When television came along, movie moguls fought back by making wide-screen films and standardizing color productions, easily besting what could be viewed on a small black-and-white TV. The advantage in picture quality, along with advances in theater audio, kept Hollywood viable. Until now.
Last month Vizio announced it would roll out an affordable line of 4K TVs — sets with four times the pixels of now-standard 1080p HDTVs. And by affordable, I mean $1,000 for a 50-inch model. One week later, Netflix and Weinstein Co. announced that their first original film for Netflix, a sequel to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” will be released in August simultaneously on Netflix and in some Imax theaters — but not in other theaters.
Although there was no mention of it in the press release, don't be surprised if Netflix offers the movie in 4K. It's already using the “Ultra HD” format for some original programs, including “House of Cards.”
Getting to the point, 4K TV essentially eliminates the picture-quality advantage that movies have enjoyed for all these years. True, 4K content, either streaming or on a DVD, is compressed, but trust me, a 4K movie viewed on a 4K TV looks just as good as it would in a theater. And, by the way, within a very short time, every big-budget movie will be shot in 4K.
Big-screen HDTVs already are hurting the film industry: Hollywood is having a terrible summer at the box office, and could end up selling fewer tickets in 2014 than it has in almost 20 years. With the advent of affordable 4K TV, the traditional movie-going experience increasingly will be enjoyed in living rooms rather than theaters.
Q: I sometimes need to scan documents, but I don’t have a scanner (or an all-in-one printer with scanning capability). Is it possible to use a smartphone as an ad hoc scanner?
A: Indeed it is. Smartphone cameras are so good nowadays that they can generate images comparable to what you would get with a regular scanner. All you need is a good scanning app, and both Apple’s iTunes and the Google Play store are replete with them. Most scanning apps can save images as Jpegs or PDFs, and you can even get an app with OCR (optical character recognition), which makes scanned documents editable.
Q: Since I moved my TV to a different room in my house (farther from my router), I'm having trouble getting a consistent signal for streaming movies. Would it be better to update my Wireless N router to a Wireless AC model, or could I solve the problem with a wireless range extender?
A: For Web browsing, e-mail, and other Internet stuff that doesn't demand a lot of bandwidth, a basic, 2.4-GHz range extender can work fine. But streaming video is best served over the 5-GHz frequency. For that, you need a dual-band Wireless N router (2.4 and 5 GHz), or a Wireless AC router, which works only on 5 GHz.
If your current router is a dual-band model, you can get a dual-band range extender to increase the 5-GHz signal strength at your TV. But my experience is that range extenders don’t convey 5-GHz signals all that well. I think you’d be better off with a good Wireless AC router instead. I say “good” because some routers are better than others. Check online reviews before buying one.
Q: We recently purchased a motor home for traveling, possibly as far north as British Columbia and Alaska for several months at a time. Which wireless phone carrier works best in those places?
A: When it comes to mobile-phone service, Canada and Alaska are two different animals. In Alaska, which of course is part of the United States, you can use either AT&T or Verizon. AT&T got into Alaska first and has better coverage, but both carriers cover the big cities — Anchorage and Fairbanks.
Canada, on the other hand, isn’t served directly by U.S. carriers. Just as elsewhere around the world, Canada is predominantly GSM, so most phones from AT&T and T-Mobile (which use the GSM wireless protocol) will work in Canada. Sprint and Verizon phones with SIM card slots also can work with prepaid Canadian SIM cards.
Last month Vizio announced it would roll out an affordable line of 4K TVs — sets with four times the pixels of now-standard 1080p HDTVs. And by affordable, I mean $1,000 for a 50-inch model. One week later, Netflix and Weinstein Co. announced that their first original film for Netflix, a sequel to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” will be released in August simultaneously on Netflix and in some Imax theaters — but not in other theaters.
Although there was no mention of it in the press release, don't be surprised if Netflix offers the movie in 4K. It's already using the “Ultra HD” format for some original programs, including “House of Cards.”
Getting to the point, 4K TV essentially eliminates the picture-quality advantage that movies have enjoyed for all these years. True, 4K content, either streaming or on a DVD, is compressed, but trust me, a 4K movie viewed on a 4K TV looks just as good as it would in a theater. And, by the way, within a very short time, every big-budget movie will be shot in 4K.
Big-screen HDTVs already are hurting the film industry: Hollywood is having a terrible summer at the box office, and could end up selling fewer tickets in 2014 than it has in almost 20 years. With the advent of affordable 4K TV, the traditional movie-going experience increasingly will be enjoyed in living rooms rather than theaters.
Q: I sometimes need to scan documents, but I don’t have a scanner (or an all-in-one printer with scanning capability). Is it possible to use a smartphone as an ad hoc scanner?
A: Indeed it is. Smartphone cameras are so good nowadays that they can generate images comparable to what you would get with a regular scanner. All you need is a good scanning app, and both Apple’s iTunes and the Google Play store are replete with them. Most scanning apps can save images as Jpegs or PDFs, and you can even get an app with OCR (optical character recognition), which makes scanned documents editable.
Q: Since I moved my TV to a different room in my house (farther from my router), I'm having trouble getting a consistent signal for streaming movies. Would it be better to update my Wireless N router to a Wireless AC model, or could I solve the problem with a wireless range extender?
A: For Web browsing, e-mail, and other Internet stuff that doesn't demand a lot of bandwidth, a basic, 2.4-GHz range extender can work fine. But streaming video is best served over the 5-GHz frequency. For that, you need a dual-band Wireless N router (2.4 and 5 GHz), or a Wireless AC router, which works only on 5 GHz.
If your current router is a dual-band model, you can get a dual-band range extender to increase the 5-GHz signal strength at your TV. But my experience is that range extenders don’t convey 5-GHz signals all that well. I think you’d be better off with a good Wireless AC router instead. I say “good” because some routers are better than others. Check online reviews before buying one.
Q: We recently purchased a motor home for traveling, possibly as far north as British Columbia and Alaska for several months at a time. Which wireless phone carrier works best in those places?
A: When it comes to mobile-phone service, Canada and Alaska are two different animals. In Alaska, which of course is part of the United States, you can use either AT&T or Verizon. AT&T got into Alaska first and has better coverage, but both carriers cover the big cities — Anchorage and Fairbanks.
Canada, on the other hand, isn’t served directly by U.S. carriers. Just as elsewhere around the world, Canada is predominantly GSM, so most phones from AT&T and T-Mobile (which use the GSM wireless protocol) will work in Canada. Sprint and Verizon phones with SIM card slots also can work with prepaid Canadian SIM cards.
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