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HDTV and Home Theater Podcast #308 - CEDIA 2008 Round-Up, Day 1 | |
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By The HT Guys Braden Russell and Ara Derderian Posted on September 4, 2008 Category: General Interest |
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Today's Show:
CEDIA 2008 Round-Up, Day 1
Universal Remote
MX-6000 RF dual
RF transmitters-802.11b/g WiFi for network control, plus narrow band RF
(radio frequency) for traditional control-to ensure that you don't
need to wait for the remote to join the home network.
Turns a PC into a audio server. You'll need to install some included software. Kind of like what you do with the Squeeze Box. Works with an iPod too. Can turn your iPod into a server. You need a dock (PSX-1).
There is a Base Station that you use to convert RF signals to IR.
Panasonic
DMP-BD35 Blu-ray DiscTM Player with SD Memory Card Slot
They say they will have more stuff at CES this year.
DirecTV
1080p VOD. Could not get an answer on whether it was actually a download or a PPV where the movie would start every 15 minutes.
They did have a cool application that is in Alpha. It runs on a PC and from your computer you can access your DVR that is connected to your network. No word on if you can do this from DVR to DVR. But if you have a Media Center PC in one room and a DVR in another this will in effect give you an extender for your DirecTV DVR. They will charge for the application but there is no word on pricing.
Gefen
Two wireless HDMI solutions:
1) UWB Single room solution. Goes 30 feet and supports 1080p 24 FPS. It has two HDMI inputs and on Component input. $799 available in October
2) WHDI - 5GHz goes 100 feet through walls. 1080i for now working on 1080p $699
Both units have large receivers that could possibly get in the way of wall mounting.
Tivo
Introduced the Tivo HD XL - THX Certified and can store 150 hours of HD. As far as the DirecTV announcement. It was more of an announcement that they are working together. Look for something in the second half of next year.
They said that they innovate on their own hardware and offer it to cable and satellite companies as they want.
Blu Ray
Spoke with Andy Parsons:
15 million BR titles sold in the US. In 2007 they sold 5.6 million and so far in 2008 they sold 8.8 million. Since 60% of all disc sales are made in the 4th quarter they are expecting a great year.
They feel that BR and downloads can coexist. Bandwidth will limit downloads and consumers like having a physical disc.
When you include PS3, player sales are ahead of DVD adoption
SONY
Home Share HD - Its really for installers and its component. Saw the new ES receiver that sends the video over Cat5 to a wall panel that has component connections.
Denon
Saw some networked audio and new receivers. Nothing that blew me away.
Niveus
Best thing I saw on Day one. Built on the Media Center platform. They wrote a custom plugin that really improves on the experience. They also have a 16 bay storage server for all your media and tuner device that you can plug two cable cards into. Their system supports up to 8 tuners.
All your recoded movies get cover art automatically downloaded and you can sort by Title, Genre, etc.
Dish Network
1080p - That's about it. Still trying to figure out how they can say its the same as Blu Ray Disc quality though?
Dolby
Saw the Harman Kardon and Arcam receivers that support Dolby Volume. Both are very nice looking and hefty in size and price! You need a lot of horsepower to to process the audio across all frequencies and 8 channels. So for now, look for this technology on high end machines.
Dolby Contrast - Uses LEDs to back light the screen. Can get brighter screens and darker blacks. More energy efficient too!
Turns a PC into a audio server. You'll need to install some included software. Kind of like what you do with the Squeeze Box. Works with an iPod too. Can turn your iPod into a server. You need a dock (PSX-1).
There is a Base Station that you use to convert RF signals to IR.
