Closeouts, Displays, & Specials (November 25, 2011)

Looking for a great deal this holiday season?  Look no further than the current selection of Closeouts, Displays, and Specials at Premier.  Our closeouts and displays are typically in “new” or “like new” condition and carry full warranty unless otherwise stated.  As we strive to consistently update our displays and offerings we provide the opportunity for our customers to come away with some great deals that otherwise wouldn’t or couldn’t happen.  All items are subject to availability and are first come, first served.  When they are gone, they are gone.

EPSON
PRO CINEMA 9700UB HOME THEATER PROJECTOR.
“LIKE NEW” DISPLAY MODEL.  COMES WITH SPARE LAMP & MOUNT.
RETAIL IS $3099.
SELLING PRICE IS TOO LOW TO POST.  CONTACT US FOR INFORMATION.

BOWERS & WILKINS MODEL 685 BOOKSHELF SPEAKERS (1 PAIR)
2-WAY VENTED BOX SYSTEM. 6.5″ KEVLAR BASS/MIDRANGE. 1″ METAL DOME TWEETER.* BLACK ASH.
LIKE NEW.  DEMO’D ONE TIME AND REBOXED.
RETAIL IS $650/PAIR.
SELLING PRICE IS TOO LOW TO POST.  CONTACT US FOR INFORMATION.

PANASONIC TC-P55VT30
55″ CLASS VIERA VT30 SERIES HDTV.
“LIKE NEW” DISPLAY MODEL.
RETAIL IS $2499.
SELLING PRICE IS TOO LOW TO POST.  CONTACT US FOR INFORMATION.

MITSUBISHI WD-60738
60″ 3D 1080P HOME THEATER DLP HDTV.
“LIKE NEW” DISPLAY MODEL.
RETAIL IS $1299.
SELLING PRICE IS $950.

URC® MX-5000
TWO-WAY WAND-STYLE COLOR TOUCH SCREEN LCD WIFI IR/RF REMOTE.
DISPLAY MODEL.
RETAIL IS $2499.
SELLING PRICE IS TOO LOW TO POST.  CONTACT US FOR INFORMATION.

URC® KP-4000
WALLMOUNTED NETWORK CONTROLLER WITH 2-WAY FEEDBACK.
NEW
RETAIL IS $599.
SELLING PRICE IS TOO LOW TO POST.  CONTACT US FOR INFORMATION.

NUVO
GRAND CONCERTO™ SIX-SOURCE, EIGHT-ZONE AUDIO DISTRIBUTION EXPANDER WITH SIX CONTROL PADS.
NEW
RETAIL $3899
TOO LOW TO POST.  CONTACT US FOR INFORMATION.

UNIVERSAL REMOTE CONTROL® PSX-2
IPOD DOCK W/ BUILT IN AUTOMATION FOR THE IPOD THAT PROVIDES MUSIC SERVER FUNCTIONALITY VIA A UNIVERSAL REMOTE & A TV.
DISPLAY MODEL.
RETAIL IS $399.
SELLING PRICE IS TOO LOW TO POST.  CONTACT US FOR INFORMATION.

BOWERS & WILKINS ZEPPELIN MINI
POWERED SPEAKER SYSTEM FOR IPOD/IPHONE®.  2 X 3″ FULL RANGE DRIVERS, 2 X 18 WATTS CLASS D AMPLIFIERS.
IN PERFECT WORKING ORDER.  TEAR IN SPEAKER FABRIC.
RETAIL IS $399.
SELLING PRICE IS TOO LOW TO POST.  CONTACT US FOR INFORMATION.

NUVO ACCENT 1
OUTDOOR ROCK SPEAKERS.  PAIR.  GRANITE.
NEW.
RETAIL IS $399.
SELLING PRICE IS TOO LOW TO POST.  CONTACT US FOR INFORMATION.

UNIVERSAL REMOTE CONTROL® KP-9000
WIRELESS KEYPAD.  WHITE.
“LIKE NEW” DISPLAY MODEL.
RETAIL IS $299.
SELLING PRICE IS TOO LOW TO POST.  CONTACT US FOR INFORMATION.

PIONEER ELITE® VSX-53
7.1-CHANNEL THX® SELECT 2 PLUS DLNA® & WINDOWS® 7 CERTIFIED A/V RECEIVER FEATURING AIRPLAY®, PANDORA® RADIO, VIRTUAL DEPTH, MARVELL™ VIDEO PROCESSING, AND 3-ZONE MULTI-ROOM A/V.
“LIKE NEW” DISPLAY MODEL.
RETAIL IS $1100.
SELLING PRICE IS TOO LOW TO POST.  CONTACT US FOR INFORMATION.

DEFINITIVE TECHNOLOGY DI5.5LCR
DISAPPEARING IN-WALL SERIES DUAL 5-1/4″ IN-WALL LOUDSPEAKER FOR LCR APPLICATIONS
LIKE NEW.  DEMO’D ONE TIME AND REBOXED.
RETAIL IS $399.
SELLING PRICE IS TOO LOW TO POST.  CONTACT US FOR INFORMATION.

Posted in Deals, Display Devices, Home Automation, Home Entertainment, Home Theater, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Projectors, Receiver, Speakers, Streaming Media, Surround Sound, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Epson Pro Cinema 6010 – 3D Value

Epson’s Pro Cinema line of Home Theater projectors has always provided fantastic performance for the dollar and the all new Pro Cinema 6010 continues that tradition.  Sporting Full 1080p 2D & 3D reproduction at only $3499, the Pro Cinema 6010 finds a way to offer a lot for a little.  Like preceding models, the Pro Cinema 6010 meets criteria for THX certification (pending) and ISF calibration.  It also comes with the extras the Pro Cinema line is know for, namely a spare lamp, ceiling mount, and upgraded 3 Year Advanced Replacement Warranty.  This time around, the projector also comes with two pair of active shutter 3D glasses.

