Phase 1: The first order of business was to clear out the old TV, AV gear, and shelving to make way for a more streamlined AV cabinet.
Phase 2: The next step was to place the Polk speakers and subwoofer in the cabinet for a compact, but well balanced system. The cabinet also provides clean cable management for the speaker wire and cables.
Phase 3:Following the speakers placement, we placed the Wii game console, Denon turntable, Sony Blu-ray player and Comcast HD cable box in the cabinet for an easy connection to the receiver.
Phase 4: After all the cables were fished through the cabinet we wired them up to an Integra surround sound receiver.
Phase 5: The Samsung Plasma HDTV was then installed and the Wii motion sensor was mounted on top of the display.
Phase 6: The final step was to mount the acoustically transparent panel doors onto the cabinet for a clean finish. The Universal Remote was then reprogrammed for simple operation, then the audio system and TV were calibrated for optimal performance.
Final result is a cleanly designed, robust and reliable, easy to use media system that fits into the room’s décor.
Avatar proved to be the highest-grossing motion picture release of all time, and when the initial Blu-ray Disc home release of Avatar went on sale yesterday, it came as no surprise that the blockbuster hit 
This week’s frigid temperatures around the Bay Area were reminder enough that the holiday season is upon us, and 2010 is just around the corner! We’re seeing lots of “products of the year” lists being published this time of year, but of particular interest to us here at SoundVision was the 2009 Top Products List published by the editors at 
Perhaps one of the questions we hear most frequently from our customers has to do with the various aspect ratios that are currently floating around in the television world. Widescreen, 16:9, 4:3, 1.33:1 – these are just a few of the various ratios that denote the difference between various screen aspects. That being said, there are three aspect ratios that we typically deal with on a daily basis here at SoundVision. Here’s a little bit of information about each one.
Standard Definition – Also known as “four by three,” 4:3 or 1.33:1, this is the aspect ratio that was with television from the beginning. It’s what most of us are used to seeing when we see those old, large and heavy cathode-ray tube (CRT) televisions and monitors. It’s nearly impossible to find these TVs in stores anymore, as they’ve been largely rendered obsolete by the advance of much lighter and more energy efficient flat-panel plasma and LCD display technologies. Typically, programs produced in widescreen or movies in their original aspect ratios are severely letterboxed (black bars on top and bottom) when viewed on a 4:3 TV.
High Definition - Typically known as “widescreen TV,” high definition content is usually (but not always) distributed in a 16:9 aspect ratio and viewed on a matching widescreen TV. Nearly all television programs produced within the last five years are shot in a 16:9 high definition format. Widescreen TVs are also great for viewing movies in their original aspect ratios, as minimal letterboxing occurs. These TVs come in either the plasma or LCD varieties in a range of resolutions. 16:9 TVs display older content produced in a 4:3 ratio by surrounding the narrower image with black or gray sidebars. Alternatively, you can set your TV to either stretch the image to fill the screen, or zoom it to crop off the top and bottom of the image. For more information on that, check out our past TechNotes post all about