Audio News for April 1, 2014

by | Apr 1, 2014 | Audio News

Samsung Offers 28-inch UHD PC Monitor – Samsung has introduced the hi-def UD590 (which they are calling 4K) for those requiring the highest resolution for work or play. It has four times the resolution of 1080p, 64 times more colors (one billion), and 1ms response time. It retails for $699. The company also introduced 23.6 and 27-inch FullHD monitors.

Popcorn Time Site Shut Down – Only a few weeks after launching, the free movie site which offered current films free of charge and was lauded by some as “the Netflix of piracy,” was taken down by its creators to avoid any legal issues. They claimed they had checked if the site was legal four times, but pulled it down to avoid possible legal battles. Users did not have to trawl thru BitTorrent sites to fine their movies; with a few clicks the latest movies could be viewed on computers or fed to home screens. They said they showed that people will risk fines, lawsuits and whatever consequences that may come just to be able to watch a recent movie in slippers.

HDMI Over Long Distances – HDMI has some problems, but it’s the standard for connecting up home theater stuff. It passes both video and audio supposedly, but those of us who want the highest audio quality use the optical output and turn off the audio return channel on the HDMI, using it only for the video. HDMI can have “handshake” problems and there are different versions from different manufactures. One problem is it often won’t work correctly over more than 15 feet. Certain HDMI cables claim to extend the length up to 50 feet. Another way is to use Ethernet cables instead, plus an HDMI-to-Cat5 converter from Accell or Ationa.

Top Home Theater Systems – Review Authority did a comprehensive independent rating of home theater manufacturers using a network of certified evaluators and their own proprietary research process, and named the following, going up in price: Phillips, Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, LG, Bose.

Connected Living Room Market: $357 Billion by 2020 – According to a market research report just published by MarketsandMarkets, the total digital living room market is expected to cross $357 Billion by 2020 after growing at a single digit rate from 2014 to 2020. The products in report included home theater gear, Blu-ray players, gaming consoles, processors, memory, sensors and connectivity. They are divided into Primary and Secondary devices; Primary devices including TV systems, set-top boxes and Blu-ray players. The report gives an in-depth analysis of each segment.

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