Audioholics recently took a look at the excellent Sanyo PLV-Z5 projector, those lucky dogs.

Remember that the PLV-Z5 is a 3LCD projector with a resolution of 1280 x 720. It has a contrast ratio of up to 10,000:1. It has a brightness of 1100 ANSI lumens. This projector has an MSRP of $1,995. It includes two HDMI inputs.

We’ve talked about this projector before. How great it is, how sharp it is. Etc. So I thought I’d just poiunt out that this is one heck of a good projector, and you can’t do much, if any, better for the price. Especailly considering the the $2k is just the MSRP and you could probably get it for much less than that.

Sanyo PLV-Z5 Projector Review

The VPL-VW50 projector’s been making waves. Remember that it’s a 1080p SXRD projector that includes a 1080p HDMI input, excellent contrast ratio, great blacks, and it costs only $5k. Remember also that some have complained about a less-than-sharp pictures, while others have pointed out that you need to turn off a certain factory setting to do with overscan to get a sharp image.

S&V Magazine recently took a look at this projector, let’s see what they thought.

All in all they liked it very much. Though they did have problems with less-than-stellar deinterlacing of 1080i imagery and colour uniformity. The latter, though, was fixed by an adjustment in the service menu. That’s nice to see, but I don’t want to enter the service menu.

Sony VPL-VW50 1080p SXRD Front Projector

Panasonic sells one-third of all plasmas sold in the United States. I didn’t know that. But it was a cool little tidbit of information that I read in Ultimate AV’s review of the Panasonic TH-50PX600U plasma HDTV.

This 50″ plasma HDTV retails for $3,299, and has a resolution of 1366 x 768. (There’s that resolution again, Mole!) It has two HDMI inputs and a VGA input too if you want to hook it up to your PC.

So Ultimate AV put this plasma through its paces and found that it has its share of problems that can’t really be glossed over. (See the review for full details.) But for a street price of less than $3000, it does a lot for that money.

Panasonic TH-50PX600U High-definition Plasma TV

Bill Livolsi at Projector Central recently got a look at the BenQ W10000 DLP projector. This is a full 1080p DLP projector that uses TI’s DarkChip3 technology. The zoom lens isn’t great a 1.35:1, but its lens shift features are good. It boasts 1200 ANSI lumens of brightness, a 10,000:1 contrast ratio, and one HDMI input.

However, this projector is more expensive than competing LCD 1080p displays (at an MSRP of $7k), requires an ISF calibration to get a decent picture, and doesn’t scale standard-definition sources up to 1080p very well.

Actually, this projector is $2k more than the exemplary VPL-VW50 1080p SXRD projector from Sony, and it also costs more than Panasonic’s LCD 1080p display. Personally, I think that this projector would have to work some real magic on you in order to convince you to buy it.

For some real details, read the review below.

Review: BenQ W10000 1080p DLP Home Theater Projector

One of the cool things about this business is seeing all the cool new stuff they come out with. Like the XV-Z20000 DLP projector from Sharp. Ultimate AV are the lucky folks, and get a chance to look at all these gadgets. They recently reviewed this projector, and they liked what they saw.

The Sharp projector costs $12k. It’s a 1080p DLP projector with two HDMI inputs, plus a DVI input. The display will accept 1080p/60, but it will not accept 1080p/24.

How did the Ultimate AV folks like the projector? They liked it a lot. Of course, the law of diminishing returns applies, and $12k doesn’t get you twice the performance of a $6k projector. But they still see the value - the projector has an especially detailed image.

Sharp XV-Z20000 1080p DLP projector

The HDTVExpert, Peter Putman, took a look at the Sharp Aquos LC-52D62U LCD HDTV.

Physically it’s a really nice looking set, with a piano-black finish. It also has two HDMI connectors, and other inputs, but no VGA or DVI inputs. But that’s not what counts, is it. How about the picture? The picture has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels.