Panasonic
DMP-BD35 Blu-ray DiscTM Player with SD Memory Card Slot
- PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus Reproduces the Original Colour
- BD-Live: Enjoy Additional Content via Internet
- VIERA Link: Operate with Your VIERA Remote Control
- SD Memory Card Slot: Enjoy Precious Video and Still Picture Memories in HD using the SD Memory Card Slot
- PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus Reproduces the Original Colour>
- 7.1ch Lossless Decode and Analogue Output
- BD-Live: Enjoy Additional Contents via Internet
- VIERA Link: Operate with Your VIERA Remote Control
- SD Memory Card Slot: Enjoy Precious Video and Still Picture Memories in HD Using the SD Memory Card Slot
They say they will have more stuff at CES this year.
DirecTV
1080p VOD. Could not get an answer on whether it was actually a download or a PPV where the movie would start every 15 minutes.
They did have a cool application that is in Alpha. It runs on a PC and from your computer you can access your DVR that is connected to your network. No word on if you can do this from DVR to DVR. But if you have a Media Center PC in one room and a DVR in another this will in effect give you an extender for your DirecTV DVR. They will charge for the application but there is no word on pricing.
Gefen
Two wireless HDMI solutions:
1) UWB Single room solution. Goes 30 feet and supports 1080p 24 FPS. It has two HDMI inputs and on Component input. $799 available in October
2) WHDI - 5GHz goes 100 feet through walls. 1080i for now working on 1080p $699
Both units have large receivers that could possibly get in the way of wall mounting.
Tivo
Introduced the Tivo HD XL - THX Certified and can store 150 hours of HD. As far as the DirecTV announcement. It was more of an announcement that they are working together. Look for something in the second half of next year.
They said that they innovate on their own hardware and offer it to cable and satellite companies as they want.
Blu Ray
Spoke with Andy Parsons:
15 million BR titles sold in the US. In 2007 they sold 5.6 million and so far in 2008 they sold 8.8 million. Since 60% of all disc sales are made in the 4th quarter they are expecting a great year.
They feel that BR and downloads can coexist. Bandwidth will limit downloads and consumers like having a physical disc.
When you include PS3, player sales are ahead of DVD adoption
SONY
Home Share HD - Its really for installers and its component. Saw the new ES receiver that sends the video over Cat5 to a wall panel that has component connections.
Denon
Saw some networked audio and new receivers. Nothing that blew me away.
Niveus
Best thing I saw on Day one. Built on the Media Center platform. They wrote a custom plugin that really improves on the experience. They also have a 16 bay storage server for all your media and tuner device that you can plug two cable cards into. Their system supports up to 8 tuners.
All your recoded movies get cover art automatically downloaded and you can sort by Title, Genre, etc.
Dish Network
1080p - That's about it. Still trying to figure out how they can say its the same as Blu Ray Disc quality though?
Dolby
Saw the Harman Kardon and Arcam receivers that support Dolby Volume. Both are very nice looking and hefty in size and price! You need a lot of horsepower to to process the audio across all frequencies and 8 channels. So for now, look for this technology on high end machines.
Dolby Contrast - Uses LEDs to back light the screen. Can get brighter screens and darker blacks. More energy efficient too!
Posted by The HT Guys, September 4, 2008 11:50 PM
Reader Commentary See Forum Topic: WD TV(TM) HD Media Player Brings Digital Media Collections to the Big Screen (0 replies)More from The HT Guys
About The HT GuysThe HT Guys, Ara Derderian and Braden Russell, are Engineers who formerly worked for the Advanced Digital Systems Group (ADSG) of Sony Pictures Entertainment. ADSG was the R&D unit of the sound department producing products for movie theaters and movie studios.Two of the products they worked on include the DCP-1000 and DADR-5000. The DCP is a digital cinema processor used in movie theaters around the world. The DADR-5000 is a disk-based audio dubber used on Hollywood sound stages. ADSG was awarded a Technical Academy Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2000 for the development of the DADR-5000. Ara holds three patents for his development work in Digital Cinema and Digital Audio Recording. Every week they put together a podcast about High Definition TV and Home Theater. Each episode brings news from the A/V world, helpful product reviews and insights and help in demystifying and simplifying HDTV and home theater. |
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