Other Key Features of the New Epson Pro Cinema 6010 Full 1080p 2D/3D Projector Include:

  • A true theater experience — 2D & 3D full HD 1080p technology puts you right in the middle of exciting, lifelike adventures
  • 2D-to-3D conversion — easily transform 2D images to spectacular 3D
  • Astounding brightness — 2400 lumens color and white light output1
  • Advanced 3D technology — Epson’s Bright 3D Drive for enhanced brightness in 3D mode
  • Exquisite detail — up to 200,000:1 contrast ratio, Super-resolution technology (2D mode) and superior processing for the most discerning AV enthusiasts
  • Rich, vibrant color and reliable performance — 3LCD, 3-chip technology
  • Accurate and exceptional picture quality — built-in cinema filter and THX certification (pending)
  • FineFrame technology — smoother frame interpolation and sharper video quality (2D mode)
  • Two anamorphic lens modes (stretch and squeeze) — enables 2.35:1 anamorphic viewing without an external processor1
  • Outstanding installation flexibility with maximum image quality — Fujinon OptiCinema lens (2.1x zoom ratio) and a manual lens shift of up to 96.3% vertical and up to 47.1% horizontal
  • Optimum output in any environment — ISF calibration enables you to customize specific settings
  • Split screen feature (not available in 3D mode) — project two images side-by-side from two different sources
  • 3D glasses — includes two pairs of active shutter 3D glasses
  • Also includes — spare lamp, cable cover and mount
  • Outstanding support — three-year limited warranty; next-business-day shipping service

You learn more about Premier’s assortment of Home Theater Projectors here.

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S&V Review: “Runco D-73d 3D Projector Makes a 3D Skeptic Into A Believer”

Runco’s D-73d is certainly a blue ribbon option with its best in class optical performance and an amazing addition to the most awarded line of projectors (the 3Dimension line) in Runco’s storied history.  Picking up awards is part of Runco’s heritage, but the D-73d has earned an exceptional amount and in the process has garnered rave reviews from even 3D skeptics.

One such skeptic, Sound & Vision’s John Sciaccia, had the following to say about the performance of the D-73d:

So, how did it look? In a word, awesome! The D-73d’s dual projectors delivered enough brightness that the 3D image didn’t ever look dim or lack punch. I watched a ton of programming — literally 8 hours worth — including some DirecTV 3D shows where the limited resolution as compared with full 1080p 3D material was immediately apparent. Selections included a few IMAX features, several movie trailers, some recordings from The Masters golf tournament, and clips from the Monsters vs. Aliens and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Blu-ray 3D discs. The 3D effects were always convincing, and only once did I feel a slight bit of 3D-induced eyestrain. After a couple of moments that, too, passed, and I felt fine for the remainder of my viewing session. Content definitely played a role in my 3D viewing comfort. For example, a few scenes from the IMAX doc Space Station were filmed in such a way — objects out of focus and WAY up in the foreground — that immediately made my eyes feel like they were under assault.

I was most impressed with the D-73d when playing Call of Duty: Black Ops on a PlayStation3. While this game’s packaging didn’t indicate anywhere that it was in 3D, it definitely was, and my eyes were definitely opened to the potential of 3D gaming. When the playable character, a spec op warrior, brought his weapon up to bear, the added depth made it look like you were sighting down the barrel of a gun. I was concerned that all the rapid-moving action combined with 3D would be a fast trip down the road to nausea, but I played for about 45 minutes and never once felt uncomfortable.

As the final test, I wanted to watch an entire feature film to see how the experience held up over a couple of hours. And I could think of no better test than the granddaddy of all 3D movies: Avatar. Al Griffin was kind enough — though under threat of death upon non-return — to overnight me his copy of the Avatar Blu-ray 3D. I’d seen Avatar in 3D commercially twice, so it was the material that I was by far most familiar with. And the experience of watching Avatar on the Runco had all of the 3D depth and immersion that I remember from my two cinematic viewings. In fact, I think the image viewed on the ultra-bright Mocom screen had a lot more pop than my commercial experience. The seedpods from Mother Tree (or whatever; look, I’m not some kind of Pandora freak) definitely broke through the plane of the screen and appeared to float out in space. And the infinite-depth opening shot of the spacecraft’s interior had all the “Wow! That’s awesome!” that I remember from the big screen.

I think that the polarized glasses were a large factor in my long-term viewing comfort. Beyond just being passive, they are very lightweight and comfortable, reminding me quite a bit of my very first pair of Vuarnet sunglasses. I generally play around and fiddle with glasses in the theater, but never felt bothered by these. Plus, you get 6 pairs with your purchase, so you can entertain a decent-sized group right off the bat. (Additional glasses are sold in 6-pair lots for $199.)

Comparing the different screens, I would say that the Mocom did a better job of conveying the 3D image and minimizing ghosting. And its ultra-bright picture definitely helped offset light-output loss when the polarization filters were engaged. However, there was noticeable hotspotting when I sat way left or right of center, and the picture was much too bright for me when viewing 2D material. The Stewart 5D screen played a nice compromise, eliminating the off-axis issues and only occasionally revealing some ghosting in scenes with high contrast, such as the nighttime ones of Jake’s avatar swinging his flaming stick in the Pandoran jungle. It was also preferable for 2D viewing.

At the end of the day, Runco’s D-73d will put out an amazing 3D image, and a terrific 2D one as well. I went into this review skeptical about 3D, and though I’m not ready to fully drink the Kool-Aid, I can now concede that 3D definitely has a place when it’s done right. And I haven’t seen it done any more right than on the D-73d.

The D-73d was also CEDIA New Product of the Year and the CE PRO Best Product of the Year in 2010 (it technically shipped 12/1/10) and then Electronic House Product of the Year and the TechHome Mark of Excellence Video Product of the Year for 2011, as well as recognition by ISE Daily as a featured ISE Pick of 2011.

You learn more about Premier’s assortment of Home Theater Projectors here.

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Runco QuantumColor Q-650i 1080P LED Projector Changes The Game

Runco’s new QuantumColor Q-650i not only offers Runco’s trademark quality, but also tremendous value as the most affordable LED-illuminated projector for home theater.  If you are looking for brilliant color reproduction, Runco’s QuantumColor line is unmatched.  And again, with the new QuantumColor Q-650i Runco not only offers a tremendous value for Runco, but all LED-illuminated projectors at only $9,995.

Runco had the following to say about the QuantumColor Q-650i:

Building on Runco’s award-winning and best-selling LED projection line, the Q-650i maximizes the benefits of Runco’s InfiniLight™ lampless LED illumination technology for 70 percent power savings and no maintenance. In addition, the Q-650i pairs QuantumColor’s revolutionary technological advancements, like Runco SmartColor™ and InstantOn™, to create an energy-efficient system, without mercury or lead, that delivers must-see projection performance. This combination makes the Q-650i the perfect solution for dedicated theaters with a 72-92 inch screen.

