Silicon Image (SIMG) Show First HDMI 1.4 Parts For "Liquid HD" Over Ethernet Systems

Now your even your home network isn't safe from HDMI's unreliable, copy protected connection nightmares. Silicon Image, Inc. today introduced the SiI9387 port processor and the SiI9334 transmitter, the first semiconductor products to incorporate the latest HDMI 1.4 specification features......Read More

Viacom and Time Warner Find Middle Ground In TV Channel Fee Deal

Try telling your kids that SpongeBob isn't going to be on anymore. Tell them Dora went to explor-a on satellite and that you have cable. I doubt they will understand that in these tough economic times that television executives are......Read More

3D Is Exciting But Not Appropriate For All Films

As a filmmaker the question I am most asked is; will my next film be filmed in 3D? To be honest I'm astonished by this question for I really only have one film to my name and while I'm gearing......Read More

3M's New Vikuiti Film Aims To Help Save Power For Flat HDTVs By Up To 30 Percent

3M's Optical Systems Division just unveiled the industry's first multi-function film for monitors, Vikuiti™ Brightness Enhancement Film - Reflective Polarizer (MNT BEF-RP-230). Delivering superior performance that's similar to that of two separate prismatic enhancement and reflective polarizer films, Vikuiti Monitor......Read More

5 Reasons Why You Need To Go See The Movie April Showers (in theaters 4/24/09)

HomeTheaterReview.com's managing editor, Andrew Robinson, and our production team are about to release a film in about 20-25 theaters called April Showers that speaks directly to the AV needs, wants and desires of home theater enthusiasts and videophiles on many......Read More

A Filmmaker's Guide to Why You Need to Calibrate Your HDTV Today

I've been around my share of low-budget and big budget films for nearly seven years now and it always amazes me just how much goes into making a feature film. It's easy to see how and why actors, directors, writers,......Read More

A New World Order - Where and How To Sell Specialty AV Gear Going Forward

A few weeks back, HomeTheaterReview.com ran a featured article called "Nowhere to Sell" that outlined the rise and fall of many specialty and big box retailers in the current market. The landscape of where specialty or "high-end" audio video goods......Read More

Adult Content Shaping The Future of Blu-ray and HD Downloads

The adult video industry has long been credited with resolving the VHS versus Beta war of past, and that same industry may just be settling a video format war again. I'm not talking about the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD battle......Read More

An Inside Look at Michael Jackson's $100,000 A Month Rental Including His Home Theater

It's hard to imagine what life was like for entertainer Michael Jackson. He was one of the most successful performers of all time, with global concert tours and 47 million copies of his best-selling album in the hands of consumers.......Read More

An Open Letter To Audiophile Record Labels About Blu-ray For Music

To All Audiophile and Specialty Record Labels, Today is the day to see the extraordinary opportunity in front of you. The days of selling retro-vinyl titles or dead-format SACDs are over. The Blu-ray era is here and you have every......Read More

Apple Denies Rumor About 1080p Video on iTunes

Rumors have recently surfaced that Apple is quietly adding higher-resolution HD video content to their increasingly popular iTunes download platform. 1080p video resolution is currently the highest level of high-definition content available to consumers today and is found only on......Read More

Apple Rumored To Be Adding Blu-ray To Computers and iTunes 8.2

Apple Computer is notoriously secretive about their future technology which has created a whole world of Mac gossip and rumor sites. Computer super-site, CNET.com, is not one of these gossip sites and they are reporting that there is talk that......Read More

Apple To Lower The Price of More Songs To $0.69 Per Track

As part of Apple Computer's last Mac World Expo press conference, the company's vice president (not its founder and unquestioned leader, Steve Jobs) Phillip Schiller announced that they would have two pricings for single songs on their wildly successful iTunes......Read More

Apple's 2009 iLife Will Teach People How To Play a Musical Instrument

Leave it to Steve Jobs to take a concept like Guitar Hero and run with it. As part of Apple's last Mac World Expo press conference, the company announced that they would be focusing during these down economic times on......Read More

