Movies often get more than one trailer released for them, and this is the case with today’s two HD trailers, both of which now have a second trailer for them. First up, some turtles!

After the defeat of their old arch nemesis, The Shredder, the Turtles have grown apart as a family. Struggling to keep them together, their rat sensei, Master Splinter, becomes worried when strange things begin to brew in New York City. Tech-industrialist Max Winters is amassing an army of ancient monsters to apparently take over the world.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Then there are the spartans!

Based on the epic graphic novel by Frank Miller, 300 is a ferocious retelling of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in which King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes and his massive Persian army. Facing insurmountable odds, their valor and sacrifice inspire all of Greece to unite.

300

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

LG made waves at CES 2007 by announcing their combo Blu-ray and HD DVD player. Lots of people like the idea of a combo player, thinking that it’s the solution to the format wars. Personally, I don’t think the war will be over until a winner has won. But that’s beside the point.

The LG player was only announced at CES, and already it’s been seen in the wild. Crave/CNET is reporting that the LG player is already available for $1,199 at a few CompUSA locations. One small problem - reports indicate that the player does not support HD DVD’s iHD spec, but it’ll still play the movie itself.

LG’s Super Multi Blue HD Player spotted in CompUSA

[Edit: It looks like the player isn’t supposed to be available however. According to IGN, the official release date is February 4th.]

So was perusing the local Sam’s club the other day and just happened around the HDTV’s.

To my chagrin almost all the sets there were 1366×768 resolution. WHY????

Now being a computer geek forever and remembering that there is a resolution like this in computers (1024×768) I did some digging. Come to find out that to save a buck or two on the premium asked for real HD chips (1280×720 and 1920×1080) companies just added a few more columns to the 1024×768 chips and viola, we have the 1366×768.

Now here is the kicker. No source material is presented at this resolution so everything must be scaled up or down. Do you think you are getting a $1000 scaler in that $800 set? Not gonna happen so you get a potentially crap scaler in a TV that has a resolution no PC, DVD, Satellite or cable company supports natively.

So the next time you are looking for a set, stick with at least one of the 16:9 HD resolutions (1280×720 and 1920×1080) or a resolution that is divisible by this.

From Gizmodo:

Netgear’s new Digital Entertainer HD device has been caught in the wild. It is said to be able to support 1080p video, which it can do since it also sports draft 802.11n wireless networking. Features include DVR capabilities (though additional requirements are substantial), a possible content deal with BitTorrent, as well as the ability to scale all video to your HDTV’s native resolution (including the aforementioned 1080p). This looks to be a really interesting device, especially at the reported $349 price point. Streaming devices were all the rage at CES this year, so in order to stand out, the devices must pack some serious functionality. This box from Netgear seems to fit this description. I am looking forward to seeing what the production model can do.

Device information

Video of the Netgear in the wild

If you didn’t get to go to CES 2007 to see what all the hoopla was about, you’re in luck. IGN and HDTVExpert have both given us some summaries of the event.

Check it out for TI’s response to the flat panel, and more.

HDTVexpert — What You Really Need To Know About CES 2006
IGN: CES 2007: Post Show Wrap-Up: HDTV

I don’t think that I reported on this when the news broke, so you might not know that Westinghouse actually announced a 2160p television. That’s right. Twice the vertical, and also twice the horizontal, resolution of the highest HD standard - 3840 x 2160 pixels. It’s a 52″ LCD display and Westinghouse calls it their Quad HD display.

Never mind that there are currently no mass-market sources that are 3840 x 2160. Nor will there be for the forseeable future. But if that doesn’t bother you, Westinghouse announced a price for their Quad HD - $50k. At least according to Cybertheater.

That’s a lotta dollars for a lotta pixels.

Westinghouse Quad HDTV with 2160p

SED seems to be the holy grail that people are waiting for. It has the picture quality of a CRT with the thin form factor of an LCD or plasma. But it’s had a bumpy ride so far, and some people are thinking that Canon and Toshiba can’t make them cost effectively. But they’re working on it.

Canon said that it will purchase all the outstanding shares of SED Inc, and Toshiba will share all its shares in SED Inc to Canon as well. This is to avoid a patent dispute, but SED business will be transferred to Canon. But Canon still plans to sell SED displays, for now.

Canon to Make SED Joint Company with Toshiba into Wholly Owned Subsidiary