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Oppo BDP-S83 Blu-ray Player May Be First (Almost) Universal Disc Reader
9:38AM Wilson Rothman | Oppo, pimps of the upscaling DVD realm and makers of one of the best (and last) SACD/DVD-Audio capable machines out there, are moving into the Blu-ray business with the BDP-S83 player. There are no announced deets, but an AVS Forum member spotted this unit at CEDIA. And from what we can see in this image and the back shot below, the feature set is laid out clearly, and something’s unusual about it. Update: Oppo got back to us with extra info, including confirmation of Anchor Bay upscaling, soon-ish shipping date and a possible price (US$500-US$700). More »
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Panasonic’s 65VX100U Premiere Kuro-Killing Plasma Reviewed (Verdict: Best Flat Panel to Date)
7:52AM Sean Fallon | Just yesterday we got our first taste of Panasonic’s new TH-65VX100U plasma technology, which features specs that meet or exceed Pioneer’s Kuro. Our initial impressions were extremely positive, but Gary at HD Guru managed to get his hands on an early production sample for a closer look, and he too was impressed. In fact, he called it the “new king of flat panels.” More »
Gadgets
Twelve of CEDIA’s Most Beautifully Expensive Audiophile Speakers
3:00AM John Mahoney | Put simply, CEDIA is a trade show that trains its attendees to prep a home for MTV Cribs. Simple as that. So as a result, the audiophile gear on display is a sight (and an expenditure) to behold. Especially if your Cribs client prefers speakers that cost more than some small countries’ GDPs in their champagne room to better reproduce the low-end punch of his John Mayer SACDs. More »
Screens
Panasonic 65VX100U Premiere Plasma Is True Kuro Killer (Best TV Ever?)
10:52AM Wilson Rothman | Tonight in Denver, Panasonic revealed its newest plasma technology, the 65″ custom-install-only VX100 monitor, whose specs meet or beat Pioneer’s hallowed Kuro. That means 60,000:1 contrast ratio with 7,160 shades of gradation for visible detail in the darker shadows. At 65 inches, you will pay US$10,000 a panel, but not to worry: Panasonic will roll out a 50 incher soon, which is sure to be (a teeny tiny tad) cheaper. We sat in a dark room and got to compare the VX100 with its predecessor, the 65PF. Though the results in the room were startlingly vivid, you can get a sense of what’s going on here in our still shots: galleryPost('vx100comps', 5, ''); If you’re really crazy about TV technology, jump for a second gallery of slides from the presentation—but, as they say on MythBusters, there’s some “science content” ahead, so put the drink down and focus… More »
Software
iPhone: The Home Automation Remote Killer
8:15AM John Mahoney | There are already a few home automation iPhone apps in the store, but here at CEDIA it’s clear that all of the home automation heavies have definitely discovered the obvious: the iPhone makes for a great universal touchscreen remote for everything from your AC to your living room blinds to your music collection. And most of them won’t make you pay the price of a snazzy dedicated touchscreen controller to get it, either. Most of them. More »
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Lifeware’s LMS-810 Is the Baddest Media Centre PC Money Can Buy
7:42AM John Mahoney | In a show full of ultra high-end home theatre installations, Lifeware’s LMS-810 Media Centre piece still manages to be a standout. Taking what they came with last year and doubling it, Lifeware has crammed eight CableCARD tuners (two on board and six more in the external Lifetuner box on top) into a dual Intel Quad Core, 12TB RAID 5 box that can stream out to ten Media Extenders (here, Xbox 360s driving Samsung LCDs). The box can record from all eight of its HD streams while streaming to all 10 Extenders at once, so if you’ve been wondering what to do with your home’s 8 spare digital cable feeds, now you know. No price yet for a pre-Christmas release, but last year’s model with half as many CableCARDs was US$15k. galleryPost("lifeware810", 3, ""); More »
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Sony’s Prototype 400-Disc Blu-ray Mega Changer Spied in Dark Corner
6:22AM Wilson Rothman | Last year at CEDIA, Sony made a splash with a refrigerator-sized Blu-ray home server with 200-disc changer. This year it’s nowhere to be seen, but in its place, Sony is showing a 400-disc changer of a more sensible size. The company isn’t saying much, except that it’s coming in 2009, it’s going to be BD-Live capable, and that it will have RS-232C controls for the home-theatre hardcores. Great! Now all you need are 400 Blu-ray discs worth owning. (It will hold DVDs and CDs, too, of course, but why waste it?) More »
Screens
NLighten IT7202 72-inch Touchscreen HDTVs Put Google Earth At Your Fingertips
4:20AM John Mahoney | Rear-projection may be deader than dead as far as the biggies are concerned, but the folks at nLighten are intent to squeeze a bit more life out of these 72-inch 1080p DLP sets by sticking an infrared camera inside next to the light source that detects cursor points from an IR-tipped pen, allowing for a simple (no multitouch) touchscreen interface. It can act as a standard Windows mouse allowing for 1080p touchscreen Google Earth, or any other app. More »
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Tru2way TVs from Panasonic and Sony, Live For the First Time
3:50AM Wilson Rothman | Fans of Giz Explains know that Tru2way is the cable industry’s latest cable card scheme. Today, Sony and Panasonic are showing off their own Tru2way-enabled TVs, Pana’s PZ80Q with a built-in box, and Sony’s Bravia with a box that connects via HDMI. What’s cool is that this is the first time their showing it connected live to the cable company’s head-end, and as you can see from the video and shots below, it works pretty well. Bonus: Samsung is showing off a different Tru2way interface, also connected to Comcast, though without full video-on-demand capability. Photos of that below. More »
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