Hasbro Zoombox Toy Video Projector with Built-in DVD Player

Topic: Home Entertainment

Hasbro announces the Zoombox, a Video Projector with built-in DVD player for kids. The projector is selling for less than $300!

The Hasbro Zoombox DVD Entertainment Projector can display images on ceiling or wall in with sixty inches or larger. Via AV cables game consoles can be connected too.

This might be the most low-cost projector on the market. Of course there is no word about brightness, contrast ratio or supported resolutions. The photo of the Zoombox is also promising not too much. Read more

Samsung 57 inch LCD HDTV LN57F51BD

Topic: Home Entertainment

Not as big yet as the Sharp LCD HDTV's, the new Samsung LN57F51BD LCD TV is good try.

Samsung announced the 57 inch LCD HDTV beauty only in Korea so far. The LN57F51BD has two HDMI interfaces and has full 1080p resolution. Contrast ratio is 5000:1 and the response time is 8ms.
No word yet when this LN57F51BD HDTV will hit the US. Read more

Sony RDR-AX75 DVD HDD Recorder Records for Sony PSP

Topic: Home Entertainment

Sony is giving us another reason why we should get a Sony PSP, and that's mobile recorded TV (For me, it's portable Discovery channel). The Japanese Sony AV division has announced a new DVR series called RDR-AX75 that supports H.264 (AVC) video export to Memory Stick Duo Pro.
This really doesn't come to us as a surprise as the company is connecting its different hardware together via Memory Stick.

On a 1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo, you can fit up to 2:20 hrs of video encoded at QVGA 768k. If you have cash for a 2GB stick, you can fit a whooping 5hrs (enough for LOTR of video).
Read more

Microsoft and Sigma Designs Introduce IPTV Chip

Topic: Home Entertainment

At the IBC2009 (International Broadcasters Convention) Microsoft Corp. and Sigma Designs Inc. announced a system-on-chip (SOC) that will enable the production of low-cost, high-definition-capable devices for the Microsoft TV Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) Edition software platform.

The new SMP8634 media processor from Sigma Designs will enable set-top box and consumer electronics manufacturers to create TVs and other products for broadband service providers to deliver IPTV services to the home.

IPTV service access as standard feature in TVs is definitely a positive thing. Bring it on! Read more

New Yamaha DPX-1300 High-End HDTV Projector

Topic: Home Entertainment

Yamaha will bring the DPX-1300 High End HDTV Projector in October to the market.

The DPX-1300 will be the follow-up model to the currently available Yamaha DPX-1200.
The announcement comes through Silicon Optix, which provides the Realta HQV processor that powers the DPX-1300.
The Realta HQV device encompasses true 10-bit video processing, full four-field motion adaptive video de-interlacing for both standard definition and high definition signals, temporal-recursive noise reduction, automatic multi-cadence detection, and pixel-based detail enhancement. It also utilizes the same video processing power-1 trillion operations per second-as the famous $60k Teranex Xantus box.
Read more

New Sony VPL-VW100 HD SXRD Projector

Topic: Home Entertainment

Sony announces the VPL-VW100 HD SXRD Projector in Japan.

The Sony VPL-VW100 is based on 0.61 type full HD SXRD panel with a resolution of 1,920×1,080 pixels. The contrast ratio of the VPL-VW100 is an amazing 15,000:1.

Three SXRD (Silicon X-tal Reflective Display) panels are integrated to provide the HD resolution. The fan noise is a very quit 22dB. The new Sony projector features a 400W xenon lamp. DVI and HDMI inputs are present. This stylish high-end projector comes on December 10th for 1,365,000 Yen (~$10,000). Read more

UTUS PDP and LCD TVs

Topic: Home Entertainment

UTUS is a Korean PDP and LCD TV manufacturer with apparently the lowest prices on the Korean market.

For instanc the UTUS KLUTM-4200A 42 inch PDP TV has 10,000:1 contrast ratio, 1,500 cd/m2, DVI and 1080i resolution. The UTUS TVs look quite stylish, but somehow most flatpanel TVs look stylish.
Not sure if UTUS will ever be available outside of Korea.
More details on AVing (Korean). Read more

New Sony Locationfree LF-PK1 TV Place Shift Device

Topic: Home Entertainment

Sony announces a new gadget in its Locationfree line. The Sony Locationfree LF-PK1 is a TV place shift device, that enables consumers to watch TV via the Internet.

Sony's other Locationfree devices are wireless TVs. The new locationfree device is comparable to the Slingbox from Sling Media.
The Sony LF-PK1 connects wirelessly to a PCs or other devices running a Sony media streaming software (LFA-PC2).
I first thought the LF-PK1 needs a PC to enable outside access to view live TV from the net, but I4U reader Sam convinced me that this is not the case. So Sony is head on competing with Slingmedia. The Location free LF-PK1 goes on sale in Japan in October for about $300. Read more

IFA 2009: Epson EMP-TWD1 DVD Player and Projector

Topic: Home Entertainment

Epson shows the EM-TWD1 home cinema projector at the IFA 2009.

