Bit by bit, 3D TV is growing in the market with 3D sports programming, dedicated  3D channels and, of course, Blu-Ray.  It wasn't all that long ago that some speculated whether or not 3D would take off or that it was nothing more than a novelty.

Yet now, more and more movies are being released to theaters in 3D particularly the action-adventure and animation genres.  As a result, the number of Blu-ray titles now available in 3D is growing rapidly.

Then there's the phenomenon of re-releasing movie maintstays remastered in 3D; movies such as "Titanic," "The Phantom Menace" of the Star Wars trilogy and "Beauty and the Beast."  It all started with the re-release of "The Lion King" in 3D which enjoyed eye-popping success.  Disney has since announced it will be re-releasing "Finding Nemo," "Monsters, Inc." and "The Little Mermaid" over the next two years.  Meanwhile "Avatar" in 3D is no longer the exclusive product of Panasonic which bundled it with their Blu-ray player.  It is now available in the mass market.

In terms of broadcasting, ESPN has produced more than 190 3D events since it launched ESPN 3D in June 2010.  Imagine watching The Masters next month in glorious 3D HD clarity.  And speaking of broadcasts, DirecTV now has 5 channels dedicated to airing 3D programming.

In addition to that is 3D gaming using peripherals like the PS3--offering a whole new dynamic to "being there."  While the gaming format can get pricy, reviewers who have delved into it proclaim them well worth the money.  For gaming devotees, they say, 3D is the way to go.

The newest technology in TVs is clearly 4K...no pun intended!  That's because 4K (aka Ultra HD) is simply HD quality at twice the number of pixels both horizontally AND vertically.  So 4K is HD resolution multiplied times four!  Put another way, 4K compresses four times the pixels in the same amount of space that Hi Def does.

Why is that important?  Well, if you prefer smaller screens and have a smaller room where you watch TV, its not important, quite frankly.  But the clear trend is people buying ever larger TVs.

Some TVs might feel like jumbotrons in an ordinary room!  But that kind of size is what it takes to have a great media room or home theater experience.  The problem is when the same number of HD pixels are stretched over  increasingly larger formats, the appearance can become ever so slightly grainier.  4K solves that!  There's also 8K out there that doubles resolution yet again to near IMAX clarity, but that's another story.

Like any newly released technology, most media content isn't yet formatted for that resolution, but the content IS already out there.  Blu-rays are already capable of 4K content but nearly all agree the future of the 4K advancement is in streaming video.  Netflix, which already shoots its successful original series, House of Cards, in 4K recently offered that it plans to deliver 4K content within the next two years.  Sony already has a big investment in 4K by way of the cameras they sell to the movie and television industries and the projectors they produce for theaters.

So 4K is not a fad, but neither is it for everyone right now.  Still, when you consider "upsizing" your video experience, you will definitely want to keep 4K as a strong contender in your plans.

If you are a sports fan, having a tiling feature on your TV is truly the ultimate way to watch.  Tiling means you can send multiple video signals to a single TV.  Imagine picture in picture on steroids.  Now, Savant offers 4, 6, and 9 source versions with the release of their SmartView Tiling.  For most sports fans, I'm sure the 4 is plenty.

OK, so you’ve got your big projection or flat panel TV.  Think how cool it would be to see one big picture with 3 smaller pictures off to the side!

Yes, you might have seen that before, BUT…with the Savant app, you just touch the screen icons on your iPad.  Up pop the sources and you can choose which source goes where.  Then, if you want, you can just double tap any of them and it will fill the screen.  Or, slide a small icon to the large one and everything flips.  But the coolest part of all is tracking which video source you are listening to.  The current one playing has a little speaker icon on it. All you do is slide that across to another screen and the sound flips!  That is just so slick!  Check out a demo here on this quick video.

With SmartView Tiling, Savant is just pulling way out in front of the pack in making it simple and fun to put the best technology at your fingertips.

If you don't want to miss any of the action in America's stadiums,  fairways, courts or tracks, call us!  We can bring it all home to you!