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Do You Own a 3D Display?
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Scott Wilkinson • Jun 03, 2011 • 8 comments
I've heard and read several reports indicating that the adoption rate of 3DTV in the home is faster than it was for HDTV and Blu-ray in their first year and a half. Now that we have some idea of how many readers enjoy 3D in commercial theaters and in a home setting from the last two poll questions (here and here, respectively), I'd like to know if you actually have a 3D display in your home, even if you don't use its 3D capabilities. If not, do you plan to buy one sometime this year? Even if you hate 3D, you might be considering a 3D display for its generally superior 2D performance.

I'm delighted that so many of you have posted comments with the last two poll questions—thanks to all who did!—though I wonder why only about half as many voted and commented in the poll about 3D at home as in the one about 3D in commercial theaters. If you have any thoughts on this, I'd love to read them. In any event, I really hope you leave a comment elaborating on your vote in this week's question. For instance, which 3D display do you have or plan to get?

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Do You Own a 3D Display?
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How Often Do You Listen on Headphones at Home?
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Scott Wilkinson • Jun 10, 2011 • 11 comments
As a die-hard home-theater geek, I love listening to movies, TV shows, and even music on my multichannel speaker system. But speakers must overcome several obstacles—room acoustics, placement issues, and a sleeping family late at night to name a few. Of course, you can avoid all these problems by listening on headphones, the main subject of our new website InnerFidelity.com. On the other hand, headphones mostly provide a 2-channel experience, though systems such as Dolby Headphone, which is available in several AVRs, and the Smyth Research Realiser (profiled here) simulate surround sound in a pair of cans.

These musings lead me to wonder how often you listen to headphones in your home theater? Do you prefer them over speakers, or do you use them only to promote domestic tranquility after everyone else has gone to bed? Do you have an AVR with Dolby Headphone, and if so, do you use it? What make and model of headphones do you have? I really hope you leave a comment after voting with some of these details.

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How Often Do You Listen on Headphones at Home?
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What Type of Surround Speakers Do You Use?
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Scott Wilkinson • Jun 17, 2011 • 11 comments
Back in March, I asked what is your main speaker configuration, and 52 percent of respondents picked 5.1, with another 28 percent saying 7.1. So now I wonder what type of surround speakers you use—bipole, dipole, and/or monopole.

What's the difference? Bipole and dipole surround speakers include two sets of drivers that fire more or less in opposite directions—with bipoles, the drivers are in phase, while a dipole's drivers are out of phase, creating a null region along the central axis between the drivers. Monopoles are simply conventional direct-radiating speakers with a single set of drivers that many prefer for multichannel music, but they don't create a diffuse surround soundfield that benefits most movie soundtracks.

Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice, especially if you use a combination in a 7.1 system. What combo do you use, and why?

What Type of Surround Speakers Do You Use?
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Can Digital Audio Ever Be Indistinguishable From Analog?
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Scott Wilkinson • Jun 24, 2011 • 12 comments
As digital-audio resolutions increase from 44.1kHz/16 bits to 96kHz/24 bits to perhaps even 384kHz/32 bits, I wonder if there's a point at which digital becomes indistinguishable from analog. After all, the human hearing system is not infinite in its discrimination, so there must be a digital resolution beyond which we can't hear the effect of increasing it further. If that's the case, is digital audio at that resolution indistinguishable from top-notch analog, or is there some quality that will always allow us to identify it as digital?

Those who prefer the sound of analog will probably vote that digital will always be distinguishable from high-quality analog, no matter how high the resolution is, and I'd really like to know why you believe that. What is it about digital audio that will always allow humans—at least those with trained ears—to identify it as digital?

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Can Digital Audio Ever Be Indistinguishable From Analog?
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How Many Remotes Do You Have On Your Coffee Table?
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Rob Sabin • Aug 13, 2012 • 22 comments
One of the greatest put-offs for anyone trying to watch television or play a home theater system, especially non-technical family members, is figuring out how to use it. Even a simple system that just utilizes the TV speakers is likely to require at least three remotes: one for the cable box, one for the Blu-ray or DVD player, one for the TV. You've got to juggle remotes, cycling through inputs with one, adjusting channels or changing tracks with another, then picking the first one back up to adjust volume...it's a miracle some of us even bother. Universal remotes are supposed to solve that problem for day to day use, but don't always do everything we need them to do, either by insufficient design or poor programming. The result is a stack of factory remotes kept close at hand.

