TV & Home Theatre

Cable and satellite TV bills are high. There are few in Canada who haven’t felt the pinch of paying for access to hundreds of channels in order to watch a fraction of that. Depending on where you live, you can gain access to some of the most popular network channels in both Canada and the United States. With the right gear, you can also watch those channels throughout your home.

If you’re a Sony speaker enthusiast, you may look to the left and think that design looks familiar.  That’s the Sony SRS-X55, which looks exactly similar to last year’s SRS-X5. However, just like a new car, looks can be deceiving.  The extra year has given Sony the chance to re-evaluate last year’s successful design and make it even better.  The results include better sound quality and a longer battery life.  Keep reading on to find out more!

    At CES earlier this year, quantum dot technology was touted a big thing in TV technology for 2015. Although quantum dot TV technology has been around for a few years, it hasn’t really been produced in TVs yet. LG is about to release a couple of new 4K UHD models, one of which is a quantum dot TV. What was great is that I got to test them out side-by-side and see the difference this makes. Both models were excellent sets with extremely clear pictures as you would expect with 4K sets, but the UF9500 with quantum dot technology did have better colour.

It may not be very Canadian of me, but I don’t watch much hockey during the regular season, eh! There are just too many games where one or both teams don’t really show up to play, plus there are a lot of Bobby Clobbers that take away from the game. But the playoffs are a different story! Each game really counts so everyone usually comes with a totally different sense of urgency, and Cinderella stories happen all the time. I hate missing any playoff action, but fortunately there are lots of different ways to catch playoff games no matter where you are. Here are the best options to make sure you get your fix.

Quantum Dot was the latest buzzed about TV technology at CES 2015, but what is it and what makes it great?

So, you’ve just purchased a brand spanking new, top of the line 65” 3D HDTV. You can’t contain your excitement. All you want is to get this new addition to your family out of the box and plugged into the wall so you can get started on your House of Cards marathon. I don’t blame you. In fact, I’m a little jealous. Now comes the question – to mount or not to mount? The ideal situation is to mount your TV on the wall above a TV stand that holds all your home entertainment components, but you can also go the TV-stand-only route. Here are the pros of mounting your TV on the wall, and some mount and TV stand options.

The wireless speaker market has taken off in the last few years, with more new wireless speakers all the time in every price range. Not to be outdone, Sony launched their SRS line of wireless speakers within the last year. At the top of this line is their SRS-X9 premium speaker. I was able to test one out and was very pleasantly surprised by what I found. It is much more attractive than most wireless speakers I’ve seen, has plenty of power, and is full of excellent features. A nice combination!

  Various studies have shown how much time we watch TV, and it is more than I thought—about 4 ½ hours per day! North Americans are quite the couch potatoes (US and Canadian studies are similar). That’s over 1,600 hours a year. If you are spending that much time watching TV, why not seriously upgrade your viewing experience? I will tell you the three things to consider in taking your TV experience to the next level.

Every year an organization called Harris Interactive measures and rates the reputations of 100 of the world’s most visible companies. In the 2015 report, Sony was ranked as #13, which is pretty impressive considering how many big brands there are out there these days. So it makes sense that if you are looking at setting up a new home theatre system that you put Sony products at the top of your list. Here are two options for you to consider – one for bigger budgets and one for more modest budgets.

      Well, maybe “teams up” is too strong a comment as they are not literally on the same team, which sounds more like a merger. What is newsworthy is that CTV is the first Canadian broadcaster to make their content available through Google’s Chromecast device. This is great news for all you prospective cable cutters and for you non-cutters that have trouble with your PVR missing past episodes of your favorite shows.