilliant canary yellow earpads were something else again. The sound and comfort more than lived up to the jazzy good looks. In 1970 I bought a pair of HD414s to replace my Pioneer closed-back phones, and moving up to the Sennheisers was a revelation. A lot of people felt the same way, and Sennheiser sold more than 10,000,000 HD414s, making it the best-selling quality headphone of…

I half expected an ordeal as I walked into Walmart carrying a small shopping bag with several movies, ready to take the new Discto- Digital service for a spin. I was directed to the electronics department where I was greeted by a large placard that read: “Access your movie collection. Any time. Any place. 3 Easy Steps...” Offered in Walmart stores across the country, the service is operated through the chain’s online streaming service, Vudu, and is intended to provide an easy way to set up a cloud-based digital movie library with DVDs and Bluray Discs you already own. It works in conjunction with the UltraViolet (UV) cloud-based clearinghouse established last fall by the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, a consortium backed by five major movie studios—Warner, Paramount, Sony, Fox, and…

It’s 11:00 on a Sunday night. Your honey just went up to bed and you can’t wait to crank up your latest Blu-ray acquisition: Jimi Plays Berkeley, a long-forgotten 1970 documentary that has been restored and remixed in 5.1 surround. Seconds after Hendrix rips into the first number, the dreaded foot stomping from above begins. The party’s over before it even starts. Last time it was a cataclysmic crescendo from Inception that did you in. Frustrated, you vow to remedy the situation and, once and for all, soundproof the family room that doubles as your home theater. Sound familiar? Ever wonder what it would take to soundproof a home theater/media room/man cave? Or maybe you’re building a new home or planning an addition to accommodate the theater of your dreams…

PRICE: $3,700 AT A GLANCE: Bright, punchy picture • Blacks and shadow detail approaching reference quality • Near-complete adjustability Panasonic TC-P65VT50 3D Plasma HDTV 2D PERFORMANCE 4.5/5.0 3D PERFORMANCE 4.0/5.0 FEATURES 4.0/5.0 ERGONOMICS 4.0/5.0 VALUE 5.0/5.0 As Good as It Gets? Panasonic has improved its plasma sets each year, and while that march forward has generated torturous verbiage to describe its continually improving plasma HDTV black levels (Infinite Black, Infinite Black Pro, Infinite Black Ultra, and, perhaps next year, Infinite Black Pro Ultra), the company has kept pushing the design envelope. And it has done so even as flat panel prices continue to drop. A 65-inch plasma for $3,700 would have been considered an impossible dream just a few years ago when the goal was to get prices down to…

MARANTZ SR7007 A/V RECIEVER AUDIO DECODING: DOLBY: TrueHD, Digital 5.1, EX, Pro Logic II/IIx/IIz DTS: DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, DTS, ES, 96/24, Neo:6 AUDYSSEY: Dynamic EQ, Dynamic Volume, DSX OTHER: Direct, Pure Direct, Multi-Ch Stereo, Virtual 3D: Yes THX CERTIFIED: No NUMBER OF AMP CHANNELS: 7 RATED POWER (WATTS PER CHANNEL): 125 watts into 8 ohms, two channels driven SPECIFIED FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 10 Hz to 100 kHz (+/–3 dB) VIDEO PROCESSING: Analog Devices AUTO SETUP/ROOM EQ: Audyssey MultEQ XT DIMENSIONS (W X H X D, INCHES): 17.33 x 7.36 x 15 WEIGHT (POUNDS): 27.26 PRICE: $1,800…

PRICE: $2,648 AT A GLANCE: Die-cast aluminum satellites • Flat-form-factor subwoofer • Remarkable transparency Heavy Metal Maestro Paradigm MilleniaOne Speaker System PERFORMANCE 5.0/5.0 BUILD QUALITY 5.0/5.0 VALUE 5.0/5.0 Not often do I begin a review with an apology to readers. But I owe you one. It’s taken me an unconscionably long time to get around to reviewing the Paradigm MilleniaOne satellite speaker system and MilleniaSub. The products made their retail debuts in November 2010. Since then they’ve languished on my to-do list despite the fact that Paradigm is one of my favorite speaker manufacturers. In fact, I never fail to cite my reference speakers, the Paradigm Reference Studio 20 v.4, in every A/V receiver review. Now that I’ve gotten an earful of the MilleniaOne and MilleniaSub, I’m kicking myself. I…

