I just got back from seeing Disney/Pixar's Up in digital 3D. The movie itself is beautiful, both visually and conceptually. The story is charming yet poignant with lots of laughs, the voice actors—led by Ed Asner as the gruff Carl Fredricksen—are superb, and the animation is stunning. Interestingly, many of the animated items, even most of the dogs, are essentially photorealistic, but the humans are deliberate caricatures. I suspect Pixar goes this route because it's so difficult to animate truly realistic-looking people thanks to the exquisite human sensitivity to facial detail and body language. I have no problem with that, but I was disappointed in the 3D presentation for several reasons.

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As I write this, I'm sitting at Gate 7 in the JetBlue terminal at JFK International Airport, awaiting my flight home after attending the first-ever CEA Line Shows, held June 10 and 11 across the street from the Empire State Building in midtown Manhattan. I made the long trip to New York because I wanted to support the concept embodied by the event and encourage it to grow next year.

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Last week, I was invited to visit Vizio's offices in Irvine, California, to provide any feedback I might have regarding its upcoming LED-backlit LCD, the 55-inch VF551XVT, which is in the final tweaking stages before its release in early September. This is a very exciting product: an LCD TV with LED local dimming for—get this—$2000!

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In UAV's never-ending quest to bring you the ultimate in audio and video, we are proud to introduce a new feature on the site—Ultimate Demos. Each week, movie reviewer David Vaughn will identify a reference-quality Blu-ray title, complete with the chapter number and time code of specific scenes that exemplify different video and audio performance parameters, such as detail, color, blacks, shadow detail, audio dynamics, frequency range, and surround imaging. He'll also point out what to look and listen for in each case.

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There are some awesome AVRs out there, but I think it's a big compromise to run long speaker cables all around the room. Nearly every speaker manufacturer recommends using equal-length speaker cables. So unless you use monoblocks for each channel, you defy that logic.

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My question is about "color" in sound. I hear audiophiles talk about this all the time. What is "color" in sound? How do you measure it? How do you remedy it? I'm kinda lost with the jargon. Please help me to understand how to tell if there's too much "color" in my system.

Stacey Queens

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On Wednesday this week, I attended The BD-Live Experience, a press event hosted by Sony Pictures and Sony Electronics. It was held at Sony Pictures Studios' Stage 29, a cavernous soundstage in which, we were told, the "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" musical sequence was shot for The Wizard of Oz in 1939 when the studio was operated by MGM. Clearly, Sony was hoping to lead journalists on a similar path toward the Blu-ray City of Aahs.

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I'm currently in the final stages of framing a theater room. The walls are up and electrical/drywall is next. I framed up a spot for a Mitsubishi 73-inch RPTV, but now I'm having second thoughts. I'm scared away from the disappearing RPTV category, but I've ruled out front projection because my memory of projector pictures is that they looked pretty bad. On the other hand, I admit that I'm not up on the latest technology.

I'm now looking at the Panasonic TH-65PZ850U plasma. I'm thoroughly confused and need to settle on something very soon so I can finish framing the wall for the TV! It will be a mostly dark room, and I want a great picture that's also big.

Paul Jankowski

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I am building a dedicated home theater, and I have completed most of the design work. One of the last details is the projector position. I have a 100-inch 16:9 screen and the Panasonic PT-AE3000.

I have read that it is better to shift the image optically rather than using keystone correction, so I am considering having the projector mounted lower from the ceiling. How important is it to reduce/eliminate keystone versus image shifting? Should I position the projector so keystone is zero? Also, how important is the distance between the screen and projector? Currently, the plan is within the recommended range of 10 to 19 feet for a 100-inch screen.

