Last month I risked all and took my Canon Rebel XTi camera on a wild sled ride down the winding gravel road in front of my house. It was the same sort of stupid thinking that got Sonny Bono where he is today, but fortunately the sled, my body, and – most importantly – my Canon camera made it through the slippery downhill adventure unscathed and dry.
It’s not the most portable of camcorders, but it’s guaranteed to make quite an impression the next time you take it to your kid’s soccer game. In fact, the other team might quit before the game even starts when you whip this baby out of the back of your minivan.
The HomePlug Powerline Alliance was formed in 2000, and the idea was to develop a unified home networking system that uses the existing power lines in your home to deliver power, internet access and other entertainment without extensive and expensive wiring. in the last seven years 75 companies have come onboard.
I'm not much of a gamer but as I walked past these fully-equipped gaming chairs with built-in transducers that let you feel all those explosions and bullet impacts, it occurred to me that sitting in one of these might be pretty intense next time I watch Casino Royal. I hear line extension.
Sharp is showing off their second-generation Blu-ray player, the $700 BD-HP50U. This player supports BD-ROM Profile 1.1, which means that it has secondary audio and video decoders to exploit interactive BD features like the ability to watch a picture-in-picture commentary track while the film plays in the background. The player can output 1080p/24 or 1080p/60 through its HDMI 1.3 connection, but it lacks an Ethernet port. The booth rep said it does have onboard Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, and DTS HD decoding, and it will include 2- and 5.1-channel analog audio outputs; however, the press release was vague on this, and the booth samples didn't have real back panels. You definitely get AQUOS Link (HDMI-CEC) for intuitive control through an AQUOS LCD, plus RS-232 for integration into an advanced control system. The BD-HP50U will be available in May.
There is no way to convey the noise level on the show floor. In fact, you've not truly had a CES experience until you've been inundated by the cacophony of sights and sounds in these giant, cavernous halls.
Sound Bars are all the rage and with good reason. Not everyone wants to fill their room up with large speakers and run all the necessary cabling for surround sound. However, it would be a shame for new flat panel owner's to miss out on the important element of sound with their high def images. So SoundBar's are sure better than relying on the internal speakers of the TV. Plus they are faster and easier to set up so I can definitely see the attraction for the average consumer.
Formerly known under the informal project name of Blackbird, the THX Media Director has emerged from R&D and we got a sneak peak. Metadata are authored into Blu-ray (or whatever) discs. The player might handle the metadata with a firmware upgrade or you might need a new player. Your surround processor, possibly the Lyndorf pre-pro certified for this purpose, then uses the metadata to adjust aspect ratio, color temp, picture mode, surround processing, and all those other settings that are either a bear to deal with or you (well, other people) might not be knowledgable to fool with. If this thing flies, it'll bring high-end home theater performance out of the tweaker ghetto. (Pictured, two early THX Media Director certified products, top: Anchor Bay DVDO VP50 video processor. Bottom: Lyngdorf D-1 surround pre-pro.)
The big news for Squeezebox fans is that the Squeezebox Duet moves functionality from the box to the remote. Isn't it pretty? Look for it in late January or early February. Hand model: Pamela McCracken.