April Showers Goes Wide Via iTunes The Same Week It Is In Theaters

Today is a big day for April Showers, my first movie as an executive producer. Cinco de Mayo is not only my anniversary with my lovely wife, but this year, it is also the day April Showers goes live on......Read More

Are Blu-ray's Days Numbered? The Half Life of AV Disc Theory

New audio-video formats have a definite lifespan and that lifespan is getting increasingly short as "convergence" becomes more and more of a factor in consumer electronics. As Dr. Ken Taraszka pointed out in his January 2009 look at the current......Read More

AV Identity Crisis: Radio Shack and Wilson Audio Abandon Well Known Names

On August 6, 2009 with great fanfare (including the creation of two giant 17 foot laptop computers) one of the most familiar names in consumer electronics retail, Radio Shack, changed their name to "The Shack." Radio Shack is one of......Read More

AV Manufacturers Need To "Floor" High-End AV Gear for Dealers as Part of an AV Stimulus Plan

Getting a loan anywhere these days is pretty damn hard. If you are looking to buy a bargain-priced home and need a jumbo loan, expect to have upwards of 50 percent of the money you need up front for a......Read More

AV's Next and Biggest Generation of Clients Deeply Affected By Unemployment and Under-employment

Baby Boomers have been the driving force behind both the audiophile business and most of the two-decade long rise in popularity of home theater. Economically for Boomers there have been far more good times than bad, with recessions feeling more......Read More

Bang & Olufsen launches $111,000 BeoVision 4 103-inch Plasma HDTV

Bang & Olufsen just announced the launch of their BeoVision 4 103-inch plasma. BeoVision 4 103-inch presents one of the biggest televisions on the market as well as the only one of its stature to come with a stand that......Read More

BCS National Championship Game Coming In 3-D To Theaters

Even President-elect Barack Obama can not convince the BCS powers-that be- that they need a playoff however Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corporation has convinced the BCS that they should broadcast the so-called National Championship college football game in 3-D.3-D, once viewed......Read More

Blu-ray and SACD in the Same Package From 2L Records - HD Downloads Too?

A small, Nordic audiophile record label is doing what the four majors should be doing by releasing their music both on HD discs and in HD downloads. For about the price of a traditional movie or concert video on Blu-ray,......Read More

Blu-ray Limits Its Growth Rate With Constant Firmware Updates

What are the Hollywood studios thinking these days with these feature-loaded Blu-ray titles that have the power to render a player to not play their newest films? While Blu-ray has tremendous power to be updated thus allowing new, sexy added......Read More

California Passes Anti-Flat-HDTV Legislation To Try To Save Energy

As a resident of California who owns a "green home" complete with new windows, high efficiency air conditioners, space-age insulation and drought tolerant planting on over two acres of hillside - today's decision to toughen standards on HDTVs is a......Read More

Can The Home Theater Business Re-price Itself Back Into The Hearts and Wallets of Consumers?

This recession is a bitch. The talking heads on the Sunday morning shows were shooting off this weekend about the fact that the American economy was headed into recession no matter what, but the collapse of the real estate market......Read More

Cash For Clunkers - Meet The AV Business

Today my gardener, Alfredo, showed up in the morning in a brand new, bright blue Toyota truck. I am not sure what was gleaming more - Alfredo's proud smile or the wax job on his new ride. Alfredo and his......Read More

CEDIA 2009 Show Report - Andrew Robinson

While not quite as jammed packed or exciting as previous years, CEDIA 2009 still proved to be the place to be for new product launches, as understated as those launches may have been. Before I get into what excited me......Read More

CEDIA 2009 Show Report - Jerry Del Colliano

For most of the past decade CEDIA has been picking up steam while the winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has struggled with its identity as it struggled to digest COMDEX and the computer geeks that came along with the merger.......Read More

CEDIA 2009 Show Report - Ken Taraszka, MD

CEDIA has been blowing up with new video technology over the last few years. 1080p was the big news just years ago, and while talk of 2K, 1440p and other formats have been thrown around and to some extent even......Read More

