Shane Buettner

Anchor Bay Technologies announced the availability of DVDO’s most ambitious video processor yet, the iScan VP50. In addition to offering the ability to scale 480i/p, 720p and 1080i to 1080p, the new model can properly deinterlace 1080i to 1080p using Anchor Bay’s new HD Precision Deinterlacing algorithm. It features several HDMI inputs and can also accept and process 1080p signals and uses 10-bit processing throughout.

The Pearl SXRD projector was not Sony’s only significant product introduction yesterday. Also shown to reporters and reviewers for the first time was the STR-DA5200ES AV receiver. This product shows that when Sony is big on something it shows up in all its products. That something here is 1080p.

Years ago, I experimented extensively with both 6.1- and 7.1-channel surround sound, both with a single surround back channel and with two surround back channels. I was then in a dual-purpose living room space, and the 6.1 with the single surround back channel was most effective, but not enough to totally sell me on the concept. My last two rooms have been dedicated media spaces, and each has been in the neighborhood of 25x16, with a first a 10’ ceiling and now just under 9’. The first house was new construction with a ground-up media room build. It was a big room, and I pre-wired the back wall for 7.1 as a precaution. It turned out I never felt I needed it and when I moved to my current house, a retrofit job, I didn’t give any consideration to 7.1, let alone height and width expansion. Let me speculate on why.