Author: Press Room
Generally speaking, if you don’t like a TV show from the first episode, watching further on faith that it might improve doesn’t make much sense. There are other shows to watch and other things to do. And yet, you’ll sometimes hear some TV snob insist that this or that show only gets good half a season in, or two seasons in, or whatever, and that it’s worth it to soldier on. This is one of those times. While I’m usually loathe to recommend someone sit through a few episodes of a show that isn’t entertaining them, there can be more…
You’ve probably noticed this at some point. A display looks incredibly bright and vibrant at a store, but once you bring it home, it somehow feels a bit dull and less impressive. It’s quite easy to assume that something’s wrong with your brand-new screen. In reality, it usually isn’t a hardware issue at all. Many monitors ship with certain settings enabled by default that affect how screen brightness and colors are handled. In a controlled store environment, these settings can make the screen look more eye-catching, but at home, they can have the opposite effect. The fix is often simple.…
Just because your TV has smart features built in, doesn’t mean you should use them. Smart TVs typically come with bloatware, advertisements, and unwanted tracking. They might feature slow Ethernet ports or outdated processors, too. All of these concerns are valid reasons to buy a dedicated streaming stick or box, like a Roku, Apple TV, or Google TV streamer, instead of sticking with your smart TV’s default operating system. On the flip side, if your smart TV’s interface is actually good, using it can save you the added cost and complexity of buying separate hardware. I’ve tried smart TVs running…
I spent quite a bit of time trying to make Google Maps work better on Android Auto. I experimented with different settings, adjusted navigation preferences, and hoped something would finally improve the experience. For context, I’m very much a self-aware passenger princess. That means I’m usually the one sitting beside the driver, casually watching the route, missing out on directions (sometimes), and occasionally pointing out when something looks odd on the map. In reality, it also means I notice every wrong turn, confusing lane suggestion, or oddly timed instruction. So, even from the passenger seat, it became pretty clear that…
There’s no shortage of fantastic sci-fi TV series out there, but not all of them are easily accessible. The Expanse is one of the best space epics ever made, but it’s cordoned off behind the Prime Video paywall. Andor is the boldest thing to come out of the Star Wars universe in decades, but you need a Disney+ subscription to see it. And then there’s Apple TV+, an underrated streaming service which specializes in great sci-fi shows. Basically, if you want to get people’s attention, it helps to be on a broadly popular platform like Netflix. Back in September of…
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters revolves around an organization that studies the biology and movements of giant monsters called Titans, the most famous of which are Godzilla and King Kong. The show is set in the same universe as the 2014 Godzilla movie as well as 2021’s Godzilla v. Kong and 2024’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. With a pedigree like that, you’d figure the Apple TV+ show would be a huge deal, but its first season went largely under the radar in 2023. Season 2 is airing now, and it’s proving that the show is worth another look. The…
War Machine dropped in early March to become the most popular movie on Netflix for several weeks running. It’s about an unnamed soldier played by Reacher’s Alan Ritchson training to become an Army Ranger. When he and his team are sent out on a final training exercise, they run into an alien craft that hunts and kills several of them, until only a few are left who can stop it. Combining a sci-fi movie with a war movie is an idea that’s been done many, many times before, because it works. If you enjoyed War Machine, you owe it to…
I’m always tweaking the settings on my smart TV to better suit my setup and the way I watch content. Over time, I’ve experimented with quite a few things. I replaced the default interface with a custom launcher to give the TV a cleaner, more organized home screen. I also turned off tracking features that monitor viewing habits and even switched to a browser that’s far more capable. After trying all these different changes, I realized something interesting. I had been focusing on small tweaks here and there, but I hadn’t really addressed one aspect of the viewing experience that…
Streaming services offer content at high resolutions and relatively low costs, making them appealing to casual movie and TV watchers. You might think that a 4K video stream is superior to a 1080p Blu-ray disc or an old DVD, but that isn’t always the case. In fact, the best Blu-ray 4K Ultra HD discs will always outperform seemingly comparable 4K streaming content, and there’s a technical reason for it. Resolutions, like 1080p or 4K, only provide a snapshot of visual quality. They demonstrate the potential visual quality of a piece of content, not the actual visual quality. Resolution is a…
Dolby Atmos is a surround sound audio format that brought spatial audio mainstream. Rather than invest in an expensive surround sound speaker system, users can now experience spatial audio in Dolby Atmos with many of the earbuds and headphones they already own. Dolby Atmos is available for music, TV shows, and movies, and it creates an immersive and three-dimensional listening experience. The mastering process for Atmos content is object-based with a focus on spatial height, so you can really feel where sounds are coming from in a song, show, or movie. It’s rather easy to use Dolby Atmos with mobile…