CES 2009 Home Theater and Audiophile Highlights - Jerry Del Colliano

CES 2009 Show Overview Considering the economic climate and despite the fact that a solid number of big name players decided to stay home, CES 2009 wasn't the bomb of a show that some had predicted. There were no real explosive......Read More

CES 2009 Report From HomeTheaterReview.com Editor Andrew Robinson

As I sit here on the plane flying home to L.A., I can't help but be a touch disappointed by this year's CES show in Vegas. Many of the high-end players were MIA or showing static displays only, while others......Read More

CES Show Attendance Slips To 110k At First Report

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the host of the Vegas party known as CES, reported that their unaudited attendance for the trade show was about 110,000 people. The 2009 numbers are down from an audited 141,000 in 2008. The CES......Read More

Circuit City Liquidates But Could Be Reborn After Auction

Today is the day that damaged big-box retailer Circuit City finally gave up its will to live as the company transitioned from Chapter 11 reorganization to the much more serious Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy. The company will likely start the......Read More

Circuit City To Relaunch As An Online Play

As predicted in HomeTheaterReview.com when they went bankrupt - Circuit City is back. This time Circuit City will be an online play. Systemax (SYX on the NYSE) is the company that bought the rights to the name, the site and......Read More

Consolidation Is Taking the "Special" Out of Specialty Audio-Video

I remember the first time I met Mark Cuban. My father, when he was the publisher of radio trade publication Inside Radio, ran a high end convention for top level radio executives that featured speakers like Peter Drucker and Steven......Read More

Denon Introduces Two New Value Priced Blu-ray Players

Denon Electronics today introduced two high-performance Blu-ray products, each designed to make the benefits of high-definition video and audio more available and affordable. The company's new Blu-ray offerings include two Profile 2.0 Blu-ray players, the DBP-2010CI (SRP: $699) and DBP-1610CI......Read More

DirecTV Investor Lends Over $500,000,000 To Sirius XM (SIRI)

Liberty Media which owns a controlling interest in DirecTV, the leading satellite television provider, has agreed to lend $530 million to struggling satellite radio provider Sirius XM. The loan comes on the eve of rumors that Sirius XM was going......Read More

Dish Network Loses Over 100,000 Subscribers In Q4 2008 - More Expected

Dish Network's main money man, Charlie Ergen was all over the Sirius-XM money crunch last month and while some suggested it was bandwidth they are after - it now looks like it might just be raw subscribers. Reuters is out......Read More

Elevator Music Kings Muzak File For Chapter 11

The kings of elevator music, Muzak, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today in Wilmington, Delaware. The South Carolina based company cited less than $50,000 in assets but over $500,000,000 in debt as part of the reason for the protection......Read More

Embattled Final Loudspeakers Files For Bankruptcy In Belgium

Sources close to HomeTheaterReview.com have provided a full listing of assets being liquidated from Belgian-based Final Loudspeakers as the embattled electrostatic speaker company is giving up the ghost. Final Loudspeakers were among the first to make flat speakers that were......Read More

First Annual Loss for Sony in 14 Years

Sony reported their first annual loss in 14 years today; however the company beat their estimate as to how deep the loss would be. For the past year or so Sony has been slashing jobs, offering early retirements and closing......Read More

Five Times the Resolution of 1080p - "4k Video" and the Digital Cinema Standard

Since winning the so-called format war, Blu-ray hasn't exploded quite the way many thought it would. Don't get me wrong, it's currently the HD format of choice when it comes to audio/video quality, but it took a while for players......Read More

Going Direct - The Gold Rush in Today's Specialty Audio-Video Business Has a New Set Of Rules

The boo-hooing about how bad the economy has been for the past year or longer continues on with most companies blindly cutting marketing, advertising, development and human resource costs as a desperate act of survival. Bean counters are now corporate......Read More

Greed is Good: New Private Equity Firm Looks To Invest In AV Companies

You can't make it through five minutes of CNN or any news broadcast for that matter without hearing about the gloom and doom of the American and the global economy. Unemployment, automaker bailouts, the collapse of the mortgage industry and......Read More

HD Video Games Are The Gateway Drug For Generation Y To High End Home Theater and Surround Sound

