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Amazon Black Friday Bundle

For Black Friday Amazon is bundling Infamous and Killzone II for free. You will also receive a $10 credit good towards your next purchase and a $5 VOD credit. Quantities are limited.

Order Your Black Friday $299 PS3 Slim from Amazon

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Click Here to Find Your Perfect HDTV

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Click Here to Find Your Perfect HDTV

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Amadeus (Director’s Cut) [Blu-ray]

I’m not sure what’s different about this new release outside of the packaging. However Amadeus is a joy to catch whenever possible. The video isn’t the best you have ever witnessed however the audio which just might be more important for this film is very impressive.

Sounds like a perfect opportunity to score points with the wife. If I remember correctly you get to attend at least half dozen operas all in the comfort of your home not to mention you won’t have to hassle with returning your tuxedo.

Most Tuesdays we pick our favorite new Blu-ray release. When possible we spotlight lesser known titles as they are easily overlooked and often under-appreciated. Although occasionally a blockbuster becomes one for good reason and we won’t hold it against them. Our selections are based on entertainment value and takes into account the following weighted in the order listed.

• Story-line
• Acting
• Overall execution of the movie
• Our taste in movies
• Video image
• Audio mix

At times we will selection a concert, TV series or other material. The absolute deciding factor comes down to what we want to view in the theater on release day. If it tops that list it’s our pick!

Sony BDP-S1000ES Blu-ray Disc Player

Sony has released a high-end player in their low-end chassis. Sure they upgraded it a bit but gone are the old school styling and weight of the previous ES models. At the same time they threw in WiFi N which before long will be standard on all players.

What makes the BDP-1000ES better than their entry level players are three features found on the high-end players.

• Super Bit Mapping and HD Reality Enhancer
• Precision Cinema HD Upscale
• 7.1 channel analog output (dropped from the newer low-end models)

The first will tiddy up your HD video to some extend without any real ill effects often found when using similar tools from other vendors. The next allows your DVDs to appear more HD like and finally if your receiver doesn’t support HDMI audio you’ll still be able to enjoy HD audio codecs.

At roughly a $500 premium over their BDP-S360 it’s a lot of money to spent for the above features. Most will pass but for the true enthusiast it’s a great chance to get ES features at a great price.

Sugar [Blu-ray]

Sure Gladiator and Braveheart come out this week but frankly I didn’t really care for either one. Not that they weren’t well done and entertaining enough but for me they suffer from being Dude Flicks which just happens to be the opposite of Chick Flicks. Both types of flicks are often enjoyable but you tend to remember them about as long as it takes my projector’s lamp to cool down (2 minutes).

So the obvious pick this week was M*A*S*H that is until we ran across a movie that is far more worthwhile catching than watching M*A*S*H once again. Sugar is a baseball themed movie but like all great sports movies it isn’t about sports. Rather it looks at the life of a young pitcher as we get a glimpse into his world. One so well written, directed and acted you’ll forget the balls and strikes and hope he comes out a winner in life.

Similar titles:

• Field of Dreams [Blu-ray]
• The Rookie [Blu-ray]
• The Wrestler [Blu-ray]

Every Tuesday we pick our favorite new Blu-ray release. When possible we spotlight lesser known titles as they are easily overlooked and often under-appreciated. Although occasionally a blockbuster becomes one for good reason and we won’t hold it against them. Our selections are based on entertainment value and takes into account the following weighted in the order listed.

• Story-line
• Acting
• Overall execution of the movie
• Our taste in movies
• Video image
• Audio mix

At times we will selection a concert, TV series or other material. The absolute deciding factor comes down to what we want to view in the theater on release day. If it tops that list it’s our pick!

Pioneer Elite SC-07 – AV network receiver – 7.1 channel

A few weeks ago I upgraded the receiver in our dedicated screening room to the Pioneer SC-07. Its almost identical SC-27 replacement is now showing up and we couldn’t resist the close-out price on the SC-07s. Outside of the obvious never ending desire to upgrade I was looking for two features my old receiver lacked.

The first being Dynamic EQ or in the Pioneer’s case THX Loudness Plus™. This allows you to maintain the dynamic range one would hear at reference level when you are listening at levels well below reference. For a complete understanding of the gory details you can use the provided link. I also wanted the ability to store more than one set of room correction settings. The SC-07 uses MCACC and allows for six and you can choose up to three different methods of room correction logic.

After an untold number of times running MCACC followed by a few movies I am more than happy with the upgrade and feel the difference between what I sold the old receiver for and the price I paid for the SC-07 ended up being a sound decision. Although during the course of the upgrade I ran across something that improved the sound even more and it didn’t cost me a penny.

I was so impressed with how well MCACC corrected the speakers and room deficiencies I took a closer look at my room’s environment. I have a few acoustical panels and the room itself works well. However the very top of my speakers were shinny black plastic (they lift right off) which would reflect the light from the screen if I placed them within several feet. Because of this I had always placed them too far apart well beyond the recommended 24 – 28 degrees.

I knew this wasn’t ideal and it was hurting my audio performance so I came up with a solution. I could see the plastic caps would easily lift off and I would be left with bare wood. A few cans of flat black spray paint and the reflections would be gone!

After a day or so of letting the paint dry I ended up moving the speakers in roughly 6 feet (3 feet per speaker). To verify reflections wouldn’t be a problem I projected a 100 IRE image and the speakers were as hidden as the rest of the room. Since I was redoing the fronts I figured I might as well take a look at the others and see if there was anything else I could do to improve their performance. For reference I visited Dolby’s Home Theater Speaker Guide and based on their recommendation I relocated the rear surrounds and pointed each speaker directly towards the focal point (sweet spot).

I had reviewed their site and others over the years and taken the information into account so I wasn’t starting from scratch. But this time I let their recommendation dictate my speakers placement not the room. Why not it’s a dedicated screening room!

After my manual room correction it was time to rerun MCACC. First pass reported the left front was an inch further away from the focal point than the right front and all of the other speakers were good to go. Next pass was a winner and it was time to sit directly in the middle of that focal point and see what all of my manual labor resulted in.

Before the reconfiguration I was completed satisfied with the sound and didn’t expect a dramatic difference. It certainly wasn’t a night and day difference although it was easy to spot. Sounds were more clear and directional and pans were smoother. I felt like I had a direct connection to each sound and could easy hear where it was placed. Previously it sounded almost as good however it felt muted in that the sounds were more generally placed in the room. To sum up the difference I would say everything is now in sync. The audio track is being presented as it was recorded as I can hear the quietest details, follow the sounds as they travel from speaker to speaker and even at lower levels the audio comes alive as never before.

Looking back I have to admit the best upgrade was reconfiguring the speakers. It improved the listening experience more so than the receiver upgrade. Certainly it wasn’t as fun as tweaking a new receiver but getting better results without spending a penny (except in my case a couple of cans of spray paint) can’t be over looked.