Sound Advice: Frame this gift idea for music, home theater lovers
Published in Tech Advice
Samsung Music Frame: Samsung has seen great success with their Frame TVs, which display your own or Samsung-provided art when not in use as a television. The effect is quite convincing, especially with the included flat wall mount and single thin cable that runs to the television. I have recommended them to friends and they have been very enthusiastic about their TVs. It is a different kind of Samsung frame product I will be highlighting this week, a brilliant concept with much to offer to both music and home theater lovers.
Samsung’s Music Frame Smart Speaker is a box frame about the size of a vinyl LP jacket that holds printed artwork supplied by the owner. It is also a three-way stereo speaker with Dolby Atmos music and sound. Connect your portable device via Wi-FI or Bluetooth to play music, and you can use two of them together as a stereo pair. When I first saw it demonstrated I thought of how cool it would be to have a pair of Music Frames, each displaying a different favorite album, as an unobtrusive music system for a bedroom or office. And what a great gift for your significant other it would be. Frame a picture of the two of you together, and when you give it to them you use it to play your song!
Speaking of couples, a regular email I receive is from someone who wants to set up surround sound but their other half does not want more speakers in the room. The Music Frame offers a way to keep everyone happy, which leads me to think Samsung has dealt with this question as well. The Music Frame functions as a surround speaker with 2024 Samsung televisions and soundbars with Q-Symphony. Put your TV and soundbar on one end of the room and a paired Music Frame at the other for full surround sound. You can also put a Music Frame on either side of your TV to serve as a sound system. My own living room Samsung TV and soundbar are from 2019 so I can’t connect them to the Music Frame, but when I upgrade the thought of getting rid of two stands and the surround speakers attached to them is very appealing, even to a hardcore home theater fan like myself. samsung.com
Q. I was greatly saddened when I found out Best Buy does not sell movies in-store any longer. Do you think they will bring them back, and where else can I go to buy Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray movies?
—L.R., Castle Shannon, Pennsylvania
A. I am not privy to their marketing plans but like you I hope they bring them back, at least around the holiday season. Going to Best Buy the day after Thanksgiving for the Blu-ray movie deals had become a regular ritual for me and my dad, and when I went I spent quite a bit not only on the movies but on other enticing things I found as I went through the store.
Retailers will vary by region, but on a national scale Target keeps a decent inventory of Blu-rays on hand, though they lack some of the quirky and offbeat titles you could once find at Best Buy. Amazon is an obvious online choice and you can find almost anything there. Shout Factory (shoutfactory.com) has an excellent catalog of titles including many cult classics, as does Kino Lorber (kinolorber.com). Orbit DVD (orbitdvd.com) is well-loved by film buffs and I have had good luck there as well. Finally, don’t forget about used media retailers like Half Price Books (www.hpb.com).
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