About Electronics

AVZombie: The latest projector in Sanyo’s well-regarded Z series, the HD Ready PLV-Z5, will ship in November. Unlike many of its upcoming rivals, it’s not a 1080p design, instead it offers 1280×720 resolution with 1100 ANSI lumens and a contrast ratio of 10,000:1.

The unit has horizontal and vertical lens shift, electronic keystone correction and twin HDMI inputs. Beneath the hood is a 12-bit video processor. To help minimise dust build-up, the PLV-Z5 also features Sanyo’s trademark automatic on/off slide shutter. Fan noise is rated at 22dB.

More tech specs at Sanyo Europe. The PLV-Z5 will sell for around 1,400 pounds (2080 EUR).

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Ubergizmo: Yamaha has introduced a new flat panel surround sound system that boasts 40 individually-amped drivers.

The YSP-1100 Digital Sound Projector utilises Yamaha’s very own CINEMA DSP technology which is compatible with the Dolby Digital, DTS, Dolby Pro Logic II, and DTS Neo:6 sound formats.

There are 5 different sound settings: 5-Beam Mode, Stereo Mode, 3-Beam Mode, Stereo+3-Beam Mode and My Beam Mode for your listening pleasure.

The YSP-1100 will retail for $1,699.95 (around €1,340).

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AV Zombie: Harman Kardon’s new integrated home entertainment Digital Lounge packages have begun shipping.   The first of these, the Lounge 532, includes a 32-inch LCD TV, a DVD-Audio player/receiver, a 5.1-channel home theater loudspeaker system, two floor stands and a single remote control. It will retail for just under €4,500.

Harman says the player can up-convert standard definition to 1080i via HDMI and is compatible with CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, Windows Media Audio (WMA), MP3, DivX and MP3 formats.  The receiver also has two USB inputs.

The LCD screen is based on Samsung glass and sports a viewing angle of 170 degrees.

The Digital Lounge series will expand to include 40-inch and 46-inch LCD screens, with gloss-black speaker packages, priced at around €5,500 and €8,000 respectively.

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Home Theater Blog: Marantz recently unveiled five new surround receivers, retailing between €450 and €1,500.  Several of the new receivers have 4 HDMI inputs, compared to the standard 2/3 HDMI inputs found on many other A/V receivers.

First up in the line is the SR4001 Dolby Digital EX/DTS ES Surround Receiver, followed by the SR5001 XM Ready Surround Sound Receiver.

Moving up a little farther into the line is the ZR6001SP with “DAvED technology” (Digital Audio via Electrical Distribution).  DAvED is a multi-room audio distribution standard, which allows for plug and play multi-zone operation.

Pushing into the upper tier, is the SR7001 THX Select2 Surround Sound A/V Receiver with 4-in/1-out HDMI (version 1.2).

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VNUNet: Consumer electronics sales are booming in western Europe – consumers have spent some 18 per cent more in the first half of 2006 than in the same period last year, according to a new report on consumer spending from GfK.

The sector is benefiting from consumers investing more money in expensive and higher value consumer electronics products. GfK is predicting that Europeans will have spent €44bn by the end of the year.

In western Europe, 61 per cent of total sales in the industry during the first half of 2006 were generated in the UK, Germany and France. The greatest proportion, 25 per cent, was attributable to the UK.

This was followed by the German market with a share of 19 per cent and France with 17 per cent. The remainder is spread across seven other western European countries in which GfK collects data.

Sweden tops the growth charts with sales up 23 per cent compared to the first half of 2005. Sales were up year-on-year by 20 per cent in France and 18 per cent in the UK.

TVs are the strongest growth driver in consumer electronics and sales are up 35 per cent on the first half of 2005. The main reason is consumers increasingly turning away from traditional CRT sets and switching to flat-screen LCD or plasma models.

Sales of LCD TVs were up 125 per cent. TVs with 32in screens and over were particularly popular, with one in three consumers buying a set of this size.

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Electronichouse.com: “Watching a movie from the comfort of your own home theater or media room can only be as comfortable as the seats you’re planted in. So if you’re looking to add comfortable furniture, Bell’O has a new line of leather reclining chairs, the HTS-100. (…) The leather chair comes with removable cup holders for your slurpee.”

Retail price for the HTS-100 chair is $999.99 (about 780 EUR). Funny how its name sounds as technical as most tv-sets you could use it for.
It looks very comfy indeed. But at this price, you could almost buy yourself a new LCD.

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Home Theater Blog: Toshiba will be releasing two new HD DVD players – the HD-E1 and HD-XE1 – into the European market.  Retail price wil be around €599 and €899 respectively.

The HD-E1 (pictured) will be available in November, and supports 720p and 1080i HD video output. 

The HD-XE1 will be available in Devember, and will support up to 1080p HD video output.

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The Digital Bits writes about how Samsung, Sony and Pioneer are fixing firmware compatibility issues with 50GB Blu-Ray Discs.
“Samsung didn’t have final product 50 GB movie discs to test their firmware with before they launched, so they’re having problems getting the players working with these discs now. Sony and Pioneer are also working hard to resolve compatibility issues on their forthcoming hardware. I’m sure that all of these issues are fixable with firmware upgrades, and I have no doubt that the issues WILL be fixed. But up until a couple weeks ago, I was told that Samsung at least was STILL having problems. As you can imagine, there are a few studios that are anxious to get these 50 GB BD-ROM discs to work properly…” 
Check out their High Definition Movie Release list too. 

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AV Zombie: All of Yamaha’s new AV receivers for 2006-2007 use traditional analogue powerplants – primarily because they believe that the sound of modern digital amplification does not meet their high standards.

Yamaha’s Product and Marketing Manager Hiroshi Kondo, explains: “Of course, we continue to study the technology and we have a lot of choice when it comes to using digital LSIs, but the sound quality is not yet at the level we want. We currently have no plans to put digital amps into our AV products.”

Their new receiver line up includes the RX-N600 DAB receiver, DSP-AX759SE amplifier (pictured above), RX-V559 DAB receiver, the RX-V2700 (an update on the best-selling RX-V2600) receiver, HDMI-ready RX-V1700 receiver, RX-V459 DAB receiver and entry-level RX-V359 receiver.

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EDA Geek: Samsung has developed the world’s first 70-inch LCD panel for consumer use – due to be unveiled later this week.

They will begin producing the 70-inch during the first half of 2007, bolstering Samsung’s position in the ultra-large-screen TV segment. The company will then also be in a position to compete head-to-head with plasma and projection TV makers.

Their 70-inch boasts full high-definition resolution (1080p) and a conical viewing angle of 180 degrees.

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Manufacturers use superlatives too often. But if one single product deserves the name ‘Pearl‘, it would be this 1080p SXRD projector by Sony: the VPL-VW50.
Specs: full 1920×1080 resolution, 5000:1 contrast ratio, 200 watt lamp, 900 lumens, manual horizontal and vertical lens shift and 2 HDMI inputs.

(source: hometheaterblog.com)

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In most of Europe, the Philips HTS6500 home cinema system is already out since June 2006. But recently the renowned people of Cnet wrote a favourable review. Time to have a closer look.

Bottom line: the unremarkable sound quality of the Philips HTS6500 is outweighed by its winning combination of slick aesthetics, impressive features, and affordable pricing.

Read the full review at Cnet.com
For pricing and availability, please contact your local distributor.

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