Hardware
Your House Is Smarter Than You Think Part Two – Garage Door Openers
The proliferation of smart phones in the market place has opened up a whole new world of ways to make your day-to-day life easier. Manufacturers of locks, garage door openers, lighting controls and thermostats have taken notice. There are door locks that unlock when...
Your House Is Smarter Than You Think Part one – Keyless Entry
The proliferation of smart phones in the market place has opened up a whole new world of ways to make your day-to-day life easier. Manufacturers of locks, garage door openers, lighting controls and thermostats have taken notice. There are door locks that unlock when...
Resolving U-Verse and Vizio Smart TV Sound Issues
I recently ran across an interesting issue with an AT&T U-Verse receiver model 1SB7005, and a Vizio Smart TV model M492i-B2. My customer complained that the volume would lower itself and after a few moments, would go back to where it was initially set. The TV...
HDTV Screens – How Big Is It?
Looking at new flat screen TV’s can be confusing. Upgrading to a larger set isn’t nearly as intuitive as it should be. If you measured where you want to put your new TV, you know approximately how much room you have. But, I’ll bet you measured horizontally and...
HDTV Screens – It’s All Relative
The question comes up when standing in front of the huge wall of flat HDTV screens at a retail establishment. How big of a TV should you buy? The answer came to me by way of another question. What frame of reference do people have in common, when talking about screen...
Surge Protection
Surge protector, power strip, plug bar, outlet strip; all are terms used for the multi-outlet block that's attached to an extension cord. You typically use this to plug in your home theater electronics. Chances are you haven’t given yours much thought. You should. You...
How To Get The Most From Your Home Theater Installation Professional
When I get a call from a potential customer for Next Step Audio Enhancement, the first thing I do is ask for an appointment to consult with the customer in their home. Some may wonder why I want to come out to their home when the request may seem like a simple one....
Network Device Speeds And Distances
When talking about home theaters, we eventually start talking about Internet access for streaming services like Hulu, Netflix. and YouTube and access to hard drives on your network for your pictures, music library and videos. In addition, your Blu-ray player will want...
An Experiment With Budget Audio
The question I asked myself was "Could I put together a quality surround sound budget audio system for $500.00?" The answer depended on what kind of system I put together. For the purposes of this exercise, the system had to be 5.1 and include a sound receiver,...