Today's Show:
CEDIA Day Two
LED LCDs
- Look pretty near as good as Plasma. Available in 40-inch, 46-inch,
52-inch and 57-inch diagonal screen sizes, Samsung's new "local
dimming," LED (light-emitting diode) technology provides a brightness
level of 450nits, and reduces power consumption by as much as 30
percent.
Available this Holiday season. No pricing details yet.
3D Ready Plasma
- Had a video game running. Looked very realistic. This type of
technology would work in games but I find it gimmicky in actual movies.
After
seeing the Samsung LED LCD, I decided to go to SONY and check out their
implementation (XBR8). They had the display in a darkened room so you
could really see the blacks. Again, it looked as good as a plasma. The
contrast was fantastic! These units will sell at a premium.
Saw
the LaserVue DLP. Color and contrast looked good but there was a
distracting shimmering that made the Silk Screen Effect look worse. The
best way to describe the effect is it looks like the effect you get
when you point a laser pointer at something that diffuses the beam.
This is a first generation so it should get better. Some Facts about
the LaserVue:
- 1/4 the power of Plasma
- 1/3 the power of LCD
- 1/2 the power of DLP
- Available late September early October via dealers only
- $7000
When you factor in the price. Pick up the regular DLP instead. It did not look $4000 better.
Saw
a very cool screen called StarGlas 60. Its a rear projection screen
that is made out of glass. You project from behind. There are none
of the screen effects that you see on rear projection TVs. They had it
displayed with their StarLift product. StarLift is a mechanism that
houses the StarGlas. You need to provide your own custom cabinet.
The
application they were touting was putting the StarLift at the end of
your bed and with a press of a button as 60 inch screen would rise
automatically. Potentially you would have a projector in an armoire and
that would be your source. Obviously this is not the only application
for these products.
The
whole thing would set you back about $15K without the projector or
custom cabinet. At least we all have something to dream about!
Saw
a great demo of the Yamaha YSP-4000 Digital Sound Projector. The demo
room was not a pure four wall room and there was a distinct surround
sound effect. It has a MSRP of 1799. We are going to try and get a demo
version for review. If it can make good surround in my Master bedroom
It will find a permanent place in my home. There are two HDMI, two
component and three composite inputs.
BTW, if you have $1000 burning a hole in your pocket you can pick up the new
BD-S2900 Blu Ray Player. For that money you get
BD
Final Standard Profile (Profile 1 v1.1) for added BonusView features
and a front panel memory card slot for JPEG and AVCHD playback, plus
storage of BonusView material.
Audyssey
This
is a competing technology to Dolby Volume. It works a
little differently but it does essentially the same thing. Actually,
there are three technologies that work together. First there is MultEQ.
This is an automated process that equalizes the room. This is done
once. Then there is Dynamic EQ. This technology continually adjusts the
EQ to account for the level you are listening at. The issue is really
when you listen at low levels the EQ set at reference levels do not
hold up. Dynamic EQ adjusts the EQ based on human perception and room
acoustics. The third piece of the puzzle is Dynamic volume. This is
where the volume you are listening to is maintained across all passages
while maintaining the surround experience, especially at low levels.
They
provided a nice demo with music, pure dialog, and loud surround
effects. The technology will look ahead in the audio and make the
adjustments. We can't say which technology is better, Dolby or Audessy.
We'll have to wait until we can get units with both and pick our own
material to run through it. Audyssey does have one advantage however,
you can buy a receiver with this technology for less than $1000. Denon AVR2309CI $850.
Epson was awarded the AVS Forum innovation award for their
Ensemble HD 720
This is truly a Home theater in a box system. Actually it comes in
several boxes. You can chose between the Ensemble HD 1080 for $7000 or
the Ensemble HD 720 for $5000. You get a projector, 100 inch screen, a
custom designed Atlantic Technology 5.1 system with a 10 inch
subwoofer, DVD Player, LCD remote, and color coded brackets, cables,
and wire management.
We
have friends who put a theater together in 3 hours. If you don't want
to fish wires through the walls they provide channel locks that can be
painted. The instructions are very well written down to which bag a
particular screw is in.
Blu Ray