November 8, 2011
An outdoor speaker system is a great way to extend and enhance your home theater experience. Just think about it: instead of being confined to a single room inside the house to listen to your favorite music or watch your favorite movies, you have the option of taking the experience outdoors: in the backyard, at the patio, by the pool.
Of course, buying, installing, and maintaining an outdoor speaker system will present challenges that are different from the ones you’re normally used to. It will also mean setting up a listening environment that can withstand natural elements (like water / moisture, dirt, heat, and background noise) and perform despite the lack of your usual sound-reinforcing walls.
To help you set up, install, and take care of your outdoor speaker system, we here at Hooked Up Installs have come up with this quick guide on outdoor speakers.
Buying Outdoor Speakers
Choose outdoor Read More »
October 28, 2011
It’ll be a few more months yet until 2011 turns to 2012, but if you knew what went down at this year’s International CES (Consumer Electronics Show), you’ll have a pretty good idea of what lies ahead in terms of home theater trends. What will the home theater look like? What technology, components, equipment, and accessories will soon be all the rage? What can you expect next from manufacturers and service providers? The show, held every year at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Nevada, is meant to give answers to such questions.
Smarter Smartphones and Tablets for your Home Theater
Smartphones are only getting smarter, and their evolution isn’t just changing the way we communicate; it’s also changing the way we consume multimedia content – movies, music, Internet videos, etc. On this post, we’ll highlight the kind of impact that present (and future) smartphones – as well as Read More »
October 22, 2011
It’ll be a few more months yet until 2011 turns to 2012, but if you knew what went down at this year’s International CES (Consumer Electronics Show), you’ll have a pretty good idea of what lies ahead in terms of home theater trends. What will the home theater look like? What technology, components, equipment, and accessories will soon be all the rage? What can you expect next from manufacturers and service providers? The show, held every year at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Nevada, is meant to give answers to such questions.
3D Everywhere
One of the trends that we noticed in the International CES was the abundance of products and technologies designed to bring 3D to your home theater. That’s right: very soon there will come a time when we won’t have to spend on gas, go to the theaters, wait in line, put on silly-looking 3D glasses, Read More »
October 12, 2011
The Internet has changed the way we find, receive, consume, and share content. Instead of consulting TV guides on the newspaper, we’re downloading the shows we want from the Web. Instead of going to the cinemas all the time, we’re getting our movies from online VOD services. And instead of buying physical albums and books from physical stores, we’re streaming music from Pandora, watching videos on YouTube, and buying books from Amazon.
It makes sense therefore to view the Internet as an essential component of any modern home theater. But how do you integrate it to your flat-panel TV, to your audio system, to your home storage and media playback devices, to the rest of your home theater system? Here are ways to do just that:
From PC, laptop, tablet, or phone to your HDTV’s VGA
No need to buy an extra device or gadget – just a VGA cable. Read More »
October 6, 2011
Congratulations on your awesome new LCD television! We imagine that it’s an important home theater investment for you. One thing, though: don’t be surprised if your new LCD TV, on first use, doesn’t display as great a picture as you may have expected. Either it’s too bright, or the pictures are too sharp, or the colors are oversaturated, or they just don’t look right, or all of the above.
Don’t worry. Your LCD TV just needs a little calibration, so that the picture it displays matches the place or room where you have installed it. At the store display, you see, the TVs’ brightness, contrast, and backlight settings have been maximized to catch the eye. In your home theater or living room, however, where no other LCD TVs are competing for your attention, these same settings may hurt your eye (and even shorten the lifespan of your TV set.)
So a calibration Read More »
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