Latest in Home Theater, Cool Homes and Home Electronics

Your projector is ceiling mounted in a exterior-ventilated hush box. Your 2.35:1 curved screen is back-lit with mood-appropriate LED lighting. Your electric-recline theater seats have both heat AND massage. Your popcorn machine uses the finest extra-virgin oil and you clean it twice a day. So why in the world are you killing your home cinema suspension-of-disbelief with all of your… View this story

Let’s just say the electrician who attempted to install this whole-house Panasonic communications system really phoned it in. Fortunately for this client, he had called on his custom electronics pro to work on a different project when the installer, Joe Paciullo of ADR Media Integrators, eventually was led to this jungle of wires. “He called us to add a flat-panel… View this story

You can have your home automation system perform and combine about any task you want, provided it is comprehensive enough and you have the right team of creative custom electronics pros to program it. You also need some creativity yourself, as well as some practicality and restraint—as in, what don’t you need the system to do? So ask yourself, what… View this story

Talk about a fish out of water. This New Jersey homeowner is a Boston sports fanatic, but thanks to some creative thinking and some help from a local custom electronics firm, his nightly trips down to the basement take him into the Hub rather than the Holland Tunnel. As an equal-opportunity Boston sports nut, this homeowner and his family actually… View this story

Hate the lag time it takes to load a Blu-ray disc and get the movie fired up in your system? Or just the time it takes to thumb through your collection and actually find the movie you’re looking for? If you use an S1Digital Entertainment Server or other form of Media Center, S1Digital wants to help by centralizing your optical… View this story

I recommend a lot of low-end TVs. Either big cheap 720p plasmas or entry-level 60hz 1080p LCDs. Some with only a couple of HDMI inputs or four-digit contrast ratios.  The main reason, other than that I’m cheap, is that these smaller sets belong in rooms that might not be your primary viewing location. Whether a living room, bedroom, or kids… View this story

Want to really go for that uncluttered home theater look? Furniture maker BDI has always made nice contemporary pieces to help with your A/V designs, and the latest, the Novia 8426, gives you even more flexibility while keeping things tidy. The piece is designed to conceal your boxy subwoofer and there’s enough room for a center-channel speaker and components too.… View this story

We love it when homeowners express their passions or hobbies in their home theaters. We’d already seen Harley-Davidson show up in one cool theater environment, and here it is again in a completely different context. For one thing, this New Jersey theater is a dedicated room, and for another it’s not your typical basement project. It’s in the home’s attic… View this story

True or False? Do most people buy an HDTV before big events like the Super Bowl or the Olympics? According to a recent random survey of 600 people by Retrevo, the answer is false. Although these media events may spur some people to buy an HDTV, the biggest motivator is price. Seventy-five percent of the survey respondents said that major… View this story

If you’re hurry, you might just be able to spruce up your living room, theater, or general party space in time for Super Bowl Sunday. Need a new TV? One for the kitchen? How ‘bout a speaker system to bring the sound of the game to life? Check out these super deals to ensure you have the ultimate party for… View this story

ServiceLive, the installation network wholly owned by Sears, has undergone a facelift. The re-launched site, which is designed to connect consumers with installation and service needs with qualified installers, has some features that call to mind other popular sites. Lending Tree - Consumers can post a description of their service or installation needs along with photos and installers can bid… View this story

Not everyone has the luxury of dedicating a room solely for big-screen movie viewing. More often, that space is shared with a family room, a den or a guest bedroom. And that’s OK. Your family room is already finished and furnished. Plus, it probably already has a good-size TV and modest surround-sound system. If your family room is like most,… View this story