Marantz makes some of the best DLP projectors that you can buy. Now Marantz is offering something that many people have been clamouring for: a 1080p version. The VP-11S1 is a 1080p DLP projector with 68-plus billion colours on-screen. I wonder if they’re going to have a version that works with HDMI 1.3, which has deep colour support as well?

Strangely, no mention is made of 1080p HDMI support. Everybody’s been waiting for more 1080p projectors because we have things like Toshiba’s HD DVD players and Samsung’s BD player. Soon we’ll have even more HD DVD players and BD players. And then we’ll have the Sony PS3. All of these glorious HD devices can put out 1080i and most can do 1080p. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to view them in 1080p?

Yup, with source material in 1080p, it would be good not too have to convert to 1080i and then back to 1080p again before finally getting the image on the display. You’d think that with all the emphasis in the HDTV world these days on 1080p cabilities, that manufacturers would start to get the hint that 1080p support for HDMI inputs is a necessity. Of course, this projector may very well support this. But if so, then why wasn’t it mentioned? I have to wonder.

Ooops, sorry for the tangent. Where was I? Oh yeah. This projector will be available in July for a paltry $20k. That’s twice the price of Sony’s 1080p SXRD projector, the VPL-VW100. And we know that one support 1080p inputs.

New Marantz VP-11S1 Video Projector Breaks The “Digital Cinema Barrier” With Unprecedented Image Resolution And More

Audioholics reviews the Panasonic TH-50PHD8UK 50″ HD plasma display.

This plasma display has a resolution of 1366 x 768, a contrast ratio of 3000:1, and weighs almost one hundred pounds. It retails for about $4k and Audioholics gave it an overall rating of 4/5.

This set is a monitor, so it lacks of the the connectivity you might be accustomed to. But if you have an external PVR, like I do, that might not be a problem at all. Overall Audioholics really liked this display. They feel that it needs some calibration to get the best out of it (something common to almost all TVs).

Panasonic TH-50PHD8UK 50″ Plasma Display Review

JVC yesterday announced two new HD LCD displays with a 120Hz refresh rate. The two sets are sized 32″ and 37″, and both will have a resolution of 1366 x 768.

JVC’s Clear Motion Drive uses a high-precision interpolation algorithm and a 120Hz refresh rate, as opposed to the 60Hz refresh rate used in most televisions. JVC uses this faster refresh rate to insert an interpolated image, displaying two frames – the original plus the new interpolated frame – in the time a 60Hz set displays a single frame. The result is less blurring of moving images. In addition, JVC’s Clear Motion Drive’s use of an interpolated frame minimizes flicker and delivers a brighter image. Both new sets also boast a fast liquid crystal response time of 6ms, which contributes to reduced image blur. But according to JVC, there are diminishing returns as response time gets faster.

Other features of both new JVC LCD TVs include ATSC/QAM/NTSC tuning, digital 3D Y/C comb filter with DTV cross color elimination, digital noise reduction, MPEG noise reduction, and a full complement of inputs and outputs – two HDMI inputs, two component inputs, two S-Video inputs, 15 pin D-Sub PC input, optical digital audio out and audio output.

The sets will be available in August and October, for $2700 and $2000, for the 37″ and 30″ LCD HDTV’s, respectively.

JVC Announces New High-Speed LCD TVs With 120Hz Refresh Rate

On Saturday July 1st the space shuttle Discovery will launch mission STS-121. HDNet will be there to give coverage in full beautiful HD. They’re going to exclusively bring the launch to their subscribers. As a Canadian, I’m not one of them - yet. (HDNet is coming to Canada soon.)

HDNet will have 14 HD cameras positioned throughout the Kennedy Space Center, to give optimum coverage of the launch. With 14 cameras, HDNet is sure to capture all the cool exhaust fumes the shuttle will spew forth.

HDNet will use 1080i cameras, using a Canon DIGI SUPER 100xs lens with image stabilization capable of a 1860mm focal length.

HDNet to Provide Live Exclusive High-Definition Coverage of Launch of Shuttle Discovery: Financial News

Nestled in the bottom of a report about how Samsung is fully commited to Blu-ray, and that they won’t be making a combo player anytime soon, are some interesting interesting numbers. I don’t know why, but when some “analyst” predicts the sales of a consumer electronics device, I give it less weight than if I hear it from a manufacturer. I don’t know why - maybe it’s because the manufacturer is actually in on it, while the analyst is just peering in through the window. So that’s why I found these numbers, purported to be Samsung’s projections, interesting.

Samsung forecasts that 620,000 Blu-ray and HD DVD players will be sold worldwide in 2006, 400,000 play-only decks and 220,000 recorders, which are not yet available in the United States but have been available in Asia for nearly a year.

