This is a brief update of some of the things I have seen and some general observations. This is based in part on an earlier post I made from the show. 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. The LCOS models (JVC, Sony, LG) looked better overall than the DLP models with two exceptions. One 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. The other was a 65 inch 1080P DLP set by HP. Believe it or not the Hewlett-Packard TV looked noticeably better than the DLP models from Samsung, Mitsubishi and Toshiba! It also accepts a 1080P input via HDMI. Blu-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. Mitsubishi wouldn't allow anyone to take a picture of their player. HD-DVD at least had a small demo playing in the Toshiba booth, but that was it. 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 to $14995.
Sherwood:
Have pics and will post later this week.
Denon-
Will post pics later this week.
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.
A lot more data (including pictures) will be forthcoming….
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. The LCOS models (JVC, Sony, LG) looked better overall than the DLP models with two exceptions. One 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. The other was a 65 inch 1080P DLP set by HP. Believe it or not the Hewlett-Packard TV looked noticeably better than the DLP models from Samsung, Mitsubishi and Toshiba! It also accepts a 1080P input via HDMI. Blu-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. Mitsubishi wouldn't allow anyone to take a picture of their player. HD-DVD at least had a small demo playing in the Toshiba booth, but that was it. 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 to $14995.
Sherwood:
Have pics and will post later this week.
Denon-
Will post pics later this week.
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.
A lot more data (including pictures) will be forthcoming….