Home Theaters

Today, the following movies will be released for rent or sale:

*Norbit (Widescreen Edition) - 3.3/10 with 6,722 votes cast; starring Eddie Murphy, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Thandie Newton

-Plot Synopsis: A mild-mannered guy who is engaged to a monstrous woman meets the woman of his dreams, and schemes to find a way to be with her.

*The Messengers - 5.1/10 with 2,762 votes cast; starring Lacey Chabert, Rene Ashton and Brody Hutzler

-Plot Synopsis: An ominous darkness invades a seemingly serene sunflower farm in North Dakota, and the Solomon family is torn apart by suspicion, mayhem and murder.


*Fantastic Four - Extended Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition) - 5.9/10 with 32,445 votes cast; starring Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba and Chris Evans

-Plot Synopsis: A group of astronauts gain superpowers after a cosmic radiation exposure and must use them to oppose the plans of their enemy, Doctor Victor Von Doom.

*The Derby Stallion - 2.8/10 with 68 votes cast; starring Bill Cobbs, Zac Efron and William R. Moses

-Plot Synopsis: Fifteen-year-old Patrick doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life, and the pressure put on him by his dad isn’t helping.


*Red Mercury - 4.9/10 out of 28 votes cast; starring Stockard Channing, Peter Postlewaite and Juliet Stevenson

-Plot Synopsis: A London restaurant has been taken under siege by three fundamental extremists threatening the destruction of the city.

norbit, fantastic four, red mercury, the derby stallion, the messengers, dvd releases, home theater

The main complaint I hear from people about flat screen televisions is the price tag. Despite plummeting prices, trying to find an LCD or plasma television that suits your needs for less than $1000 is still not an easy task. Many models that do fit in this price range have drawbacks that may not be worth the money you save bringing them home, including lack of functionality and connectivity.

Fortunately, there are some choices out there that should satisfy your needs. On top of this list is the Samsung LN-T3253H HDTV. At 32″, it has a large enough picture for many small home theaters and produces the accurate colors and fine shadow detail often reserved for high-end models. It also offers versatile connectivity options (one PC and three HDMI inputs) in a stylish package.

Thanks to its combination of features, quality and style, it has been well-received by professionals and buyers alike.

Though most retailers are still selling this set for $1200-$1300, our friends at Amazon have recently lowered the price to just a tad over $900.

Not bad at all!

Perfect for your gaming needs and intimate settings, the Samsung LNS3251D 32″ LCD HDTV earns two green envy buttons.

samsung, lcd tv, home theater, hdtv

In a follow up to my recent post about the Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD Player, I have recently found a price you won’t want to miss.

For the time being, you can get this top of the line, next-generation High-Def DVD player for only $311.50!

Through July 31, 2007, you will also get 5 free HD DVD’s with your purchase. You won’t find a better picture or price.

Enjoy.

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Today, the following movies will be released for rent or sale:

*Hannibal Rising (Unrated Widescreen Edition) - 6.0/10 with 8,166 votes cast; starring Gaspard Ulliel, Gong Li and Rhys Ifans

-Plot Synopsis: After the death of his parents during World War II, young Hannibal Lecter moves in with his uncle and his beautiful wife and begins plotting revenge on the barbarians responsible for his sister’s death.

*Be My Baby - 3.9/10 with 21 votes cast; starring Lacey Chabert, Rene Ashton and Brody Hutzler

-Plot Synopsis: Having been burned one too many times by cheating husbands who claim to be single, a woman plans an elaborate payback scheme.


*Big Dreams in Little Hope - 7.1/10 with 14 votes cast; starring Julie Goldman, Emma Bowers and Emily Burton

-Plot Synopsis: A lesbian twist on the classic buddy movie.

*Drive Thru - 4.9/10 with 67 votes cast; starring Leighton Meester, Nicholas D’Agosto and Van De La Plante

-Plot Synopsis: Horror gets Super Sized when Horny The Clown, the demonic mascot of “Hella-Burger,” starts slashing Orange County teenagers with his meat cleaver from Hell.


*The Foursome 6.9/10 out of 27 votes cast; starring Kevin Dillon, Siri Baruc and Chris Gauthier

-Plot Synopsis: Four old friends reconnect at their 20-year college reunion.


*Free Zone - 6.2/10 with 667 votes cast; starring Natalie Portman, Aki Avni and Hana Laszlo

-Plot Synopsis: Two women embark on a road trip after they are brought together by circumstance.


*The Hawk Is Dying - 5.0/10 with 239 votes cast; starring Paul Giamatti, Michelle Williams and Michael Pitt

-Plot Synopsis: A Gainesville Florida auto upholsterer attempts to subvert his mundane life by training a wild, red-tailed hawk.