PANASONIC DMP-BDT220 BLU-RAY 3D PLAYER BD-LIVE: Yes (external storage required) BONUSVIEW: Yes (external storage required) FIRMWARE VERSION: 1.22 3D: Yes AUDIO DECODING: DOLBY: Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD DTS: DTS-HD Master Audio Essential, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio OTHER: FLAC, MP3 HDMI VIDEO RESOLUTIONS: 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p COMPATIBLE PLAYBACK FORMATS: DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, MKV, AVCHD, JPEG DIMENSIONS (W X H X D, INCHES): 16.94 x 1.5 x 7.06 WEIGHT (POUNDS): 3.3 PRICE: $150…

HOT HEAD As Marvel’s comic characters go, Ghost Rider is hellishly hard to categorize. From what I can gather from the character’s two films, 2007’s Ghost Rider and this sequel (I’m not a fan of the comics), Johnny Blaze is a motorcycle stunt rider who sells his soul to the devil to save his father’s life. In exchange, he periodically turns into an ancient, fiery demon that searches out evil to suck out its soul. A bummer for sure, but everybody needs a hobby. His motorcycle has apparently sold its carburetor and tires to Beelzebub as well, since whenever Johnny goes all flames and stuff, he’s also treated to one hell of a ride. Talk about sitting on the hot seat. Johnny’s pursuit of evil soon puts him at odds…

SMALL IS ONLY A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE When you’re the size of a Star Wars action figure, life has its own special challenges. Birds and cats become deadly predators, and a simple trip to the kitchen is like an expedition to the Himalayas. The Secret World of Arrietty tells the story of a young girl who lives with her parents behind the walls and under the floorboards of a quaint country house. Always careful not to make their presence known, they borrow things that won’t be missed, like a sheet of Kleenex or a single sugar cube; items that would last them a good six months or more. When a sickly young boy comes to live at the house, he soon discovers the tiny inhabitants, and a secret friendship is…

FLAT PANELS ENTRY LEVEL Panasonic Viera TC-P50S30 Plasma HDTV, $900 Reviewed at HomeTheater.com Panasonic Viera TC-P50ST30 3D Plasma HDTV, $1,300 Reviewed September 2011 Samsung UN46D6000 LED LCD HDTV, $1,300 Reviewed at HomeTheater.com Panasonic Viera TC-P55ST50 3D Plasma HDTV, $1,700 Reviewed July 2012 MIDRANGE Vizio M3D650SV 3D LED-LCD TV, $2,200 Reviewed at HomeTheater.com Panasonic Viera TC-P55VT30 3D Plasma HDTV, $2,500 Reviewed September 2011 SunBriteTV Model 4660 HD Outdoor LCD HDTV, $3,000 Reviewed July 2012 Samsung PN59D8000 3D Plasma HDTV, $3,000 Reviewed December 2011 HIGH END Sony Bravia XBR-55HX929 3D LED LCD HDTV, $3,500 Reviewed November 2011 Panasonic TC-P65VT50 3D Plasma HDTV, $3,700 Reviewed October 2012 Elite PRO-60X5FD 3D LED LCD HDTV, $6,000 Reviewed January 2012 PROJECTORS ENTRY LEVEL BenQ W7000 3D DLP Projector, $2,999 Reviewed August 2012 MIDRANGE JVC DLA-X30 3D…

WE WELCOME QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS. E-mail them to editor@hometheater.com. Please note: Be sure to check the FAQ page on our Website (HomeTheater.com) to see if we’ve already answered any questions you might have. Questions about the features and functions of a particular product are best directed to the manufacturer. Questions about what product you should buy are best directed to a dealer who knows all the details of your system, your preferences, and your personal habits. All submissions are considered the exclusive property of Home Theater magazine and Source Interlink Media. Due to the volume of mail that we receive, we regret that we cannot respond to every letter. A Darn Good Question I’m really puzzled. Major companies that produce components continue to ignore the remote control. I just built…

