Tom Brauser

        You’ve probably already heard, either directly from a friend, or through “someone who knows someone,” that there is life beyond the confines of cable. You know, the person who decided to cut cable out of their lives and completely turn to distributed content online. Is it possible to make this kind of decision while still viewing quality content and keep up to date with your weekly programming? The answer is yes, and here’s how.

TV technology just keeps getting better every year, to the point it is hard to keep track and understand it all. One of the least talked about but greatest technological improvements for LCD screens is “in-plane switching” (IPS). IPS has advanced quite a bit in recent years and is definitely worth paying attention to because it is now behind the best LCD screens. The various screen technologies can be a bit confusing so let me try to explain what you need to know about IPS vs. others.

Roku has just made media streaming to your TV even easier, by introducing their brand new Roku Streaming Stick today!    Roku has been one of the biggest and best names in media streaming devices, and continue to show that they want to stay a leader in that market. The NEW Roku Streaming Stick puts nearly all the capabilities of a regular Roku box into a stick that looks much like a USB flash drive. With this latest announcement they have brought down the price of streaming and made it even simpler as it just plugs into an HDMI input in the back of your TV.

Western Digital (WD) has been around since 1970 and is one of the world’s largest hard disk drive manufacturers. I have two Western Digital external hard drives for backing up my computer and they have been great! But WD makes other devices including media streaming devices, which they have had a lot of success with. I recently had the opportunity to test out the WD TV Live Media Player, which is their third generation device so they have continually improved it. Since I already have an Apple TV and a Roku device, I was able to compare the WD TV Live to its’ competitors, and it did extremely well.

    When was the last time you cleaned your TV screen?  How did you do it? For something that you probably spend so much time looking at, you really should clean it every now and then – every HDTV needs it at some point. The screen is electrostatic so it will attract dust and dirt, plus the occasional beer or other spray won’t help you see a clear picture. Cleaning it seems like a simple thing to do, but you really need to be careful as you could ruin the screen.

Every year we spend more time on the Internet and less time watching TV and this trend isn’t slowing down. The younger demographic typically spends even more time on the Internet than watching TV. There are a lot of contributing factors including the plethora of Internet devices, the ubiquitous nature of the Internet, and the amazing growth of excellent content. When at home why not view some of that content on your best viewing device – your big flat screen TV? Especially when watching videos or films, why huddle around your computer, tablet, or Smartphone? There are many simple ways to stream that content to your TV. Here is a Reader’s Digest description of a few of them.

  Flat panel TV’s keep getting more incredible. Clearer pictures with Ultra HD 4K, and bigger screens that keep getting thinner and thinner. While the picture keeps getting better, the sound isn’t improving much because it is next to impossible to put decent speakers in a very thin panel. This is why sound bars have become extremely popular. They are very easy to set up, they look good, are non-obtrusive, and very cost effective. But are they really worth the investment? Like so many things – it depends!

New Televisions were a big part of last month’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas, and the big brands were all strutting their stuff trying to take a lead position by showing off their latest and greatest technologies.  Some of it was a bit of fluff, but fortunately there was a lot of great stuff too. I am going to give you my take on the “best-in-show.”

  For most of you that have an Apple TV, I am betting you simply set it up and have been enjoying it ever since – and you haven’t touched it since (except to watch stuff) to customize it for your particular needs. One of the nice things about Apple TV is it is easy to set up and use, so most people just plug it in and away they go. Well I am going to let you know of some simple things that you should do to improve the experience you have with Apple TV.  Easy!