*My Brother - 6.0/10 with 43 votes cast; starring Vanessa Williams, Nashawn Kearse and Tatum O’Neal

-Plot Synopsis: An inner-city story of two brothers, Isaiah and James, who is developmentally disabled. Their mother finds herself in a tragic situation and desperately tries to get her two boys adopted together.

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When shopping for a big screen television, one of the first things you are really going to be torn about is whether to choose a plasma or LCD display. As with other big ticket purchases, you are going to want to do your due diligence and find the option that fits best for you. To help you get started, here are a few things you may want to think about.

1. What is the difference? - Though similar in width and flatness of screen, there are some major differences in how the picture is rendered. Depending on your needs, this may not be a matter of importance.

2. Picture quality - Plasma screens are generally considered to have a slightly better picture because they can display blacks more accurately, giving a truer contrast.

3. Plasma’s advantages over LCD - Plasmas more or less offer a better viewing angle, brighter colors, have larger pictures and are very often less expensive.

4. LCD’s advantages over plasma - LCD sets typically have a better screen resolution, consume less energy, weigh less, have a longer lifespan and are less susceptible to image burn.

5. Which is the better value? - The larger screen you are seeking, the more likely plasma is a good way to go. On screens over 50″, plasmas have a noticeably clearer and lifelike picture.

Check out this video comparison for a few more tips.

You can also find more information on the big screen format war here, here, here, here and here.

flat screen tv, plasma, lcd, comparison

PC Mag today announced their Top 100 Products of 2007 list. Despite being less than half way through the year, I expect many of their picks will stand up on the year end list, two of which I’ve already posted on here and here.

Left out of this duo of great multimedia hardware devices is the TiVo Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder. Receiving an excellent 8.3 rating from CNET and 4.5/5 from Amazon, the Series3 can record up to 300 hours of standard definition programming and 32 hours of High Definition. It can also record up to two live shows at once.

Possibly the best feature, however, is the ability to schedule recordings anywhere from tivo.com, allowing time-short and forgetful people ample opportunity to schedule their favorites throughout the day.

Check out this video for more features and functions:

You can also check out how some other bloggers feel about the TiVo Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder here, here, here and here.

All in all, the Tivo Series3 looks to be a fantastic addition to any home theater. Price has always been my main deterrent, but it looks like Tivo is trying to position it somewhat against Apple TV and Slingbox as the price continues to fall to only twice as much (instead of three times as much). I see rebates from time to time to bring the price lower, but for now, Amazon offers the best price at just over $600.

For continuing to keep commercials out of view, and now in HD, the Tivo Series3 will continue to be an item of my envy with three green buttons.

tivo series3 hd, dmr, video, multimedia, home theater

Today, the following movies will be released for rent or sale:

*Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto (Widescreen Edition) - 7.8/10 with 24,814 votes cast; starring Rudy Youngblood, Dahlia Hernandez and Johnathan Brewer

-Plot Synopsis: As the Mayan kingdom faces its decline, the rulers insist the key to prosperity is to build more temples and offer human sacrifices. Jaguar Paw, a young man captured for sacrifice, flees to avoid his fate.

*Wes Craven Presents The Breed - 5.1/10 with 762 votes cast; starring Michelle Rodriguez, Oliver Hudson and Taryn Manning

-Plot Synopsis: A group of five college kids are forced to match wits with unwelcoming residents when they fly to a “deserted” island for a party weekend.


*Constellation - 3.4/10 with 92 votes cast; starring Gabrielle Union, Zoe Saldana and Hill Harper

-Plot Synopsis: Constellation chronicles the lives and loves of an African-American family in the deep South as they are forced to come to terms with a tumultuous past marked by an unrequited interacial affair.

*Epic Movie (Unrated Edition) - 2.2/10 with 12,700 votes cast; starring Adam Campbell, Kal Penn and Faune Chambers

-Plot Synopsis: A comedic satire of films that are large in scope, reputation and popularity.


*The Good German 6.2/10 out of 2,533 votes cast; starring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett and Beau Bridges

-Plot Synopsis: While in post-war Berlin to cover the Potsdam Conference, an American military journalist is drawn into a murder investigation which involves his former mistress and his driver.

*Letters From Iwo Jima - Full screen edition - 8.3/10 with 11,312 votes cast; starring Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya and Tsuyoshi Ihara

-Plot Synopsis: The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.

*Venus - 7.3/10 with ,746 votes cast; starring Peter O’Toole, Vanessa Redgrave and Leslie Phillips

-Plot Synopsis: Life for a pair of veteran actors gets turned upside down after they meet a brash teenager.

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Aimed at the those who relish showing off their HDTV’s feature set, the Sony KDS-R60XBR2 is a 60-inch high-def magnet.