Today’s flat panels are beautiful to look at whether turned on or off, but there are times when you just want to conceal—not reveal—your TV. Blending your big screen into a room environment doesn’t have to be a design dilemma; in fact, it’s easier than ever with these options. VUTEC’S ARTSCREEN-R SERIES—a motorized masking system for TVs from 42 to 65 inches—transforms your flat panel into an element of art. Not only can you choose the picture, frame, and liner for a classy coverup, but you can also eliminate glare and reflection with swivel and tilt functions. A robotic arm extends the flat panel 12 inches from the wall, letting you swivel left to right (from 20 degrees to 28 degrees) and tilt (25 degrees upward and 7 degrees down).…

Price: $950 At a Glance: Folded Motion tweeter • Custom five-way biwire/biamp binding posts • Aluminum cone drivers MartinLogan Motion 40 Loudspeaker PERFORMANCE 4.0/5.0 BUILD QUALITY 4.0/5.0 VALUE 4.0/5.0 For the first 20 years or so, MartinLogan was just a geeky, tweaky speaker company that made electrostatic speakers—that’s just as in Stephen Hawking is just a physicist—with a few very serious (and very hexagonal) subwoofers in the lineup to take over the job of reproducing the lowest bass frequencies that even the best electrostatic panels simply don’t have the wherewithal to generate on their own. During that time, admission to the MartinLogan electrostatic club was never cheap. That, as you can imagine, put the dynamic, open, and airy sound that is a signature aspect of an electrostatic speaker out of…

PANASONIC TC-L55ET5 3D LCD HDTV Images are said to be bright and clear from almost any seat in the room thanks to a new high-efficiency LED-backlit LCD panel that maintains brightness over a wide viewing angle, while consuming 25 percent less power than Panasonic’s 2011 LCD HDTVs. A Web browser and built-in Wi-Fi make it easy to access online content, select apps from the Viera Connect Market, and video chat (optional camera required). The TV supports passive (polarized) 3D viewing and can convert any video to 3D; four pair of 3D glasses are included. Social TV: Apps for Facebook and Twitter let you get social on the big screen without connecting a PC. You can even tweet and post messages while watching TV. Price: $1,900 Panasonic • (800) 405-0652 •…

PRICE: $11,000 AT A GLANCE: Big, beautiful picture • Excellent setup controls • Serious 3D crosstalk Game Changer? Sharp LC-90LE745U 3D LCD HDTV 2D PERFORMANCE 4.0/5.0 3D PERFORMANCE 2.5/5.0 FEATURES 4.5/5.0 ERGONOMICS 4.5/5.0 VALUE 4.0/5.0 Ninety inches diagonal is not all that big as projection screens go. But Sharp’s new LC-90LE745U, at that same 90 inches, is immense by flat panel standards. With more than twice the screen area of a 65- inch set, it has little flat panel competition for its size, and none at all for its combination of size and cost. Panasonic has an 85- inch plasma, for example, that will set you back nearly twice as much. LG showed a 4K 80-inch LCD set at last January’s CES, but exact pricing and availability is still undetermined.…

FULL-ON/FULL-OFF CONTRAST RATIO: 16,165:1 For the picture settings used in this review, go to HomeTheater.com. All the post-calibration measurements shown here and all the observations in the review itself unless noted otherwise were performed in the Custom picture mode for 2D and 3D, through an HDMI input with the set adjusted as needed for the most accurate image in a darkened room. The above 2D contrast ratio was measured at a Contrast setting of 79, a Brightness setting of 57, and a Gamma setting of 2.4, and Panel brightness set to Mid. The peak white level with these settings was 32.33 foot-lamberts, and the black level was 0.002 ft-L. The Before Calibration RGB Balance shown in the charts was taken in the THX Cinema mode, adjusted for approximately the same…

MARANTZ SR7007 A/V RECEIVER Two channels driven continuously into 8-ohm loads: 0.1% distortion at 124.3 watts 1% distortion at 143.2 watts Five channels driven continuously into 8-ohm loads: 0.1% distortion at 89.5 watts 1% distortion at 111.4 watts Seven channels driven continuously into 8-ohm loads: 0.1% distortion at 70.5 watts 1% distortion at 83.8 watts Analog frequency response in Pure Direct mode: –0.15 dB at 10 Hz –0.04 dB at 20 Hz –0.07 dB at 20 kHz –3.27 dB at 50 kHz Analog frequency response with signal processing: –0.46 dB at 10 Hz –0.16 dB at 20 Hz –0.37 dB at 20 kHz –59.26 dB at 50 kHz This graph shows that the SR7007’s left channel, from CD input to speaker output with two channels driving 8-ohm loads, reaches 0.1…

