HTF personalized Cedia 2005 Coverage  

A couple of suggested guidelines:

• Please try to post your requests by Friday Night (09/09/05) if at all possible. Some of us will be travelling and we would like to have a wishlist in place before the conference in case of technical difficulties.
  
• Please use this thread for all requests (rather than PM or e-mail). The main reason for this is to avoid duplicate requests. If you see it listed here, we are aware of it and will try to address it. We don't need 100 requests to look into 1080p if you get my drift.

That's about it for now. We'd like to keep this informal and informative. The staff will attempt to find out things that our members are interested in. During the show we will try to spend some time online with updates here in this thread. Realize that our schedules are quite tight so our online time may be limited during CEDIA. However once the dust settles we will provide you with some final analysis that we hope will be helpful.

I would really like to hear about the new receiver line from Butler Audio at this year's CEDIA. On their website, Butler Audio has said they will be providing a "sneak peak" of the blue tube receiver line that has been shown in static form at other shows. I am very interested in the look and any features of this receiver. The price is supposed to be in $1500 range with all the important features. Any pics and info on this would be greatly appreciated.

I will like to hear news about budget projectors (if there is any sub - 1000 it will be great / Also next panasonic AE800?/AE900? ) and (only for dreaming) the elite ones.

Thanks!!

Anything on Sherwood Newcastle would be great.

DVI/HDMI switchers
Always interested in the latest scalers as well.

Thanks for the early feedback. We are taking this all under advisement. In addition we are creating links from some of the pertinent sections here in the HTF since my feeling is that "regulars" tend to gloss over the announcement section.

The HTF staff is making a list and will try to cover as many bases as possible. On the HMDI/DVI front there appear to be a lot of developments so I'll be looking at this closely. Supposedly on August 22, 2005 the latest HDMI standards were released and that will be covered in the New Technology Updates. Here's a "taste" of some of the buzz:

HDMI 1.2 spec finally approved on 8/22

• Enables support of SACD/DSD Streams
• Enables better connectivity between computers and data monitors
• Timetable of adoption into devices not certain

Also, a company has introduced new DVI and HDMI cables that break the length limitation barrier so those of us requiring runs of, say, 40-50 feet from source to projector are possibly no longer limited in our installation options.

Like we said, a lot more to come. Rather then getting into more specifics at this point, let's keep those cards and letters coming, gang. You point us in a direction and we'll try to get answers.

I've heard that Anthem will be displaying the upgraded D1, and AVM 30. Any info and pictures would be appreciated.

1080p:
Definitely your impressions of the new Sony SXRD 50 and the new Toshiba 1080p rear projectors.

Any shock announcements of a consumer priced 1080p front projector would be golden. ie anything that doesnt cost $15k+

720p:
Any replacement to the Infocus 7210.

Sam

I'd be interested in the new Pioneer Elite receiver lines (I know a VSX-74TXi is out, but I'd like to know if a VSX-76TXi is coming), as well as whether Pioneer will have a replacement for their Elite DVD-A/SACD player DV-59AVi.

Any news on the new Denon DVD/SACD and receiver models would be great too!

And yes let me second posten's request on Sony's SXRD and generally any "affordable" 1080p solutions coming down the pike.

Thanks!

Rest assured that I'll be looking at 1080p sets on a personal level since I'm looking to upgrade my video in an upstairs (non-HT) room and I believe that 1080p (affordable) will be a major focus of the conference. Stay tuned.

I'm taking notes on your requests here and a lot of it dovetails with my planned activities. Keep those ideas coming....

Carlo, there is alot of info over at the avs forum on the upcoming replacement for the dv59. Plus info on the new receiver line up as well.

What I would like to know is if they'll have any other models in the Elite dvd player line-up. Particularly a universal changer.

Thanks for the headsup on the DV59 replacement, I knew they had some of the receiver line (72 and 74TXi) over there but it's all pure speculation if there will be a 76TXi (as the 74TXi was supposed to replace the 56TXi but actually pales in some categories to its predecessor, thereby fueling the speculation of the future existence of a 76TXi).

Still nothing like eyewitness accounts as opposed to conjecture (though admittedly AVS tends to be right more often than not).

And yeah, RAF, affordable 1080p *better* be a focus this year as Westinghouse has already introduced a 1080p LCD flat panel at MSRP $1999. Looking forward to your reports!

Recap to this point:

We'll be focusing in on a lot of hardware as we make our way through CEDIA 2005. In addition to things of of personal interest we'll try to look into

• 1080p in all its flavors including SONY SXRD50 and Toshiba
• Butler Audio
• Budget projectors
• Sherwood Newcastle
• DVI/HDMI switches etc.
• Anthem D1 and AVM30
• Infocus 7210 replacement
• Pioneer Elite Line
• Denon receivers and DVD/SACD players

The above list is based on requests made here. You only have two more days to speak up if you want other stuff added. I'm sure the actual list will be a lot longer once we factor in our personal tastes and interests but we would like to budget our limited time in areas of member interest. Like the Lottery says:

"You gotta be in it to win it!

