There are good and bad sides to soundbars. The biggest selling feature would be the price. Soundbars are relatively cheaper than full home theater systems. Another selling feature, especially for smaller home theaters is the space factor. Soundbars do not take up a lot of space. Wha sets soundbars apart is the audio quality. Listen to a few of them and you will be amazed just how good they sound. We all want quality sound when sitting in our home theater.

The not so good side of soundars is just the fact that you will not have true surround sound. You cannot have a 5.1 or 7.1 sound system since the physical unit of a soundbar is just one piece. Soundbars don’t give the consumer a true surround sound system.

When you compare the pros and cons of soundbars, it’s ultimatley up to the consumer. If price is important than soundbars are perfect but if true surround sound is important, you may not want one. Regardless of which one you prefer, you cannot ignore the rise in popularity with soundbars.

We always appreciate your comments and feedback so contact through Facebook, Twitter, email or by phone.

Canadian Head Office Unit 406, 17665 66A Ave. Surrey, BC V3S 2A7 Tel. 604-575-8310 Fax. 604-575-8329

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email: sales@elitehts.com

Capabilities:
-Record up to 4 channels with the Ceton InfiniTV TV tuner (Cable Card not included)
-Store up to 3.6 TB of media
-Watch Blu ray movies in 1080p via PowerDVD12 Game
-Stream web video wirelessly from Youtube, Netflix, and Amazon
-Connect a media extender like Xbox 360 for whole home entertainment

We always appreciate your comments and feedback so contact through Facebook, Twitter, emailor by phone.

Canadian Head Office Unit 406, 17665 66A Ave. Surrey, BC V3S 2A7 Tel. 604-575-8310 Fax. 604-575-8329

U.S. Head Office 1927 Boblett Street Blaine, WA 98230 Tel. 1-800-490-1595

email: sales@elitehts.com

Sonos has stated that the six mid-woofers deliver deep, rich low-frequenc sounds and three tweeters for crystal clear high-frequency detail. Sonos has stated this soundbar provides crisp and clear audio, not just loud sounds.

It connects directly to your TV with an optical cable and plays audio from everything connected to it, (Blu-ray DVD players, game consules, and cable boxes). The free Sonos app lets you control your Playbar from your smartphone or tablet to stream music from a home computer, or other music services like Spotify, Pandora, Rhapsody, and Amazon Cloud Player.

According to PCMAG.com, “Sonos said the Playbar was designed for easy setup and use. It can lie flat on a TV stand or be mounted on the wall above or below the TV”. “Sonos has transformed the way people listen to music throughout the home and now we’re bringing our wireless HiFi [high fidelity] approach to home theater,” Sonos CEO John MacFarlane said in a statement. “Playbar will change everything about the sound experience in your living room, bringing together amazing HiFi sound for your TV and wireless access to the world’s music in a radically simple way.”

Watch for the Playbar to hit stores on March 5, 2013. We always appreciate your comments and feedback so contact through Facebook, Twitter, email or by phone.

Canadian Head Office Unit 406, 17665 66A Ave. Surrey, BC V3S 2A7 Tel. 604-575-8310 Fax. 604-575-8329

U.S. Head Office 1927 Boblett Street Blaine, WA 98230 Tel. 1-800-490-1595

email: sales@elitehts.com

Mr. Lee was a part of the LG project, AMOLED TV. For those of you that are unawar of what this is, AMOLD TV creates printed products using a 3D printing process that builds the item layer by layer. So with Mr. Lee now employed by Apple , does this mean they are working on the iTV? AMOLED stands for Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode, and it is  an advanced version of OLED with higher screen refresh rates, lower power consumption, and higher contrast  ratios. 4K televisions have four times the resolution of standard high-def TVs,  with a resolution of 3,840 pixels by 2,160 pixels. Apple’s existing 15-inch  retina MacBook Pros have a resolution of 2,880-by-1,800 pixels.

If you haven’t seen what the OLED TV is like, please watch the clip below.

With Jueng-jil Lee now working for Apple , we are open to speculate exactly what his role is. We all know Apple is secretive so let the rumours begin! Regardless of what the rumours are, we are all anxious for the release of the Apple TV (aka iTV).

We always appreciate your comments and feedback so contact through Facebook, Twitter, email or by phone.