PARADIGM MILLENIAONE SPEAKER SYSTEM Satellite Sensitivity: 87 dB from 500 Hz to 2 kHz This graph shows the quasi-anechoic (employing close-miking of all woofers) frequency response of the MilleniaOne satellite (purple trace) and Millenia Sub subwoofer (blue trace). The passive loudspeaker was measured with grille at a distance of 1 meter with a 2.83-volt input. The MilleniaOne’s listening-window response (a five-point average of axial and +/–15-degree horizontal and vertical responses) measures +2.15/–1.46 decibels from 200 hertz to 10 kilohertz. An average of axial and +/–15-degree horizontal responses in horizontal center mode measures +1.90/–2.10 dB from 200 Hz to 10 kHz. The –3-dB point is at 124 Hz, and the –6-dB point is at 107 Hz. Impedance reaches a minimum of 4.51 ohms at 277 Hz and a phase angle of…

Long before Batman had the Joker, the world’s greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes, had an evil nemesis who was every bit his equal in intelligence and powers of perception; the yin to his yang, so to speak. Professor James Moriarty was a precursor to the Bond villain and a blueprint for every criminal mastermind to come. In the previous Sherlock Holmes film, he was a mysterious and sinister presence concealed in darkness. For A Game of Shadows, he comes to the forefront to challenge the master detective to a game to the death and is played with relish by Jared Harris. The best scenes are the few where Holmes and Moriarty are sparring both physically and intellectually. Some lines of dialogue are lifted directly from The Final Problem, the Sherlock Holmes…

The buddy movie has been a staple in Hollywood going back to the days of Abbott and Costello. The 1980s revived it with films such as 48 Hours and Lethal Weapon, and there have been quite a few copycats over the years that have made their mark. Like most successful films, sequels are a surety, and this is where the Mel Gibson–fueled franchise proved its worth with nearly $500 million in box-office receipts for the four films. Gibson stars as L.A. Police Sgt. Martin Riggs, an ex–Special Forces solider who’s become mentally unstable since his wife passed away in an automobile accident. He’s considered a lethal weapon due to his suicidal tendencies that allow him to do his job without any fear of dying—I guess he figures if a bad…

THE PORTAL TO MERRIMENT ON THE 7 1/2TH FLOOR Being John Malkovich stands as a dizzying turn-of-the-century artifact, both literally (it was released in 1999) and culturally, capping the age of Andy Warhol’s obsession with celebrity and anticipating the Facebook-Twitter era’s razing of all boundaries between private and public, mundane life and thrilling spectacle. It’s also very funny. John Cusack plays a brilliant, sad-sack puppeteer who takes a job as a speed-filer and one day finds behind a file cabinet a portal that whooshes you into the mind and body of John Malkovich. His sexy, scheming co-worker (Catherine Keener) sells tickets, and suddenly dozens are lining up each night for 15 minutes of being somebody else. There are two jokes here: first, an homage to Warhol’s line that, in the…

PAGE# MANUFACTURERS 88 . . . . . Advanced Home Theater System Phone (800) 414-1849 www.advancedhometheater.com C4 . . . . . Audio Plus Services Phone (800) 663-9352 www.audioplusservices.com 7 . . . . . . BDI Phone (800) 428-2881 www.bdiusa.com 45 . . . . . Bello International Corp. Phone (732) 972-1333 www.bello.com 85 . . . . . CEDIA www.cedia.net 77 . . . . . CES www.CESweb.org 10 . . . . . CinemaShop.com Phone (866) 243-1001 www.cinemashop.com 46 . . . . . Crutchfield Phone (800) 555-8347 www.crutchfield.com C2–3 . . . Definitive Technology 38–39 . . Phone (800) 228-7148 89 . . . . . www.definitivetech.com/ht 5 . . . . . . Direct Technology Group Phone (954) 739-4700 www.directtechnologygroup.com 11 . . . .…

