engadget recently interviewed Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, about all things Xbox 360. He leaves the door open to adding an HD drive like Blu-ray or HD-DVD to the Xbox, but I think he may not like Blu-ray so much. When asked about Xbox 360’s lack of a “next-generation optical drive” he says “No… we just haven’t announced anything yet. Sony may have announced a non-standard drive last night. We just haven’t announced anything.” (By “last night” he was referring to the PS3’s unveiling.)

Hmmmm. With a bunch of big-name manufacturers (Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Hitachi, Dell, Apple, etc) backing Blu-ray, it’s pretty hard not to call it a standard.

That was a cheap shot, Mr. Ballmer.

Link: engadget - The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft

[Update 25may05: ultimate AV has some coverage with pictures]

At its line-up show in New Mexico on May 19th, Toshiba announced a whole slew of products. FST PURE CRT televisions, DVD recorders and players with upconversion capability using HDMI, Plasma, and LCD displays, and even 1080p DLP displays were all in evidence. Read the rest of this entry »

This is such an important issue I don’t think engadget will mind if I just quote them:

We lucked out when a federal appeals court struck down the lameness that is the Broadcast Flag earlier this month, but that sort of setback doesn’t faze the alliance of broadcasters and movie studios which pushed the rule on the FCC in the first place. Remember that the court overturned the rule because the FCC had overstepped its authority, not because the Broadcast Flag was inherently unconstitutional, so now the industry has decided to stop messing around and are leaning on their pals in Congress to enshrine the Broadcast Flag as law. Yeah, we know that most of you probably won’t be affected by this either way, since the Broadcast Flag only governs digital over-the-air broadcasts and the vast majority of Americans homes get their TV via cable or satellite (which have copy control mechanisms of their own), but the Broadcast Flag establishes a very dangerous precedent. It essentially gives the government a discouraging amount of control over what manufacturers can or cannot do with their products, something which will both dampen innovation and end up limiting consumers’ basic rights to do what they want with their media.

If you’re feeling as frustrated as we are, there’s something you can do. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a new action-alert which makes it easy to let your Congressional representative know just how unhappy you are about this proposed legislation. It’s pretty easy to get cynical about Congress, but if you don’t make your voice heard then you have no right to bitch about this later. At least not to us.

Link: engadget - Help stop the Broadcast Flag

If you’ve been watching the Blu-ray vs HD-DVD war with interest, but still have only a vague understanding of what those technologies are, then Sound & Vision may be a place to look for information. They have an article explaining these technologies.

Link: Sound & Vision - Inside Tech: Blu-ray & HD DVD

[Update 30may05: ultimate AV has a review too]

Sound & Vision magazine has reviewed the Toshiba 52HM94 52″ DLP RPTV.

With a bit of tweaking, Toshiba’s 52HM94 DLP HDTV is capable of delivering stunning pictures. And its wide viewing angle lets the whole family enjoy the same bright image and vibrant color from any seat on the couch. Unfortunately, Toshiba’s problems with the TV Guide On Screen feature could be a serious issue for anyone who expects to use a Cable CARD or purchase the optional Symbio hard-disk recorder. But if, like me, you already have a high-def cable box with a hard-disk video recorder, you’ll find a lot to like here.

Link: Sound & Vision - Toshiba 52-inch DLP HDTV

Belking has announced a range of HDMI, DVI, and HDMI/DVI cables priced from $99.99 to $299.00. Read the rest of this entry »

If you don’t own a PVR, you owe it to yourself to at least consider it. I have an HD PVR from my cable subscriber - a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD. And I have to say, I like it a lot. Being able to record something on a PVR is great. Even Allison likes it.

If you have a Dish satellite system, and an HDTV, then the Dish 942 PVR may be just the thing for you. Read the rest of this entry »

Vidikron has released their Model 100 projector. It is a 3-chip DLP projector, so rainbows will not be a problem. (Listening, Steve?) It puts out 3500 lumens of light at a resolution of 1280×720, like most home theater HDTV DLP displays. The kicker? It retails for $29,995. Read the rest of this entry »

When running an HDMI or DVI cable, you have the choice of using copper or fiber optics. A similar debate has raged for years when it comes to digital audio, but in digital video things are different:

However, full motion uncompressed digital video signal is a different story. Due to the nature of digital signals and impedance of copper, fiber optic conversion technology is the best connection medium for DVI and HDMI signal extension. … Typically, 1080p signal would mean 1920×1080 pixels refreshing over 40 times per second. At this high rate of speed and large bandwidth of data, impedance caused by copper begins to cause signal loss - which results in digital artifacts, pixilation and/or no picture (blue screen) - if the distance is longer than 15 feet. 720p and 1080i are better off with fiber optic connections if the distance is longer than 25 feet.