These days nobody is questioning the economic power and generational reach of video games as they have long surpassed theatrical movies in overall revenue. Amidst the worst recession since the stock market crash of 1929, total hours spent playing video......Read More

HDMI 1.4 - Another New Example of Planned Obsolesce Imposed On The Home Theater Market

I just read an editorial by controversial filmmaker Michael Moore last week on the Huffington Post about one of his most popular topics, General Motors. Before he got to a pretty empowering outlook for what the company could do going......Read More

HDTVetc.com Relaunches Online HDTV Educational and Review Site

Home theater enthusiast print magazine, HDTV Etc., has been reinvented and relaunched as an online resource for consumers looking to get educated before they buy their next LCD, plasma, LED, OLED or front-projection HDTV. "Consumers are rightfully confused when talking......Read More

Holiday Wishes From HomeTheaterReview.com

We wanted to take a moment to offer all our readers the happiest of holidays this year!As we approach 2009 there is a lot to be optimistic about (no matter how much cable news you and I watch every day).......Read More

Hollywood Sets New Trend: Recycle Your Home Theater (LA Style)

Green is in - especially in trendy West Los Angeles. It's been years now since the Blue-state, ultra-liberal, Hollywood power brokers in TMZ.com-photog-infested neighborhoods such as Brentwood, North Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades started dumping their Mercedes S65 AMG sedans......Read More

Home Theater Enthusiasts Can Take Control of Their Credit Cards As Banks Act Poorly

Audiophiles and home theater enthusiasts spend a lot of money on their passion - much of which is often put on a high limit credit card. In today's economy loaded with bank bailouts, frozen lending and "toxic assets" this group......Read More

Home Theater Review Celebrates Its First Year With 128,500 Monthly Readers in July 2009

Its hard to believe that it has been one year since launching HomeTheaterReview.com. In one short year we have taken a "parked domain" and created over 8000 pages of content including over 1,100 reviews, a full dealer database, a significant......Read More

Home Theater Review Improves On-site Search Functionality

HomeTheaterReview.com recently celebrated its first year in publication with over 130,000 monthly readers, over 10,000 "fresh" opt-in email names on our subscriber list and a Google Page Rank 4 that is trending up 17.5 percent per month. Despite the AV......Read More

Home Theater Review Launches New Facebook Fan Page

HomeTheaterReview.com, a leading specialty audio and home theater publication catering to the AV enthusiast, has launched a brand new and highly improved Fan site on the popular social networking site Facebook. This isn't the first page for the online publication;......Read More

Howard Stern Banned From Sirius-XM App on New iPhone

Talk about forgetting who brought you to the prom - ailing satellite radio provider Sirius XM (SIRI) has decided to leave the racy Howard Stern off of their newly released and highly anticipated Apple iPhone app. Sirius argued to government......Read More

Hulu To Start Charging Users In 2010

Popular online video site, Hulu, announced at a television tradeshow last week that they plan to start charging users at some point in 2010. Hulu has gained popularity, especially with Millennial and Generation Y users for its free content (with......Read More

InFocus To Be Taken Private By Oregon Company

InFocus Corporation (NASDAQ: INFS) today announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Image Holdings Corporation (IHC), an Oregon company controlled by John Hui, the co-founder of eMachines. Under the terms of the agreement IHC and its......Read More

Is 99 Cents the New Free For Movie Downloads?

It's no secret the film industry is hurting these days. While the month-to-month theatrical earnings seem to fluctuate compared to previous years, overall earnings are down. Home video is no different as DVD continues its downward spiral aided by the......Read More

Is Brighter Better? LED HDTVs Are Flying Off Of Store Shelves

Anyone who reads home theater magazines or online publications knows the hot new thing is LED HDTV. Samsung and Toshiba are pushing them like mad and, despite the higher prices, people are lining up to buy them by the tens......Read More

Is Cheap The New Green? Not For Long In This Economy...

Take a walk down Rodeo Drive or Fifth Avenue and you can stop in any shop to speak with the seemingly bored proprietors to hear all of the gory details about how even the most wealthy people are cutting back......Read More

Is Dish Network Looking To Get More HD Bandwidth By Buying Sirius XM?