Cinema buffs have been in love with widescreen movies ever since 20th Century Fox introduced CinemaScope to counter a threatening new entertainment medium: television. Sixty years later, Vizio is offering the first TV with an extra-wide 21:9 screen optimized for the 2.35:1 format Hollywood uses for most major movies. The idea is to get rid of those wasteful black bars that appear above and below the image on a typical 16:9 TV and make use of the entire screen. On the flipside, of course, you get side bars when watching TV, reminiscent of the early days of HDTV when most TV shows were still being produced in the squarish 4:3 format. But Vizio offers a practical alternative to those side bars with its 58-inch CinemaWide LED-edge-lit LCD HDTV, aka model…

Price: $699 At a Glance: Dedicated sub that extends dynamics and musicality of Sonos speakers • Easy setup and simple control via iOS and Android apps • Unique design and stunning high-gloss finish • One-button setup to the Sonos network The latest addition to the Sonos family of products is the Sonos SUB, which is specifically designed to work with the company’s speakers—the Play:3 and Play:5. Either of these can be paired with another speaker of the same model to create a stereo pair for a wider soundfield. Sonos sent me two Play:3s that I paired with a shiny new SUB. The high-gloss black finish is quite stunning, and so is the design. The enclosure is essentially a cube with a thin rectangular hole in the center, making it easier…

The worldwide rate of TV replacement has fallen from 8.4 to 6.9 years, reports NPD DisplaySearch’s Global TV Replacement Study. Why this reduction of a year and a half? “On a global basis, the majority of households are still replacing CRT TVs with flat-panel TVs,” says research chief Riddhi Patel—nothing new there. However, “we are also observing mature markets, such as the U.S., the U.K., and others replacing their first-generation flat-panel TVs.” Desires for bigger and better pictures are more influential factors in the buying frenzy than features like 3D and IPTV. Pricing is also cited as “a key driver.” Emerging markets such as Russia, Brazil, Mexico, and China are leading the replacement drive. The average age of a household’s primary set is four to seven years…

PRICE: $10,000 (23 shade system) AT A GLANCE: Up to three-year battery life • Extremely quiet operation • Simple installation Lutron Sivoia Motorized Shading System PERFORMANCE 4.5/5.0 BUILD QUALITY 4.0/5.0 VALUE 5.0/5.0 Of all the “this is the coolest damn thing I’ve ever seen” things a home theater/wholehome automation system can do, the one that is consistently the most mesmerizing, most envied, coolest “coolest damn thing” is the control of motorized window treatments. (Although it sounds like something a doctor would prescribe for sick building syndrome, window treatments is the term people in the know use for what you and I would call curtains, blinds, and shades.) If you’ve never experienced motorized shades (or drapes or blinds)—and I mean experienced in the sense that you’ve seen them in action in…

FULL-ON/FULL-OFF CONTRAST RATIO: 6,720:1 For the picture settings used in this review, go to HomeTheater.com. All the post-calibration measurements shown here, and all the observations in the review itself unless noted otherwise, were performed in the Movie AV Mode for 2D and 3D, through an HDMI input with the set adjusted as needed for the most accurate image in a darkened room. The Sharp’s black level increased or decreased depending on the presence of small areas of brightness on an otherwise black screen. I selected 0.002 foot-lamberts—the measured black level with the pause bug of a Blu-ray player at the lower left of an otherwise fully black screen, as most likely representative of the set’s black level in dim, low-contrast scenes. The 2D contrast ratio above was calculated from this…

PRICE: $1,800 AT A GLANCE: Proprietary HDAM topology • 4K video processing • Audyssey, the works AUDIO PERFORMANCE 5.0/5.0 VIDEO PERFORMANCE 5.0/5.0 FEATURES 5.0/5.0 ERGONOMICS 4.5/5.0 VALUE 4.0/5.0 The ‘MMMM’ in D+M Marantz has come a long way since Saul Marantz started building audio products in his Kew Gardens, New York, basement. The latest twist in the story is the reinvention of D&M Holdings—that’s D for Denon and M for Marantz—into D+M Group. In addition to trading its ampersand for a plus sign, the company has radically expanded its product lines to include more new products and even new product categories. While Denon has gotten a lot of attention for the latter, including four jam-packed headphone lines, Marantz is also experimenting with new kinds of fun. Its first self-contained iDevice…