Today's poll question, then, is this: how many active remotes do you currently have on your coffee table that you end up having to pick up at least once a week?

How Many Remotes Do You Have On Your Coffee Table?
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How Well Can You Control Ambient Daylight In Your Home Theater?
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Scott Wilkinson • Jul 08, 2011 • 4 comments
As you probably know, controlling ambient light is one of the most critical factors in creating a high-quality home-theater experience. The darker you can make the room, the more you will be drawn into the story on the screen. Also, a dark room prevents any distracting reflections from a plasma or LCD TV with a shiny screen. And a front-projection system absolutely requires a dark room to look good unless you have a special ambient-light-rejecting screen, and even then, a dark room is better.

Of course, any room can be made dark at night simply by turning off the lights. But if you watch during the day in a room with windows, sliding glass doors, skylights, or other transparent/translucent openings to the outside world, you need black-out shades or other coverings to darken the room, which might or might not be practical for one reason or another.

I'm curious to know if this is a big problem among our readers. How well can you control the ambient daylight in the room you use as a home theater? I'd also love to know how you control ambient daylight. Blackout shades? A windowless room? If you have a front projector, do you use an ambient-light-rejecting screen?

Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.

How Well Can You Control Ambient Daylight In Your Home Theater?
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What Will You Do in Response to Netflix's Rate Hike?
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Scott Wilkinson • Jul 15, 2011 • 10 comments
As you probably know by now, Netflix just announced a change in its rates for online streaming and physical discs by mail. Instead of charging one monthly fee for as many of both as you want (one disc at a time), you must now pay a separate fee for each medium—$8/month for streaming and another $8/month for DVDs by mail or $10/month for Blu-rays, a 60-percent increase for both services together.

In his excellent blog on the subject, Home Theater editor Rob Sabin points out that Netflix's streaming library is missing lots of current, desirable titles, and the A/V quality of its streaming content cannot match that of Blu-ray. For now, he recommends sticking with Blu-ray rentals and waiting for the streaming library and quality to catch up.

What do you plan to do in response to the Netflix rate hike? If you're already a Netflix subscriber, will you keep both options or dump one or the other—or both? If you're not yet a subscriber, does this development encourage you to choose one or both, or will you stay away?

Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.

What Will You Do in Response to Netflix's Rate Hike?
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What Is Your Next Home Theater Purchase?
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Scott Wilkinson • Jul 22, 2011 • 28 comments
HomeTheater.com is all about helping you select the best audio/video components for your needs and budget and then setting up those components so they look and sound as good as they possibly can. This naturally leads me to wonder what our readers are shopping for.

So I ask you—what is your next home-theater purchase? A new flat panel or projector? A Blu-ray player? Part of the audio system? Or are you planning to jump in with both feet and get an entire home-theater system all at once? Once you vote, I'd love to read more details. What makes and models are you considering? Will the new component be 3D-capable? Will it offer online streaming? What components do you already have?

Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.

What Is Your Next Home Theater Purchase?
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What Is Your Favorite Video-Streaming Source?
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Scott Wilkinson • Jul 29, 2011 • 10 comments
Online streaming is quickly becoming a major source of movies and television shows in home theaters everywhere as TVs, Blu-ray players, A/V receivers, and game consoles add streaming apps to their slate of features. Of course, the quality generally isn't up to Blu-ray standards, but it's getting better all the time as codecs improve and more people increase the bandwidth into their homes. And it's tough to beat the convenience of streaming whatever you want whenever you want to any device you want.

If you watch streamed video content in your home theater, what is your favorite online source? Naturally, with so many sources available, I can't list them all here, so I've included an "Other" selection—if you choose that one, I really hope you leave a comment and let us know what that source is. Also, I encourage you to leave a comment explaining why you prefer a particular source—high picture quality, low cost, wide selection, short start-time delay, etc.

