Heron Fidelity

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Recently an HD Nation viewer asked for HDTV recommendations in the USD $800 range that would be suitable for console gaming – this person’s nephew was apparently hogging the household’s primary TV with their extended gaming sessions and it was time for a second set. After researching the 2010 lineup, I ended up with a [...]

It has been more than a week since I performed the “Clearing and deleting everything.” function on my Series3 TiVo, and I’m happy to report that the S3 has since performed perfectly:  wireless file transfers complete with consistent throughput, Netflix HD streams are received in full quality, and overall system response has greatly improved.  One [...]

For more than two years, my TiVo Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder has faithfully captured my every televised whim.  About a year ago, I upgraded the Series3′s 250GB hard drive to a relatively spacious 1TB model (thank you MFSLive!) and in no time my Season Pass list expanded to 50-some items – at any given [...]