Charles Ballaro

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For many, online distribution of high-def video and audio is the Next Big Thing. There's just one small thing impeding the flood of content—bandwidth. An incredible solution to this problem was quietly demonstrated at CES this year by a company called R²D² ("Twice the Research, Twice the Development"). Founded by hippie love child Leia Organic Skydancer, R²D² has developed what it calls Hypernet, a system that bypasses the Internet completely, offering nearly unlimited bandwidth and instantaneous transmissions using the principles of quantum physics.

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A reader posed the question whether he should buy a Pioneer Kuro now that they have been greatly discounted. I want the best too, but this raises another question. Do the new Panasonic G10, V10, or Z1 plasma TVs surpass the Pioneers' picture performance, and at what price? The dilemma is this—if one waits too long and the Panasonics disappoint, the Pioneers may be sold out forever.

Jay Frey

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This week, we are proud to debut a new blog called Ultimate Gear. Seeing as how the word "ultimate" is part of the name of our site, we thought it might be interesting to post profiles of home-theater equipment and systems that can rightly be placed in that category.

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I'm looking for a DVD changer that will play five DVDs in succession with no intervention from the user. I have an elderly disabled mother who is terrified of going to sleep at night. She watches DVDs of I Love Lucy all night, but once I go to sleep, she can't change the DVD when it's over. I put an old Toshiba DVD changer in her room, but once the first disc finishes, you have to press Next Disc, then wait until it loads, then press Play. She cannot operate the remote.

Is there any changer that will bypass the DVD menu and play five discs in succession by itself? I tried a Samsung, which won't do this, and Yamaha tells me its changer won't either. If not, is there anyone who can modify a DVD changer to do this?

Dennis Senges

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Last week, Canadian cable operator Shaw Communications introduced a new Internet service called High-Speed Nitro in Saskatchewan, offering download speeds up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps), the fastest residential Internet speed in North America. By contrast, Verizon FiOS claims download speeds as high as 50Mbps, but customers typically see speeds in the 10-to-20Mbps range due to various factors such as the distance from your home to a Verizon central office, configuration of your computer, and condition of the wiring inside your home.

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Opprobrium 1: Something that brings disgrace. 2a: Public disgrace or ill fame that follows from conduct considered grossly wrong.

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As anyone who knows me will tell you, I'm not what you'd call a sports fan. The only sports I watch at all are some of the Olympics, and then mostly for the great high-def images. The closest I've come to football was as the drum major of my high-school band, when I had to ask a clarinet player what was happening on the field so I could call up the appropriate music ("Yay, something good happened!" or "Boo, something bad happened!").

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Here's a question from Kirk Spencer in Bartlesville, OK, about the future of television technology:

Where is flat-screen technology headed?

I have a first-generation Pioneer Kuro in my bedroom and a Sony SXRD rear-pro in my den. Sony has discontinued SXRD technology, and I can't tell where Pioneer is headed with the Kuro now that it has outsourced production. I would like to replace the Sony with a flat panel—it's picture quality is actually pretty good, but having such a bulky item between my speakers degrades the sound of my stereo. But lately, I'm feeling a little snake-bit from spending good money on televisions only to wonder a year or two after the purchase whether I'll still be able to buy parts in five years.

So for now, I'm on the sidelines, wondering when the next big jump in picture quality will occur, what it will be, and just as importantly, what the length of its product life cycle will be. What do you foresee?

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Well, it seems the DTV transition will not be delayed after all. The Senate voted on Monday to allow stations to shut down analog broadcasting at any time between February 17 and June 12, but the House of Representatives defeated that bill today.

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As Barack Obama takes the oath of office as the 44th President of the United States, he faces more challenges than most who have gone before him. While it's certainly not at the top of his to-do list, the transition to digital-only over-the-air television broadcasting is of growing concern to many Americans who rely on OTA as their only source of TV programming, and this concern has not escaped Obama's attention.

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As we bid a fond farewell to 2008—"fond" in the sense that many are glad to see it depart—it's only natural to take a look back at the year gone by and try to sneak a peek at the year to come. In the realm of home theater, there's a lot to ponder...

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