“The QuantumColor series transformed the industry and delivered on our promise that it was the future of projection,” said Jennifer Davis, Runco’s Vice President of Marketing. “The amazing client response to Runco’s QuantumColor series illustrates the market’s desire for luxurious and unmatched video experiences and a growing sensitivity about the environmental footprint of our consumer choices.  The new Q-650i extends that performance.”

Quixel Research shows that Runco’s Q-750i and Q-750d projectors are consistently ranked as one of the top five best volume sellers in the ‘more than $10,000’ category in the U.S. The ongoing positive response to the QuantumColor series prompted Runco to expand the line with the Q-650i, creating a sub-$10,000 option for projection enthusiasts without comprising performance. By using the revolutionary QuantumColor technology, the Q-650i maximizes LED performance and offers the same award-winning color gamut. When paired with Runco’s proprietary technologies that harness the impressive color gamut, the Q-650i creates stunning images while offering an environmentally-friendly theater experience for less than the cost of a large, flat panel display.

“Due to ongoing innovation, consumers can now experience the high-end features available in luxury front projection at a lower price point as brands expand their lines to appeal to a wider audience,” said Tamaryn Pratt of Quixel Research. “The recent growth in the last two quarters of sub-$10,000 projectors supports that customers want a superior viewing experience at the lower price point.”

Award-Winning and Environmentally-Friendly Technology for Superior Viewing

The award-winning Runco QuantumColor series of projectors span the range of brightness and image performance for different rooms and needs from the entry-level Q-650i to the Q-1500d for homeowners with larger theaters and screens up to 200 inches. Each projector includes the most astounding arsenal of color spaces achievable in front projection, including DCI, Adobe RBG, sRBG, REC 709, and REC 601, for exact reproduction of any content. To harness these impressive color gamuts, Runco’s Personal Color Equalizer™ (PCE), allows the displayed colors to be individually dialed up and down by video source to support multiple personal preferences.

Runco’s PCE enables custom video integrators to achieve unprecedented colors that include those exactly defined by Hollywood’s cinematographers and the color preferences that each individual viewer chooses for each source. To eliminate unrealistic distortion, the QuantumColor series is equipped with Runco’s SmartColor™ (RSC), a proprietary hue compensation curve and gamut mapping technology that preserves lifelike flesh tones by increasing color saturation, without sacrificing the purity of other colors. RSC enables custom installers to create color preference settings for their clients without needing to adjust other colors. QuantumColor projectors never lose color alignment as they automatically assess and adjust color calibration every time they are turned on.

Runco’s QuantumColor projectors are the first to measure ColorContrast™, the ratio of a single color at its darkest (black) to its brightest by utilizing an incident light meter. The difference between these measured colors is greater than lamp-based projectors and ColorContrast enables colors to be “turned up” to achieve greater realism and dimensionality. The result is an unsurpassed visual experience that must be seen to be understood.

The Q-lumens in the QuantumColor projectors are proven to be perceived as brighter than lamp-derived lumens, but that is not the only brightness advantage of the QuantumColor platform. The aging curve on the InfiniLight LED illumination system is much more stable than a traditional mercury lamp, which lose significant brightness in their early hours of operation, falling to a plateau, and then aging gradually to half-life, burn out, and replacement. The cycle then starts again. In contrast, Runco’s lampless InfiniLight system is calibrated at every start-up and has a more gentile brightness loss curvature. The perceived brightness-advantage of Q-lumens is even more pronounced after 1,000-2,000 hours of ordinary use.

Another technology feature of the Runco QuantumColor is InstantOn™, which provides a nearly immediate projected image when turned on, just like a TV. Most lamp-based products require two minutes to warm up, but InstantOn saves the QuantumColor owner both time and money, because the projector no longer needs to be left in standby mode, which consumes power when the projector is not in use. Runco’s implementation of InfiniLight technology has enabled a solid-state illumination system that eliminates the need for a lamp, mechanical iris, and color wheel. This design efficiency provides enhanced reliability.

And, our ColorPalette™ provides Runco customers a unique level of personalization and customization that reflects their own individual styles and décors. Runco’s ColorPalette helps the integrator create a truly one-of-a-kind projector that is a design-focused alternative to ubiquitous, commodity display products which are not aligned with the aesthetic of the luxury home.

Runco’s QuantumColor projectors have it all—no lamp to replace, never-before-seen colors, high reliability, and low power consumption. The QuantumColor series is available exclusively through the best home theater dealers and the Runco authorized-dealer network. Like all Runco Home Theater products, each are built with quality and craftsmanship to ensure an amazing experience. All Runco displays feature a two-year RuncoCare™ standard warranty and extended options are also available.

You learn more about Premier’s assortment of Home Theater Projectors here.

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Runco LightStyle LS-1 Review: Sensational Picture Quality For The Money

Runco has always had the super-high performance market wrapped up with their Video Extreme line and Signature Cinema.  But with the new LightStyle™ LS-1 Runco enters an all new market – value priced high performance.  Value priced Runco?  Absolutely!  The LightStyle™ LS-1 debuts at under $4,000.  Less than an Elite TV.  Yet it has Runco’s trademark processing and image quality inside.  Can you say performance for the dollar?

But don’t just take our word for it.  TrustedReviews‘ John Archer recently reviewed the aforementioned LightStyle LS-1 and had the following to say:

There are three things we thought we knew about Runco projectors. First, they’re good. Second, they’re bigger than your average projector. And third, they set you back more money than you can probably sensibly afford unless you’re a Hollywood superstar or a big wig in the banking world.

The new LS-1 we’re looking at today, though, tips our Runco preconceptions squarely on their head. With a price of just £3995, the LS-1 isn’t just affordable, it’s a bona fide bargain.

The sense that you’re getting great value out of the LS-1 begins as soon as you look at it, and clock its impressive and promising bulk. Its tastefully rounded form with a tapered rear – resulting in a sort of tear drop shape – only just fits on our usual, heavy-duty projector stand, proving a satisfyingly bulky sight for anyone who likes to get a lot of physical bang for their buck.

The LS-1 is unusually heavy for a projector in its price bracket too, raising hopes of some seriously uncompromising innards.