Sixty percent of these units will be Blu-ray and 40 percent HD DVD, despite Samsung being the only consumer Blu-ray product currently on the market. Sales will jump to 3.18 million next year, including 750,000 recorders, according to Samsung predictions, 10.05 million (2.55 million recorders) in 2008, 21.4 million (2.5 million recorders) in 2009, and 39 million (9 million recorders) in 2010.

So Samsung is predicting that by the end of the year Blu-ray will have 60% of the market and that HD DVD will have 40%. Do you believe these numbers?

Samsung Fully Supports Blu-ray, Denies HD DVD Combo Reports

Klegg Electronics (who?) yesterday announced their lineup of plasma displays. The lineup includes 42, 50, 55, and 63 inch models. Wow - 63″ is bigger than my rear-projection HDTV. You hear these numbers bandied about, but when a display that size is in your room, you just think WOW! Klegg’s plasma lineup is available as of…. now!

The 63″ display is huge size-wise, but not resolution-wise. It’s weighs in at 1366 x 768. But it does have an HDMI input, though no mention is made of its 1080p acceptability.

Klegg Electronics Announces the Klegg KP 6300 - 63 inch Plasma HDTV

Blu-ray may be behind when it comes to selling stand-alone players, but there seems to be a lot of manufacturers making Blu-ray recorders for computers. Plextor has announced their PX-B900A BD writer. The PX-B900A can write BD-R and re-write BD-RE discs at 2x speed. It’ll write up to 25GB on a single layer disc and up to 50GB on dual-layer discs.

Not only is it a dual-layer BD burner, but it does dual-layer DVD discs as well. It combines the DVD+/-R/RW and RAM formats into one. Write speeds are 2x BD-R/BD-RE, 8x DVD+R/-R/+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 4x DVD+R/-R DL, 5x DVD-RAM, 24x CD-R and 16x CD-RW.

The Plextor PX-B900A BD writer will be available in September or October.

Plextor Launches its First Blu-ray Drive

Europeans enjoy complaining that they always seem to get the good stuff after the Americans. And Americans complain that the Japanese get the good stuff before the Americans do. Where does that leave Canadians? Often, Canadians get their stuff the same day Americans do. For example, the PlayStation 3 is scheduled to debut in the USA and in Canada on the same day - November 17th.

But as I found out last week when I tried to find a BD disc on launch day, the BD launch is happening in Canada just a bit after the States. We’re getting the Samsung BD player on June 30th this time around. That’s a six day delay which really isn’t a problem. But it would have been nice to know about it beforehand!

Samsung Blu-ray player finally arrives on June 30th

Much like Toshiba’s launch of the HD DVD format, the launch of Sony’s Blu-ray format is off to a tepid start.

Sony did good by launching more Blu-ray titles than were HD DVD titles available at the HD DVD launch. But the problem is that some of the BD launch titles are not all stellar releases. The video quality is quite variable. Some titles look excellent while others aren’t that great. Perhaps it’s because Sony chose to use the MPEG2 format instead of VC1 or MPEG4, which take up far less space, allowing an HD movie to fit a lot nicer into 25GB than MPEG2 does. That’s a theory anyway, and that problem should be solved by late summer when Sony expects to release dual-layer discs which should give plenty of space for an MPEG2 encoded movie. BTW, Bill Hunt has this to say (see link below) about MPEG2 versus VC1. “I’ve been told that one of the chief advantages of using MPEG-2 over VC1, at least in the near term, is that it’s easier to encode quickly in high quality. A good MPEG-2 encoding can be done in, say, two passes, whereas VC1 right now can take as many as five or six passes to achieve high quality. Still, that will certainly change over time as the VC1 compression software gets better.” Just an interesting little factoid.

The Samsung DVD player seems to have problems with the HDMI output. (See Bill Hunt’s site The Digital Bits, and his My Two Cents section for more. It seems that the Samsung puts out quite a good image on the component video outputs, but that the HDMI output has bad colour and is fuzzy. No word if this is an isolated case or if this is something common to all Samsung players.) But on the whole it seems to be a decent player. audio|video Revolution sums up its review of the player by saying “The Samsung BD-P1000 is far from perfect, but it works a heck of a lot better than the two Toshiba offerings.”

So all in all, I have to say I’m somewhat disappointed by the launch of Blu-ray. Sony could have done a better job with its first batch of titles. It also really should have had a BD player available at launch. After all, even though BD is supported by many manufacturers, BD still is Sony’s baby. Samsung’s player, while decent, still has rough edges.

So now the second blue laser disc format limps onto the scene.

* sigh *

Blu-ray bows to small sales, little fanfare

Ooops, I almost forgot. Projector Central has a few notes about the BD launch too, mostly just giving a super-quick rundown of some of the launch titles.

Initial Notes on the Samsung Blu-ray’s DVD Player