INPUTS: VIDEO: HDMI 1.4a (7), component video (3), composite video (4) AUDIO: Coaxial digital (2), optical digital (2), analog stereo (6), phono (1), 7.1-channel analog (1) ADDITIONAL: Ethernet (1) ACCESSORY: M-XPort (Bluetooth, 1), Sirius XM (1), AM (1), FM (1), HD Radio (1) OUTPUTS: VIDEO: HDMI 1.4a (3), component video (1), composite video (3) AUDIO: Analog stereo (3), 7.2-channel preout (1), 1/4-inch headphone (1) ADDITIONAL: RS-232 (1), 12-volt trigger (2), IR flasher (1), remote (in/out)…

PRICE: $150 AT A GLANCE: Reference-quality Blu-ray playback • Full 3D support including 2D-to-3D conversion • Lots of streaming options The Hits Keep On Coming Panasonic DMP-BDT220 Blu-ray 3D Player PERFORMANCE 5.0/5.0 FEATURES 4.5/5.0 ERGONOMICS 4.5/5.0 VALUE 5.0/5.0 It will be interesting to see where the Blu-ray player market goes in the next few years. We reached a point of diminishing returns on the newer lines of players. The Bluray spec hasn’t changed since the adoption of 3D, so there’s nothing new to add, and just about every device out there has an insurmountable number of streaming features. But that could have been said about last year’s models. Prices continue to drop, along with the size of the players, yet there doesn’t seem to be anywhere to go if you…

THE ROCK IN A HARD PLACE An old adage (OK, I just made it up) says that if you’re going to make a movie in 3D, you’d better give the audience something interesting to look at. The Mysterious Island does just that, dazzling the eyes with nonstop wonders held together by a wholly adequate plot. Young Sean (Josh Hutcherson) is having trouble living the suburban life of a normal teen after the excitement of his journey to the center of the earth. And soon enough, a cryptic message from his missing grandfather sets him off on a new adventure halfway around the globe, this time chaperoned by his supercool stepdad (Dwayne Johnson). They do indeed find the puzzling land mass Jules Verne wrote of, which might be the same locale…

THE SPOOKS COME OUT IN THE DAYTIME, TOO The old adage “trust no one” is dramatically reinforced in the adrenaline-pumping thriller Safe House. Government-run safe houses are supposedly secure areas where people of interest can be kept in quarantine for purposes of questioning or until safe transport can be arranged. Ryan Reynolds is a “housekeeper” stationed at a CIA safe house in Capetown, South Africa. His daily regimen consists of total isolation and staring at the walls. One night, however, covert operatives arrive with a high-profile renegade agent to be interrogated. Shortly after his arrival, all hell breaks loose and pretty much stays on the loose until the end of the movie. Denzel Washington stars as the rogue agent carrying some extremely volatile and valuable information. The HD picture has…

JUSTICE IN A PUSH-UP BRA Julia Roberts won her Oscar for portraying the tough-as-nails, real-life single mom Erin Brockovich, who, after a car accident, learns firsthand the inequities of our legal system. Down on her luck, she winds up taking a job as a secretary for the lawyer who lost her personal injury suit. Then one day a simple real estate case lands on her desk, but it quickly becomes very complicated. People are being asked to sell their homes, but ulterior motives lurk beneath the surface. A huge utility company has been improperly storing its toxic water nearby, a move that is making innocent families sick and possibly killing them. Although Erin is not a lawyer, she grows obsessed with the case, at great personal sacrifice and even risk.…

SIM2 M.150 3D LED Projector We tend to think of high-end video projection as the cornerstone of a larger-than-life home theater experience—you know, the kind that puts the local cinema to shame—rather than a source of creative lighting or fine art. But for SIM2 Multimedia, the Italian company known for high-style/high-performance projectors, the M.150 represents the intersection of home entertainment and interior design. Think of it as a light engine that never sleeps, ready to display treasured photographs and artwork or paint your walls with mood lighting when it’s not projecting Hollywood’s latest blockbuster while you sink into the sofa, popcorn in hand. The unit’s sharp, elegant lines are the handiwork of renowned industrial designer Giorgio Revoldini and, in addition to embodying the technology-meets-design philosophy behind the M.150, signify a…