Canadian Head Office Unit 406, 17665 66A Ave. Surrey, BC V3S 2A7 Tel. 604-575-8310 Fax. 604-575-8329

U.S. Head Office 1927 Boblett Street Blaine, WA 98230 Tel. 1-800-490-1595

email: sales@elitehts.com

The RedRayplayer streams ultra HD content from the internet. There is a one TB hard drive which can be upgraded to save more content, based on your own preference. The RedRay player comes with 1 HDMI 1.4 output, 3 HDMI 1.3 outputs, and an additional HDMI output for 7.1 surround sound.

The RedRay connects to Odemax’s cloud-based content delivery system where you can find all of their 4K content. The negative of the RedRay is that it can’t play any of your existin movies unless you upload them to an externam hard drive. Don’t forget you will need to have a 4K TV to view this content because you won’t be able to enjoy the 4K qualities without it.

We always appreciate your comments and feedback so contact through Facebook, Twitter, email or by phone.

Canadian Head Office Unit 406, 17665 66A Ave. Surrey, BC V3S 2A7 Tel. 604-575-8310 Fax. 604-575-8329

U.S. Head Office 1927 Boblett Street Blaine, WA 98230 Tel. 1-800-490-1595

email: sales@elitehts.com

The app can work in two different ways:  connect directly to your home entertainment system with an Apple Digital AV adapter or wireless through Apple TV. The camera on your  iPad or iPhone is used to set up the number of parameters on your TV, (colour, brightness, etc.) The app will ensure that your speakers are connected effectively with the proper sound levels of your home entertainment system.

The app was free until today but now is available from the iTunes store for $1.99. According to iTunes, the app is compatible with:

- iPhone 4
- iPhone 4S
- iPhone 5
- iPod touch (4th generation)
- iPod touch (5th generation)
- iPad 2 Wi-Fi
- iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G
- iPad (3rd generation)
- iPad Wi-Fi + 4G
- iPad (4th generation)
- iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular (4th generation)
- iPad mini and iPad mini Wi-Fi + Cellular

For an indepth review courtesy of PCMag.com, please click here.

We always appreciate your comments and feedback so contact through Facebook, Twitter, email or by phone.

Canadian Head Office
Unit 406, 17665 66A Ave.
Surrey, BC
V3S 2A7
Tel. 604-575-8310 Fax. 604-575-8329

U.S. Head Office
1927 Boblett Street
Blaine, WA
98230
Tel. 1-800-490-1595

email: sales@elitehts.com

Personally, I cannot see streaming services replace blu-ray because of the audio and video quality. The difference is substantial and for those who love home theater systems, they too also won’t settle for subpar sound and video. It’s true that streaming has now started streaming HD content but the clarity is just not the same. If you stream content to a smartphone or a tablet, the quality is amazing but for a large screen projector or TV, there is a difference.

There is also the concern of available content. When you own a blu-ray, you can access it anytime however with streaming services, you are limited to what they provide thus causing an issue if there is something you love to watch but they don’t provide it.  

Personally I do not think streaming services like Apple TV and Netflix will ever take over entirely. Home theater enthusiasts want the best quality and as of right now, blu-ray DVD’s are the best. Comparing the quality to streaming services doesn’t even make sense since the quality of streaming is good but nothing like the clarity of a blu-ray disc.

We always appreciate your comments and feedback so contact through Facebook, Twitter, email or by phone.

Canadian Head Office
Unit 406, 17665 66A Ave.
Surrey, BC V3S 2A7
Tel. 604-575-8310
Fax. 604-575-8329

U.S. Head Office
1927 Boblett Street
Blaine, WA 98230
Tel. 1-800-490-1595

email: sales@elitehts.com

“We’re very proud our 42” 5.1 Home Theater Sound Bar was named Best of CES 2013, This product is engineered to elevate the consumer home theater experience to new heights at an unparalleled value. VIZIO’s new slim, modern, size-matched design complements a range of HDTV sizes and are packed with technologies to amplify audio to match the visual experience consumers have grown to expect from their HDTVs.” - John Schindler, VIZIO Vice President of Product Management

As we’ve reported previously, Soundbars are gaining a lot of popularity. With pristine sound quality and a speaker system without the clutter and vast amount of wires used in traditional home theater speakers, there’s no wonder why Soundbars are catching on.

