Scott Wilkinson
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AVR for 4-Ohm Speakers
Ask Home Theater
Scott Wilkinson • Feb 29, 2012 • 9 comments
I have a pair of Focus Audio FC8 speakers and a pair of PSB Stratus Silveris, both of which have a nominal impedance of 4 ohms. I'd like to get a new receiver in the $1500-$2000 range capable of driving these speakers that also provides Audyssey or some type of room correction. Can you reccomend some receivers, keeping in mind the 4-ohm speakers? I'm curious about Pioneer's class-D receivers, but I'm not sure how they handle 4 ohms.

Jerry Zaleski

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Podcast 100: Alan Parsons
Home Theater Geeks Podcast
Scott Wilkinson • Feb 28, 2012 • 0 comments
Celebrating Home Theater Geeks' 100th episode, legendary producer, engineer, and musician Alan Parsons talks about his early days as an assistant engineer at Abbey Road Studios when the Beatles were recording their last two albums, recording and mixing Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and Michael Oldfield's Tubular Bells in quadraphonic, forming the Alan Parsons Project with collaborator Eric Woolfson, his educational 3-DVD set called The Art and Science of Sound Recording, answers to chat-room questions, and much more.

Run Time: 1:07:22

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Hollywood's Biggest Night
The Big Picture
Scott Wilkinson • Feb 27, 2012 • 15 comments
I really enjoy watching the Academy Awards show, the 84th edition of which was held last night and broadcast to an audience of some 40 million viewers. The high-def image is beautiful, the staging is lavish, the music is live, and Jennifer Lopez always looks gorgeous. But the main reason I watch is that movies are the driving force behind home theater, and the Oscars are one of the driving forces behind movies.
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JVC DLA-X30 vs. DLA-X3
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Scott Wilkinson • Feb 27, 2012 • 2 comments
I have an existing home theater that is 19.5x12x8.5 feet. It has two rows of raised seating, one at 11 feet from the screen and the other at 15 feet. The screen is 108 inches diagonal, 16:9, with no gain. The distance from the screen to projector ceiling mount is just over 16 feet. The windows have black-out drapes, so the ambient light is totally controlled. The walls and ceiling are white except for the window wall on the left, which has the black drapes.

I need a new projector. I would like to have 1080p and 3D. I was impressed with HT's review of the JVC DLA-X3, and now I see JVC just came out with the DLA-X30. The X3 was $4500, but now the X30 is $3500, and the same store is selling the X3 for $2500. I am not clear on the improvements of the X30 over the X3 and would appreciate your opinion if they are worth the extra $1000. More importantly, will these projectors be right for my room and seating dimensions?

Steve Schmidt

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How Often Have You Replaced Your TV In The Last 10 Years?
Vote
Scott Wilkinson • Feb 24, 2012 • Published: Dec 31, 1969 • 16 comments
Throughout my childhood, I remember visiting my grandparents and watching their Zenith TV (which used a Space Command ultrasonic remote, the source of the term "clicker"). Back then, most folks kept their TV for 15 or 20 years before replacing it, usually when the old one finally gave up the ghost. And there was little need to—TV technology didn't evolve much in those days. Once color television was well established, TVs were much the same from one year to the next.

Now, of course, the replacement rate for TVs is much faster, because performance improves, screens get bigger, and cool new features are added while prices drop every year. This leads me to ask, how often have you replaced your main TV in the last 10 years? Has your pace of replacement increased over that time?

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

How Often Have You Replaced Your TV In The Last 10 Years?
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Torn Between Two AVRs
Ask Home Theater
Scott Wilkinson • Feb 24, 2012 • 7 comments
I have a dedicated 400-square-foot theater room with a 7.1 surround system used entirely for movie viewing. I currently have a Pioneer VSX-1019 A/V receiver and plan on replacing it with either an Anthem MRX 700 or Arcam AVR400. I am torn between these two models. The Anthem has great room correction and video processing, while the Arcam has more power and lower distortion. I'm looking for the most enveloping sound experience.

Greg Barnett

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Plasma in a Sun Room
Ask Home Theater
Scott Wilkinson • Feb 22, 2012 • 4 comments
I am looking to buy a TV for my sun room, which is 18x20 and has two 6x4 windows on three of the four walls, with the fourth wall facing the inside of my home. The TV would be located on this fourth wall. The room does get a lot of sun, but all the windows have blinds that can be closed fully to block out all meaningful direct sunlight, although some indirect sunlight does seep through.

I'm thinking about getting the Panasonic TC-P55VT30, but I'm concerned about any plasma TV's ability to deal with the brightness of this room during the day. On the other hand, also important is off-axis viewing, which is a plasma strength and an LCD weakness. Will the plasma wash out during the day even with the blinds closed due to the seeping/indirect sunlight? If so, what LED-LCD would you recommend, since I assume all plasmas would have the same issue? If there is a plasma that would not suffer this issue, I would welcome that name also.

Steven Lawless

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Pina 3D Dazzles
The Big Picture
Scott Wilkinson • Feb 21, 2012 • 1 comments
As a musician, I've played for a number of modern-dance performances and classes, including classes taught by members of the renowned Bella Lewitzky Dance Company. So when I learned that Wim Wenders, director of Buena Vista Social Club, made a 3D movie about the late modern-dance choreographer Pina Bausch and her Tanztheater Wuppertal troupe, I had to check it out—especially since Pina has been nominated for an Academy Award as the best documentary feature of 2011.
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Do You Prefer an Anamorphic Lens or Lens Memories?
Vote
Scott Wilkinson • Feb 17, 2012 • Published: Dec 31, 1969 • 5 comments
As I explain in today's "Ask Home Theater" blog, there are two ways to project a 2.35:1 movie onto a 2.35:1 screen without black letterbox bars. One way is to place an anamorphic lens in front of the projector's primary lens to stretch the image horizontally and use electronic processing to upscale the image vertically. The other way is to use a projector with motorized zoom, focus, and lens shift and several less memories to store and recall the settings for different aspect ratios. As with most things in life, each approach has its pros and cons.

If you have a 2.35:1 projection system—or you only dream about having one—which approach do you prefer? An anamorphic lens with its increased brightness and vertical resolution but potential scaling artifacts and optical distortion, or lens memories that avoid these problems at the expense of lower brightness and vertical resolution? Or are you happy with a 16:9 screen and black letterbox bars framing movies?

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

Do You Prefer an Anamorphic Lens or Lens Memories?
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2.35 Movies on a 2.35 Screen
Ask Home Theater
Scott Wilkinson • Feb 17, 2012 • 3 comments
I have received an estimate for a basement home theater utilizing an Epson PowerLite Pro Cinema 6010 projector and a Dragonfly 2.35:1 screen. The installer recommends a Panamorph FVX200 anamorphic-lens system to convert movies to match the aspect ratio of the screen, but I question the value of this $3000 add-on to improve the home-theater experience.

Gregg Berkowitz

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