Features

DIY HDTV Calibration Software Overview: A Comparison of ColorHCFR, ChromaPure, and CalMAN

As I've read reviews for displays for a good part of the past 20 years, I've always seen references to how close the display will come to the reference points for grayscale and color. In the past, most end users were only able to access certain controls on a TV and using a disc such as Video Essentials, you could do a pretty good job adjusting those controls on your own to get your TV as close as you could. In this report, we take video calibration a step further by comparing three calibration software packages that you can use yourself: ColorHCFR, ChromaPure, and CalMAN.

Home Theater Movie Renter’s Guide – May, 2010

The African Queen (Blu-ray), The Young Victoria (Blu-ray), Traffic (Blu-ray), It's Complicated (Blu-ray), The Lovely Bones (Blu-ray), Goldfinger (Blu-ray), Leap Year (Blu-ray), Collateral (Blu-ray), The Blind Side (Blu-ray), Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Blu-ray), Children of Men (Blu-ray), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Blu-ray), Double Identity (Blu-ray), Out of Africa (Blu-ray), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Blu-ray), Sherlock Holmes (Blu-ray), The Last House On The Left (Blu-ray), The Last Starfighter (Blu-ray), Minority Report (Blu-ray), Tombstone (Blu-ray), Spy Game (Blu-ray)

Sundance Film Festival 2010

Attendance was reported to be down a little at this year's Sundance. It seemed that way but since we attended for the second half only it wasn't perfectly clear. There were still sold out movies but in general the lines seemed a little shorter. This is still an industry festival and so it's a great place to take the pulse of the industry. The pulse is a little weak.

Home Theater Movie Renter’s Guide – April, 2010

The Twilight Saga: New Moon (Blu-ray), Walk the Line (Blu-ray), Apollo 13 (Blu-ray), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (Blu-ray) , Alice in Wonderland (DVD), The Last King of Scotland (Blu-ray), Fantastic Mr. Fox (Blu-ray), Toy Story (Blu-ray), Ninja (Blu-ray), The Fourth Kind (Blu-ray), Toy Story 2 (Blu-ray) , Gone With the Wind (Blu-ray), Avatar (Blu-ray), An Education (Blu-ray)

CD Music Reviews for the Audiophile – March, 2010

Singer/songwriter Yasmin Levy has built an estimable reputation as a champion of Ladino music, the ancient music of the Sephardic Jews of Spain. Singing Ladino, Beduin, and original Ladino-like songs, sometimes imbued with Turkish or Flamenco influences, Levy is on a mission to preserve and promote a language and culture facing extinction.

Joyce DiDonato: One of Today’s Pre-eminent Mezzo Coloraturas

Thanks in part to her two recent EMI recital discs of the music of Handel and Rossini, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, 41, has been acknowledged as one of today's pre-eminent mezzo coloraturas. Blessed with an ideally flexible, beautiful voice and a stellar technique that includes a perfect trill, she is in demand throughout the world for a wide variety of lyric mezzo and mezzo coloratura roles.