About Electronics

TimesOnline: Whether it’s the crash-bang surround-sound effects of an action movie or the stirring theme of an epic, audio is vital to the cinematic experience. So it’s a shame that many home theatre systems (a DVD player, a surround-sound amplifier and often speakers) sacrifice acoustic quality to keep prices low. You get plenty of somic boom for your money, but nothing subtle. That’s most evident when you want to enjoy, say, a Shakira concert, and is even more noticeable when playing albums in stereo.

Home cinema that sounds as good as a high quality CD system is appealing and negates the need for a separate hi-fi, reducing clutter. But penny-pinching aside, there are technical reasons why it is hard for one system to perform both tasks well. The five small satellite speakers plus subwoofer routinely employed by home cinema are not suited to producing a sophisticated performance in stereo, and nor are most surround-sound amplifiers and DVD players.

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Electronista: Bang & Olufsen launched the BeoVision 7, a 40-inch LCD designed to minimize the number of extra components for a full home theater. The 1080p-native display incorporates a DVD player as with some mainstream sets, but also includes its own 7.1-channel surround sound decoder and a center-channel speaker that can be had in one of two models depending on the audio environment.

A basic BeoLab 7-2 speaker provides stereo for smaller areas; the vertical BeoLab 7-4 in turn is meant to fit into a larger surround setup and provides added treble to dialog and other sounds unlikely to remain exclusively in side channels.

The Danish firm’s design touches also come into play through the automated technology. In addition to a display that automatically compensates for light levels, both the included floor stand or wall mounts feature tilt and turn motors that can be adjusted manually via remote and even cued to automatically visit certain positions when the TV set is turned on or off. The DVD loader also hides until it’s cued up by the user, Bang & Olufsen says.

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HDTV UK: Onkyo has announced that, over the coming two months, it will launch seven new home cinema receivers to the UK market, with prices ranging from £200 (approx. 295 Euro) to £1400 (approx. 2064 Euro), which it claims will give it the one of the most comprehensive receiver ranges of any manufacturer.

In addition, all of its models priced over £400 (approx. 560 Euro) will feature integrated on-board decoding for the high definition audio formats Dolby Digital Plus, True HD, DTS-HD, and DTS-HD Master Audio.

All models will feature 1080p compatible HDMI 1.3a inputs and outputs, plus Audyssey microphone-based auto setup.

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HDTV UK: Sony has shown off its new “Whole House” HD video entertainment solution. Presumably the idea is for Sony to whip in early, at the very beginning of the house construction process, and sell an integrated system that will network the home ready for lots of (Sony) high definition goodness.

Their NHS-1040, NHS-2040, and NHS-3040 systems feature up to 13 zones of HD video distribution, and a Blu-ray disc player.

The top-of-range NHS-3040 rack also incorporates a 7.1 HDMI home theatre with LCD touch-panel remote control, a 400-disc DVD/CD changer with management system, an 80GB music server, radio tuner, HD cable/satellite support, and three auxiliary inputs. Each separate zone has in-wall keypads for controlling it all.

“Integrated home entertainment is becoming a more important factor for new home buyers in the custom and semi-custom market,” said Neal Manowitz, director of marketing for Sony Electronics’ consumer systems and applications division.

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Engadget: If you’re inclined to go big and multi-room with audio and video, Sony has unveiled some distribution products for you, with two sets of high-definition video distribution products — one for new construction, and one using existing Cat5 cabling.

The NHS-3040 rack system is for new homes, and combines various Sony products for a whole-house distribution network: a home theater, XM Radio tuner, Blu-ray player, 400-disc DVD changer, and 80GB music storage and management server, along with support for 13 different audio/video zones.

The NHS-2040 model drops you down to six zones, while the NHS-1040 removes the changer as well.

For existing wiring, Sony offers up the CAV-CVS12ES HD switching system, which uses a single Cat5e per zone to route your video into up to 12 zones, and supports eight 1080p-capable component inputs.

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Engadget: Sony has recently launched their micro DAV-IS10 home theatre system, with speakers almost the size of golf balls.

Their 5.1 channel home-theatre-in-a-box features 5 of the tiny speakers matched with a sub offering 450 watts of total system power (satellite speakers 50W x 5, plus 2-way subwoofer 100W x 2).