The Epson EMP-TWD1 home cinema projector follows the same concept as the RadioShack Cinego D-1000.
The features of the EMP-TWD1 include 1.20m image width at a distance of just 1.50m, 1000:1 contrast ratio, 1200 ANSI Lumen brightness, 16:9 mode, vertical and horizontal lens shift, 2x10W speaker performance and low 28db noise (in low brightness mode).
More details on the LetsGoDigital IFA coverage. Read more

Casio Waterproof Portable DVD Players DV-900CW and DV-700CW

Topic: Home Entertainment

Casio seems to be totally into bringing home entertainment into the bath room. They announced now waterproof portable DVD players. They already offer water-proof portable TVs designed for the bath room.

The new Casio DV-900CW features a 9 inch TFT screen, whereas the DV-700CW has a 7 inch screen. The resolution is 480x234px. The waterproof DVD players are also TV sets.
The battery holds for 3 hours.
More details in this Casio press-release (Japanese). First seen on NewLaunches. Read more

IFA 2009: Samsung 5.1 Sound Projector HT-PR16

Topic: Home Entertainment

Samsung shows at the IFA 2009 a low-cost home entertainment system with a 5.1 sound projector. The Samsung HT-PR16 consis... Read more

Good News: Panasonic Cuts Plasma TV Prices by $500

Topic: Home Entertainment

Bloomberg reports that Panasonic cuts prices of most of their Plasma TVs by $500 in the United States starting today. Pan... Read more

New Panasonic 65 inch 1080p HDTV Plasma TH-65PX500

Topic: Home Entertainment

Panasonic announces new Plasma HDTV with full HD resolution (1080p). The flag-ship 65 inch model TH-65PX500 will ship in ... Read more

Hitachi Tera Byte Digital Video Recorder DV-DH1000W

Topic: Home Entertainment

Hitachi announces a new digital video recorder with 1TB Hard-drive storage. The Hitachi DV-DH1000W features high vision d... Read more

Toshiba HD-DVD versus Sony Blu-Ray Update

Topic: Home Entertainment

A news report is spreading that Toshiba quit the talks about a unified next generation High definition DVD format with Sony. ... Read more

Sony Explains BRAVIA

Topic: Home Entertainment

The Sony Marketing people came up with a new sub-brand for their high-definition LCD TVs: BRAVIA. BRAVIA stands for "... Read more

Review of Low-Cost Oppo OPDV971H HD Up-Converting DVD Player

Topic: Home Entertainment

DVD Talk reviews the low-cost Oppo OPDV971H DVD player with HD upconverting. Quote: "So, what's so special about ... Read more

New Samsung 71 inch DLP HDTV SVP-71L8UH

Topic: Home Entertainment

Samsung announces a new 71 inch DLP HDTV with 1080p resolution. The Samsung PAVV SVP-71L8UH is only 518mm deep. This huge... Read more

Yamaha YSP-800 Sound Projector Coming

Topic: Home Entertainment

Yamaha is about to bring a lower cost Sound projector to the market. The new Yamaha YSP-800 is already coming this month ... Read more

Wireless Music Player for Classic Fans: Olive Symphony

Topic: Home Entertainment

Olive Media Products, Inc. announced the Symphony, a wireless digital music center designed for true audiophiles. High fi... Read more

Samsung 40 inch OLED and other IMID 2009 Impressions

Topic: Home Entertainment

Samsung showed their 40 inch OLED displaya the IMID 2009 (International Meeting on Information Display). The Samsung 40 i... Read more

Are You Sick of Using Video Tapes in Camcorders?

JVC offers a line of Video Cameras that use Hard-drives instead of Video Tapes. JVC is still the only company that has Video Cameras on the market that use hard-drives to store DVD quality video. It is in my mind a very obvious solution in a complete digital environment that we are in now.
Nobody is questioning that we stopped use film in digital cameras. So why do still most video cameras on the market use tape? Sure the data volume is much higher for video, memory sticks or SD cards offer to little space to record hours of high quality videos. Now that portable hard-drives are used to store your complete music library it is of course also possible to record hours of high quality video on them.
Right now JVC offers three models with a 4GB hard-drive: The GZ-MC100 ($899.99), The GZ-MC200 ($998.94) and the new high-end GZ-MC-500 ($1,599.95). If you need more storage, JVC will start ship end of August the JVC Everio G-Series camcorders that boast 20 and 30GB hard-drives. That means up to 37 hours of video recording on the 30GB models and up to 25 hours on the 20GB model - Tape just died, as film did. Amazon.com opened pre-order on the new JVC Everio G-Series camcorders. You can get the GZ-MG20 for $799.95, the GZ-MG40 for $899.99 and the GZ-MG50 for $999.99.

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