Maybe I’ve missed while on mission for those projector screen materials, but Home Depot now carries LCD flat panel TVs.
Seems like a perfect fit to me - DIY home theater, purchase what you need at America’s best DIY store.
They carry models for Sharp, Magnavox, Sylvania and Polaroid. Ok, so not the top of the line, but ya gotta start somewhere right?
Well it looks like the Plasma makers are joining up to promote plasma. As the old adage says, if ya can’t beat ‘em…
Actually rather than sharing R&D, design and manufacturing secrects, it sounds like these guys are teaming up simply to promote the plasma display itself.
Great, now maybe we’ll quit hearing stuff like “But if I buy a plasma it’ll burn out in a year or two (or five) right?”
“Five leading plasma TV panel manufacturers have formed the Plasma Display Coalition to further promote the growth of plasma TV in the U.S., encourage understanding of the benefits and future potential of plasma TV and dispel lingering misconceptions about plasmaTV. The Coalition’s founders are Hitachi Home Electronics, LG Electronics USA, Panasonic Corporation of North America, Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. and Samsung Electronics USA. Membership is open to enterprises that manufacture, market and sell plasma TV panels.
Read “Top Consumer Electronics Companies Launch Plasma Display Coalition”
Whoever says size doesn’t matter obviously doesn’t have a Home Theater. Sharp comes along and Bang! here’s a 65-inch LCD. Man, that’s just huge for an LCD.
This is a 1080p set with 4000:1 contrast ratio. The LC65D90U has a built-in HD tuner, has a response time of 12 milliseconds, is wall mountable, and features a detachable speaker assembly.
The Jones’ just can’t keep up with this kind of bling.
Unit is shipping now:
Source
Via HDBlog.net
The new 42″ LCD from LG, the 42LP1DR, is due out.
This ain’t your Daddy’s LCD HDTV, it features a 160GB hard drive for recording HD shows and movies. It also includes a card reader for pulling photos off of your memory cards.
160gb allows for 13 hours of HD content storage, or up to 63 hours of SD content.
Via Gizmodo
Cinderella Man comes out on DVD today. A great flick with Russell Crowe and Renée Zellweger.
This film earns an 8 out of 10 stars by picky viewers like you and me at the imdb.com.
Plot Outline: The story of Depression-era fighter and folk hero Jim Braddock, who defeated heavyweight champ Max Baer in a 15-round slugfest in 1935.
Rated PG-13 for intense boxing violence and some language.
Runtime: 144 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Sound Mix: DTS / Dolby Digital / SDDS
Highly recommended.
Rent this movie at netflix online. Free 10 day trial - movies sent to your mailbox with a free return mailer include. Great service!
Just have announced a new DLP home theater projector, the MT400. It is a widescreen 16:9 unit with the Matterhorn 576p DMD chip from Texas Instruments.
“The days of high-quality DLP Home Cinema projectors being unaffordable are over, thanks to the MT400, Toshiba’s latest dedicated 16:9 DLP home cinema projector.
This affordable home cinema projector has been designed and configured specifically for the consumer market. Thanks to the acclaimed Matterhorn 576P DMD™ chip from TI, its native Wide PAL resolution (1024 x 576) perfectly matches the format of our European broadcast TV and DVD, avoiding the need to rescale and therefore delivering exact and undistorted pictures from the source.
Its 3000:1 contrast ratio and 6-segment colour wheel produce exceptional picture quality and life-like tones, while the TrueVision De-Interlacer and Scaler ensure a smooth, enhanced visual performance.
The MT400 features excellent connectivity, including component video, S-Video and composite video inputs for increased versatility. An all digital DVI (Digital Visual Interface) connector is also included that is HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) compatible via an adapter. Both HDMI and DVI have the capacity to support high definition video formats, 720p, 1080i and even 1080p.
The MT400 has the looks to match its performance with a stylish silver and pearl exterior to complement any home, while the low operating noise will ensure the projector remains unobtrusive when in use.
Weighing just 2.8kg the MT400 is highly portable and can be easily transferred between rooms. Its lightweight design is coupled with compact dimensions (298×101x275mm) so it is also easy to store when not in use.”
Rear projection sales were up 3% in October, even though there was a 2.7% drop in shipments.
The average street price jumped 5.5% for the month, according to Rosemary Abowd, vice president of PMA. The key reason for this large increase was the dramatic growth in the proportion of sales coming from the 1080p resolution microdisplay-technology segment, which moved from 13% in August to 24% in September, and then jumped further to 32% in October, Abowd noted.
It seems the numbers are a reflection of the shift to larger displays with newer technology, like the Sony SXRD units.
“The portion of 50-55 inch models went from 32% to 36%, and accounted for 40% of the total revenues, up from 34% in September. The growing popularity of LCOS (liquid-crystal-on-silicon) models, including D-ILA from JVC and the premium-priced SXRD from Sony, also helped boost street prices.”
Rear Projection Sales and Shipments in October
Matsushita, makers of Panasonic and JVC products, have closed CRT plants in Europe and the US.
The plant in Germany made CRTs for big screen TVs. The US plant made CRTs for bigscreens and projection TVs.
Just another sign that Plasma, LCD, DLP and the rest are taking over.
The CRT is dead, long live the CRT.
Panasonic-Toshiba CRT plants close in Europe, US
Via HD Beat
Epson gets into the home theater game with two new LCD rear projection models, the 55 inch ELS-55GL1 and the 65 inch ELS-65GL1.
These bad boys come with Onkyo sound systems! HDMI, VGA inputs and a USB port for a printer. They also include a memory card slot for photo viewing. (yeah, they’re still a printer company too)
The 65″ model should retail for a bit over $5800 and the 55″ unit should be around $5000 when they start shipping next month.
More products means more competition which is always better for the consumer. I can’t help but wonder if Epson know what they’re getting into, though.
Epson Launches 55 and 65 inch 1080p LCD Projection HDTVs
Via Gizmodo
The Yamaha YSP-800 Digital Sound Projector wins gadget of the week at Time.com.
This compact surround sound system is all in one unit. It uses digital delay and electronic trickery to get your brain to think you’re hearing sound from all sides. And it works!
You’d definitely want to consider a separate sub, however.
This unit has simple connections, and is great for mounting directly under your display.
“I compared the YSP-800 to a mid-priced surround-sound setup with Acoustic Research speakers powered by Pioneer’s VSX-72TXV receiver (more on the Pioneer receiver in the coming weeks). I was impressed by how well the sound projector could replace the five speakers that are carefully positioned—ugly exposed wiring and all—around my TV room. The speakers give a little more midrange than the sound projector, but when it came to the tinkling of glass or rushing of wind in the surround channel, both rigs gave me a satisfying feeling of immersion.”
Yamaha YSP-800 Digital Sound Projector
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