We've added five products to The List this month. The Sony and HP rear projectors in this issue are both highly recommendable. The Qsonix Digital Music System, while pricey, is so distinctive and lovable that we had to include it despite its being a work in progress (at least it's upgradable). Garmin's nüvi Digital Travel Assistant is also expensive but beautifully executed.
A motherload of great products passed through the February/March 2006 issue, resulting in six adds to The List. Among them are Pioneer's 50-inch Elite plasma, JVC's new 70-inch HD-ILA rear projector, and Control 4's affordable whole-house music/automation system.
This month, Denon's no-holds-barred DVD-5910 replaces the DVD-3910 as our pick for the ultimate DVD player (at least till introduction of an HD disc format). We've also listed a trio of XM2go portables from Pioneer, Tao, and Delphi as well as the new Xbox 360 game console. As for deletions: Pioneer and Denon have replaced their PDP-4350HD plasma and AVR-3805 receiver, respectively.
This month our nod for the best video recorder goes to Pioneer's DVR-633H-S hard-drive/DVD combo, which knocks off the Lite-On LVW-5045. We've added Sony's 50-inch SXRD HDTV, but RCA's $8,000 Profiles 720 DLP set drops out despite its 7-inch depth - it can't compete with $4,000 1080p DLPs.
Samsung The latest DLP big screens from Samsung are led by the HLR5688W, which measures 56 inches (diagonal) and boasts a native resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. Yep, that's enough for ultra-high 1080p (progressive-scan) resolution, folks.
PioneerEvery listening room has its own shape, size, and furniture - all of which affect sound. With the supplied microphone, Pioneer's thrifty VSX-815 receiver will automatically adjust its five-band equalizer to customize sound to best match your digs.
The Consumer Electronics Show is all about firsts, but some of this year's bordered on the freakish. Samsung unveiled a flat-panel TV with a 102-inch screen - that works out to 31 square feet of plasma real estate. Or how about $75,000 for LG's 71-inch plasma set?
Toshiba Connect Toshiba's RD-XS52 DVD/hard-disk recorder to your TV by its digital HDMI output, and it'll upconvert standard-def video from TV programs, DVDs, and even camcorder footage to the 1080i or 720p HDTV formats.