Home Theater

Confession time: until earlier this spring, I’d never driven a Cadillac.  I had a picture in my mind of how a Cadillac would handle, how I’d feel behind the wheel, and how much gas it would use. After spending a week with a 2009 Cadillac CTS earlier this spring, I have quite a different opinion.
The [...]

Rumor has it that Spinal Tap, stars of the 1984 classic film “This is Spinal Tap” and everyone’s favorite (hey, don’t call them “mock”) heavy metal band, will reunite at London’s Wembley Stadium on July 7th, for the Live Earth concert. Now I could go on and on about the monumental importance of the band [...]

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the 7-Eleven Corporation is planning to turn almost a dozen existing stores across the states into Kwik-E-Marts for the release of “The Simpsons Movie.” Now we can finally forgive them for unleashing the Big Gulp upon us.
If all goes as planned, the convenience store chain plans to refit 11 [...]

ESPN2 is broadcasting a pair of UEFA Champions League Round of 16, 2nd leg soccer matches in high-definition this week. Why is this worthy of a mention? Because most Americans have never seen soccer with this beauty and intensity, certainly not in HD. There’s no comparison. This is why you bought that big screen TV, [...]

I’ve been beating the home NAS (network attached storage) drum for what seems like eons now. But do I have a NAS in my own home yet? Of course not! Aside from being flat broke at the moment, I just can’t decide which type and size of NAS I want to buy. Spending the company’s [...]

Whatsamatta, sports fan … bummed out that you won’t be watching the Super Bowl on a HDTV? It doesn’t have to be that way! You can tap into a HDTV signal faster than you might think. Cable or satellite isn’t required. You just need a HDTV-tuner equipped TV and a HD antenna … best of [...]

While Bill Gates was in Las Vegas yesterday, singing the praises of the new Microsoft home server (video), I was wandering around our local CompUSA, looking to cobble together a home server on the cheap. Now I’m not going to invoke the GMTA statute, but a home server or network attached storage device (NAS) has [...]

I bought a new camcorder this week at the big box store. It’s an inexpensive JVC DV unit that’s equipped with Firewire, USB, and a SD slot. The salesman was very helpful, but he missed one important detail. I made a point of asking, “is everything in the box, short of tapes and the memory [...]

I want a Nintendo Wii!
I never thought I’d say this. I thought I was done with video game consoles. I thought I’d just grown up.
It wasn’t always this way, of course. We started out with the Atari 2600, many many moons ago. My wife and I spent more on Atari game cartridges than we did [...]

Want to save a few bucks on that new HDTV television or Playstation 3 install? How about more than a few? You just need to plan ahead.
Don’t buy your HDMI cables at the big box store. Buy them online, instead.
Your wallet will thank you.
No doubt about it, those Monster Cables sure look nice, but they [...]

We’re getting to the time of the year when the pounds start adding themselves at a frightening pace. I’m convinced that this onslaught of weight gain is initiated by a massive intake in sugar, in the form of all of that leftover Halloween candy. This triggers the body into its annual, “hey, it’s almost time [...]

I’ve noticed an interesting development in my TV viewing habits of late. After finally getting the HDTV hooked up midway through the World Cup, I’ve become a HDTV snob. These days, I tend to look for HDTV programming before hitting the standard resolution channels. This has led me to enjoy programs that I might not [...]

All I can say is WOW. I’m absolutely floored by the fantastic response from the Gnomiverse regarding last week’s post on home theater speakers. Thank you kindly, my friends. Without having listened to a single system, I’m leaning towards an American-made setup. The biggest question isn’t Klipsch or Orb at the moment. It’s “when will [...]

I’m shopping for home theater speakers. But I’m not anywhere near the buying phase, just yet. Purchase decisions like this take time, around these parts. The problem is, I’m easily struck with buyers remorse. Consequently, I tend to research things to death. I couldn’t bear the thought of buying the wrong set of home theater [...]

I got some fantastic advice from a kind Gnomie earlier this month, after writing about HDMI cables. Seeing the prices on high-end HDMI cables at Best Buy made my jaw drop. Thank heavens I was set straight, because I needed to buy not just one HDMI cable, but three …

The DirecTV installer found his way to Ranchero Indebto this week, just in time for us to watch the US Soccer team fall painfully out of the World Cup … in glorious high definition (HDTV). Yeah, I balked at doing the dish installation myself. It only took minutes to dial in the HDTV signal once [...]

When I wrote about being stiffed on my DirecTV HDTV installation on Friday, I never thought I’d make it to Monday sans the World Cup in its high-def goodness. Well, here it is Monday evening, and we’re still watching fuzzy blobs dart across the bright green pitch. I still don’t have a HDTV picture on [...]

I ordered my HDTV service from DirecTV on Monday. They promised to have a technician out for the install on the afternoon of Friday the 9th … just in time to don our England replica jerseys and watch the first World Cup games this weekend. The hours clicked by this afternoon. Nobody showed. I finally [...]

HDMI cables are the way to hook up the latest and greatest A/V gear. The High-Definition Multimedia Interface carries all the uncompressed digital signals — audio, video, data, and control — with just one HDMI cable. Bring on your DVD player, HDTV box, receiver, and digital TV … HDMI cables get the nod, as [...]

So I’m flipping through the channels tonight, when I wandered into The Band’s “Last Waltz” on the Independent Film Channel (IFC). I tuned in for a stretch and was rewarded with Dr. John knocking out a tune (apropos after watching an hours worth of live CNN coverage from New Orleans), Muddy Waters’ masterful “Mannish Boy,” [...]