av

Yamaha RX-V671 review: Excellent sound, 6 HDMI ins, but no AirPlay

The Yamaha RX-V671 covers the core functionality of an AV receiver well: it sounds great and has plenty of connectivity. Its six HDMI inputs will be enough for nearly every home theater, and one of those inputs is on the front panel, which is great for making a quick connection to a laptop or digital camera. Yamaha is also the only manufacturer that offers a colorful and responsive user interface, although the RX-V671's interface would still be considered archaic on any other home theater device.

Its main failing is the lack of AirPlay support, which we think is the … Read more

D-Link PowerLine Gigabit DHP-540 switch review: Best of both worlds

You're running out of ports for your network and you need to resort to a switch. Maybe it's a better idea to get one that also supports power-line networking. Like most computer devices, a switch will need to be plugged into the wall to work, after all.

If you find yourself with that thought, D-Link's new PowerLine AV 500 4-Port Gigabit Switch, model DHP-540, is exactly what you're looking for.

This is a compact four-port Gigabit switch just like any other switch that allows you to add three Ethernet-ready devices to your existing network using network … Read more

D-Link DHP-501AV review: Powerful power-line networking

If you can't live with the huge physical size of the Netgear XAV5501, there's now an alternative: D-Link's DHP-501AV PowerLine AV 500 Adapter Starter Kit (model HDP-501AV).

This kit includes two adapters, model DHP-500AV, which are based on the HomePlug Powerline Alliance's new Powerline AV 500 standard, the same standard that the XAV5501 is based on. The D-Link's DHP-500AV adapter, however, is much more compact, just about 40 percent the size of the Netgear.

The smaller size doesn't mean it's slow, and in our testing the kit showed superfast performance, significantly faster than … Read more

User-suggested features come to Panda Cloud AV

Significantly faster scanning speeds, advanced configuration options, better reporting tools and a spate of bug fixes arrive in Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.5, released yesterday by Panda Security.

Stating that many of the enhancements in the update were originally suggested by the program's users, Panda senior research adviser Pedro Bustamante said in a blog post that the changes made since version 1.4 tweak the program's interface and installation, as well as offer deeper improvements to performance and to the program's feature list.

The performance improvements ought to be noticeable quickly. These include faster scanning speeds and … Read more

Six reasons receivers shouldn't be media streamers

If you're looking to buy an AV receiver this year, one of the major step-up features you'll be tempted to pay for is built-in networking. All the receivers we're looking at in the $500 price range have an Ethernet port on the back and support for a variety of streaming-music features, such as Pandora, Rhapsody, Napster, Slacker, and Internet radio. As much as we're fans of those streaming-music services, we'd hesitate to recommend paying extra for getting them built-into a receiver, since AV receivers are our least favorite way to access them. Here's why.… Read more

Harman intros four new 2011 AV receivers

Most of the major AV receiver manufacturers have already announced and released their new 2011 line, but Harman Kardon is playing catch-up and rolled our four new midrange AV receivers yesterday. All of the details are already available on Harman's website (including excellent owner's manuals for each model) and we've broken down the most important features throughout the line.

Harman Kardon AVR 1565

Key features of the Harman Kardon AVR 1565:

5.1 AV receiver, 50 watts per channel Three HDMI 1.4a inputs 3D video pass-through and audio return channel Front panel USB port (for firmware updates only) Three digital audio inputs (two optical, one coaxial) Basic text on-screen display Logic 7 audio processing $400 list price; available now

Harman Kardon AVR 1650

… Read more

Onkyo TX-NR609 review: 6 HDMI ins, but no AirPlay

Onkyo has a reputation for delivering tons of features and high-end performance at a budget price, and in many ways the TX-NR609 fits the bill.

It's packed with six HDMI inputs (including a front-panel input), built-in networking (plus an optional Wi-Fi dongle for a very affordable $40), and more streaming-music services than even the Denon AVR-1912. Even better, the current street price is around $495, which is the cheapest we've seen a midrange receiver of this caliber.

But it's missing the one feature that many buyers will care about: AirPlay. We're definitely fans of Apple's … Read more

Denon AVR-1912 review: Editors' Choice AV receiver

The Denon AVR-1912 is the most complete midrange AV receiver we've seen in 2011 so far.

It's one of the only two receivers in its class (the other being the Pioneer VSX-1021-K) with built-in support for Apple's AirPlay, a feature that lets you use any iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad as a wireless music source. While the Pioneer has a nicer interface, the Denon outdoes it with slightly better sound quality, a sixth HDMI input, a two-year warranty, and onboard support for Pandora, Rhapsody, and Napster.

The Denon AVR-1912 is our go-to pick if someone asks, "… Read more

Western Digital announces 3TB drive for AV applications

After the WD Caviar Green, Western Digital announced today a new green hard drive that also offers up to 3TB of storage, the WD AV-GP.

The company says that the new drive is designed specifically for audio and video applications, such as DVRs, Media Center PCs, and surveillance systems; will deliver 24-7 reliability; and uses less power thanks to WD's GreenPower Technology. According to WD, the AV-GP drives have been field-tested to have a rated 1-million-hour mean time between failures.

The new WD AV-GP drive has a SATA interface and comes in 2.5TB and 3TB capacities. Note that … Read more