I was wondering if you could check out if B&K has any plans up their sleeves. New products? Price of Series II upgrade for Ref 50 owners? Any plans to add HDMI as an upgrade?

Any info would be great to hear.

Also, Maritn Logan is supposed to have a new Stage center channel to replace the Theater. Curious on price. Release date? How does it sound?
Thank you for taking our requests.

George

I am curious about what new products Classé audio is releasing in their Delta line.

Thanks

Would love to know about any blueray hd players being announced

There ya go, Sony announced a $13k SXRD 1080p projector, so anything you can dig up on that would be groovy.

Sam

I'm also curious about the Sony SXRD sets as well as the 6th gen Pioneer plasma's.

Aaron

Again on the 1080p front, I'd like to hear whether any of the upcoming sets will have 1080p/60hz digital inputs (HDMI or even DVI).

*** UPDATE ***

Greetings from Indianapolis!

It looks as though bandwidth will be sufficient for us to stay connected at the hotel over the next 5 days (unless as the hotel fills up more techie types sign on and bog the system down.) We will, as stated, try to focus on things you want to find out.

Here's the current "bullet" list (in no particular order of priority):

• 1080p in all its flavors including SONY SXRD50 and Toshiba. We'll also look into the new SONY sets and digital inputs in general for 1080p
• Butler Audio
• Budget projectors
• Sherwood Newcastle
• DVI/HDMI switches etc.
• Anthem D1 and AVM30
• Infocus 7210 replacement
• Pioneer Elite Line
• Pioneer Plasmas (6th Generation)
• Denon receivers and DVD/SACD players
• Blu-Ray players
• Classé Audio Delta line new products
• B&K: New products, Series II upgrade $$ for Ref 50, HDMI plans
• Martin Logan new Stage center channel to replace The Theater. Price? Release Date? Sound? (probably hard to judge on the convention floor)
• Epson projectors - specifically Cinema 550 and 800
  
  That's it at the time of this message. If you want to add more to the list, I'll try to accommodate you as connections permit. In other words, consider the Tuesday deadline lifted. As we learn things, I'll post updates here or link you to sites with further details. We can't promise answers to all questions but we'll try our best and share any tidbits we find out. Now that we have established internet contact we hope to be able to expand things more as time and information permits.
  
  The official craziness starts on Friday.
  
  More later.
  

Robert - I know that I am late with my request but can you dig up any info on the new Epson projectors? Specifically the newly announced Cinema 550 and the Cinema 800 and especially the differences between the two to substantiate the very large price difference ($2499 vs. $4499) since both are rumored to use the same D5 720p panels.

Thanks.

MarkusP,

We've added the Epson projectors to our list (see previous message). Things were hectic here during Day 1 of the conference. Lots of people and lots of information. We will try to piece it all together once it's all over on Sunday and we return home.

This is a brief update of some of the things I have seen on this list so far and some general observations. I will put together something more complete with photos after I get home later this week.

This year the products that seem to dominate the show are IPod accessories, and 1080P rear projection sets. Just about every multi-room system now has an IPOD dock or other interface. A surprising number of which have bi-directional feedback to supply meta data to the keypad. The Jury is still out on 1080P. I just haven’t been impressed with the majority of what I have seen so far. I plan to keep looking. The 60 inch Sony SXRD looked better than most. The one definite stand out was the Optima BigVizion a “built in” rear projection 1080P. The picture was fantastic. It includes their new scaler powered by the Gennum chip. I saw the 100 inch model, and an 80 inch model will be available soon. Blue Ray was not as evident as I thought it would be. I saw player samples at Sony, Mitsubishi, and a player and a recorder at Panasonic. None were hooked up to anything, and all of them looked conceptual. HD-DVD was nowhere to be found either. No one from either camp would give any dates (no big surprise).

Projectors:
Haven’t seen any standout budget models yet, but I will keep looking. The Epson booth was a mad house so I will revisit it tomorrow. The differences I can see between the 550 and 800 are increased brightness, contrast, longer warranty, ISF calibration, less fan noise, an extra bulb, and a mount are all included or part of the 800. Infocus has a lot of things planned for 2006, I’m just not allowed to talk about them yet. While there will be another 720P Darkchip model, the 7210 will remain a current model for the next year. Rebates on the 4805 are continuing, and the MSRP on the three chip 777 is dropping on Monday to $14995.

Anthem:
RAF will better suited to discuss this as he approached them. Apparently they were less than helpful. I heard from another booth that they were demo-ing the D2. I know it adds video processing using the Gennum chip to upconvert signals.

Classe
This is a RAF question as well. He did mention to me that unlike Anthem, they were very forthcoming, and eager to share info on their new products with him.

Shewood:
Have pics and will post later this week.

Denon-
Will post pics later this week.

Pioneer is on the list for tomorrow.

I have more info to post on B&K later this week. No new processor / receiver models. They have created a new keypad and a new video switches to the be used with their multi-room receivers.

More data will be forthcoming….

Thanks for the update so far, Adam!

Further pictures, reports and discussion will be continued in the new CEDIA EXPO 2005 forum area here

Parker