Admit it.  You want it.  No, you need it.  You need the latest and greatest gadgets and Home Theater magic.  And you need it now.

You are in luck because there is a veritable avalanche of new technology and advances in sight and sound.  The Industry keeps pushing the boundaries of what is possible, amazing even the most jaded enthusiast and Home Theater fanatic.

And we are talking about people of all stripes from all walks of life; from college students to blue haired grammas.  Everyone wants to enjoy the latest in home entertainment excitement.

It can all be summed up in one label; Home Entertainment.  The convergence of movies, music, gaming, web browsing, cloud based media storage, security, home environmental controls, video conferencing and more is upon us, and best of all, accessible from your Iphone, Ipad or plain old PC.

Increasingly, all of these disparate systems are now being combined into one, eliminating redundancy, complexity and cost while increasing access and ease of use.

The most ambitious of us will design a system with all these features and more from the start.  Most of us will take smaller bites, or bytes as the case may be, and build a basic system that can be expanded in phases.

Let’s look at some of the best and most recent advances:

3D video has to be at the top of the list again this year.  And this is not your father’s 3D.  Gone are the flimsy paper red and green glasses and terrible video.  No wonder it never caught on.  Our own in-house survey shows that about 85% of people viewing a modern 3D video for the first time will utter; “Oh Wow” or something similar.  Use your imagination.  The 3 dimensionality rivals or surpasses anything you have seen at Disney World.  It is “reach out and touch me” real.  The glasses are sturdy plastic devices powered by small rechargeable batteries that communicate with your new High Definition television or projector.

More and more movies are being released in 3D format, as well as sporting events, NASCAR and  special events.

Bigger is better, because in Home Theater, size does matter.  It is hard to believe that a few short years ago a 37” television was a biggie.  Now most bedrooms sport second televisions that are 42” and larger.  The price has gone down while what you get for your money has gone up each year.  Manufacturers now offer plasmas and LED’s for 65 inches and bigger.  Rear projection DLP HD televisions offering THX quality boast 80 or 90 inches; truly spectacular.

The limiting factor for most people today is not cost, but the size of the room!

And don't look now, or may you should, but the numbers will be changing again.   1080p, once thought to be the "be all end all" in video resolution, may be yesterday's news.  Ultra High Definition TV, or UHDTV, is on the horizon.  At 16 times the resolution of HDTV it will be another quantum leap; but don't sit up waiting.  Although prototypes are running in labs, it is still 4 to 6 years away, so the experts say.  Isn't capitalism great?

The I Generation is upon us.  Ipad’s, Iphones, Ipods can connect to and control many new Home Entertainment systems.  And you can do this from across the room or across the country depending on your setup.  The genie in these magic lamps can access music, videos and games from your personal collection or from the many portals on the web offering for a fee or free content. 

Itunes, Pandora, Rhapsody, Media Hive, Netflix, Zulu and Hulu and others usher in a whole new volcabulary of web based movies, television and music that can be incorporated into your system.

Don’t want to store all those DVD’s, Blurays, and CD’s?  No problem.  Media Servers offer a “load it once” option and can hold terra bytes of your favorite videos and music, which can be played anywhere in the home.  Not simple enough?  No problem.  Utilize one of the “cloud based” storage services and all your content can be stored and backed up safely on the internet for a small fee.  You can access it as simply as selecting an icon on your Ipad and send it to your High Def tv or laptop.

The age of the silver disc is fading. Its last great hurrah, and it is great, is the Bluray.  Offering unprecedented resolution, quality and quantity, many old and new releases now can fit on a single disc and offer superb audio and video quality.  Anyone can afford this quality in Bluray players that start under $100.

And speaking of audio, listen to this.  Whether the sweet sound of a single violin is your style or the shake rattle and roll of the latest action movie sound track, audio reproduction has never been better or more affordable.  Speakers can be a big as a refridgerator or invisible; floor standing, book shelf on the wall or in the wall.  The choice is yours.

So if your sound and vision is lousy, and it really can be, check out the latest and greatest from the area leader in Home Entertainment, Audio Visions.