Loaded with just about every feature of today’s HDTV, the “Grand Wega” flaunts 720/1080p support and can handle any new video input with three HDMI slots. One is conveniently located under a flap in the front for short-term connections like your video camera or Playstation 3.

With the future in mind, Sony included a built-in HD Decoder that is capable of rendering both over-the-air and cable high-definition programming and a handy CableCard slot in the back hidden from view. Picture quality is superb for a rear-projection television of this size, as this video of “Flushed Away” can attest to.

Reviews for this model have been excellent all around, garnering an 8.3/10 at CNET and a 4.5/5 at Amazon. See a full list of features here.

On the flipside, the Sony KDS is quite large, no thanks to the speakers which extend 5″ on each side, and has received poor remarks for its use with next-generation video gaming consoles. Standard-definition reception could also be better, but as I said, this set was made for the HD future in mind.

Though reviews call it one of the best televisions you can buy for the money, the steep price tag could scare some away. I’ve seen numerous online retailers offering it for less than $2,500.

sony, home theater, sony kds, television, 2geb, video

I’ve always loved remote controls. When I was a child, my step-father used to have me record baseball games and things when he was out. To save tape space, he’d have me pause recording during the commercials. To do so, I’d have to get up and push pause, and then make sure I was back in a couple of minutes to unpause it.

I was ecstatic the day he bought a clicker that plugged into the VCR and allowed the user to sit a few feet away and pause the VCR from wherever they were sitting. It was a dream come true…for the early 80’s.

Fast forward a couple decades and we have remote controls for everything with every type of connection. I posted on a massive universal remote a month or so ago that controlled basically everything in your whole house, but for today’s post, I thought I’d focus on something a bit smaller.

The Logitech Harmony 880 is a great universal remote for those who have most of their multimedia hardware in one room. It’s also a well-reviewed mid-range universal remote that is focused on ease of use.

The best prices I could find or this well-designed and feature-packed remote were here and here.

logitech, universal remote, harmony 880, home theater, 2 geb

Looking for new uses for your Nintendo Entertainment System? This guy actually turned his into a working DVD player. It even has a functioning remote control!

I’m not to keen on the black duct tape, but if he got his design worked out a little better, I’d suggest getting together with the Nintendo guys to see if some sort of deal couldn’t be struck.

I know plenty of people that think retro design is far superior than neo design and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Nintendo brand couldn’t sell Trim Spa right now.

nes, nintendo, dvd player

Today, the following movies will be released for rent or sale:

*Creepshow III - 1.8/10 with 366 votes cast; starring AJ Bowen, Kris Allen and Stephanie Pettee

-Plot Synopsis:This third installment in the George Romero/Stephen King-launched anthology series features five new tales of horror: “Professor Dayton,” “Alice,” “Rachel the Call Girl,” “The Radio,” and “The Haunted Dog.”

*The Fountain (Widescreen Edition) - 7.8/10 with 18,316 votes cast; starring Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz and Ellen Burstyn

-Plot Synopsis: Spanning over one thousand years, and three parallel stories, The Fountain is a story of love, death, spirituality, and the fragility of our existence in this world.

*Pan’s Labyrinth (New Line Two-Disc Platinum Series) - 8.6/10 with 45,045 votes cast; starring Ariadna Gil, Ivana Baquero and Sergi López

-Plot Synopsis: In the fascist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.

*Seraphim Falls - 7.1/10 with 1,201 votes cast; starring Liam Neeson, Pierce Brosnan and Michael Wescott

-Plot Synopsis: At the end of the Civil War, a colonel hunts down a man with whom he has a grudge.


*Stomp the Yard (Widescreen Edition) 2.4/10 out of 4,608 votes cast; starring Columbus Short, Meagan Good and Ne-Yo

-Plot Synopsis: After the death of his younger brother, a troubled 19-year-old street dancer from Los Angeles is able to bypass juvenile hall by enrolling in college.

*The Last Sin Eater - 5.7/10 with 135 votes cast; starring Louise Fletcher, Henry Thomas and Liana Liberato

-Plot Synopsis: In seeking her own redemption from the one man of whom she is most afraid, 10-year-old Cadi Forbes discovers a secret sin haunting her community of Welsh immigrants in 1850s Appalachia.

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In Friday’s post, a giant 110-inch projection screen was featured. Panasonic is apparently trying to keep up with projection size with its high-def televisions. Check out this massive 103-inch plasma.

So how much does it cost for nine-feet of crystal clear 1080p picture quality? Sadly, more than I make in a year. Prices should fall quickly, but for now, the ticket price is $70,000.

Suffice to say, this gargantuan gets three green envy buttons.

With the DVD format war in high swing, buying any high-def player is a risk in itself. Of course, there are certain people that take pride in being ahead of the technological curve that don’t care if the latest gadgets are busts or blockbusters, as long as they were in on it first.

