General and Practical Rules Of Screen Size
The original rules of thumb on screen size were concocted during the era of CRTs and scan lines and have been massaged somewhat since, and will be massaged further in this era of 1080p.
Processing Modes: DD, DD-EX, ProLogicIIx, Dolby Virtual Speaker, Dolby Headphone, DTS, DTS-ES/Discrete/Matrix/Neo: 6, DTS 24/96, Windows Media Audio
Features We Like: THX Select2-Certified, HDMI 1.1 and i.LINK switching, MCACC auto calibration and room EQ, component video switching, transcoding of analog video to HDMI with upconversion to 720p or 1080i by Faroudja, two coaxial and five toslink optical digital audio inputs, one 7.1-channel analog audio input, 7.1-channel preamp outs, USB, XM and iPod compatible, AV sync delay, multi-source/multi-zone
I'm tempted to leave this Blog with only that one word: wow. Words are hard to come by. I've been doing this for some time now, and I can't recall the last time I was entranced in a demo, sitting forward in my seat, jaw agape. Pioneer's Extreme Contrast "Concept" plasma display demo was this and more. This might be the biggest potential sea change I've seen in any product category in my years in this industry.
L/R/LS/RS: magnetically shielded monitor with one 3-1/16" cone
Center: magnetically shielded monitor with one 3-1/16" cone
Subwoofer/receiver: 100-Watt powered sub with one 6-5/16" woofer
Features We Like: Six channels of digital amplification rated at 100-Watts per, built-in Dolby and DTS decoding, MCACC auto calibration and room EQ, Sound Retriever for improving audio quality of compressed sound formats, Xbox 360 compatible remote
Pioneer nearly swept <I>UAV's</I> version of the Oscars this year taking home the trophies for the top flat panel display of the year, and winning our overall Product of the Year with the Elite PRO-FHD1 1080p plasma.
Editor Guy Disclaimer: Our web monkey hates stock photos at trade shows, so in my defense here I'll merely state that you need to know about this right away, no product was shown at the press conference, and the lighting conditions were hideous. I have pictures, and they're horrible.
The Blu-ray Association’s CES press conference featured numerous pieces of fascinating information and significant new title announcements that I’ll comment on in subsequent Blogs, but perhaps none carries as much weight as Disney’s announcement that Pixar’s <I>Cars</I> and both <I>Pirates of the Caribbean</I> films will be released by Summer ‘07.
Talk about a win-win. Not only is the BBC's <I>Planet Earth</I> series spectacular hi-def eye candy, it's so well-made and narratively compelling that it holds up to an insane number of repeated viewings. And I should know- my two-year old son has us watching several of these episodes (especially <I>Shallow Seas</I> and <I> Ocean Deep</I>) several times a week.