LATEST ADDITIONS

Harman Kardon Has Quite a Package
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 09, 2007
HK's CP 55 home theater package consists of the AVR 146 receiver ($349 when bought separately) with the DVD 38 player and a lovely 5.1-channel sat/sub set in gloss black. The price is $1199 and it's shipping soon. Definitely a contender.
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Happy Birthday, Elvis!
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 09, 2007
You are still loved.
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Infinity's in a Classia by Itself
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 09, 2007
Replacing the value-oriented Beta Series, Infinity's new Classia Series starts with the C336 tower ($899/pair) with three six-inch woofers, a 3.5-inch midrange, and one-inch tweeter, all in the company's composite aluminum/ceramic CMD material. There's also a C225 center ($499), C205 bookshelf ($329/pair), C255BS dipole ($499/pair), and 12-inch PS-12 sub ($799). The classily shaped MDF cabinet looks like the extruded aluminum in the higher-end Cascade Series. Fed a brassy big band, the system showed off its extended treble and overall naturalness. In development: a wireless sub!
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New Panasonic Plasmas
 |  Jan 09, 2007

Panasonic has an entirely new lineup of plasmas scheduled for mid-year introduction. The top 750 series (with new models in 42-, 50, and 58-inch sizes) will include ISF adjustment and tweaks for improved picture quality. No prices were suggested. In a darkened area, Panasonic was demoing a 58-inch design against a 32-inch pro CRT monitor. The plasma arguably won by a nose in image quality and by a mile in impact.

You want this... don't you
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Jan 09, 2007
Look at those logos. Mmmmm, universal. Hopefully this fall. More as I hear it.
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Edit All
Tom Norton  |  Jan 09, 2007

We don't normally cover home video production and editing, but with a new generation of affordable HD camcorders comes new editing tools. Sony's VAIO RM Hi-def Video Editing System (VGC-RM1) has a Blu-ray Disc read/write HD drive, 1 TB of hard disc storage, and Adobe Premier Pro editing software.

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TI and LED
CES 2007  |  Jan 09, 2007
In the deep dark recesses of the Texas Instruments booth was a tech demo of something their engineers cooked up. It’s a DLP with an LED light source, but unlike the Samsung LED that we reviewed in the January issue, it has an impressive contrast ratio (a claimed 100,000:1). They’re doing it by modulating the LEDs with the video signal, along with some other tricks. It’s not a real product, but it shows off what’s possible.
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Digital Living
Tom Norton  |  Jan 09, 2007

Sony's VGX-XL3 VAIO XL3 Digital Living System is essentially a computer with a horizontal form factor, a Blu-ray read-write HD optical drive, a CableCARD enabled HDTV TV tuner, HDMI connectivity, and Windows' Vista operating system. Since Vista has not been released yet, this hasn't either.

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Yamaha Holds fast
Tom Norton  |  Jan 09, 2007

I had hoped to see a new 1080p projector from Yamaha. Since that company's 720p DPX-1300 is probably my favorite DLP projector of that flavor, I eagerly anticipate a 1080p design from them. But it was not to be at this CES. CEDIA 2007? A Yamaha rep suggested that might be the case, but he wasn't all that emphatic.

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On a Super Clear Day
Tom Norton  |  Jan 09, 2007

Samsung's new Super Clear technology, one of several new technologies developed by Samsung for better LCD performance, will appear soon in the company's new 65 Series flat panel LCDs. It definitely produced a more vibrant image (which can't really be seen in a photograph, so I'm showing you a brief tech explanation card that appeared in the demo instead). Is it more natural? When we get our hands on one, we'll let you know.

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