At first Runco appears to have forgotten to put any connections on the LS-1. But they are there, of course, tucked away under a screw-off rear ‘overhang’ that proves very effective at hiding cable clutter, especially if the projector is ceiling mounted.

Among the decent set of jacks on offer are a pair of HDMIs, a component video port, a D-Sub PC port, a 12V trigger jack, an IR port, an S-Video jack, and an RS-232 port for integrating the projector into a wider home entertainment control system.

Another sign of the LS-1’s ‘serious’ home cinema heritage is the vertical image shifting ‘screw’ found under a pop-off cover on the projector’s top edge. This is manipulated via a provided allen key; a rather more ‘industrial’ approach than the sort of simple wheels many projectors provided for vertical image shifting, but one which delivers much more precise and robust results.

It’s worth noting, too, that the LS-1 can be bought with either a standard or optional short throw lens, and that there’s a solid if not inspiring amount of precise optical zoom available from an oddly plasticky zoom ‘ring’ around the lens. You can also rig the LS-1 up with Runco’s CineGlide lens solution, which lets you use it in conjunction with a motorised, mechanical 2.35:1 anamorphic lens.

As you would expect of what’s already clearly a ‘serious’ home cinema projector, the LS-1 is fully ISF Certified, and sports a typical ISF calibration configuration among its set up tools. A less pleasant result of the LS-1 having professional rather than DIY calibration in mind is the really very ugly and overwhelming nature of the LS-1’s onscreen menus, which make no concessions whatsoever to the notion that someone using them might not be particularly technical.

Among the features contained within these menus should you care to hunt them down are two user-definable and one ISF Day/ISF Night configuration picture preset memory slots; a selection of colour temperature presets (of which you’ll probably want to stick with 6500K); manual adjustment of the DLP refresh rate to 48, 50, or 60Hz (or there’s an auto setting); an optional adaptive contrast system (which works as a sort of dynamic contrast system to give images greater dynamism at the expense of some colour accuracy); a selection of colour gamut standards; multiple gamma settings; RGB adjustments; and Runco’s ConstantContrast system (which is actually a proprietary dynamic iris engine).

The projector also carries a ViVix processing system (like models higher up the LS range), Runco’s renowned SuperOnyx contrast-boosting technology, and a 230W lamp which Runco recommends as being able to comfortably drive 63in-85in screens.

Firing the LS-1 up produces an instant – if slight – concern, in the form of quite noticeable running noise. No dB figures for this are included on the LS-1’s spec sheet, but it’s certainly noticeable during quiet scenes if the projector is anywhere near your seating position. What’s more, there doesn’t appear to be any way of reducing the running noise by, say, ramping down the lamp output.

The good news is that the LS-1’s noise is very consistent, which makes it easier to ‘tune out’ than projectors with whiny colour wheels, creaky iris adjustments or ever-shifting fan

Helping you get over the LS-1‘s fan noise however, is the truly exceptional quality of its pictures. There are so many good points about them, in fact, that it’s hard to know where to start.

The projector’s contrast range is really exemplary, for instance, combining punchy whites and colours with deep, rich dark areas as if such a dynamic range is the easiest
thing in the world to produce.

Next, colours are simply superb, with sumptuously rich but also terrifically nuanced and utterly natural tones on show across every part of the colour spectrum. There’s a lovely balance to colours too, with no shade looking dominant over others. The projector’s colour range appears outstandingly wide too, adding up to a colour performance that wouldn’t look out of place on a projector costing thousands of pounds more.

The LS-1’s pictures are also exceptionally sharp and detailed, with the absence of dot noise and stressy edges proving that this sharpness isn’t forced; it’s just a natural result of the projector’s quality DLP system and optics.

We’d worried that maybe the LS-1 would be lacking in brightness. But in fact it drove our 85in screen so potently that we could easily imagine it driving a 100in or even slightly bigger screen with no trouble whatsoever.

The LS-1 isn’t as bright, it must be said, as the in-some-ways-similar Sim2 Crystal 35 projector. But then crucially it scores a massive hit over the (more expensive) Sim2 model by not suffering anywhere near as much with single-chip DLP technology’s ‘rainbow effect’, where you can see stripes of pure red, green and blue in your peripheral vision or over very bright objects.

In fact, the LS-1’s resistance to rainbowing is quite outstanding considering how bright it is, with even notoriously tricky scenes like the opening black and white section of Casino Royale emerging almost totally rainbow-free.

The LS-1’s motion handling is another area where is excels. For it manages to deliver action scenes and fast camera pans with everything from 24p Blu-rays to 50Hz Sky feeds with startling clarity, no more judder than feels natural, and best of all not the slightest trace of the dotting noise that remains a common single-chip DLP artefact.

If you really pushed us to find anything wrong with the LS-1’s performance, we might say that dark scenes lose just a little shadow detail versus more expensive projectors once you’ve calibrated the contrast and brightness to get the best colour/black level balance. But we’re really grasping at straws here, for the bottom line is that the LS-1 delivers much of the precision, richness, and beautiful naturalism of a high-end projector for a price that barely qualifies as mid-range.

Verdict
Runco’s most concerted bid yet to enter the ‘mass’ part of the projector market is a stunning success, retaining far more of the brand’s legendary DLP quality than we’d have thought possible.

We guess it would be remiss of us if we didn’t make the point before signing off that the LS-1 doesn’t support 3D playback. But while we would certainly love to see what Runco could do with 3D, if it had been added to the LS-1 then its price would undoubtedly have been much higher. And we personally feel much more excited about being able to get this much Runco quality for so little money than we are about being able to watch the occasional bit of 3D.

See Premier’s assortment of Home Theater Projector’s here.

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Trade In & Trade Up For The Holidays Promotion!

Think about how PCs have morphed into iPads in just the last few years and then imagine the technology in Home Entertainment Systems has also changed that much. Think you may be falling behind like your neighbor with the Gateway 2000 PC?

No need to keep suffering along. Trade-In your old stuff & Trade-Up to new with Premier’s Trade In & Trade Up For The Holidays Promotion!

From now through 12/3/2011:

Reinvigorate your Entertainment System with a new receiver or processor sporting lossless 7.1 surround sound, streaming music, Pandora, 3D support, and iPhone/iPad app. Replace those old black boxy speakers with modern sleek towers, or, if you are looking for even sleeker, some amazing new in-wall/in-ceiling speakers. Or save your eyes and impress your in-laws with the pristine images of your new THX® certified Runco projector.

