LATEST ADDITIONS

CES 2010
Optoma HD8200
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jan 11, 2009

I've always liked Optoma's 1080p DLP projectors, except for one thing—no lens shift, which makes placement difficult. I guess the company listened, because the new HD8200 takes lens shift one step beyond normal. Called PureShift, the Optoma shifts the entire light engine up to 20% left/right and 30% up/down, keeping the light path in the center of the lens. It'll be available only through custom installers for $5000 starting in February. The similar HD808 will be available at retail for $3500 in March; the 808 uses the DarkChip 2 DMD, whereas the 8200 uses the DC3 chip for greater contrast.

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CES 2010
Dish Network ViP 922
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jan 11, 2009

New to Dish Network's lineup of HD DVRs is the ViP 922 with Slingbox built in, which lets you watch any recorded program from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. To store all the HD programs you can't live without, it houses a 1-terabyte hard disk. Also new is the remote, which sports half the number of buttons as the previous design and a little touchpad that moves an onscreen cursor around a much more graphical menu system. As if that weren't enough, the 922 also offers RSS widgets, and it even recommends shows you might like based on what you select to watch.

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CES 2009
Meridian Projector
Tom Norton  |  Jan 11, 2009
We've seen the Meridian 810 Reference Video System before; it's the first 4K x 2K video projector available to the consumer. It won't come cheap a just a few thou south of $190,000 for the projector, video processor (needed to scale available 1920x1080 material up to 4800 x 2400. It looked fabulous, even though even better images are possible from it with native 4K program material (essentially non-existent to you and me). They had to settle for a 10' wide projection screen (a curved, 2.35:1, Stewart Studiotek 130), and were claiming 48 foot-Lamberts! Clearly the projector is intended for a much larger screen.
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CES 2010
THX Roomcaster Wireless Speaker Technology
uavGary Altunian  |  Jan 11, 2009

Radiient Technologies has partnered with THX to jointly license and market THX Roomcaster, an ultra-wideband wireless speaker adapter system for surround sound and stereo speakers. THX Roomcaster operates in the 3.1 to 10.6 GHz frequency range to deliver uncompressed audio to as many as eight speakers in 24-bit signal resolution. High frequency operation minimizes potential interference from other electronic devices and THX Roomcaster has a range of 30 feet. The system includes one Wireless Audio Source Adapter that connects to any audio source in the system and one Wireless Speaker Adapter connects to each powered speaker in a system.

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CES 2009
Chario
Tom Norton  |  Jan 11, 2009
Chario is Italy's largest high-end speaker manufacturer.The setup here shows the Academy Serendipity (far left and right), Academy Sovran, and Academy Solitaire center channel—the Academy series sits at the top of Chario's line, and fall into the "if you have to ask" price category. The Solitaire ($17,000/pr) was recently reviewed in Stereophile.
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CES 2009
Joseph Audio Pulsar
Tom Norton  |  Jan 11, 2009
Joseph Audio announced the Pulsar, a two-way stand mount speaker that will retail for $7000/pair when it streets later this year. There's no center channel, but if you can spare the dime you could buy five (or seven) of them for identical performance in each channel!
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CES 2009
New Spectroradiometer
Tom Norton  |  Jan 11, 2009
This new spectroradiometer was brought to my attention by William Phelps, video expert and currently working with Meridian on its digital projectors. A spectroradiometer is a sophisticated test tool used to measure and calibrate video displays (we use the Photo Research PR0650 in much of our testing). This SP-100 from Orb is not a product for the average consumer, but something for the calibration specialist, or well-healed video perfectionist, to know about. Not cheap at about $8000, it's nevertheless less expensive than much of its direct competition. According to Phelps, it compared favorably to a $30,000 Minolta device.
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CES 2009
Big Optoma
Tom Norton  |  Jan 11, 2009
Opoma continued its reputation of having the biggest screen at the show. It was well over 10-feet wide, and the new HD8200 projector (discussed far below) was putting up a bright image even at that size. The image was also crisp and detailed. The color was clearly off (with fleeting hints of too much green, especially in flesh tones), but that's a calibration issue and should be easily fixable. l
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CES 2009
Blu-ray Meets the Soundbar
Shane Buettner  |  Jan 11, 2009
JVC’s TH-SB100 raises the soundbar to a new level. Not only does it ship with a BD-Live capable Blu-ray player, this “3.1-channel” system includes left, right and center channels plus a wireless subwoofer for the boom king. Ok, like all “wireless” speakers we’ve seen AC is required, but you get the drift. Available in April for $699.
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CES 2009
The Madness…
Shane Buettner  |  Jan 11, 2009
The vibe of CES is hard to imagine. This show couldn’t be anywhere but Las Vegas. This picture of this sweet rig parked in the middle of the showroom floor says something about the experience.
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