And how do those pixels look? Well, the set had big problems upscaling SD signals. Even deinterlacing a 1080i signal didn’t work so good.

This 52 inch television is only $4k MSRP (available on the street for much less), but the scaling is so bad you’d need to use an external scaler. So your mileage may vary.

Review: Sharp Aquos LC-52D62U LCD HDTV

I haven’t seen many reviews of the Philips BD player, which is weird. There have been tons on the Samsung player, of course, because it was the first. But the Panasonic and Philips were up next, and I’ve seen some mention of the Panasonic, but not much about the Philips. I guess CNET was reading my mind, because they recently took a gander at the Philips and gave it a 6.3 out of 10, or “Good”.

Basically, the Philips gets knocks for not doing what all the other BD players don’t do. It doesn’t decode TrueHD or DTS HD Master soundtracks. Plus, it’s expensive compared to the PS3 - the Philips goes for an MSRP of $1000, while you can get a PS3 with HDMI 1.3 for $500.

Other than some audio issues, the Philips is an excellent player. The picture quality is very good. It also has a good remote, and good DVD upconversion. So you can’t really go too wrong with this player. Except, well, the PS3 does the same for much less.

Philips BDP9000 Blu-ray Player Review

We’ve already seen Ultimate AV’s Sneak Peek at the Sony VPL-VW50 “Pearl” projector. They thought it was a very good projector, though other sources have said that it’s many good qualities are outweighed by the lack of detail.

This projector can take the 1080p/24 HD signal on the HDMI input and display it at 96Hz. That means that this projector would work great with any of the HD disc players that can output 1080p/24. (That list does not currently include the PS3, unfortunately.)

But of course, the thing that I was waiting for in this review is how sharp they found the projector. Strangely enough, they found it to be quite good. Fortunately, they also included an explanation! If you turn on the OverScan function, which would “hide the outlines of the picture”, the resolved resolution went way down. This option is on by default. Interesting, very interesting…

To sum up, the VPL-VW50 is an excellent excellent projector. You can’t go wrong buying this thing, just remember to turn off the OverScan feature.

Sony VPL-VW50 “Pearl” Projector SXRD Projector

Ultimate AV was my favourite print magazine before it went web-only. The PS3 is currently my favourite console, sitting gracefully on the top of my equipment rack. So I ws wanted to know what Ultimate AV thinks of the PS3 as a Blu-ray player, and now I know.

First off, Shane C. Buettner of Ultimate AV notes how gorgeous the PS3 is, and of course I have to agree. Though I thought it was stubbier-looking than I expected, even after seeing tons of pictures.

Note that the PS3 decodes TrueHD to digital PCM, if you wish. Not so with DTS HD Master, however. If you want that track in full glory, you’ll need to use the HDMI 1.3 connector to a receiver or pre/pro that supports DTS HD Master. And…. none of them currently do.

While we’re complaining, the PS3 also doesn’t put out 1080p/24. Not a biggy, but it would have been nice. Note also that the PS3 can’t convert 720p up to 1080i. Which would suck if you had a display that didn’t accept 720p. (Of which there aren’t that many out there.)

But how does the video quality look? In a word: excellent. The PS3 is a very good BD player, which is nice to hear. Because the PS2 was only a mediocre DVD player, so people were wondering if the PS3 would carry the tradition.

Mr. Buettner also points out that 25GB BD + MPEG2 does not equal BAD. That’s what a lot of people have been saying about MPEG2, and it’s simply not true. MPEG2 films can look excellent in 25GB of space, it just needs to be done properly.

All in all, the PS3 is an excellent BD player, and I have to agree with Mr. Buettner on that.

PlayStation3 Blu-ray Disc Player

The self-proclaimed HDTV expert, Peter Putman, took a look at Toshiba’s second-gen HD DVD player. First off, the player is a lot slimmer than it predecessors. That’s a good thing! The remote has been revamped, with lots of small buttons and no more backlighting. That’s a bad thing.