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What Is Your Favorite Video-Streaming Source?
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What Device Do You Mostly Use to Stream Video?
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Scott Wilkinson • Aug 05, 2011 • 20 comments
Last week, I asked, What is your favorite video-streaming source? Now, I'd like to know what type of device you use to watch most of your streaming. Until recently, there was one choice—a computer. But most modern TVs, Blu-ray players, and game consoles now offer apps to stream content from providers such as Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, YouTube, and many others. Then there are dedicated set-top boxes from the likes of Roku and Boxee.

So what device do you mostly use to stream video? As before, if you select "Other," please leave a comment telling us what type of device you use. And in any case, I'd love to know why you use a particular device as opposed to something else.

Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.

What Device Do You Mostly Use to Stream Video?
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What Is Your Favorite Music-Streaming Source?
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Scott Wilkinson • Aug 12, 2011 • 8 comments
While we're on the subject of streaming (see the last two poll questions here and here), I'd like to turn our attention to music-streaming sources, of which there are two types—on-demand subscription and Internet radio. As you might imagine, on-demand services let you select anything from their library at will, usually for a monthly fee. With Internet-radio services, you specify the type of music you want to listen to, and they deliver it at their discretion, allowing you to skip only a certain number of tracks per hour, at least when you access the service for free.

Do you listen to music-streaming sources? If so, which one is your favorite? Don't forget to leave a comment about your preference, especially if you selected "Other."

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What Is Your Favorite Music-Streaming Source?
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What Is Your Favorite Music-Download Source?
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Scott Wilkinson • Aug 19, 2011 • 4 comments
Lately, I've been asking about your media-streaming preferences, and the results have been very interesting. Now, I'd like to ask about downloading music files to your own media server. Of course, there are many sources for downloadable music, and I can't possibly list them all here. Also, some provide low-resolution MP3s, while others offer high-rez uncompressed files.

Do you download music files? If so, what is your favorite source? Do you download mostly MP3s or high-rez files? As always, I'm especially interested in learning what service you use if you select "Other."

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What Is Your Favorite Music-Download Source?
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What Are You Most Interested In From CEDIA?
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Scott Wilkinson • Sep 02, 2011 • 2 comments
Right after Labor Day, the consumer-electronics industry converges on Indianapolis, Indiana, for the annual CEDIA (Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association) Expo, which focuses on high-end home theater and other custom-installation products. Of course, we'll be there to cover all the home-theater announcements, but I'd like to know which type of products you are most interested in learning about from the show.

As always, I encourage you to leave a comment with more details about your choice. What brands are you especially interested in? Are you thinking about hiring a custom installer, or are you a DIYer? If you picked "Other," what are you referring to? Let us know so we can provide exactly the coverage you crave.

Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.

What Are You Most Interested In From CEDIA?
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Does Your ISP Throttle Your Bandwidth?
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Scott Wilkinson • Sep 16, 2011 • 2 comments
A few weeks ago, Home Theater editor Rob Sabin posted an editorial about the growing number of Internet service providers that throttle the bandwidth of any subscriber who sends and receives more than a specified amount of data. Typically, the limit is 150 or 250GB per month, which seems like a lot—until you stream a few high-def movies and perform cloud-based backup of your entire hard drive, after which you find yourself slogging along at dial-up speeds or paying much more for your Internet access. With some ISPs that are also content providers, such as telecom and cable companies, accessing their content does not count toward the limit, but venturing outside their ecosystem does.

Does your ISP engage in any of these pernicious practices? If so, I'd love to know what your limit is and what happens when you exceed it. I encourage you to leave a comment with these details.

Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.

Does Your ISP Throttle Your Bandwidth?
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What Are You Most Excited About from CEDIA?
CEDIA 2011, Vote
Scott Wilkinson • Sep 23, 2011 • 17 comments
CES may be the biggest consumer-electronics trade show of the year, but CEDIA often includes more important product announcements for home theater specifically, and this year was certainly no exception. We saw and heard lots of super-cool toys in Indianapolis earlier this month, as we reported in our extensive coverage.

Now it's your turn to tell us what you found most exciting from CEDIA, whether you were there in person or followed our posts from the show. For this poll, I've listed a few of our favorite items, but of course, there was far more to pique the interest of any home-theater buff, so if your fave isn't here, click on "Other" and let us know what it is in the comments.

Vote to see the results and leave a comment about your choice.

What Are You Most Excited About from CEDIA?
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