Audio Video News

The second day of the DisplaySearch HDTV Conference 2005, held on August 24 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, began with a session on the current state—and future—of the HDTV market. The presentations from DisplaySearch, Samsung, and Panasonic were heavy on statistics. I won't report them in eye-glazing detail here, but a few will inevitably be scattered throughout this report.

DisplaySearch, a global video-display market-research and consulting firm, last week hosted their annual HDTV Conference, a two-day affair devoted to—you guessed it—HDTV. Held at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, this year's conference began with a keynote address by Mark Cuban, founder of HDNet, which will be broadcasting their recording of the event in September and October.

On August 4, 2005, Infinity invited a number of journalists to their home at the Harman International corporate campus in Northridge, California, for a tour of the facilities and a sneak peek at their latest speaker line, dubbed Cascade. Why are you only hearing about it now? Because Infinity embargoed the information until August 25.

At a press event in Pittsburgh, PA, last week, Sony announced two new rear-projection SXRD televisions. Previously available only in the company's upscale Qualia line, SXRD now enters a wider market. The 60-inch KDS-R60XBR1 and 50-inch KDS-R50XBR1 Grand Wega designs, at $5000 and $4000 respectively, are still priced toward the high-end, but they are now in direct competition with top-of-the-line sets using other digital display technologies.