Terrestrial radio is dead and buried and satellite radio is in intensive care as rumors leaked yesterday that Sirius XM has sought the advice of a firm that can help them get bankruptcy protection. Sirius begged to be allowed to......Read More

Kaleidescape Loses Legal Appeal - Might Be Forced To Stop Making Products

Kaliedescape, a leading maker of ultra-high-end standard definition video servers, today in a surprising decision lost an appeal on its ability or rights to rip DVD-Video material onto their well regarded videophile movie servers. The company had won a case......Read More

Klipsch Sells Aragon and Acurus Brands to Former Employees

Klipsch purchased selected assets of the privately held Mondial Designs Ltd. in 2001, acquiring the Aragon and Acurus brands of high-end amplifiers, preamplifiers and processors. Now, the leading global manufacturer of loudspeakers is selling the rights to these electronics brands......Read More

Krell Releases S-1200 and S-1200u Surround Sound Preamp/Processors

Krell Industries today announced the initial shipments of the S-1200 surround preamp/processor. The $10,000 S-1200 release culminates more than two years of design work and is the latest addition to the Krell HMI 1.3 capable surround sound processor lineup. The......Read More

Krell Takes On An Investor To Make New Future-Minded Products

Krell confirmed to HomeTheaterReview.com today that they have taken on KT Capital Partners as an equity investor. Krell is one of the most respected high end audio companies in AV history. Krell's Dan D'Agostino retains controlling interest in the brand......Read More

Last Chance at Circuit Liquidation Sale is This Sunday

Coming about a week early, the carcass at Circuit City is finally pretty much picked clean. Bankruptcy liquidator, Great American is calling it quits a little early considering most everything home theater, consumer electronics and even audiophile are long gone.......Read More

Legendary Speaker Designer Jim Thiel Passes Away

HomeTheaterReview.com has learned from a trusted AV industry source that legendary loudspeaker designer, Jim Thiel, has died. His cause of death is not known at this time. Jim Thiel was the designer behind the Thiel brand which today is recognized......Read More

Mark Levinson, Lexicon and Revel To Merge To With Harman Professional - Over 130 Jobs Lost

Mark Levinson is considered by many audiophiles and industry types to be the loftiest brand in the specialty AV business, but today, despite their ultra-profitable and high-profile Lexus premium car audio deal, the brand and with its sisters, Lexicon, Revel......Read More

Michael Jackson Dead At 50

Rock/pop Superstar, Michael Jackson, is dead at 50 according to reports on the AP wire. Jackson, a child star featured in the group The Jackson 5, was one of the brightest stars American pop music has ever seen.  The......Read More

Microsoft's Xbox 360 To Offer 1080p Movie Downloads This Fall

"Hello I am a Mac." "And I am a PC." Today the PC smacked back with an announcement that Microsoft's highly popular Xbox 360 video game platform that is also now an effective movie download system - will this fall......Read More

More Evidence Howard Stern is Going To Leave Satellite Radio

Radio trade publication, Inside Radio, reports that Sirius-XM radio's top talent, Howard Stern is saying he plans to leave the now consolidated satellite radio property when his five year nearly $500,000,000 contract is up in two years. Stern is without......Read More

Musical Innovator and Guitarist Les Paul Dead at 94

Jazz-rock guitarist Les Paul died today from complications related to peneumonia. Paul was 94 years old. As an inventor, Les Paul was the first to make popular the solid body guitar, which brought a sound and power to the instrument......Read More

Netflix Ups Blu-ray Surcharge From $1 to $4 Per Month

Leading home video rental service, Netflix, informed their Blu-ray subscribers today that on April 27, 2009 they will institute a new increase the monthly charge. The price increase depends on the volume of discs in your subscription thus subscribers could......Read More

New Avielo Kroma LED Front Projector Promises Better Color, Longer Life and More Green Operation

The avielo kroma by projectiondesign is one of the first LED front High Definition projectors to come to market. The projector promises better color fidelity, longer bulb life and a more energy efficient operation thanks to its implementation of`ReaLED™......Read More

