LATEST ADDITIONS

Other than integrating the Rhapsody music service into the Escient Vision media center, the company had little news for CES. However, they said they were awaiting Sony's announcement of a Blu-ray changer with the capacity of 400 discs. The Escient system will be capable of integrating four changers, for access to 1,600 Blu-rays. At present, there probably aren't that many BD discs on the market, so the system can grow along with your library.

LG's wireless TV system includes the 55LH85 Full HD 1080p LCD HDTV and an AV media box. The only cable to the TV is the power cord. All components are plugged into the media box which connect to the TV wirelessly, and transfers uncompressed 1080p signals up to 30 feet away, at a bit rate of 3Gbps.

Phase Technology has introduced two sound bars, the Teatro V-3.0 and Teatro PC-3.0 from their Velocity and Premier Collection. The sound bar shown in the photo is the Teatre PC-3.0. A unique feature of the Phase Tech sound bars is the midrange driver mounted on the sides of the enclosure (see photo) in order to produce a wider soundstage, which it does very effectively. During the first concert video demo I thought I was listening to the floorstanding speakers and not the sound bar. Another unique feature is the EVT (Enhanced Voice Technology) designed to increase dialog intelligibility.

HDMI Licensing LLC, who won a Technology and Engineering Emmy for their contribution of the HDMI™ single cable audio and video standard, has announced the development of a new HDMI specification beyond the current 1.3 version. While not final, it is expected that the new standard will include transfer of Ethernet over the new HDMI cable. The other significant addition will be an “audio return channel.” Currently when a source—say, your HD satellite—is connected directly to a TV, an optical audio cable must be connected to an AV receiver to hear your satellite programming in surround sound. This new bi-directional feature brings it back to a single connection that will send the sound back to AV receiver without the need for an additional cable. Woohoo! We’re getting closer to a single cable connection, I’m all for that type of simplicity. Go HDMI!