Shane Buettner

Sony did show the successor to the wildy popular Pearl projector, the VPL-VW60 (now, sub-$5K), which as you can see is a classy charcoal gray. Sony is claiming further improvements in its SXRD chips have yielded significant contrast ration gains, the the image overall is brighter, and the blacks are still fantastic with the latest version of its auto iris technology.

• $2,499
• 50" three-chip SXRD
• 1920x1080
• Key Connections: Dual HDMI and component inputs, one VGA computer input

Features We Like Full three-chip design with native 1080p resolution, dynamic iris for deep blacks, WEGA Engine video processing with DRC

Sony’s gaming console still the Blu-ray player to beat.

[Update: The best just keeps getting better. Sony has announced at long last that a firmware update available April 15th will allow the mighty PS3 to decode lossless DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD High Resolution, a lossy, higher bitrate version of its codec. This was the last technological hurdle for Sony's mighty gaming console. For those with HDMI switching and an AVR or pre-pro that can process multichannel PCM the PS3 is unequivocally the Blu-ray player to beat. It's not only the fastest and most reliable BD player, it's the cheapest and most advanced. Look to this space for an update to this review once I've had a chance to experience DTS-HD MA and BD-Live. -SCB]

• $2,000
• 170-Watts x 7 into 8 ohms
• Processing Modes: DD, DD-EX, ProLogicIIx, Dolby Virtual Speaker, Dolby Headphone, DTS, DTS-ES/Discrete/Matrix/Neo: 6, DTS 24/96

Features We Like: HDMI, component and i.LINK switching, transcoding of analog video to HDMI, Direct Drive Digital Amps, three coaxial and five toslink digital audio inputs, multichannel analog inputs, preamp outputs, amplifier channels can be relocated to power separate zones, multi-source/multi-zone