But what about picture quality and loading times? The latter is much better, but still slow in the big scheme of things - turning on took 30 seconds and getting a movie playing took 11.

As to picture quality, that should be fine as long as you set the output to 1080i. The 720p and 480p setting degraded the quality considerably. Not so good. But at 1080i, this $500 player works quite well. So if you don’t mind using the 1080i output, this is one of the cheapest ways to get into HD discs right now. (The other being the 20GB PS3, if you can find it.)

Product Review: Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD Player

Engadget HD recently took a good long look at the Panasonic PT-AX100U LCD projector. Remember that this projector is the successor to the successful PT-AE900U, and has a resolution of 1280 x 720, horizontal and vertical lens shift, and a 2x zoom lens.

Those Engadget HD folks don’t beat around the bush, either. They say right up front that they like this projector, and think that it’s one of the best bargains to be had at the $3k (MSRP) price point. The projector has an amazing picture, no screen door effect, and of course an HDMI input. What more could you want?

Check out the full review below.

Engadget HD Review: Panasonic PT-AX100U

Those white-trenchcoated folks over at CNET labs put Microsoft’s HD DVD peripheral for the Xbox 360 under the microscope, and they had to adjust the focus a little bit. Once in focus, though, they liked what they saw.

But right off the bat, I have to say I can’t agree with one of their pluses for the peripheral. They say “The Xbox 360 HD-DVD player is less than half of the price of today’s stand-alone HD-DVD players and includes the Xbox 360 Universal remote.” Less than half, sure, but only if you already own an Xbox 360. Add that to the cost, and you’re paying $500 for the system.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the peripheral isn’t any good. Quite the contrary. It makes out well in labratory tests. So if you’re an Xbox 360 owner, you might want to take a look at this peripheral. However, if you’re worried that studios might one day start enabling the ICT flag, then you might want to look elsewhere because the Xbox 360 + HD DVD solution does not contain an HDMI or DVI/HDCP output. Right now, though, that’s not a problem. It might never be. So you can enjoy movies now, and for the forseeable future, in HD on your Xbox 360 with this $200 peripheral.

Microsoft Xbox 360 HD-DVD

HD Guru has what I think is the first ever review of Sony’s new BDP-S1 Blu-ray Disc (BD) player.

Note that Sony’s brand-new BD player cannot play CD’s, DVD-Audio discs, or SACD titles, among others. So this player doesn’t have the be-all and end-all of format choices.

Plus, this is a slow player. From the off state, it took 1m23sec to turn it on, put in a disc, and get the movie playing. And after hitting a button on the remote, it took 2 to 3 seconds for the player to respond.

But after all these problems, at least the image quality is excellent. HD Guru could find nothing bad to say about that.

After all this, I have to wonder if a PS3 at half the price would be a better deal…

EXCLUSIVE: First Review Of The Sony BDP-S1 Blu-Ray Player

ProjectorReviews.com took a look at one of the hottest new 1080p projectors around, the Panasonic PT-AE1000U. It’s a 1080p 3LCD projector not to be confused with the 720p little brother, the PT-AX100U. Why they decided to name them so similarly is beyond me. This 1080p has an MSRP of $6k, but you might be able to find it for as low as $4k, making it the cheapest 1080p projector option around. It has a contrast ratio of 11,000:1, 1100 ANSI lumens, a 2:1 zoom lens, and both horizontal and vertical lens shift.

Projector Central recently reviewed this PT-AE1000U projector as well. They said that on SD material it was stunning, but on HD material it was good but slightly soft. ProjectorReviews thought it looked good as well, noticed the softness issue, but had some different caveats. The unit may have been damaged, giving the picture a slight discoloration that shift across the screen. The brightness isn’t very good, so you can’t have any ambient light when watching. On the other hand, pixels are invisible, the projector is quiet, and the picture quality was good out of the box.

For more, follow the link!

Panasonic PT-AE1000U Review