Link: Projector Central - HDMI/DVI - Copper or Fiber Optics.

[Update 06jun05: TDK has an official press release]

Remember when Toshiba unveiled their 45GB version of the HD-DVD drive? Supposedly it was the great equalizer in negotiations, and that Sony’s Blu-ray format no longer had an edge because it had an almost-identical 50GB. Well, as I said, the Blu-ray format is capable of more. Read the rest of this entry »

My friend Joshua was just mentioning OLED the other day. It came up in a conversation about Steve’s 10 year old Mitsubishi 33″ (I think) CRT which is going on the fritz. This was quite annoying as we were playing some GameCube games, as the screen would get brighter, then darker, etc. So Steve’s pondering what television to replace it with. We bandied about several ideas, but the main problem is that all display types have compromises of one sort or the other. So Steve will will have to make up his mind one way or another. Too bad he’ll probably have to replace it before OLED becomes mainstream, because it looks like quite a promising technology. Read the rest of this entry »

Now, I’ve always thought that plasma televisions were too expensive, and I stick to it. But something is finally being done, and it’s being done by Panasonic.

Panasonic has recently notified retailers that it’s slashing the prices of it’s plasma displays. Last year’s 42″ plasma sold for $5,500, while this year the corresponding model will sell for $3,500, for a cost reduction of 36%! The 37″ plasma falls by 25% to $3,000, and the 50″ model falls by 29% to land at $5,000. Competitors will probably have to follow suit.

Link: Yahoo! News - Panasonic Flattening Prices For Slim Plasma TVs

Well, since talks have broken down at a lower level, it’s time to bring in the big Sony and Toshiba guns! Supposedly head honchos are going to meet to try to come to a resolution. engadget says:

Okay, just yesterday things weren’t looking so hot for the HD-DVD/Blu-ray peace process, which now has turned into some strange hybrid of international arbitration, heated tennis championship and summer camp deathmatch. The latest is that the presidents of Sony, Toshiba and Matsushita are gonna sit down to try and make nice in order to break the stalemate. That meeting could take place as early as this week, although it requires coordinating the schedules of all three head honchos — considering we have a tough enough time getting all of our slacker friends in the same room for a nice wine and cheese, we can only imagine the difficulties involved in getting this meeting off the ground. Consumers, cross your fingers.

Link: engadget - DVD format war peace talks: game on!

Home Theater Magazine reviews Samsung’s SP-H700AE DLP projector.

After calibration, the SP-H700AE’s image is downright impressive. It doesn’t go for the grandstanding effects of blinding light output or supersaturated colors. It just creates an accurate image. The image is almost relaxing, at least for a videophile like myself. Colors, midtones, and skintones all look very realistic. Processing is also excellent. The SP-H700AE picks up the 3:2 sequence very quickly. It processes incorrect 3:2 sequences and video with equal dexterity.

Link: Home Theater Mag - Samsung SP-H700AE DLP Projector

Sony has announced two HD camcorders, the HDR-HC1 HDV consumer camcorder, and the HVR-A1U Professional HDV camcorder.

The HDR-HC1 HDV camcorder is a compact device that can record in full HD resolution based on HDV 1080i. This model weighs about 1.5 pounds and uses a Carl Zeiss ® Vario-Sonnar® T* lens with 10x optical zoom. Included is a 2.7″ wide-hybrid touch-panel LCD screen. You can switch between 16×9 and 4×3 aspect ratios (in DV mode) to see what your video will look like on TV. The camera also captures 2.8 megapixel digital still images, which can be stored on the Memory Stick PRO Duo.

The HVR-A1U Professional HDV camcorder has a 1/3″, 3 megapixel CMOS imager accompanied by Sony’s Enhanced Imaging Processor (EIP). The HVR-A1U offers features such as balanced audio, XLR inputs, SMPTE timecode and a Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar® T* Lens.

Link: eCoustics - Sony HVR-A1U Professional HDV Camcorder
Link: eCoustics - Sony HDR-HC1 HDV Camcorder