Don’t wait! Time is limited! Contact us for more information!

*10% on any perfectly functioning receiver towards a new receiver. Receiver must include remote control, power cord, & calibration microphone (if applicable). If original box is not available customer agrees to leave box for new receiver. 15% on any perfectly functioning receiver purchased in the last 3 years. Receiver must include original invoice, remote control, power cord, & calibration microphone (if applicable). If original box is not available customer agrees to leave box for new receiver.
**10% on any perfectly functioning speaker towards a new speaker. Speaker must be free of any substantial cosmetic blemishes (scratches, scrapes, etc). If original box is not available customer agrees to leave box for new speaker. 20% on any perfectly functioning speaker purchased in the last 3 years. Speaker must be free of all cosmetic blemishes (scratches, scrapes, etc) and include the original boxes.
***Projector must be in perfect working order, minimum 720p resolution, and free of any substantial cosmetic blemishes (scratches, scrapes, etc). Projector must include remote, power cord, and any accessories required for proper operation of projector.
Posted in Deals, Display Devices, Home Entertainment, Home Theater, Processors, Projectors, Receiver, Speakers, Streaming Media, Surround Sound | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

New Elite TVs Set Mark For Performance

Videophiles across the world mourned the day in 2009 that Pioneer stopped manufacturing their reference Kuro Elite TVs.  Renowned for exquisite detail and vastly superior black level performance, Elite TVs were universally agreed to be the best flat panel HDTVs on the market.  So much so that for the last two plus years almost any TV review for a higher end TV included a comparison describing how it stacked up to the Elite and always falling a little short.

Fast forward to Fall 2011, and Elite is back (And Available From Premier).  Videophiles rejoice!  This time thanks to an agreement between Pioneer and Sharp.  Of course the question on everyone’s mind is “Can these new Elites outperform the old Elites and set a new standard?”  For an answer to that, read the following review from Home Theater Magazine:

Make no mistake: The Elites are not simply Sharp HDTVs with Elite badges and prices. The Elite LCD panels are produced in Sharp’s advanced Generation 10 plant in Sakai, Japan, and employ a new liquid crystal technology (versus Sharp-branded panels) that is said to make the crystals “smaller, softer, thinner, and faster.” Beyond starting with this new LCD panel, Sharp says its engineers weren’t limited to hitting any particular price point—clear enough from those premium stickers.

The sets offer all the features you expect in a modern HDTV, plus a few you don’t. They’re 3D ready and THX certified. You can access the Web either via Wi-Fi or a direct Ethernet link to your home network; Web services include Vudu, Netflix, and YouTube, among others. Sharp provides full calibration features, including both two- and 10-point white balance controls and full color management. Full LED- backlit local dimming helps produce the inky blacks we all crave. Sharp hasn’t released and won’t confirm the number of dimming zones they’re using, but sources have told us it’s 240 zones in our 60-inch model and 336 zones in the 70-inch.

The Elite sets also offer Sharp’s Advantage Live program. If a problem arises, you can establish a direct Internet connection between your set and Sharp’s technicians for a diagnosis or remote adjustments.

At the top of the Elites’ unique feature set is Intelligent Variable Contrast (IVC), with five options: local dimming off, local dimming on, and three advanced settings. Local dimming positions clusters of LEDs behind the screen. These zones dim selectively according to the demands of the image in their specific areas; that is, the LEDs behind the dark areas darken, while the LEDs behind brighter areas remain bright. The advanced positions (low, middle, and high) also have local dimming but in addition engage IVC, which “controls brightness and backlight to create depth of color, brilliance, detail, and dark scenes.” In other words, it includes additional processing that makes bright highlights, such as fireworks against a night sky, pop out more vividly against far darker backgrounds.

I found the advanced settings (mostly low) beneficial on bland-looking cable channels, or with significant room lighting, or, in particular, for 3D. But for normal 2D movie watching in dim room lighting, I avoided them, staying with local dimming only. On bright scenes, the advanced selections introduced an unpleasant glare when viewed in a dimly lit or darkened room, even on their low setting.

The only additional features I found helpful were color temperature, color management, and gamma. As for a number of the others, I generally left them off or in their default positions. One surprisingly missing feature is picture-in-picture or any similar multi-image capability, which might be important to some buyers.

In most 1080p HDTVs, each of the 1920 by 1080 pixels that make up the image (about 2 million total) include active red, green, and blue elements—or subpixels. But Elite’s RGB+Y technology adds a separate yellow subpixel to the mix. (Sharp uses similar technology in its Quattron sets, but there it’s called Quad Pixel.) Yellow isn’t a native component in our video source materials; they contain only red, green, and blue, from which all of the other colors, including yellow, are normally derived. But in the Elite, the yellow pixels are driven with a signal that electronically derives within the set from the red, green, and blue primaries. With separately driven yellow pixels, Sharp can exercise more control over this color, which is a major component in fleshtones, various metals (particularly brass and gold), light-colored hair, and, of course, yellow objects. The approach is unique to Sharp at the moment and is promoted as an advance, but whether the visible result is really a more accurate reproduction of the source is another matter.

The Elite’s motion enhancement feature has four different settings, including off. All of them activate frame interpolation. One of the settings, FluidMotion, also appears to darken the image somewhat, which indicates the use of a supplementary motion smoothing technique called dark-frame insertion. The set normally operates at a native refresh rate of 120 hertz, but a scanning backlight produces an effective 240-Hz frame rate. When the set receives a 2D source at 24 frames per second (fps), it adds four new frames for each of the real frames to reach 120 Hz. With motion enhancement engaged, the Elite interpolates the new frames from the real frames; with it off, the set simply repeats the extra frames. For sources at 60p (or 1080i sources that have first been converted to 1080p/60 either externally or within the set), only one added frame is needed—either interpolated or repeated—to reach the 120-Hz refresh rate. For 24-fps 3D sources, which input 48 fps (24 fps for each eye) to the set, the refresh rate changes to 96 Hz. I don’t need to repeat here my often-stated dislike for the soap-opera, video-ish look that motion interpolation gives to movies, but your opinion may vary. I didn’t use this feature and didn’t find motion smear to be a significant problem for the Elite on most films, even without it.