New VIZIO Higher End XVT Line Offers LED, 240 Hz Refresh and More

VIZIO has unveiled details for its Fall 2009 Extreme VIZIO Technology, (XVT) series lineup, with 8 new models ranging in sizes from 32" to 55". The comprehensive range includes cutting-edge technologies like 240Hz scenes per second, TruLED™ with Smart Dimming™......Read More

NHT Goes "Dark" In Bad Economy

Don't call it a comeback because it isn't. Now Hear This (NHT) speakers is taking a hiatus from the bad economy according to a release sent out today. The company isn't going bankrupt. They are selling off their current pro......Read More

NHT To Relaunch As An Internet-Direct Speaker Company

Now Hear This or NHT as they are known in the specially AV business announced yesterday that they were returning to the business after a few months in hibernation. Their new business model will sell speakers online, leaving the ultra-competitive......Read More

Nowhere To Sell: Specialty AV Makers Look For New Channels To Sell Their Goods

It wasn't five years ago that specialty audio-video companies were raking in the dough. President Bush, after the country was gutlessly attacked by Al Qaeda, told the American people the best way to get revenge was to go out and......Read More

Parent Company of Stereophile & Home Theater Mag Files Chapter 11

In a surprising move this morning, Source Interlink, a multi-billion dollar publishing company owned in part by Ron Burkle, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Source Interlink only a few years ago acquired the "enthusiast" group of magazines from PRIMEDIA which......Read More

Parent Company of Sunfire, Panamax, Speakercraft To File For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Nortek, the parent company of brands such as Sunfire, Panamax, Speakercraft, Xantec, Furman, Litetouch, Omnimount, Niles, Elan and other AV marks, announced yesterday at the CEDIA tradeshow in Atlanta that they would be filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. The......Read More

Parks and Assoc. Say Consumers Intend To Spend More On AV Later in 2009

The recession continues to limit CE shopping, as nearly 50 Percent of U.S. broadband households did not buy a CE product in the first half of 2009, according to Parks Associates' Consumer Decision Process. This ongoing service, which surveys consumers......Read More

Pioneer To Leave The HDTV Business - Slashing 10k Jobs

Japanese electronics powerhouse, Pioneer, announced today that it would be ceasing production of HDTVs by March 2010 according to published reports. The company will cut over 10,000 job as its third quarter earnings were poor and as they head towards......Read More

Plasma Pat Sought By Tampa Area Police

Have you ever been approached by a guy in a van saying "we just finished installing speakers at this nightclub and have a few extra leftover?" Its one of the oldest tricks in a scam artist's repertoire and honestly because......Read More

Polk, Bose & Video Players To Suffer From Circuit Liquidation

When the Big Three automakers were begging for money on Capital Hill a few weeks back, the biggest threats they had going for them were that not only could 3,000,000 jobs be lost if they closed their doors but upwards......Read More

Porn Interrupts Super Bowl Broadcast In Tucson

For Cardinal fans there really wasn't anything that pornographic about their team coming up limp in yesterday's Super Bowl however for about 10 seconds for subscribers of Comcast cable - there was some pretty scandalous content on screen. Published reports......Read More

Pound Wise and Penny Foolish - How The Home Theater Business Can Learn From Luxury Sectors Still Trying To Bilk Consumers

Rising temperatures mean vacation time for many people around the world and I am no different. Just last week I took my wife to a luxury resort here in California to celebrate her birthday. It's a stunning property that we......Read More

Report: Tweeter May Reopen While in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

Tweeter recently took the deep plunge of filing for chapter 7 bankruptcy last week much to the surprise of some of their creditors and vendors however industry trade magazine, Twice, is reporting that the chain might reopen its doors tomorrow......Read More

Saving Audiophila Part 2: The Role of the Major Record Labels

Somehow I can't erase the memory of the sequence of events that went down during the mindless SACD versus DVD-Audio format war. Roll the tape back a good five or six years ago and everyone in the audio and more......Read More

Saving Audiophila: How To Get a Young, New Generation of Audio Enthusiasts Hooked

Let's be honest with each other - audiophila has become more of a geeky hobby than a serious business or luxury goods market like it was in its hey days in the late 1970's through the early 1990's. Baby Boomer......Read More

Sherwood's New $439 Bluetooth AV Receiver - Can It Do It All?

