Fred Manteghian

At the Sony press event, surprise guest Barry Sonnenfeld, <a href="http://imdb.com/name/nm0001756/" target="new">too famous for words</a> (but suffice to say, he was the cinematographer for one of my favorite movies, the Coen Brothers' first, <i>Blood Simple</i>), regaled us with stories of his home theaters, past and present, like the one in Telluride, Colorado which features a Sony VPL VW100 projector. His close ties with Sony's Marc Finer have made him somewhat of a test bed for Sony projectors, going all the way back to the 9" CRT based Sony G90 which some consider the finest CRT projector ever made (along with the Vidikron Visions). I bet he can't wait to get the new VW200 in his home!

Philips, the company that thinks the asses of their TVs should pulse in unison with the video image on the front of their sets has yet another idea they think is really swell. I hope for their sake it's a real money maker because, if it takes off, there won't be a single reviewer on this side of the Milky Way that is ever going to request, much less favorably review, another Philips product ever, ever again.

Vutec broke the brightness barrier on the eve of CEDIA 2013 by announcing SilverStar2.2, a high gain (2.2:1 gain) screen that is ISF (Imaging Science Foundation) certified. High-gain screens typically lack in picture quality what they make up in brightness and the ability to move to a large screen with the same amount of projector light. Delivering better than double unity gain while still securing ISF certification is a huge deal.

Only three years after their debut, the prices of budget DVD players have dropped below $200. That paltry sum wouldn't even cover the Connecticut sales tax on the Theta David II. If you're already seeing red, come back next month, when I'll undoubtedly review something that won't have you gagging as if a Chinese pepper has gone down the wrong pipe. On the other hand, if you've always wondered why caviar from the Caspian goes for more than the Rhode Island variety, stick around.