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Useful Gadgets: TiVo BOLT OTA

Twenty years of TiVo loyalty culminates in a hands-on look at the Bolt OTA, a cord-cutter's DVR that pairs four tuners and a robust streaming app lineup with the iconic program guide that made TiVo a household verb. Setup is refreshingly simple compared to the CableCard era, and 4K output plus MoCA-connected Mini VOX support add genuine modern muscle. Whether the channel scan results and real-world performance justify cutting the cable bill entirely is where things get interesting.

Pete Putman • Oct 2, 2018

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Events & Trade Shows Programming 4K Ultra HD

Hey, Whatever Happened To superMHL?

Sometimes the most impressive technology never makes it out of the demo room. Silicon Image unveiled superMHL two years ago with jaw-dropping specs: 36 Gb/s throughput, 8K support, USB Type-C compatibility, and a symmetrical plug design that outpaced every rival interface. Yet despite stunning trade show demonstrations, superMHL has gone nearly silent in the market. The reasons involve royalty streams, slow HDMI 2.0 adoption, and a branding identity crisis that may have doomed a genuinely superior connector before it ever shipped.

Pete Putman • Nov 14, 2016

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Events & Trade Shows LCD TVs DIY

A More Mobile Mobile is Coming

Mobile data traffic will explode to 367 exabytes by 2020, with video driving 75% of that load - but autonomous vehicles and connected cars are quietly reshaping what mobile networks must deliver. Five defined levels of vehicle automation reveal a surprising gap: Level 3 may be too dangerous for human drivers to manage, forcing automakers to leap straight to full self-driving. The social dimension of man-machine interaction raises questions nobody has quite answered yet.

Ken Werner • Mar 30, 2016

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Xfinity: The Future Of Confusion (Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Tried To get Along With Comcast)

Eighteen years as a Comcast customer, a spectrum analyzer in the basement, and a working knowledge of cable infrastructure still couldn't save one HDTV veteran from a weeks-long spiral of botched self-installs, phantom charges, and six rounds of tech support. What began as a simple modem upgrade cascaded into crashed TiVos, unrecognized hard drives, Samsung set-top boxes that refused to initialize, and missing channel packages. The full accounting of what went wrong - and why - reveals something worth knowing before your next Xfinity upgrade.

Pete Putman • Jun 8, 2015

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Stuffing Your Brain With Video

Binge viewing has quietly become the dominant way Americans consume television, with 81% of adults watching multiple episodes in a single sitting. DVR technology keeps expanding to match demand - Verizon's new set-top box records 12 simultaneous channels with 200 hours of HD storage - yet 41% of recorded content is never watched. Emerging HEVC H.265 compression could shift the balance decisively toward streaming, but one stubborn obstacle still stands in the way.

Pete Putman • Apr 4, 2014

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Events & Trade Shows HD DVR

HDTV and Home Theater Podcast - Podcast #624: Channel Master DVR+ Review

The Channel Master DVR+ ($249.99 MSRP) is a subscription-free over-the-air DVR featuring dual tuners, support for video resolutions up to 1080p, Dolby Digital Plus surround sound, and a Rovi-powered Electronic Program Guide at no extra cost. With 16GB of internal storage and support for external USB hard drives, a 1TB drive yields approximately 160 hours of HD recording. Cord cutters seeking to eliminate monthly fees entirely will find the DVR+ a capable, responsive solution, though firmware limitations currently prevent recording new episodes only, and network streaming is limited to Hulu.

The HT Guys • Feb 28, 2014

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HDTV Expert - Samsung was King of the CES Hill

Samsung dominated CES 2014 with a sweeping UHD TV lineup spanning 50 to 110 inches, featuring PurColor wide-gamut technology, a quad-core processor, and UHD upscaling claimed to deliver near-native-4K image quality. A joint announcement with M-Go and Technicolor confirmed that native-4K streaming requires 15 Mb/sec bandwidth while optimized upscaled content needs as little as 3 Mb/sec, giving streaming providers meaningful flexibility. Samsung also previewed a 4K content partnership with Amazon and an Evolution Kit for firmware upgrades, signaling a long-term ecosystem play that extends well beyond the display hardware itself.

Ken Werner • Jan 28, 2014

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HDTV Expert - Display Surprises at CES 2014

CES 2014 surfaced several notable display advances, including 3M's Quantum Dot Enhancement Film (QDEF) deployed in the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9-inch tablet, boosting color gamut from 60% to 72% NTSC while substantially improving battery life. Sharp demonstrated an HDR TV prototype using Dolby professional monitor technology, potentially targeting consumer pricing by 2015, and LG disclosed an internal yield target of 75% for its new OLED TV panel plant opening in Q3. For consumers, these developments signal meaningful near-term improvements in display quality, power efficiency, and OLED availability across price tiers.

