LATEST ADDITIONS

And There Was Much Rejoicing
Adrienne Maxwell  |  Jan 10, 2008  |  0 comments
We've been waiting for Escient, one of the major names in the music-server market, to offer a true video-server solution. At CEDIA, the company showed off its new Vision Series line of video playback and distribution products, but there was no way to directly import movies from the disc drive to the hard drive. Happily, that issue has now been addressed. Escient is releasing two true video servers/players: The VS-100 sports dual 500GB drivers, and the VS-200 has dual 1TB drives. Then there's big papa, the VX-600 media server, which has four 1TB hard drives. The line also includes the VC-1 networked client, to which you can stream movies, photos, and music stored on the servers over a home network. The Vision Series allows access to the Rhapsody online music service, and the players all have HDMI 1.3 connections and 1080p upconversion. The products certainly aren't cheap -- $3,999 for the VS-100, $5,999 for the VS-200, $7,999 for the VX-600, and $1,999 for the VC-1 -- but they're not as bank-breaking as other video servers on the market. Look for the Vision Series in February.
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Audio Video News
Look, No Wires!
SV Staff  |  Jan 10, 2008  |  0 comments
An unqualified hit, Sony’s Bravia line of video displays are keeping up with the times (a new XBR6, left, made its debut at CES). In particular, aside from the usual upgrades of style and size, the new Bravias are heavily into connectivity....
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Marantz Riding the Blu Train In '08
Shane Buettner  |  Jan 10, 2008  |  1 comments
Marantz is joining the Blu crew in 2008 as well, with a high-end Blu-ray Disc player, the BD8002. And actually, high-end doesn't even cut it. Marantz is calling this player "ultimate quality" with built-in Silicon Optix processing for superb DVD upconversion, and the press materials indicate internal decoding of both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.
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Audio Video News
Take Out 'Da Noize; Bring in 'Da Funk
SV Staff  |  Jan 10, 2008  |  0 comments
Noise-canceling headphones are nothing new. Every plane I ride has several passengers who obviously won't leave home without their Bose. But the new Sony 'phones, the MDR-NC500D, bring a new wrinkle to the party. Actually, three new wrinkles....
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Audio Video News
The Mobile TV PR Wars
SV Staff  |  Jan 10, 2008  |  0 comments
The state of mobile digital television is roughly where HDTV was more than a decade ago: Electronics manufacturers, broadcasters, and telecommunications giants are battling to be on the winning side of a unified standard. Among the contenders...
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Even (Media)Smarter
Adrienne Maxwell  |  Jan 10, 2008  |  1 comments
Alex Thatcher, Senior Product Marketing Manager for HP's Digital TV Solutions Group, shows off the new third-generation MediaSmart 1080p LCD HDTV. The new model has a new look and a noteworthy new feature: a built-in Extender for Windows Media Center, which will make it even easier for users to stream HD video, pictures, and music (wired or wirelessly over 802.11n) from a Vista Premium or Vista Ultimate PC to their HP TV.
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CES 2009
Monitor Goes Platinum
Tom Norton  |  Jan 10, 2008  |  1 comments

Monitor Audio introduced its flagship Platinum loudspeaker to the US at CES. The lineup includes the floor-standing PL300 ($8999/pair), the PL100 bookshelf ($4299/pair), the PL350 center ($4299), and the PLW-15 600W subwoofer ($4299). Stands are optional. The big system was not in use while I was there, but the smaller PL100's sounded clean and natural, with fine imaging, an uncolored midrange, and sparkling but not exaggerated highs from the ribbon tweeter—a first for Monitor Audio.

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CES 2009
Focal's Dome
Thomas J. Norton  |  Jan 10, 2008  |  12 comments

Dome in this case doesn't mean a tweeter diaphragm, but rather Focal's new "Lifestyle Luxury" speaker package, consisting of small, two-way satellite speakers in a rounded enclosure together with a small, separate sub. The satellite is shown here. It's used for every channel, including the center. The tab is $1475 for a 2.1 channels and $2495 for a 5.1-channel system. The "Dome" satellite speakers themselves are available separately for $750/pair. Available in April.

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CES 2009
SIM2's Local Dimming
Tom Norton  |  Jan 10, 2008  |  1 comments

The photo here shows the original image on SIM2's LCD local dimming prototype (the quality of the image on the LCD screen, by the way, was far better than this shot). The photo in the next entry shows the backlighting for the same image (I asked SIM2 to freeze the source so you can see what is happening.) More details follow in the next entry.

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CES 2009
SIM2's Local Dimming II
Tom Norton  |  Jan 10, 2008  |  0 comments

In addition to its line of projectors (which was heavily featured at the 2007 CEDIA Expo), SIM2 has begun working with Dolby to incorporate new Dolby video technology into its LCD flat panel displays. This technology involves LED backlighting with local dimming to improve black levels. The demo in the SIM2 room (and also in the Dolby booth) was set up to show not only the original image (in the previous post), but, with the flick of a switch, the lighting pattern of the LED backlights (shown here). According to SIM2, their prototype uses 1300 LEDs.

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