Of the 13 A/V modes (including ISF day and night—accessible only after a professional calibration), I gravitated first to the Elite pure mode. But it proved anything but pure and appeared to alter the color gamut based on brightness level, pushing it wider as the picture got dimmer. After I discovered this and other limitations, I switched to the movie (THX) mode for all of my calibrations and viewing.

The Elite comes with two pair of rechargeable 3D glasses, with extras available for $100 each. The 3D features include a 2D-to-3D conversion mode (like most, it’s moderately effective but no substitute for the real thing), a 3D brightness boost feature, and a switch on the 3D glasses that lets you change the image to 2D for those in the group who are bothered by the 3D effect.

The Elite’s reflective-glass screen surface, though common in today’s high-end sets, will likely be an issue for some of you who can’t control ambient light to minimize glare. The remote was functional. It doesn’t have too many or too small buttons and has a mostly intuitive layout (except for the Netflix button that I kept hitting because it’s located directly below the navigation control). The backlighting is dim and doesn’t illuminate the buttons’ labels. There’s no app to convert your iWhatever or megadroid into a remote control for the Elite, nor is this capability anticipated as an update for this year’s models.

2D Performance
The Elite’s performance was average on our Video Test Bench. The 2:2 HD and 2:2 SD failings are common even among today’s best sets. On the MA (motion adaptive) HD test, which involves a rotating bar against a stationary resolution pattern, there was intermittent flickering in the stationary pattern viewed from an Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player (which played fine on my Pioneer Kuro PRO-141FD) but no flickering from a Panasonic DMP-BDT210. It wasn’t serious enough to deny a passing grade, and I saw no sign of the flickering with normal program sources on either player.

While the PRO-60X5FD’s post-calibration color was for the most part vibrant and in some cases stunning, on some (but not all) familiar mid-low to low-brightness scenes, fleshtones were a bit more reddish than I’m used to seeing. I turned down the color control, which helped, although the right setting of this control varied between discs. Yellows and golds were vivid, but at least in my preferred mode—movie (THX)—they were only subtly more so than on competing sets. I expected a more dramatic difference, but since the calibrated movie (THX) mode produced both a very accurate gray scale and color gamut, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Other modes, such as Elite pure out of the box, produced more exaggerated (but not cartoonish) golds and yellows.

Unlike a few other local-dimming sets we’ve tested recently, the Elite’s screen doesn’t go totally black when you feed it a full-field black source; that is, the LED backlighting doesn’t completely shut off. You can just make out the screen in a darkened room (as you can, by the way, in the final-production generation of Pioneer Elite Kuro plasmas). But turn on any room lights with the new Elite, and the blacks totally disappear. In a darkened room, the black bars on 2.35:1 or 4:3 films also disappear, except on the very darkest scenes where our pupils open wide and we become sensitive to even the merest hint of light.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a black-level and shadow-detail torture test. Near the beginning, when Harry and Dumbledore travel to a darkened village late at night, you can see every detail in the shadows, and the image doesn’t become either crushed or grayed out. The result was just as impressive when Harry is deposited into a dark field outside of the Weasley house, or when he arrives at the gates of Hogwarts, or later as he and Dumbledore search for Voldemort’s horcrux in a dark cave.

Stargate: Continuum opens with one of the more difficult to reproduce star fields I’ve seen. The Elite performs beautifully on this test. All of the local-dimming sets I’ve tested recently have produced distinct halos around the brightest stars, since it’s difficult for even a small zone of LED backlights to pinpoint only a single star without having the light spill over into the black background. The Elite was the first such set I’ve reviewed that was completely free of these halos—both here and on other program material.

The Elite’s screen uniformity is also excellent and shows even distribution of the backlight on dark full-frame test patterns with no obvious streaking or hot-spotting. And while Sharp hasn’t eliminated the problem of narrow viewing angle endemic to many LCD displays, it’s tolerable here as long as you sit within 20 degrees or so of the centered viewing position. The average viewer might even make it to 30 or 35 degrees off axis before he or she starts to notice the colors fade and the black level rise. But as with most LCD sets, the critical viewer will want dibs on the center seat!

The Elite’s audio is above average for a flat-panel set. There’s some boxy cavity coloration, most evident on voices. Although after a brief period of acclimation I was able to overlook it, at least with non-critical sources at modest listening levels. The sound from a Blu-ray player passed through an Onkyo TX-SR608 A/V receiver required me to dial in a bit more lip-sync delay than usual, but that won’t be an issue as long as your AVR has a variable audio delay, as most do. There was no delay when I listened to the set’s internal audio.

3D Performance
When correctly configured and calibrated, and apart from the immersion and impact unique to a big-screen projection system, the Elite provided the best 3D performance I’ve yet seen, bar none—either at home or in the theater. It’s the first 3D I’ve experienced in which there were no significant picture compromises that couldn’t be blamed on the source material.

A major factor in this is the Elite’s available brightness. There’s enough linear gain on tap to provide a 3D image brightness of 30 foot-lamberts, or even more, viewed through the active glasses. That’s unheard of up to now in any home 3D display short of a very bright (and expensive) projector on a small, high-gain screen. It’s also as bright as the level I find comfortable for 2D in a dimly lit room.

To get this result, I used the movie (3D THX) mode—which you can adjust separately from the 2D movie (THX) mode—with the backlight on +8, the 3D brightness boost on middle, the intelligent variable contrast on advanced middle, and the brightness, contrast, and gamma controls on or close to their 2D settings. While I didn’t use the advanced settings for intelligent variable contrast for watching 2D Blu-ray or DVD movies in a darkened room, they were definitely beneficial for 3D.

Beyond the Elite’s exceptionally bright image, I also saw no ghosting on discs that have revealed it on other sets, in particular several early scenes in A Christmas Carol, both in Scrooge’s office and as he approaches his house on Christmas Eve. The Elite’s 3D black levels are also every bit as good as they are in 2D. The night forest scenes early on in Avatar, for example, as Jake meets the viper wolves and then Neytiri, have never before looked as dark and truly night-like, while at the same time retaining their astonishing depth and shadow detail, as they did on the Elite.

An Elite Face-Off
I was fortunate to have a 60-inch Pioneer Elite PRO-141FD Kuro plasma still available to me during my evaluation of the new Sharp Elite LCD. I reviewed this set in May 2009, subsequently bought it, and it has been my reference ever since. No other flat-panel display I’ve reviewed at our studio or in my home theater has ever bettered it subjectively in pure image quality, although I can’t deny the superior impact of a video projector on a big screen.