Sherwood America Inc today introduced a new high-performance A/V receiver, the RD-7503. At an MSRP of $439.95, this 100 watt x7 receiver offers an extraordinary range of performance features for the dollar, including Bluetooth audio streaming, HDMI 1.3 audio repeater......Read More

Sirius Radio Hanging On By a Thread With Subscribers After Merging With Unpopular XM Music Content

Only a terrestrial radio executive could make such a short-sighted move, but amazingly Mel Karmazin - after literally begging to the Department of Justice and then the FCC to allow Sirius to merge with fellow satellite radio broadcaster XM......Read More

Sirius XM In Fear Of Takeover From EchoStar (Dish Network)?

Sirius Chief Executive Officer, Mel Karamzin, got his wish in 2008 when the government allowed him to merge with the only other commercially viable satellite radio provider - XM Radio - but little was said about how he was going......Read More

Sirius XM Shows Loss In Overall Subscribers (404k) For First Time

Consolidated satellite radio provider Sirius XM is reeling from having lost 404,000 total paying subscribers in the first quarter of 2009. This is the first time Sirius has ever shown contraction in the number of their subscribers. It comes on......Read More

Sirius-XM (SIRI) To Raise Rates While Destroying Programming

Consumer electronics industry's trade publication TWICE is reporting that they have confirmed that Sirius-XM will be raising rates for their best subscribers - the ones with multiple accounts - from $6.99 per month to $8.99 per month. The company will......Read More

Solutions For Recycling Your Televisions As You "Transition" To A New HDTV

A lot of fuss has been made about the DTV transition from analog television to an all-digital system. Transition dates have been postponed amidst political debate. Coupons for converter boxes famously ran out to screams by some of foul play.......Read More

Specialty AV Brands Look To Dealers To "Push" Their Products Over Creating New Consumer Demand

Today more than ever, electronics companies are looking for ways to stay viable and competitive in these times of unprecedented economic hardship. Noteworthy retailers like Circuit City and Tweeter have filed for Chapter 7 liquidation. Manufacturers of brands that are......Read More

Spinal Tap To Tour In 2009

The faux heavy metal band, Spinal Tap, known for their songs "Cups and Cakes" and albums "Shit Sandwich" are going on tour this year.Harry Shearer, known for his work on The Simpsons as well as his role as Derrick Smalls......Read More

Study Says HDTVs in More Than 50 Percent of American Homes

A recent Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM) tracking Pulse report shows strong growth over the past year in HDTV ownership. In 2009, 53 percent of total U.S. households report owning a high definition television, an 18 percentage point......Read More

Sunday's Super Bowl Was 2nd Biggest TV Broadcast of All-Time

According to ratings gurus, Nielsen, NBC's broadcast of the Super Bowl between the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers was the second largest television broadcast of all time. The revised numbers from Nielsen showed 98.7 million viewers versus 106 million......Read More

Telarc Records To Stop Producing Its Own Records - Firing 26

Telarc, the Cleveland area audiophile record label, will cease producing its own music at some point this month. The multiple-Grammy winning record label's roots go back classical recordings from the 1970's. Today the company's president stepped down and the parent......Read More

The $2,500 and Under Room - How To Sell Audiophile Gear To a New Generation of 200,000,000 Music Lovers

Boy did I ever grab the attention of the dealers in America during these hot summer months. I have received dozens of emails from AV retailers around the country objecting to calling (in general terms) dealers "lazy" and "entitled" while......Read More

The 10 Best Audiophile Speakers List - 2009

I recently read a blog post by a very enthusiastic and well respected AV writer who created a list of "The Top Ten Greatest Audiophile Speakers" for the mighty CNET.com which is one monster of a web publication. While the......Read More