The system features Sony’s new BRAVIA Theater Sync technology for communicating with BRAVIA panels over HDMI and should be easy to setup with the help of Sony’s Digital Cinema Auto Calibration optimization tech.

The systems’ 720p/1080i upscaling DVD/CD player features touch-sensitive controls and a Digital Media Port for attaching accessories such as the TDM-NC1 WiFi audio streamer, TDM-BT1 for Bluetooth streaming, and TDM-IP1 iPod dock.

The system will be available in July for $800 (around €600).

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Here’s the LX01, Pioneer’s latest home cinema system that has been designed to be used with the company’s newest flat screen TV’s.

Due for commercial release in October this year, the LX01 includes:

• a 250GB hard disk DVD recorder with digital terrestrial tuner
• HDMI with 1080p scaling
• a dual-drive subwoofer receiver
• four distinctive 3-dimensional shaped satellite speakers; a speaker design technology unique to Pioneer
• an LCD touch-screen remote control and separate display.

Highlights of this beauty are, in particular, the speaker design.  Using the dodecahedron speaker concept (a dodecahedron is a geometric shape with 12 sides), the speakers deliver an ‘omni-directional’ sound.

Conventional speakers generate directional sound, whereas these 3-dimensional speakers generate sound fields in all directions. The effect is very similar to musical instruments being played in alive performance.

Apparently, you’ll find it difficult to discern which speaker produces which sound.

No word on price as yet.

More: LX01 product news page

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Uncrate: No poolside party is complete with out your very own Widescreen Outdoor Theater ($2,500/3,000 – about 1845/2215 euro).

This outdoor entertainment package includes a 12-foot or 8-foot inflatable screen, an Optoma projector with tripod, and duffel bag for screen storage. Video images can be projected up to 359-inches, just in case you have an Olympic-size swimming pool.

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Hometheater Mag: Like two pit bulls tussling over a piece of rotten meat, CEDIA and Bose have been at war over the right to use the word “lifestyle.” The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has finally ruled that Bose may not prevent CEDIA from using the déclassé cliché.

CEDIA, the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association, has been promoting what it awkwardly calls Electronic Lifestyles products, services, and events since 1997. Bose has been using the nauseating term Lifestyle even longer, applying it to music systems since 1990. (…)

“We look forward to receiving an apology from Bose—in whatever form it might take,” said a former president of CEDIA. The English language, suffering from internal injuries and shock, was reported to be in stable condition.

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Hidefster: An article from the U.K’s Digit Magazine reports that Sony is rolling out a new digital cinema projector that can display theatrical movies at a resolution four times clearer than HDTV.  Sony hopes that theater owners looking to lure high-def owners back to the movies will purchase the projector and its supporting system.

The company showcased the digital cinema projector earlier this month during the world premiere of Spiderman 3 in Tokyo.  “The result (was) a spectacular image that’s a rank above what you might be used to seeing at the movies,” the magazine reported.
“The projector outputs an image with 4,096-x-2,160 pixels resolution, which is double that of HDTV both horizontally and vertically to result in more than 8 million pixels versus about 2 million on HDTV. ” (…)

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Newlaunches: The latest Digital Media Port accessory from Sony is the TDM-NC1. This cube, when connected to the BRAVIA’s DMP let’s you stream music from your PC straight to your home theater; via the home WiFi network.

The cube features a bright, digital screen that displays the song, artist and other audio information. It is compatible with ATRAC, AAC and WMA music files. It is equipped with ethernet port for wired connection. The WiFi router is not included in the pack. It is also not compatible with all digital music files and DRM protected file playback only from CONNECT Music download service.

Sony’s new DMP- TDM-NC1 is not compatible with Apple computers. It requires PC with Microsoft Windows XP SP2 operating system or newer. Its available for €150.

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About: Contrast ratio is the difference between the brightest whites and the blackest blacks that a television or video projector can display. High contrast ratios deliver whiter whites and blacker blacks and a greater degree of gray values in between. If the contrast ratio is low, even if the image is bright, your image will look washed out.
Contrast ratios of at least 1,500:1 are good, but 2,000:1 or higher is considered excellent.

> There’s more to read on contrast ratio at Wikipedia.
> Or read the “contrast ratio” tagged articles, here at About Electronics.

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