Digital Trends
Oppo Digital built its reputation on upscaling DVD players that offer high quality image processing and output at prices that didn’t require customers to be card-carrying Home Cinematiphiles or take out second mortgages on their homes just because they liked movies. Last year, the company announced it would be bringing its savvy to Blu-ray players, and Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray Disc Player is now finally available, offering high-end Blu-ray performance for a $500 price tag.
Pioneer has formally announced three new Profile 2.0 Blu-ray players in the U.S. market, its BDP-120, BDP-320, and Pioneer Elite BDP-23FD. All three players support supplemental BD Live content available via some Blu-ray titles, along with a range of storage, expansion, and processing options designed to help the players integrate with everything from a bare-bones setup to a high-end home theater system. All three units also support HDMI output, playback of standard DVDs and audioCDs, along with Pioneer’s Kuro Link so sets of Pioneer devices can be controlled from a single Kuro remote.
This last weekend I finally broke down and bought a Wii to keep my Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and various other technology toys company. At the end of the day as I cradled my now-worn-out right arm, the irony of the fact that the two game systems which most likely belong in someone’s bedroom were focused on family room content while the one game system that belonged in a family room didn’t do any of the multimedia stuff the other two do.
Although Sony surely had these players ready to roll before Toshiba threw in the towel on its HD DVD high-definition disc format last week, the Japanese electronics maker is showing off its BDP-S350 and S550 Blu-ray players at its Open House today at Las Vegas’ Paris Hotel and Casino. The new players feature 1080/60p and 24p output, support picture-in-picture (what Sony’s calling "Bonus View") and (with a firmware upgrade, in the S350’s case) support for Internet-based interactive features via BD Live.
"These new devices bring home movie experience beyond the cinema and into a whole new realm of entertainment," said Sony VP of marketing Chris Fawcett, in a statement.
Alienware has taken the wraps off its Hangar 18 HD entertainment PC, designed to park in users’ living rooms and serve as the center of their lives—at least, so far as digital media is concerned.
Built on the AMD Live platform, the Hangar 18 unit runs Windows Vista Home Premium on AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual core processors and supports up to 4 GB of memory. The unit ships with 250 GB of hard disk storage, but HD video buffs will be pleased to know that expands out to 2 terabytes without resorting to external drives. The Hangar 18 connects to a home network using gigabit Ethernet or 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi wireless networking, sports four USB 2.0 pots, a 4-pin FireWire port, Bluetooth, and a 4-in-1 memory card reader.
Billing it as the Swiss Army Knife of the DVD player world, NeoDigits has taken the wraps off its HVD2085 DVD player which, in addition to playing back standard DVDs, CDs, MP3 CDs, Photo-CDs, VCDs, and other formats you’ve come to expect from premium DVD players, can upscale output for high-definition monitors. The HVD2085 claims to offer 11 video modes via HDMI output (from 480i all the way through 1080p and 1280 by 1024), and 720p, 1080i, and 1080p via component interface. The upshot is that users with high-definition sets will be able to watch more content from standard video sources at upscaled high-definition resolutions: not as good as true high-def in many cases, but at least users would be getting some benefits from the capabilities of their spend HD displays.
Featuring a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), this allows the unit direct digital video connection to a display device. In addition, the RT-20 has serial
RS-232C remote capabilities, which allows it to be controlled by products from industry leaders such as Crestronâ„¢ and AMXâ„¢.
The front panel of the RT-20 is crafted from a 1/2″ thick piece of solid aluminum, which is carefully machined and finished to create the unique look of Lexicon’s home theater line. The uncluttered front panel is user friendly and provides basic controls and the signature blue display. The top and sides are covered by a single piece of aluminum that wraps around the sides to the bottom of the unit and is coupled to the chassis with flush mounted machine screws.
“Current PDP output capacity at Pioneer is 1.1 million units per year. The company aims to boost this to 1.4 million units per year by around 2007 through efforts such as improving the production efficiency. Pioneer insisted that, “We can secure the top share in the market for high-end PDPs with the resolution of XGA and more for the short term with our production volume.” The company said it has no plans to build a new plant to boost output capacity at the moment.
The six-disc carousel includes the company’s blue-illuminated tray light for disc recognition. It features a 108-Mhz/12-bit video D/A converter for video clarity and detail, and progressive scancomponent video output with 3-2 pulldown capability. In addition to the component video output, there are both composite and S-video connections for compatibility with nearly all televisions, and allvideo outputs are continuously active.
The DV-CP802 features 192-kHz/24-bit audio DACs with Onkyo’s Vector Linear Shaping Circuitry (VLSC) for smoother, more detailed analog output. Onkyo’s Direct Digital Path ensures maximum integrity ofDolby Digital, DTS and PCM audio signals to the rear-panel digital outputs. There is a multichannel analog audio output, including a defeatable second set of surround channel connections for use with7.1-channel home theater systems.
The new projector works well in darker home theater environments as well as living rooms with brighter ambient lighting. It’s designed for 30†to 300†screen sizes with a brightness of 1,200 ANSIlumens, 1200:1 contrast ratio and 720p resolution (1280×720). One of the nicest features of the PJTX100 is the Whisper Mode quiet operation to reduce noise output to an industry low of 25db….something that is really needed with LCD and DLP projectors because of the loud fans. A wide range of input/output options including DVI-HDTV, component and auto-synching RGB computer input areincluded. The unit will be available in Q2 2004 and will retail for $3,999.99.
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