TV & Home Theatre

        Soundbars have come into their own, because they are extremely easy to set up, they look great, don’t take up much space, no ugly wires, and they sound good – a lot better than you will get with your flat panel TV. There are an awful lot of soundbars to choose from so selecting the right one can be a challenge. Paying attention to what consumer experience and views can be an enormous help as they are the toughest critics. Here are the top 5 soundbars based on ratings by actual users.  

  Vizio, the latest newcomer to Canada, at least as far as TV home entertainment goes, has a great lineup of Smart TVs. I recently got to test out the their top of the line M Series 42” LED HDTV. Vizio’s price point for their TVs is lower than their competitors for the same feature set, so I wondered how they really compare. I was very favourably impressed…

    Logitech’s “Harmony” wheelhouse has always been universally controlling home entertainment systems, and have been king of that hill for a while. They recently made a smart move (no pun intended) expanding their remotes beyond home entertainment into the entire home. The Harmony Ultimate Home and Home Control remotes bring the home of the future here today in convenient easy-to-use packages.

        If you haven’t seen an OLED TV yet, then you don’t know what you are missing. OLED TVs are the next generation of technology that is here today and is a big step up in picture quality. The LG 55” OLED 55EA9700 is a fully loaded set that is beautiful in so many ways.

LCD, LED, HDTV, 3D, 4K, IPS. OMG, right? Ok, that was pretty cheesy, but it was meant to illustrate a point – TVs these days are much more complex than they were only 10 years ago. Not only do you have to understand what all those acronyms mean, you have to understand what constitutes good value. Sure, you could spend the equivalent of one month’s salary on a 60” LED Smart TV, but why would you when you could get much more for your money with the Panasonic 60” 1080p 120Hz IPS LED Smart TV (AS630). It’s got all the acronyms you could want and performance you need, at a price point that won’t break the bank.

      Most Internet enabled devices come with WiFi these days, but not all do. If you have an older gaming device, media player, or any other device that might not support WiFi connectivity, then Netgear’s Wireless Adapter is the perfect solution. It easily turns any wired Ethernet-only device into a wireless one.

    4K and OLED TVs sure are nice. In fact, eye-popping nice, the picture is so much better! If you haven’t seen them, then you should check it out. But they are also a bit higher cost, so how do you make sure you find the best value 4K or OLED set? After all, we all want the best value – especially for electronics that we will keep for a while.

Remember the days when a 32” TV weighed about the same as a small car, cost you one month’s salary, and required an industrial strength TV stand that took up the majority of your living space? Thankfully that’s all ancient history. These days, there is a TV to fit every lifestyle, every space, and perhaps most importantly, every budget. But with so many options, how do you choose? It can be difficult, and that’s why I’ve done the legwork for you and have selected five HDTVs that I think are the best value for what they bring to the table.

  Vizio is the new kid on the block in Canada, and they have brought a great set of home entertainment products with them. They have a reputation for being innovative and their Sound Base is a good example. In addition to the great sound bars that Vizio offers, they have their Sound Base – like a sound bar but an even simpler way to improve your TV viewing.

When the notice arrived for a rate increase, we were ready to say goodbye to cable. It took a bit of planning and introducing the ClearStream C1C short-range antenna and Tablo two-tuner over-the-air (OTA) DVR into the mix. But the cord’s been cut and we haven’t looked back since.