Matt Burns
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Matt Burns is a person that you can go to when any advice is needed about TVs or audio equipment. He is that guy that just seems to know about almost everything and if he doesn't, he will later. Matt has been selling consumer electronics at one of the nations largest electronic stores for over five years and specifically TVs for the last two. He understands that the world of HDTV can be overwhelming and frustrating at times and he is here to help.
Matt Burns
- http://
Matt Burns is a person that you can go to when any advice is needed about TVs or audio equipment. He is that guy that just seems to know about almost everything and if he doesn't, he will later. Matt has been selling consumer electronics at one of the nations largest electronic stores for over five years and specifically TVs for the last two. He understands that the world of HDTV can be overwhelming and frustrating at times and he is here to help.
Hanging a flat-panel on a wall these days is middle-class. Sure, you can frame the TV, add artwork, or even hide the display with mirrors, but it's still there. That's why K2 Mounts and MK 1 Studio developed what is safe to say, a unique AV rack, for the affluent types. Mounted underneath the box spring, the rack can hold two set-top boxes, subwoofer, AV receiver, and, of course, the display -- 42-inch under a queen and 50-inch under a king. But with a click of a button, the display rolls out from under the bed and rises into view during an anticlimactic 32-seconds sequence. No word on pricing just yet, but expect to find the rack through CEDIA installers and integrators. Click through the link to see this mount here first before some rap'n superstar shows it off on Cribs next year.
Just in time for another season, Dish Network adds the National Hockey League Network to their always-growing HD lineup. NHL HD will sport 50 live regular-season games, classic games, documentaries, and how-to shows; we're wondering how much of the extra features will be in high-def however. The station is already live on channel 403 and 559 for subs with America's Top 100 package or the NHL Center Ice subscription respectively. This new station should calm rabid Hockey fans but they do hold Hockey's dirty, little high-def secret: the sport is, arguably, the best looking programming in high definition.
Traveling during football season? Hyatt Place's Sports Package has everything for us sports and high-def fans need to enjoy college / pro football. They allow guests to check in earlier and stay later, give 'em a bigger room with an eight-foot sectional couch, a choice of either the college or pro DirecTV package, and even a pizza with two 20 oz. beverages (read: non-alcoholic). The package is available now through December 30, 2007 - bowl games and the Play-Offs are on national stations after that anyways - at 70 Hyatt Places nationwide.
Texas Instruments has launched their latest low-cost DaVinci MPEG-4 video encoder / decoder intended to bring high-def to a new product set. The $12 DM355 handles MPEG-4 and JPEG processing on an ARM9E CPU core with uber-low power consumption making it perfect for digital photo frames, IP video cameras, digital still cameras and even video baby monitors. If that's not enough, the chip is also equipped with additional coprocessors for resizing, histogram generation and an on-screen display. The low-cost chip of course has its limitations as it cannot encode and decode at the same time but it should work just fine for the stated on-way applications. Oh, and yes, a high-def baby monitor is a good investment even though the old one works fine.
There is simply nothing worse than leaving the comfort of your own high-def home theater and spending hard cash at a local cinema that sports projectors from the 90's. Thankfully, Texas Instruments DLP magic has infiltrated at least 5,000 theaters world-wide providing what we HD geeks need out of a movie going experience. So far there are DLP-equipped theater on every continent, save Antarctica, and they expect to double their install base to 10,000 one year from now. Plus, DLP Cinema has found a niche market in the revival of 3D films and is one of the chief reasons for their installations. If your not lucky 'nough to have a dedicated home theater yet, the shear number of these theaters indicate that there probably is a DLP Cinema close by anyways.
Best Buy is saying sayonara to analog TVs by announcing that it has pulled all analog sets from its shelves, which marks the first time a big box retailer of this magnitude has publicly announced an exit from the analog TV biz. Of course, this decision now enables the firm to shamelessly proclaim that any television purchased within the confines of its brick and mortar walls will work in the all-digital future -- and for those not willing to pick up a new set, it also stated that it will be participating in the NTIA DTV Converter Box Coupon Program starting early next year. At first glance, the announcement sounds like much needed progress towards getting folks ready for the 2009 switchover, but for moms and pops scouting a 13-inch analog CRT on the cheap for that garage / playroom, it looks like you'll be "forced" to check out one with a digital tuner... or an LCD. As if you needed another excuse, right?
Everyone knows that flat-panel TVs are the way of the future and Sony is expanding their manufacturing capabilities in Europe. Many consumers are under the impression that all things electronic is built in some Asian facility but in fact, a good amount of flat panels come from Europe. Sony's latest plant just opened in Nitra, Slovakia and should pump out three million high-end Bravia LCD TVs each year. The best news is that as manufacturers such as Sony expands their production base, the overall cost of these sets should decrease more rapidly resulting in more flat-panels for everyone.
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