The Vizio  42-inch 5.1 Home Theater Soundbar can push out 102dB of output with less than 1% total harmonic distortion. With Bluetooth support for streaming audio directly from a Bluetooth enabled device like a tablet or smartphone, this new line of Soundbars may attract a huge audience.

We always appreciate your comments and feedback so contact through Facebook, Twitter, email or by phone.

Canadian Head Office
Unit 406, 17665 66A Ave.
Surrey, BC V3S 2A7
Tel. 604-575-8310
Fax. 604-575-8329

U.S. Head Office
1927 Boblett Street
Blaine, WA 98230
Tel. 1-800-490-1595

email: sales@elitehts.com

There is one negative to the Thunderstorm and that would be the size and weight of the iPad. You may not want to hold on to it for too long as it does weight a lot more than your traditional iPad. The Thunderstorm comes with a stand so you don’t have to hold it the entire time.

Belkin has two versions of the Thunderstorm. One is for the fourth-generation iPad and fits its Lightning dock connector. The other is for the third-generation iPad and the iPad 2, which have the older Apple 30-pin connector.

Would you want a case like this just to have better sound? We always appreciate your comments and feedback so contact through Facebook, Twitter, email or by phone.

Canadian Head Office
Unit 406, 17665 66A Ave.
Surrey, BC V3S 2A7
Tel. 604-575-8310
Fax. 604-575-8329

U.S. Head Office
1927 Boblett Street
Blaine, WA 98230
Tel. 1-800-490-1595

email: sales@elitehts.com

“Gaming Illustrated: The concept of an HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computer) has always been a dumbed-down version of your main PC. You’ve challenged that concept with your line of HTPCs. How do you plan on changing the consumer dynamic to make them expect more from an HTPC and the higher price tag that goes along with it?”

“Martin Gossner: Home Theater PCs are typically characterized by features like silent operation, a form factor tailored to living room furniture, and a sleek looking chassis that allows a seamless integration into a home theater setup. Meeting these criteria traditionally came with a compromise in processing performance, gaming capability, and storage capacity. Our systems break with that tradition and are the first and only on the market to incorporate high-performance state-of-the-art hardware, while meeting all of the traditional HTPC characteristics. The key to this is our sophisticated chassis design, the sole use of liquid cooling solutions, and the consistent implementation of highly efficient components. Another crucial enabler is the increasing spread of TVs with a screen size of 55 inches and above, allowing for the full-fledged use of Windows from the couch. Connected to such a TV, the LEET completely replaces your desktop PC and at the same time integrates home server, TV, Blu-ray playback, and gaming functionalities. This lets you get rid of multiple devices in your household, making the LEET extremely efficient and the center of your digital life. Especially the gaming experience is elevated to a completely new level. The bigger and better picture and the precise surround sound make it incredibly real. And playing from the sofa with your friends is much more social and comfortable than using a desktop setup. We strongly believe that high-end PC Gaming is conquering the living room – and the LEET is paving the way.”

“Gaming Illustrated: What are some great home theater tips you can give our gamers that represent some common mistakes that degrade the overall experience of watching movies or playing games in the living room / man cave?”

“Martin Gossner: First, the picture: For lag free gaming in the living room it is essential to decrease the TV’s input lag to its minimum. Therefore, make sure to deactivate picture processing of your TV by enabling Game Mode in your TV settings.”

“Second, the sound: proper calibration of the surround sound system makes a huge difference. It lets you locate sounds more precisely, giving you competitive advantage especially in multiplayer games.”

“Third, the control: Whereas most wireless mice and keyboards work well with short distance desktop setups, many of them struggle with random hangs or lags in long distance living room environments.”

The full interview will give you insight on HTPC and what Steiger Dynamics has in store for us. Click here to read the entire interview from Gaming Illustrated and judge for yourself if you would prefer the HTPC. For many years HTPC’s have lagged excitement but just maybe, Steiger Dynamics may be able to change that perception.

We always appreciate your comments and feedback so contact through Facebook, Twitter, email or by phone.

Canadian Head Office
Unit 406, 17665 66A Ave.
Surrey, BC V3S 2A7
Tel. 604-575-8310
Fax. 604-575-8329

U.S. Head Office
1927 Boblett Street
Blaine, WA 98230
Tel. 1-800-490-1595

email: sales@elitehts.com