home theater

Holiday Gift Idea: 125th Anniversary Cretors Popcorn Machine

Filed under: Gadgets

A great holiday gift for a family with a home theater is the Cretors Anniversary Machine. The C. Cretors and Company has created a limited edition re-creation of an antique popcorn popper that celebrates the company's recent 125th anniversary. The collector's edition available to the public for a limited time only and one of the poppers was already sent to the White House for the First Family's White House Theater.

Push the button and the stainless steel kettle heats, pops a batch of corn and then shuts itself off. The vintage-styled red-and-black machine has elegantly turned legs and steam flows out of the scrolled top for that delicious popcorn smell. The retro design features Cretors' Tosty Rosty Clown, making his first appearance in more than 75 years. The little clown was originally designed to attract customers at the turn of the 20th century, this little handmade clown continually bows as he diligently cranks the stirrer blade of the kettle. The Booster Boy poster on the machine is a design from a poster used in the 1920 and 1930s to illustrate the "profit boosters" of selling popcorn. It sells for $1,885.

Tags: holiday gift idea, holiday gift ideas, home theater, popcorn machine

JVC Wireless Soundbar Provides All of the Sound, None of the Cables

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Men's Style

Things you do love: home theater systems, 5.1 surround sound, megawatt amplifiers, multiple Dolby signal processors, and most of all, simplicity. Things you don't love: acres of exposed cables and the sound of installers drilling holes in your walls. The latest JVC soundbar gives you what you love, not what you don't.

The 3-foot-long, 5-inch high TH-BA3 ($549) brings together a 280-watt amplifier and six speakers. It is the world's first dual wireless system, in that it is supported by a subwoofer and set of rear speakers and zaps the signals to each without any wiring. Dolby Digital, DTS and Dolby ProLogic II are supported, and there are two digital optical inputs and one analog in case your Nilsson Schmilsson 8-track still has some good years left in it.

If you must have something even sleeker and you're willing to submit to 4.1 surround, the JVC TH-BS7 ($599) wireless soundbar is broken up into a thinner speaker a practically wafer-thin, 180-watt amplifier. True, it isn't 7.1 surround, but it is peace of mind for the OCD in you.

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Tags: audio, electronics, home theater, HomeTheater, jvc, jvc soundbar, JvcSoundbar, soundbar, stereo, surround sound, SurroundSound

Luxury Home Theaters For Private Jets

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

For those who still have private aircraft, the options for improved audio/video performance keeps getting better. A company called Skytheater in Fort Lauderdale, Florida does for planes what home theater outfits do for houses. They put a high tech cinema experience on a plane including acoustical considerations, user-friendly operation and optimum performance. SkyTheater uses Richard Gray's Power Company's ClearSky, an A/V power management solution designed for private aircraft to improve onboard A/V performance. The product can be installed on aircraft as part of a complete Skytheater system.

The performance of high-end audio/visual system can suffer because an aircraft's power supply is not designed to feed sensitive and demanding A/V equipment. The RGPC ClearSky product offers surge protection and removes "noise" from the system that can negatively impact audio and video for a richer A/V experience.

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Tags: audio, clearsky, home theater, HomeTheater, private plane, PrivatePlane, skytheater, visual

American Leather Home Theater Furniture

by Lisa Palladino (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor

In mid-July, we highlighted the Epson Ensemble HD Home Cinema System. Now we found great seats to furnish your home theater, from American Leather. Offered in five styles, several colors and with either a powered or manual incliner, the Holden seat, for example, shown in the photo, features extra-tall back cushions; premium, high-density, high-resiliency foam; loose back and seat cushions; double-jowled joints; hardwood frames; double-needle top stitching; and a lifetime warranty. Options include stainless steel cup holders; black, natural or walnut legs; and a manual incliner without articulating headrest. Prices vary; find a dealer near you, and check out the gallery for the variety of styles.