I positioned the Elite and the Kuro side by side in a totally darkened room, aimed slightly inward toward the seating position to eliminate any off-axis issues from the Elite, with a narrow black curtain between them to cut down on any cross reflections that might affect the result. Both sets have reflective screens, but the Elite is clearly the more mirror-like. When the sets are off, the Elite’s screen is very black, while the Pioneer’s screen is a dark gray.

I double-checked and re-tweaked the Kuro’s calibration, set it to its pure mode, and the Elite to movie (THX) mode, and fed both displays from an Oppo Blu-ray player through an Accell splitter. The comparisons were 2D, of course; the Kuro is strictly a 2D display. References to Elite in the text below refer to the Sharp.

On to the nitty-gritty. On a color resolution test pattern, the Elite’s colors looked paler; the blue stripes were clearly less vivid than on the Pioneer. But I never saw any sign of this on normal source material. The highest chroma resolution burst on the Pioneer was severely rolled off; it would clearly earn a fail on this test if we subjected it to our Video Test Bench standards today. Both sets passed the luminance resolution test, although the Elite’s top burst pattern was brighter, which indicates a stronger (perhaps even slightly exaggerated) response to the finest details. The Pioneer clipped noticeably just above white (it always has), but the Elite had significant available headroom above the standard video range. The same goes for color clipping; the Pioneer may just sneak past that white clip test, but it clipped high-level red, green, and blue. On the other hand, the Elite is the best performer I’ve yet seen in avoiding green and red clipping and is satisfactory in blue. Color bars on both sets looked nearly the same, although both red and yellow were a little deeper and richer on the Elite.

Keeping in mind that I’m accustomed to the look of the Pioneer, fleshtones on the Elite were, in general, a little too rosy—although when I turned down the color control to as low as –6, it helped considerably without washing out other colors. The Sharp’s yellows and golds were ever so slightly richer, but the differences weren’t worth obsessing over even in a side-by-side comparison. The movie (THX) mode uses the set’s yellow pixels differently than the other modes. This produces less yellow-gold pop but produces an accurate rather than a creative reproduction of the source material—something THX insisted on.

I noticed a subtle green shift in some dark images on the Pioneer—a shift I couldn’t account for in the measurements. The dark Jotunheim scenes in Thor showed this consistently, while they were a more neutral gray on the Elite. I ultimately came to prefer the color from the Elite, but only marginally. I’d still like to see a bit less of a rosy glow in dimly lit faces.

The Pioneer excelled in the nighttime scenes in the New Mexico desert early on in Thor. It produced a naturally vivid transition between the close-ups of faces and the gloom surrounding them, whereas the Elite presented these details with a flatter, more grayish look. The advanced settings in the Elite’s intelligent variable contrast control could compensate for this to a degree, as could cheating the brightness setting by dropping it a step or two below the technically correct level. But I resisted using the advanced settings because they were too over the top on bright scenes from disc sources viewed in the dimly lit or darkened room I favor for serious movie watching.

On Stargate: Continuum, the opening star field was impressive on the Elite, but the more vivid-looking stars on the Pioneer looked noticeably better. That said, I can’t name another consumer display aside from the Kuro that does this scene better than the Elite. As mentioned, the Elite was also notably free of halos on all of our tests, something I can’t say about the other localdimming sets I’ve reviewed.

The Elite and the Pioneer reproduced the other dark scenes in Stargate: Continuum equally well. But while the Pioneer appears to handle the most challenging dark scenes marginally better than the Elite, you’ll never notice the differences short of an A/B comparison. When the source is a full black screen, the Elite is generally a gnat’s eyelash darker than the Pioneer, although both sets measure impressively (though not totally) black.

Close-up shots are fine on both sets, but details looked crisper on the Elite—not artificially so, but enough to noticeably enhance the sense of depth in 2D images. I wouldn’t call the Kuro soft by any stretch, but detail freaks (like me) will immediately recognize the new Elite’s superior resolution.

Conclusions
Is the Elite PRO-60X5FD the new all-time flat-panel champ? I’d have to say yes, by a nose. It comes with caveats, for sure. Its off-axis performance is no better than average for an LCD and inferior in this regard to the IPS LCD panels LG and Vizio use. The price is also fear-inducing for most of us.

But the Kuros weren’t cheap or perfect either. The Elites offer enough of that secret Kuro sauce, combined with LCD’s unique benefits—not least of which should be lower energy consumption compared with the power-hungry Kuros—and the brightest 3D you’ll find this side of real life.

Is the margin so clear cut as to produce a glut of used Kuros on eBay and Videogon? No, but potential new buyers can now remove the hair shirts they donned when they missed the Kuro train as it pulled out of the station and chugged off into the sunset. If the Sharp Elite isn’t the inevitable sunrise, it’s as close to it as we’ll get this side of an 80-inch 4K-resolution set with 500-plus zones of local dimming. We’ll all be waiting breathlessly for that one, but in the meantime, this new Elite is the one to tide you over.

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Sony To Quit Manufacturing TVs?

Sony To Quit Manufacturing TVsAccording to a recent article from Bloomberg, Sony may be preparing to quit manufacturing Televisions.  Why you ask?  It turns out Sony has lost money for three consecutive years.  Not only that, but they forecast they will lose over $1 Billion in the TV division this year.  Losing $1 Billion does not bode well for Televisions as all the while Sony’s global market share has dwindled.

While not immediately announcing a stop to the manufacture of TVs, Sony certainly has been chopping away at the division.  Over the past two years Sony has sold off three TV plants and has agreed to sell off 90% of a forth.  Not only that, but Sony, once worth over $100 Billion, has seen its worth dip to only $25 Billion.  And analysts believe stripping out the TV business could actually boost Sony’s worth to over $43 Billion.

So is the writing on the wall for the demise of Sony TVs? Future certainly isn’t looking bright for the one time powerhouse.  Guess we will soon see.

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New Runco LS-1 Offers High Quality Projection At A Very Affordable Price Point

Theater Featuring Runco Lifestyle ProjectorRunco’s name has long been synonymous with the best in video projectors.  For years, filmmakers like Oliver Stone and actors like Kevin Connolly (Kevin’s Fortress Seating Is Also Available @ Premier) have trusted in Runco for their homes.  But many have the perception that Runco only makes ULTRA high-end projectors.  And while they certainly do make the most extreme projectors on the planet, Runco also offers High Performance value oriented projectors.  With their new Lifestyle LS-1 Runco shatters all expectations to offer Runco performance at an all-new price point.

