At this week’s IFA show in Berlin Philips took the wraps off the CinemaOne, which the company says packs all the necessities of a home theater system—plus a CD/DVD player and an iPod dock—into a small, round container…complete with subwoofer.
The CinemaOne packs a five-channel amplifier, a 4-inch subwoofer, and digital signal processing that can handle Dolby Digital, MPEG2 multichannel audio that the company saus can create a “realistic and immersive cinema sound effect” from the tiny box: it measures just 10.75 inches across and back and 6.75 inches tall. The CD/DVD player can handle DivX, MPEG, and WMV content along with standard DVDs and CDs, and the iPod dock enables users to control an iPod via remote control and view track and playlist information on a television screen. The unit will upscale standard definition video to 1080p, and connects to HDTVs using HDMI. Additional devices and media can be accessed via USB, and Philips’ own DSP technology claims to “restore” details lost in MP3 audio compression.
Philips hasn’t released any information on availability or pricing—save to say the CinemaOne will appeal to folks on small budgets. Although we’re dubious a tiny unit could provide decent quality audio for a home theater—and can’t remember when we’ve ever considered 4-inch driver a “subwoofer”&mdasgh;for folks stuck in a dorm room or studio apartment who sit way too close to their screens anyway, it might make a decent alternative to headphones.
