Home Theater

Original Web content is getting hot. Companies are scooping up the latest properties or looking to get in on the competition. And it’s about to get even more competitive now that Google has officially joined. Gaming network Machinima broke the silence yesterday by officially announcing that it has raised $35 million, lead by Google and investors including Redpoint Ventures and MK Capital. So what is significant about this financing round?… Read More

According to a recent study conducted by NPD, only 14 percent of consumers that plan on purchasing a new HDTV within the next six months consider 3D technology a "must have" feature. While 68 percent call 3D a "nice feature to have they may use in the future," it's not a motivating factor in their purchase decision. When it comes to factors that are detouring consumers from purchasing a new 3DTV, eighty percent of… Read More

As detailed on the Time Warner Cable's Untangled blog, subscribers to Time Warner Cable can now access the HBO GO application on the Xbox 360, Roku set-top boxes and Samsung Internet-connected televisions. Customers of the company's cable television service have had to wait for HBO GO access while competitors like Charter, DIRECTV, Dish Network, Verizon and AT&T  enabled access for customers already. Comcast seems to be the last… Read More

Desperate times call for desperate measures, as rivals Sony and Panasonic are said to be discussing a possible partnership, to help lower the production costs of OLED televisions. While this would have been unthinkable 10 years ago, both companies have reported heavy financial losses recently, and share prices for the pair have dropped to levels last seen in the late 70s and early 80s. Samsung and LG’s success in the television market hasn’t… Read More

New information has emerged concerning Ikea’s forthcoming Uppleva home entertainment system, which was publicly announced during April, but with only the minimum of detail. It’s the Swedish brand’s attempt to integrate its love of minimalist design and a high degree of customization into the ultra-competitive world of consumer electronics, and it’s a very brave move indeed. Especially if the price they've given relates to the model with… Read More

As mentioned earlier today at the J.P. Morgan Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, Netflix CFO David Wells stated that 33 percent of new subscriptions to Netflix are from people that cancelled the service within the past twelve months. According to Netflix policy, the company holds onto customer data for approximately one year. This allows the company to compare information such as credit card accounts and mailing addresses to prior… Read More

Announced by Dish Network yesterday, the satellite television provider has launched a new feature on the Hopper whole-home HD DVR system that allows customers to skip over all commercials on the four major broadcast networks. When a subscriber plays a recorded television show from ABC, CBS, NBC or FOX, a prompt appears that offers the subscriber the option of stripping out the advertising breaks. Rather than manually fast-forwarding through the… Read More

The Apple "iTV" rumors just keep on comin'. This time, however, the source of the report is none other than Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou, who told major Chinese English-language newspaper China Daily that his company will soon begin production of the long-speculated Apple HDTV. China Daily reporter Gou Changxin writes that Gou indicated that Foxconn is "making preparations" for the iTV, but that "development or… Read More

Samsung debuted its prototype 55-inch OLED television, which at the time they claimed was the world’s largest TV of its type, at CES 2012, and said they would be putting it into production this year. Following brief-but-positive hands-on reports, the set went on to be named an honoree Best of Innovations award winner at the show, but few expected to hear anything more about it so soon. Now, at the World’s Fair in Korea, the company has revealed… Read More

While most speaker companies have spent the last year climbing over each other to develop AirPlay-compatible wireless speakers, direct-to-consumer speaker merchant Aperion Audio has been quietly absent from the fray as it spent its time and resources developing something entirely different. The result is the Aris: the first-ever wireless speaker designed for PC owners running Windows 7 or Windows 8 (consumer preview).  Aris takes advantage of… Read More

The Apple news website Cult of Mac reported Monday that an anonymous, but very reliable source close to Apple has viewed a prototype of the much-speculated upon Apple “iTV,” and that the device will include Apple’s voice recognition software, Siri, as well as FaceTime for video calls through a built-in iSight camera. Granted, Apple rumors are a lot like opinions: Everybody’s got one. That being said, rumors regarding a foray by Cupertino into… Read More

The long-rumored Apple "iTV" is back, and this time the info is coming from someone other than market analyst Gene Munster. According to CultofMac, a "well-placed" source, who chose to remain anonymous, says that he or she has seen the Apple-made television, and that it includes both the Siri virtual assistant currently found exclusively in the iPhone 4S, as well as FaceTime video chat functionality. In addition, the… Read More

What better ways to prepare for the upcoming May holidays than having a giant projector in your backyard to accommodate the pending barbecue season? While other large projectors can cost you hundreds of dollars, for today only, you can own this 85″ Quartet 60×60 Matte Tripod Projection Screen for just $40 with free shipping. The set simply folds and stores away during the winter season, or you can try to sneak this into the basement… Read More