Ken Werner • Jan 23, 2014

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HDTV Expert - CES 2014 In The Rear-View Mirror

CES 2014 showcased a wave of 4K LCD and OLED televisions, with HEVC H.265 encoding poised to halve required bit rates and enable 4K streaming at roughly 10-20 Mb/s over existing broadband infrastructure. Quantum dot film technology, already deployed in Sony's 55-inch and 65-inch 4K LCD TVs, offers a compelling alternative to OLED by delivering stable, narrow-bandwidth color without the differential blue-emitter aging that threatens OLED longevity beyond 5,000 hours. Consumers weighing early adoption of these technologies will find the display interface landscape still evolving, with HDMI 2.0 capped at 18 Gb/s and DisplayPort 1.3 promising higher headroom for 10-bit 4K at 60 Hz.

Pete Putman • Jan 21, 2014

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HDTV and Home Theater Podcast - Podcast #618: Best of CES 2014 and Top Tech to Watch this Year

Podcast episode 618 recaps home theater highlights from CES 2014, covering award winners across Digital Trends, Engadget, and CES Innovations categories, including the LG 77-inch Curved Ultra HD OLED TV (77EC9800) and Sony FMP-X1 4K Ultra HD Media Player pre-loaded with 10 feature films. Notable audio picks include the Philips Fidelio E5 wireless 5.1 surround system and Bang and Olufsen BeoLab 18, while the Samsung UN65H7150 touts a Real 240Hz Full HD panel with quad-core processing. Consumers tracking display and audio upgrades in 2014 will find a concise cross-source roundup of the year's most significant product launches.

The HT Guys • Jan 17, 2014

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HDTV Expert - At CES, Sharp Calls Its Quattron+ Almost-4K TV a "Game Changer"

Sharp's Quattron+ display technology uses a four-sub-pixel pixel structure (red, green, blue, and yellow) to generate two luminance peaks per pixel both horizontally and vertically, effectively upscaling a 1920x1080 Quattron panel to a 3840x2160 near-4K output via its proprietary Revelation Technology. Demonstrated at CES 2014, the resulting image quality is described as nearly indistinguishable from true 4K at typical living-room viewing distances, at roughly half the price of native 4K sets. Sharp's roadmap reportedly extends this approach to 4K panels delivering 8K output by CES 2015.

Ken Werner • Jan 11, 2014

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HDTV Expert - CES 2014: First Impressions (4K, Curved Screens, OLEDs, and All That)

CES 2014 brought a wave of large-format display technology, highlighted by three manufacturers unveiling 105-inch 21:9 curved 4K LCD TVs, LG's 77-inch curved 4K OLED as the world's largest, and Vizio's 120-inch 4K LCD using Sharp's Gen 10 ASV glass from Sakai, Japan. Chinese manufacturers replicated nearly every Samsung and LG breakthrough with far less fanfare, while Panasonic's conspicuous absence of a consumer LCD lineup signals a potential exit from the TV market. For buyers, the practical takeaway is that large 4K LCDs are on track to become the standard within 2-3 years, with competitive pricing pressure accelerating from Chinese brands.

Pete Putman • Jan 11, 2014

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HDTV and Home Theater Podcast - Podcast #617: CES 2014

CES 2014 brought a wave of 4K Ultra HD televisions from LG, Sony, Samsung, and Vizio, with standout entries like LG's 105-inch 21:9 webOS-powered 105UC9 and Vizio's P-Series featuring 64 Active LED Zones and HEVC codec support starting at $999.99. Sharp debuted the first WiSA-compliant universal player transmitting uncompressed 24-bit/96kHz audio wirelessly, while Sony's SRS-X9 added aptX Bluetooth, AirPlay, and DLNA to its 2.1 wireless speaker lineup. Consumers evaluating upgrades will find a broad range of price points and ecosystem integrations, from Netflix 4K streaming support to multi-room audio solutions.

The HT Guys • Jan 10, 2014

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HDTV and Home Theater Podcast - Podcast #600: IFA 2013

IFA 2013 brought a wave of next-generation display announcements, headlined by LG's 77-inch Ultra HD Curved OLED TV combining WRGB OLED technology with 4K resolution for an infinite contrast ratio, and Samsung's 98-inch 4K OLED priced above the $40,000 mark. Harman Kardon debuted the Onyx, a 60W Bluetooth and AirPlay wireless speaker at $650, while Sony unveiled the KDL-65S990A, a 65-inch curved 1080p HDTV with an eight-speaker four-channel audio system for $4,000. For home theater enthusiasts, the show previewed where premium display and audio hardware is heading, though practical value remains limited by steep pricing.

The HT Guys • Sep 13, 2013

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HDTV and Home Theater Podcast - Podcast #598: DirecTV Genie

The DirecTV Genie HD DVR supports five simultaneous HD tuners and up to 200 hours of HD recording capacity, addressing the long-standing limitation of room-specific playback that plagued earlier DVR setups. Adding legacy set-top boxes alongside the Genie expands the tuner pool further, with one tested configuration reaching eight total tuners and eliminating recording conflicts entirely. Installation requires a Single Wire Module (SWM) that may not be present in older DirecTV setups, so subscribers should verify compatibility before expecting a simple self-install.

The HT Guys • Aug 30, 2013

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