Home theater mag takes a good look at this Pioneer A/V receiver.

Here are the findings:

Build Quality: 93
• Quality internals
• Solid build

Value: 94
• A lot of bang for the buck at this price
• Rare and valuable tricks you won’t find anywhere else

Features: 97
• All the standard bases covered, and much, much more
• Rare tricks like iPod and XM radio inputs and MCACC automatic calibration system

Performance: 93
• Warm, inviting sound
• More musical than most midpriced receivers

Ergonomics: 97
• MCACC does it all for you—and quite well
• No problem if you’re a do-it-yourselfer, thanks to a quality remote and graphic user interface

Overall Rating: 94
The VSX-72TXV does a whole lot, and it does so very well. It’s got the performance and tweakability to keep seasoned audio veterans happy and the approachability and user-friendliness to win over even the most technophobic. There’s hardly a stone left unturned.

This is a great unit, worthy of a solid home theater experience.

Full Review

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has awarded LG with the “Best of Innovation” stamp in the Digital Display category.

The award goes to the new 50-inch Wireless Plasma HDTV Display, model 50PB2DW.

This unit will be on display at the 2006 CES in Las Vegas on January 5th-8th. Looking forward to more info on this piece of technology.

You heard it here first…

Press Release

Wow, a 50 inch plasma HDTV for less than $2700. Here is a review of the Vizio P50HDM, from personal tech pipeline.

The Good:
“The picture is everything you’d want in an HDTV monitor, although you’ll want to play with the settings a bit, the defaults are a bit dark. The unit will display 4:3 material in a variety of ways, either letterboxed, stretched, zoomed or panaranomically stretched (which leaves the center relatively undistorted while stretching out the edges.) It performed well, even in a well-lit room, putting out an impressive amount of image power.”

The Bad:
“There are only a few dings I can make against the unit. First, the remote makes you toggle between the doubled up inputs (HD1, then HD2, for example.) This is a pet peeve of mine, because it means you can’t program a remote with macro capabilities to set up your home theatre for a given setup. If you’re already on HD1, sending the command again is going to switch you to HD2. In other words, the remote is state-dependent. Also, the connectors are a bit awkward to get at (one of the downsides of wall-mounted displays.) ”

This is not the most in-depth plasma hdtv review, but it sounds like this model is worth a look.


Personal Tech Pipeline | Review: VIZIO P50HDM
Found: engadget

All Xbox 360 titles are to be available at Gamefly for the system’s November 22 launch. The currently have 33 games in the system.

Current most popular games at GameFly, as reported by teamxbox.

1 Call of Duty 2
2 Perfect Dark Zero
3 Quake 4
4 GUN
5 Need for Speed: Most Wanted
6 Dead or Alive 4
7 Condemned: Criminal Origins
8 Project Gotham Racing 3
9 Madden NFL 06
10 The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Join GameFly for a 10 day free trial. Pick the games you want to play, and Gamefly sends them to you via postal mail.

The games come with a free return mailer. When you are ready to return a title, simply seal it up in the mailer and put it in your mailbox for pickup.

I use GameFly myself and love the service. It’s like Christmas at the mailbox once a week.

Start your free trial here.

Oh boy, here we go. It seems like every time our Government gets involved with anything tech, they end up not quite “getting it.”

I’m getting that weird vibe now…

The federal government wants to pay for some U.S. residents to be able to watch television — the only question is how much.
The Senate’s budget bill, which passed last week, contains a $3 billion subsidy for owners of televisions that are not ready to handle the eventual transition to digital television.
The House budget bill, which ran into trouble Thursday but which will be on the floor this week, contains slightly less than $1 billion.

Both bills set a date when broadcasters must return their current licenses and instead broadcast a digital signal on a different part of the electronic spectrum.

The subsidy would go to pay for converter boxes, which would take the digital signal from the broadcasters and convert it so that it can be displayed by analog TVs. Televisions hooked up to cable or satellite would not need the converters, nor would televisions capable of receiving a digital signal.

Something tells me that 1-3 Billion could be put to much better use. But what do I know?


News Article
via TVsnob

IGN took a look for us at this 26 inch LCD HDTV. Though it’s not the biggest home theater screen, while selling around $999 (see below), this may be a good solution for those looking for a slick HD display for their xbox 360 next gen experience. Not to be confused with the Jimi Hendrix exp… ah nevermind.