Gallery: American Leather Home Theater Furniture

Tags: American Leather, AmericanLeather, cinema, decor, furniture, home, home theater, HomeTheater, leather, leather furniture, LeatherFurniture, movies

Epson Ensemble HD Home Cinema System

by Lisa Palladino (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Gadgets

With "staycations" becoming popular in this tough economy, you might opt to stay in more often and watch a good movie. But as a Luxist reader, you know that we don't mean using on-demand ... instead, we bring you the cool new Epson Ensemble HD Home Cinema System, via Uncrate. Priced from $5,000 - $7,000, this real home theater in a box includes a 100-inch motorized screen, an Epson PowerLite 3LCD projector with either 720p or 1080p resolution, an Atlantic Technology speaker system with a 150-watt sub, an A/V controller with HDMI handling and an upconverting DVD player and a universal remote. This PDF tells you all you need to know, or go here.

Tags: epson, HD, hdtv, home cinema, home theater, HomeCinema, HomeTheater, movies

The Pirates of the Caribbean Home Theater

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Gadgets

For the dedicated fan, a home theater can be more than a place to watch movies and play games, it can be a shrine to your favorite movie. We've seen this before in the case of theaters dedicated to Batman and the Titanic, now check out the Pirates of the Caribbean theater created for Paul and Emily Konold. Rachel Cericola over at the Electronic House found this gem which is decorated with scenes from the ride as well as the movie and pieces that were bought from Disney directly or built by hand. The murals were done by a 13-year-old artist Caden Jones who painted the arches in the theater.

The room has a 16:9 screen wit ha custom masking system to make the setup 2.35:1 so it is able to accommodate both movies and sporting events. The lobby is known as Laffite's Landing, which is part of the original theme park attraction and has wood plank floors, whiskey barrels, and gold and there is a bar at the back of the theater with treasure maps and gold under the glass tabletop. The total cost of the project was $30,000, Electronics House has a complete slideshow with additional details.

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Tags: decor-awards, home theater, HomeTheater, pirates of the caribbean

Elite Home Theater Seating Batman Cave Theater

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor

From the same folks who brought us the Cuddle Couch home theater seat comes the Batman "Bat Cave" themed theater. I've highlighted a Batman-themed theater before which was custom done for a client. This one comes from Elite Home Theater Seating and is designed to be the ultimate place for both viewing movies and gaming. Elite Home Theater Seating specializes in custom seats which can be customized with a variety of different layouts. This theater reportedly cost $500,000 for the layout and seating alone, the equipment will cost you even more.

[Thanks, Rowan]

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Tags: batman, decor, gaming, home theater, movies

Goldmund Introdues High-End Blu-ray Player

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Gadgets

Now that the HD DVD/Blu-ray battle seems to be over with Blu-ray declared the winner, investing in a high-end Blu-ray player isn't a foolish endeavor. Goldmund, the high-end AV manufacturer that created the amazing home theater I toured last October, has come out with the Eidos 20 BD, a Blu-ray player that offers an "AC-Curator" power supply circuit which dramatically improves picture and sound stability and dynamics, "Mechanical Grounding" construction which removes from the player mechanism spurious vibrations blurring the video signal and increasing jitter and "Magnetic Damper" a device lowering reading errors. The Eidos 20 BD is priced at $16,900.

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Tags: blu-ray, gadgets, goldmund, home theater, video

Elite Home Theater Seating Cuddle Couch

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor

One of the benefits of having your own home theater is that you don't have to follow the rules of being out at the cinema. You can talk, use your cellphone, bring in all sorts of snacks and rest your feet on the chair in front if you prefer. But for the most part you can't quite sprawl out or cozy up like you can in the living room because of the restrictions of home theater chairs. Elite Theater has solved that problem with a home theater seat called the cuddle couch. The two-seater couch has a cupholder on either side and comfortable pillows. It is available in fabric or leather and starts at $2495.

