Heron Fidelity

I recently wrote a short column for Popular Science where I speculated about when we can expect to see HDTVs and content that deliver more than the 2,073,600 pixels of the 1080p format. For future consumer display designs, the need to go ‘beyond 1080p’ is being driven primarily by passive-glasses 3D technology that enables the use of [...]

Earlier this month, Ceton released an update for its InfiniTV Installer software for the InfiniTV 4 multi-tuner PC card that adds an automated driver/firmware updater.  Always wanting to test the latest software on my gear, I installed the new Installer and upon completion it warned me that I may have to redo the TV tuner [...]

Display calibration is the process of adjusting an HDTV’s picture controls in order to produce a faithful, accurate representation of the source video signal.  Out of the box, TV’s are configured to grab your attention with overly saturated colors and the brightest possible picture – sacrificing color accuracy and picture detail.  The above video is [...]

Every time I walk into a super store’s electronics section, I inevitably find myself stopping to chuckle at the ridiculously expensive AV (audio/video) cables awaiting uninformed shoppers.  Rule of thumb: if you are paying more than USD$10 for an HDMI cable, you are wasting your money.  I’m not saying that all $10 HDMI cables are created equal, but [...]

Right now is prime time for HDTV shopping, and I’m receiving a steady stream of requests for product recommendations.  A recently received query inquired about what big screen HDTV options there were for around USD$800.  This person wanted a screen size of about 50-inches and they were partial to the sublime picture quality of plasma [...]

This exciting installment of my project to build an efficient home theater PC features (arguably) sexy shots of the component assembly process, and then I’ll discuss the selection of software I’ve installed…so far.  If you are interested in (re)reading part one of this epic project, then please click this link. At the heart of every [...]

(Updated 10/13/2010 – see end of article) More than a dozen years have passed since TiVo introduced its first digital video recorder (DVR) at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. In that time, the company has provided mostly incremental updates with each new hardware series. Within the last few years, the TiVo platform [...]

If you purchased a gallon of gas and it measured 5% short, would you still call it a gallon? When it comes to viewing high definition (HD) video on a high definition television (HDTV), many HDTVs have a nasty habit of hiding (destroying) visual information along the border of the video image reducing the detail [...]

Until a few days ago, Mac and PC users were unable to stream high definition video from Netflix’s Watch Instantly selection of titles.  Stand-alone Netflix streaming devices including some net-connected Blu-ray players, televisions, and game consoles have supported HD-quality streaming for some time now.  Brent Ayrey, Director of Product Management at Netflix, posted a brief [...]

The Internet is an unlimited source of personal entertainment, and a fast growing portion of this online content includes popular television shows, radio stations, and feature films.  The personal computer (PC) is an ideal platform for accessing online multimedia as its compatibility with the wide variety of content streaming technologies and downloaded file types is [...]