For this crowd, Toshiba’s second generation HD DVD offering is sure to catch quite a bit of attention. The HD-XA2 provides excellent image quality for both HD DVD’s and DVD’s, booms audio in Dolby TrueHD sound, loads brilliant high-def imagery with ease and even makes your standard DVD’s look better.

Regardless of how good the player actually is, there are some big drawbacks that will scare away most prospective buyers, namely its hefty cost, potential to its battle with Blu-Ray and be a relic far before its time and its clunky 80’s style remote control.

Those that have taken a chance despite these risks seem to be very satisfied and enthusiastic about its capabilities and have no problem justifying its $600-$800 price tag. I’m not sure about you, but that’s a bit too rich for my blood considering its chances of being top dog in a few years, but I sure do want one. Window shopping for prices turned up a considerably lower price at Amazon than anywhere else on the net.

For improved loading speeds of superior quality (HD and SD) video and being riskier than hunting with the VP, this HD DVD player gets two green envy buttons.

hd dvd, toshiba, dvd player

Today, the following movies will be released for rent or sale:

*Because I Said So (Widescreen Edition) - 5.2/10 with 2,656 votes cast; starring Diane Keaton, Mandy Moore and Gabriel Macht

-Plot Synopsis: A meddling mother tries to set her daughter up with the right man so her kid won’t follow in her footsteps.

*Big (Extended Edition) - 7.2/10 with 27,328 votes cast; starring Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins and Robert Loggia

-Plot Synopsis: When a boy wishes to be big at a magic wish machine, he wakes up the next morning and finds himself in an adult body literally overnight.

*Breaking and Entering - 6.5/10 with 1,636 votes cast; starring Jude Law, Juliette Binoche and Robin Wright Penn

-Plot Synopsis: A landscape architect’s dealings with a young thief cause him to re-evaluate his life.


*Catch & Release - 5.7/10 with 1,626 votes cast; starring Jennifer Garner, Kevin Smith and Timothy Olyphant

-Plot Synopsis: A woman struggles to accept the death of her fiancé and the secrets he kept from her as she rebuilds her life.


*Music and Lyrics (Widescreen Edition) 6.8/10 out of 8,485 votes cast; starring Hugh Grant, Drew Barrymore and Brad Garrett

-Plot Synopsis: A washed up singer is given a couple days to compose a chart-topping hit for an aspiring teen sensation, and sparks with an offbeat younger woman with a flair for words in the process.

*The Painted Veil - 7.7/10 with 4,560 votes cast; starring Naomi Watts, Edward Norton and Liev Schreiber

-Plot Synopsis: This love story has Kitty meeting young, intelligent, shy and somewhat dull Dr. Walter Fane, whose forte is the study of infectious diseases.


*The Secret Life of Words - 7.5/10 with 1,690 votes cast; starring Sarah Polley, Tim Robbins and Eddie Marsan

-Plot Synopsis: An hearing impaired factory worker gives up her first holiday in years and instead travels out to an oil rig, where she cares for a man suffering from severe burns.

*The Tiger and the Snow 6.9/10 with 1,840 votes cast; starring Roberto Benigni, Jean Reno and Nicoletta Braschi

-Plot Synopsis: A love-struck Italian poet is stuck in Iraq at the onset of an American invasion.

because i said so, big, breaking and entering, catch and release, music and lyrics, the painted veil, the secret life of words, the tiger and the snow, dvd, new releases

If you are looking for a top-notch HDMI-capable DVD player with 1080p for your home theater, Oppo has just the player for you. Created specifically for high-def tv’s and theater projectors, this is not your typical DVD player.

Through the use of advanced upconverting technology (performed directly by the DVD player), the Oppo DV-981HD excels at making standard definition DVDs look like high definition and outperforms most TV’s built-in upconversion capabilities, enabling you to enjoy your current DVD collection, as well as new HD releases for years to come.

Stunning life-like picture quality with vivid color and fine details are made possible through the player’s Emmy award winning DCDi video processing technology. Equally impressive is the player’s audio capability which supports high fidelity digital audio in Super Audio CD and DVD Audio formats and offers crystal clear sound. It also supports MP3 files, CDs, and HDCDs. The one feature this player truly lacks is a video component output, which makes the DV-981HD less versatile, but more attractive to video purists.

All in all, this Oppo release looks to be a winner, garnering an 8.3/10 rating on CNET and 4.5/5 on Amazon, where I also found the best price at $229 including free shipping.

For delivering such high quality that it doesn’t even consider offering a video component output, at an incredible price that any home theater enthusiast would be more than happy to pay, the Oppo DV-981HD earns three green envy buttons.