Introduction One of the more amazing trends today is the absolute explosion in the amount of television programming available to the average person. Technologies such as digital cable and satellite TV have made the proliferation of television channels a reality. My DirecTV satellite service offers over 900 channels of programming, ranging from the Thai Channel to HBO and darn near everything in between. With programming available on most channels 24 hours a day, a nearly limitless variety of shows can be seen. Of course, you may have to be up at 4:00 AM to see that episode of “The A-Team” that you missed back in the ‘80s. With a TiVo digital video recorder (DVR), you can now record those normally out of reach shows with a click of a button, and watch the recording at your convenience. The shows are written to the built-in hard drive of the TiVo unit, allowing you to play, ...

Introduction There are few audio/video enthusiasts or even casual consumers that have not heard of the brand Harman Kardon. Founded by Dr. Sidney Harman, Harman Kardon has been contributing innovative hi-fi products to the market for over 50 years. They are responsible for many industry firsts: the first receiver (the festival D1000 in 1953), the first stereo receiver, the first cassette player with Dolby B, and the list goes on. Recently, Harman Kardon released the AVR 630, a cutting-edge A/V receiver that packs seven channels of high-current amplification with all the latest features in home theater technology for a price of $1,299. The first thing you will notice about the AVR 630 is that it is gorgeous. I love how they ditched the traditional all-black steel chassis and went for the silver finish instead. The plastic front panel has a two-tone color scheme of silver and black with ultra-cool blue LEDs accenting the standby switch ...

Introduction Home theater systems are increasingly complex. In the old days of audiophilia, you likely had a tape deck, stereo preamp, power amplifier and two speakers. Maybe you even had a television in the same room. Well, those days are long gone and systems today likely include a digital cable box, digital video recorder (TiVo), audio/video preamp processor, DVD and/or CD player, VCR and television. Throw in a high-resolution disc player (SACD or DVD-Audio), music server (Apple iPod or ReQuest) or video processor (Faroudja), and if you can successfully make it all work seamlessly, you deserve an honorary engineering degree from Radio Shack. If you are anything like me, you yearn for a simple, one-stop solution to control it all and rid your living area of those unsightly remotes. There can be little debate that modern technology has spurred a revolution in quality and functionality of home theater gear. This revolution has been driven by consumer ...

How and Why To Build a Hush Box For Your Projector By Jerry Del Colliano February 2004 As long as video projectors have been in high-performance A/V systems, fan noise has been an unwanted byproduct. In my early 20s, while working at Cello Music and Film Los Angeles, Mark Levinson and the Cello design team rigged a way to change the fan of the “Cello” (rebadged Ampro) eight- and nine-inch CRT projectors that we sold. While this ultimately became a service problem for Cello dealers, the reduced fan noise on the projectors was warmly received by our well-heeled client base. Today, nearly 10 years after my days of designing and selling systems at Cello, digital projectors are fast becoming the king of the home video hill. While ultra-expensive CRT projectors still produce the absolute best video image, their cost, size, weight, need for service and pathetic resale values make the brighter, smaller and less expensive digital ...

TiVo for DirecTV on the Cheap As one of the millions of subscribers of DirecTV’s satellite service, I was compelled by an ongoing campaign to promote their own Hughes PVR (personal video recorder) for a seemingly unbelievable price of $199 per unit – installed. The unit completes the same tasks as the famous Sony SAT T-60 (about $500 retail – now discontinued), being both a satellite receiver and a TiVo recording device with a 35-hour recording capability, all in the same chassis. The value of the DirecTV offer was too compelling for me to resist, especially considering that to get another used Sony SAT T-60 from eBay was going to cost me close to the same $500 it costs to get a new one. I had a new bedroom system going in with a kickass new Sony 34XBR910 34-inch CRT HDTV set along with all of the other goodies. Why shouldn’t I have ...