Thomas J. Norton reviews the inexpensive <A HREF="/videoprojectors/604benq">BenQ PE8700 DLP video projector</A>, explaining why it "has to qualify as the surprise product of early 2004."
ClearPix in the clear? On July 21, the US House of Representatives Judiciary Subcommittee voted 18-9 in favor of the "Family Movie Act." Passage by the full House, Senate, and President would free manufacturers of DVD filtering technology (such as ClearPlay, Inc.) from legal consequences as a result of violating movie industry copyrights. ClearPlay and other companies offering "clean up" technology for feature films have been criticized by members of the Directors Guild of America for violating the sanctity of cinematic art.
HDTV Forum 2004 will be bigger and better than last year's inaugural event, thanks to the addition of dozens of heavyweights from a cross-section of participating industries. Scheduled for August 24–26 at the Westin Century Plaza in Los Angeles, the theme of this year's confab is "Accelerating the HDTV Transition."
If you're the type who can't decide among all the disc formats (SACD, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, CD, MP3-encoded CD, and Laserdisc), Integra has just announced a six-disc DVD changer that's compatible with nearly every disc format on the planet. (Sorry, Laserdisc fans, but Integra didn't include compatibility with those venerable old 12-inch movie discs. Although you won't be able to watch your old disc collection in the new Integra changer, those discs still make great serving platters!) Integra's DPC-8.5 is built around a six-disc carousel tray that incorporates a unique blue illumination light, making it easier to see what's in the tray when the room lights are down low and you're trying to impress that special someone.
Ever had trouble matching a subwoofer to your main speakers and the room? Ever wonder, if Reese's can make peanut butter cups with the peanut butter on the outside, why can't someone make a subwoofer that's intelligent enough to make its own adjustments? If you have, then you can spend your life believing that Thiel Audio created their new SmartSub family of subwoofer products just for you. (The remainder of us will simply admire the technology in this collection that includes four new powered subwoofers, a SmartSub Integrator, and a pair of passive crossovers.)
The list of North American channels offering Dolby Digital 5.1 sound has just grown by four. In a press release dated July 19, <A HREF="http://www.dolby.com">Dolby Laboratories</A> announced that City HD, Encore HD, TNT in HD, and The WB will all offer programming in Dolby Digital 5.1. This brings the total number of networks featuring the surround format to the mid-20s (and the number of individual channels to somewhere in the 80s—Dolby is not being terribly specific about the precise numbers).
Over the last few years, we've heard a lot about the "electronic house," an application that will seamlessly integrate personal computers and home entertainment systems throughout an entire household. If customers have been slow to adopt this concept, it may be because the existing options have tended to be complicated to use and install—not to mention expensive. <A HREF="http://www.skipjam.com/">SkipJam</A> may have a solution for all three objections.
Peter Putman reviews the <A HREF="/videoprojectors/604panasonic">Panasonic PT-AE500U front LCD projector</A>, noting that this product "comes with a great deal of buzz about its color and image quality—at least from those who saw a preview of it at last year's CEDIA expo." PP tests to see if the buzz was on target.
Of course, the world assumes that if you want a flat-panel TV that you'll want to hang it on the wall. Not according to Jeff White, President of Boltz USA. "Contrary to sexy television commercials featuring young 20-somethings fussing over which wall to hang their new, sleek, flat panel TV, we've heard from many customers who would much rather display their new toy on an attractive stand." (Personally, since as I young 20-something I suffered by watching TV on a miniscule 13-inch TV with rabbit ears and not even a Beta-tape VCR to keep it company, I feel that 20-somethings ought to be barred by law from owning a flat-panel TV until their 30th birthday. Think of it, as my mother used to say, as "character building"... But I digress.)
Canton, the 31-year-old German loudspeaker company known for stylish, high-performance products, has joined the ever growing chorus of manufacturers offering slender, wall-mountable models specifically designed to complement flat-panel TVs. Canton's new CD300 Series loudspeakers combine technology derived from the company's high-end Karat line of loudspeakers with the sleeker, brushed aluminum look (a.k.a. "lifestyle design") of the CD100 series.
Home networking is about to hop forward with the arrival of SkipJam, a hardware/software solution for watching, listening to, and digitally recording entertainment content housewide. With a wired or wireless network and an iMedia Center box in your stack of home theater gear, enjoy TV (including satellite) and more on the PC and share any audio/video source with an iMedia Player anywhere in the home, view/hear PC files in the living room, or bypass the computer altogether and simply network all your A/V devices directly, with high-quality audio and video including 24-bit/192-kilohertz DAC/ADCs with 114db dynamic range. Look for a hands-on review in an upcoming issue of Home Theater.
If you're like my son, no matter how big the hard drive is in your DVR it's not big enough. Humax USA announced today the nationwide availability of the T2500, the first TiVo Series2 DVR with a whopping 300 hours of recording capability. (Although it doesn't record HD, that's still over 12 days of continuous couch-potato bliss.) It'll cost you $699 for that kind of storage capacity; but when you compare it with what it would cost to 300 hours of Super Bowl commercial air time over the next 50 years, it's a steal. Since the T2500 (and the 80-hour T800) is a TiVo Series2 unit, subscribing owners can use TiVo's new Home Media features and online scheduling as part of TiVo's standard $12.95/month service package. The new features let you schedule recordings from any internet connection and move content between two or more TiVo Series2 DVRs in your home. You can also listen to music or view photos stored on your PC if you're so networkingly inclined. Now Humax just needs to release an HD DVR, and my son won't ever have to leave the couch.
Although it's too late to become eligible to submit a surround sound music release for the 47th Annual GRAMMY Awards in February 2005 if you're not already a member of the Recording Academy, fans of surround sound music will have a new award category - Best Surround Sound Album - to heatedly discuss around the office water cooler. While it's certainly not as exciting as Best Hawaiian Music Album, another new category to make its debut in 2005, it's good to see multichannel music getting more professional respect and attention. All genres of music for commercial releases on DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, and SACD with an original mix of four or more channels are eligible. We'll know multichannel music has finally come into its own when a release wins both the Best Surround Sound and Best Hawaiian Music Album awards. Could a surround remix of Zamfir's (Master of the Pan Flute) Greatest Hits be next?
V, Inc.
V, Inc.'s Bravo D2 DVD player is an update of the company's award-winning Bravo D1. The D2 has a DVI output that transfers a DVD's digital video signal straight to your display, bypassing analog conversion and the resulting digital-to-analog conversion artifacts. Through both the DVI and component video outputs, the unit's scaler can convert the signal to 480p, 720p, or 1080i (except in the case of Macrovision-protected DVDs). Playback options include Picture Zoom 1 and 2, MPEG-4, JPEG, DVD-R/+R, CD, CD-R/-RW, and Kodak Picture CD. The Bravo D2 is available in a titanium-silver finish for $250.
V, Inc.
(714) 668-0588 www.vinc.com