Runco’s press release follows:
09-Aug-2011:
New LS-1 introduces Runco’s high-quality, affordable projection to value-conscious customers looking for the very best performance.

Beaverton, OR – Runco® is excited to announce the newest addition to its critically-acclaimed LightStyle™ Series DLP™ projectors, the LS-1. The LS-1 is a single-chip 1080p DLP projector that provides an unprecedented option to homeowners looking for the performance and flexibility of a Runco projector at a very attractive price point.

“With the introduction of the LS-1, we are able to bring the renowned Runco performance to a broader group of video enthusiasts,” said Jennifer Davis, VP of Marketing at Runco. “Being able to hit this competitive price point enables our integrators more opportunities to sell to a large, previously-untapped market and for homeowners to enjoy the benefits owning a Runco brings.”

The Runco LS-1 is an ideal alternative for homeowners who want a high performance video option for watching TV or movies, but also want the color depth and picture quality for console gaming (i.e., PlayStation, Wii or Kinect), internet browsing or streaming video and movies via a set-top box. The Runco LightStyle product line offers the greatest range of brightness and image performance for different rooms and needs.

“Runco’s LightStyle Series allows us to deliver Runco performance to a new group of clients,” said Brian Hudkins, president of Gramophone LTD. “The beauty of the LightStyle Series is that we have been able reach a larger customer base due to its affordability, without sacrificing performance OR reliability as these projectors meet the high quality standards of Runco.”

The LS-1 uses Digital Light Processing (DLP) technology to deliver the best color and crisp detail available in this product class and combines Runco’s SuperOnyx™ technology with ConstantContrast™ and ViVix™ proprietary digital video processing to achieve deep black levels and significant contrast, well above 10:000:1. The LS-1 also incorporates the ISF™ (Imaging Science Foundation) calibration suite for optimal performance in various rooms and lighting conditions. These calibration tools feature day and night calibration memory settings, individual sharpness and noise reduction controls, programmable image memory selection keys, built-in test patterns and a dark room-optimized remote.

Its sleek, glamorous design and customization options make the Runco LightStyle Series projectors the perfect solution to pair with a design-conscious homeowner. The LS-1 can be customized with Runco’s FinishPalette™ which enables complete projector customization for the homeowner. FinishPalette adds full-color design options, including exact PMS color matching for any college or pro-sports teams, a gallery of artist impressions and the option to custom-print your own artwork. Complementing the FinishPalette offering are 25 hand-finished signature paint colors to compliment any décor.

The LS-1 is also available with Runco’s CineGlide™ lens solution that enables a motorized, mechanical 2.35:1 anamorphic lens to move in front of the standard lens for perfect Scope reproduction. Runco CineGlide enables the viewer to switch from 16:9 content to 2.35:1 content, without black bars on the top or side of the image, with the touch of a button.

The MSRP of the LS-1 is $3,995 and will be available to Runco dealers on August 16th. All Runco displays feature a two-year RuncoCare™ standard warranty. Runco RedCarpet™ and PremierCare™ extended service options are also available. Runco’s new LightStyle Series projectors are available exclusively through the best dealers in the home theater business – the Runco authorized dealer network. For more information about Runco or to find a local dealer in your area, please visit www.Runco.com.

About Runco
Founded in 1987 and acquired by Planar Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLNR) in 2007, Runco is a market leader in state-of-the-art projection systems, flat-panel displays, video processors, display walls and other components for the custom consumer market. Runco’s display innovations have won numerous awards and citations from the world press. Runco continues to be a pioneer in the custom video display market.
Planar Systems, Inc is a global leader of specialty display technology providing hardware and software solutions for the world’s most demanding environments including hospitals, space and military programs, utility and transportation hubs, shopping centers, banks, government agencies, businesses, and home theaters.

LightStyle™ Series, SuperOnyx, ConstantContrast, CineGlide, FinishPalette, RuncoCare, RedCarpet, and PremierCare are all trademarks of Runco International.

All product and company names referred to herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

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HDMI Issues – Flashing Screens, Blank Screens

HDMI Issues

HDMI Have You Pulling Your Hair Out?

Isn’t HDMI supposed to be that magical one cable solution that solves everything?  Like so many times when people think they have a better way they also introduce new problems.  With HDMI we have seen flashing screens, blank screens, snowy screens, and more maddening displays that are anything but what we hoped for.  Why do these things happen and how do you track them down?

See what Joey Perfito of Tributaries had to say in a recent edition of The Tribune:

When we receive calls from our dealers regarding HDMI balun difficulties, no picture or flashing screen, we always ask about the components in the system.  Most systems have a cable TV set top box (STB) as one of the source components. These devices have been problematic because most of these units are mass produced older models. A number of our dealers have told us that the Comcast STB especially has been the cause of a number of failures in systems where HDMI switches and/or baluns are used.

The major difficulty in getting a system that includes a STB with HDMI electronics to operate properly has to do with HDCP and its handshake. The handshake occurs when the source requests a “key” from the display to authenticate it as an HDCP compliant device. The “key” is a digital code that electronically “unlocks” the source’s electronics permitting it to send the encrypted content.  If there are multiple displays connected to one source through an HDMI splitter, the source will need multiple “keys”, one for each display. Some sources, like the Comcast STB, can only furnish one “key”. With multiple displays, this will cause an authentication failure resulting in no picture or sound. Also, if the key is incorrect or corrupted, the handshake will not occur resulting in a screen that flashes every time a “key” request is made, about every 2 seconds. If a STB is the selected source, try changing to another source preferably a Blu-ray player. If the proper picture and sound result, then you can conclude the STB is the problem. Ask the cable provider to either replace the STB or supply a firmware upgrade.  If the problem continues, power all components down at their respective AC outlets for about 5 minutes.  Power up the devices in this order: first the display; check that the input selected is the desired HDMI inputNext, power up the HDMI switch and/or balun making sure they are set to the desired HDMI input and lastly, power up the source. If the problem continues you will have to determine, by trial and error, which is the defective component. Start at the beginning. Connect the source to the display with a short HDMI cable to verify proper operation of each component. Then, continue adding products one-by-one until the failure occurs. This can be a lengthy process but by following it you will find the culprit.

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