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Tags: couch, decor-awards, elite theater, home theater, lounge

Salamander Design Jump Seat Ottoman

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor

Most home theaters have a set number of seats and if you have extra people over you have to drag in chairs from elsewhere or hit the floor with pillows. Salamander Designs has created a new solution, a new Jump Seat Ottoman that will be debuted at the 2008 CES in Las Vegas. The Jump Seat Ottoman opens to reveal a hide-away theater seat that can be used as an extra seat for watching movies or playing video games. The seat is padded for comfort and even has a cup holder and room for a game control. It comes in a variety of different colors and fabrics.

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Tags: furniture, home theater, ottoman, seat, theater

Paradigm Sound Systems

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Gadgets

Audio systems maker Paradigm has created a new line of speakers designed to work with your flatscreen TV. There are four separate systems designed for different applications.

The first is the Paradigm Vista system, a strictly a speaker set-up including Paradigm's new Millenia S1, C1 and ADP1 loudspeakers. It has front and rear speakers which are designed for bookshelf mounting but can be also be used with floorstands. It sells for $5,100

The Paradigm Impact system is a slim floorstanding system designed for places where space is at a premium. It sells for $11,400.

The Paradigm Prestige system uses Paradigm's Studio Series speakers with Anthem Statement amplification and AV processing. The system is designed for high-end sound but is also compact enough to sit on a bookshelf. It sells for $19,800.

The top-of-the-line system is the Paradigm Elitist, the ultimate Paradigm entertainment system that uses a preamplifier/processor combination from the Anthem Statement Seriesd with Paradigm's Seismic 12 subwoofer and floorstanding Studio Series loudspeakers for deep bass, low distortion and exceptional definition. It sells for $23,600.

Gallery: Paradigm Speaker Systems

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Tags: audio, home theater, paradigm, speakers, stero

A Video Tour of the Goldmund Media House

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Gadgets

I recently posted about the Goldmund Media Room, a high-end custom design for a home theater system. The folks at Goldmund were kind enough to invite me out to check out the system in action. They have tricked out a luxury home inside a gated community in Tarazana, CA with several different sound systems including the lavish home theater room. It doesn't look as large as it does in the pictures but it really is a very impressive system.

Tags: audio, goldmund, home theater, HomeTheater, media room, stereo

The Goldmund Media Room

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Gadgets

If you could have your ideal home theater what would it be like? The Goldmund Media Room would be pretty much the ideal for most people. We've seen some lavish set-ups before but this one is truly amazing. The Goldmund installers use an acoustic modeling program named Proteus to create the perfect design for your room. They custom build all the media room audio and video components including up to 128 speakers with an amplifier for each speaker and a central processing controller. The installations start at $300,000 which doesn't include the decor and furnishings (those amazing coffered ceilings with inset lights do not come cheap). Live the fantasy in the gallery pics below.

Gallery: Goldmund Media Room

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Tags: goldmund, goldmund media room, GoldmundMediaRoom, home theater, media room

The Planets Speakers

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Gadgets

These days the rules of speakers are simple, they have to sound great and have really cool looks. The Duevel Planets are omni-directional speakers topped by a pair of chrome "planets," one over the woofer, the other over the tweeter. The company that sells them, Urban Fidelity, is on a mission to get people not to buy plastic speakers. The speakers can also be used as part of a home theater system. They have received a variety of good reviews including a rave from Sonic Flare. They come in silver, red or black for $1295 or blue, green, or gunmetal for $1395.

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Tags: audio, dueval planets, home theater, sound, speakers, the planets, ThePlanets, urban fidelity

Niro 620 Home Theater System

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Gadgets

I'm really into having great surround sound for my home movies, but I just don't have the time to get all technical and read up on what's the best, what's a rip-off, etc. But in reading this post over at Spungle I'm thinking I want me a Niro 620 Home Theater System -- if it's only half as good as they say I'd be more than happy. If you're like me (the type that really gets into movies with awesome sound effects and music tracks) then you know that the entire viewing experience can be made or broken by the quality of your sound system. The Niro 620 sounds like it's one of the best, of not the best, and it's priced reasonably at $995.

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Tags: home theater, home theatre, HomeTheater, HomeTheatre, niro, niro 620, Niro620, sound, speaker, speakers, sub, subwoofer, surround, surround sound, SurroundSound