Options for HD capable displays get pretty broad at price points above $1,700 (CRTs, DLPs, and low end Plasmas), but for those not yet ready to invest thousands in a new TV, the W2600 will let you get your foot in the high-definition door and your money’s worth out of your future XBox 360 and Playstation 3.

Full Review

The top war game on the xbox 360 has earned some high marks on the reviews front.

Check them out:

1UP - 9.0 Outstanding
Call of Duty 2 [is] the complete package. Online and off you get swept up in visceral thrills as good as any summer blockbuster movie. And like those, you won’t come away impressed by its thought-provoking drama or brilliant character portrayal…but you will have a big smile on your face. Review

GamePro - 5.0/5
Frankly put, Call of Duty 2 is simply breathtaking. The game runs standard in 720p with strikingly realistic detail on weapons and walls, emphasized by normal mapping, exceptional shading and lighting, specular highlights, and some absolutely phenomenal particle effects. Review

GameSpot - 8.8 Great
Call of Duty 2 is just about everything you’d hope for and expect from a next-generation first-person shooter. Its varied campaign, excellent sound and gameplay design, and generally good AI make it a worthy successor to the original game on the PC. Review

NextLevel Gaming - 92/100
This is a must-have game, bottom line. Unless you so despise shooters that you’re willing to buy every other launch title but this simply because it’s an FPS, you must pick this up when you get your system on Tuesday. Review

TeamXbox - 9
Judging by the overall package of Call of Duty 2, the Xbox 360 will have a long life as the alternative to high-end PC gaming. Infinity Ward has created a PC game for the 360 (with better graphics than the PC version to boot) and managed to include not only next-gen sounds and graphics, but also gameplay features that were basically impossible on the old hardware. Review

This title definitely looks like a winner. War is one of my favorite genres, I can’t wait to get my paws on this one.

< ---Buy it here

or rent it online at GameFly.

(10 day free trial - games sent to you via mail for free)

More news about MTV in HD this week.

In a rare attempt to put music videos back into MTV, the new channel will carry, believe it or not, actual videos and music.

The channel will have “hip hop, rock, country, pop, reggaeton, soul and other music, original music-based programming and other content.”

Hmmm… “original music-based original programming” and “other content.” Let’s hope it’s more about the music videos this time.

The channel is due to launch on January 16.

Source

InFocus IN76 - new photos.

This is the new InFocus 720p DLP projector. Not many specs are available yet, but on the back panel we can see the following inputs:

* Composite
* Component
* S-Video
* M1-DA
* HDMI
* 12v Trigger

This thing looks sweet, I’ll post more info as soon as it’s available.

InFocus 720p DLP Projector - Gizmodo

The latest and greatest under 3 grand for DLP projectors is the new Mitsubishi HC3000.

This machine just started shipping, and some reviews are starting to trickle in.

So, what’s the buzz all about? This thing has a native 720p resolution, the first DLP projector at that resolution to retail under $3000.

It’s also the first front projector to use the all new BrilliantColor tech from Texas Instruments. BrilliantColor uses a new chipset and color wheel design for, well you guessed it, more brilliant color. (tough stretch, that)

Being brand-spanking new, you won’t find this gem much less than the $2995 retail right now, maybe 100 bucks off. The other consideration, is this is a new machine with new tech - there may yet be some gemlins to indentify and eliminate from this product and its manufacturing.

Projector Central’s Review Conclusion:
“The Mitsubishi HC3000 may be viewed as a breakthrough product in the world of DLP technology for having pushed 1280×768 resolution to the lowest price points yet.

The pixel matrix of 768 lines, which is rare at this time in home theater projectors, adds a valuable dimension for those who wish to use their projector for both video and data display, as XGA and WXGA computer signals can be viewed in their native unscaled, and/or uncropped formats.

The BrilliantColor feature brightens up the picture and is an added benefit for most types of viewing material.

Overall, the HC3000 is a solid, impressive projector. We would have liked to see a longer zoom range and physical lens shift, features that would make the HC3000 more adaptable to a wider array of installation challenges and less dependent upon ceiling mounting.

Nevertheless, for those who have a room and seating layout into which the HC3000 can be accommodated with ease, it is an excellent product that will be able to deliver years of beautiful home theater entertainment.”


Mitsubishi HC3000 Full Review

[Via HD Blog