The 10 Best Up-and-Coming Companies In Audio-Video

I bet you are as tired of reading stories about AV companies cutting back, pulling out of CEDIA and firing good, talented Americans as I am sick of hearing them try to sell me on how they are going to......Read More

The Limitation On Specialty AV's Next Generation Is Leverage

For decades Baby Boomers have been the driving force behind the audiophile market, and in even greater numbers, have been the power behind the twenty-plus year boom in the world of home theater that has stretched from the rise of......Read More

The Lost Art of The High End Audio-Video Demo

In my career in ultra-high-end audiophile retail at Christopher Hansen Ltd. in Beverly Hills and Mark Levinson's Cello Music and Film Los Angeles I was blessed to work with some of the best audio-video demo artists of all time. Anybody......Read More

Too Big To Fail: AV Manufacturers Look To Big Distributor AVAD For Their Future

Anybody who listens to the news in the last year or so has heard the term "too big to fail" when it comes to America's banks. Just in 2009 alone 209 banks have failed while taxpayers have "bailed out" larger......Read More

U.S Credit Freeze Hurting The Home Theater Business Badly

You know you got trouble in the world economy when the most wealthy people with the absolute best credit are getting cut off from access to credit and its effects do in fact trickle down to every element of the......Read More

Vizio Now Number 2 Flat HDTV Seller in America - Samsung Is Tops

A new report came out today showing Vizio climbing above the mighty Sony as the second largest seller of flat HDTVs in America. According the report from iSuppli has Samsung as the clubhouse leader at 20.2 percent of the......Read More

Warner Brothers To Buy Back DVDs For Blu-ray Discs

After Hollywood super-studio, Warner Brothers, ended the HD disc format war on "Blu-Friday" at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show they offered a trade-in program where end users could swap out their HD DVD titles for Blu-ray. Now the studio is......Read More

What Defines an AV Receiver These Days Anyway?

In the old days a "receiver" was roughly defined as an AV component that included a preamp, an internal power amp and some form of AM/FM tuner all in one chassis. While integrated amps (a preamp and amp all in......Read More

What if HDMI Actually Worked?

Let me be clear with the fact that without HDMI there wouldn't be volumes of 1080p HD content, complete with beaming video, 7.1 uncompressed HD audio and all of those feature-laden supplemental materials that we get from Blu-ray. At the......Read More

What The AV Business Can Learn From Chef Alice Waters and The Slow Food Movement

Specialty AV retailers are dropping like flies in today's corrosive retail economy. Consumers who once lined up to buy audio gear in the 1990s and flat HDTVs in the 2000s are now either not spending on their AV systems in......Read More

What Would You Pay To "Day-and-Date" Download a First Run Movie in HD?

Readers of HomeTheaterReview.com invest in varying grades of AV systems, from enthusiastic yet entry-level all the way to insanely expensive, purpose-built, stadium-seat epic home theaters. It's safe to say that today even a Vizio LCD and a sound bar in......Read More

Why Don't Today's HDTVs Auto-Calibrate Their Picture?

As an enthusiastic Mac user and admitted home theater junkie, I wonder why today's HDTVs can't calibrate themselves. The current set-up process for a Mac is nothing short of genius, which includes "wizard-like" auto calibration for video. Simply follow a......Read More

Will CES 2009 Flop Because of The Sagging Economy?

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES, as it is known) is the undisputed champion of all trade shows, packing record numbers of geeks, suits and porn stars into Las Vegas every January to oooh and ahhh over all of the latest......Read More

Wilson Audio To Release New "Sasha WP" Speaker System

Wilson Audio just released a teaser video on their website (WilsonAudio.com) showing their newest speaker system called the Wilson Audio Sasha WP. The new speaker, in concept, is somewhat of a throwback to the original 1985 monitor design of the......Read More

Winning and Losing In Las Vegas - Why The AV Business Desperately Needs More Consumer Demand

The push pull relationship between audio video companies and their traditional dealer base is the absolute definition of a dysfunctional relationship. AV companies expect dealers to "push" their products so dealers demand high profit margins - yet nearly all dealers......Read More