LATEST ADDITIONS

No, not a classical rhapsody, or even a Rhapsody in Blue, but RealNetworks Rhapsody music service. With over 4-1/2 million songs in their burgeoning library, Rhapsody will be integrated to Philips' GoGear line of portable MP3 players and also with Philips' Streamium home audio products. The Streamium™ NP1100 is the first in the Philips' home product line to incorporate the Rhapsody touch. Price was not announced.

Now, this is the rather fascinating thing about our industry. We love awards so much, we hand out "innovation" awards long before the products actually ship. Thus, I can tell you that while Samsung has just started shipping its "award winning" BD-UP5000 DuoHD dual format player, it has just announced its second generation combi, the BD-UP5500, for release in the second half of 2008! I am not in marketing so I have no idea how it goes selling a player whose successor is already announced before it hits the streets, but there you go.

We were all wondering how Toshiba would deal at its press conference with the recent news about Warner going Blu-ray exclusive. The answer: to their great credit they made clear their disappointment with the news, admitted that it had been a difficult week for them, but still expressed their belief that HD DVD offered the consumer the best combination of value and performance. However this all pans out, they handled it as well as could possibly be expected.

LG announced a slew of new LCD displays. These include wireless models, some with ISFccc calibration memories, and a 1.7" deep, LGX Super Slim design. But the potential all-stars are in LGs 75 range, with ISFccc, 120 Hz operation, and a claimed 100,000:1 contrast ratio courtesy of local dimming from 128 LED backlights.