Category: Home cinema
HD DVD owners in Switzerland can trade for Blu-ray players, sez Sony
Bless the Swiss. Not only do they give the rest of the world chocolate, Swiss cheese, and beautiful people, but they’re also offering HD DVD owners the opportunity to trade in their obsolete format for a Blu-ray player.
Surprisingly, it’s Sony who’re offering the trade, marking Switzerland as the first country on the map to do so. When buying the BDP-S500…
Panasonic rolls out a bevy of Viera Plasma TVs, three series' worth: the PZ85, PZ80 and PX80
A slew of new flat-screens from Panasonic have been announced in the past 24 hours, with a bunch of Plasmas being the first port of call.
Let’s get the most exciting news over with first – the manufacturer has announced their first 46″ model, alongside three new model series, the PZ85, PZ80 and PX80.
Firstly, the 1080p PZ85 will come in a 46″ model (TH-46PZ85B) and 42″ (TH-42PZ85B), from March. They’ll have a contrast ratio of 30,000:1 along with a VIERA Link and 24p Real Cinema technology. Another significant…
At 0.7-inches, the bezel on NEC's MultiSync LCD5220 TV is thinner than Toshiba's
For those who judge the quality of their consumer electronics by how expensive they are, this NEC MultiSync LCD5220 TV costs a cool $8,150. UK pricing hasn’t been mentioned as yet, but you can bet your bottom dollar (and you’ll have to, if you want one) the exchange rate will make it even pricier for us.
It’s a 52-incher, and is supposedly the market’s first professional-grade panel display. It’d have to be, at that price. Thankfully it supports…
Panasonic's DMP-BD30 Blu-ray player is out next week, for £349
Panasonic’s DMP-BD30 has been given a UK release date of next week, several months after the US market had an opportunity to marvel at the ‘next-generationalness’ of the $499.95 player.
With full 1080p playback, it also features *deep breath* Final Standard Profile functionality, picture-in-picture, audio mixing, Panasonic’s…
New Blu-ray players from Sony announced, the BDP-S350 and BDP-S550
UK pricing and availability hasn’t been confirmed for these two new Blu-ray models, but at US$400 and $500 respectively we can probably expect them to be around £400 and £500 each if Sony glance upon XE.com and choose to ignore what they’re told.
The two models, the BDP-S350 and BDP-S550 both contain Ethernet ports enabling BD-Live content to be perused and even downloaded if the user fancies, to a USB device plugged into the USB port. Other similarities include Sony’s picture-in-picture BonusView, and upscaling of DVDs to 1080p.
The only differences appear to be in the audio department, with the S550 having 7.1 channel analogue outputs and supporting DTS-HD and Master audio support, with both supporting Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus as expected. They can…
Sony launches Bravia DAV-DZ home theatre systems
Sony has more home theatre systems on the market to match up with our Bravia TV – the DAV-DZ range.
R2-D2 home projector available for pre-order in Europe – in limited numbers
We told you it was coming last month and now it’s finally available for pre-order – the R2-D2 home projector that is.
The Toshiba ZF series – with 23mm wide bezel
I do realise this is the third glossy black TV I’ve put up in the last hour, which is why I’ve included every camera angle possible for them so far – had Toshiba launched a fourth series of TVs, I probably would’ve included a bird’s eye shot or even reverse upside-down. Got to keep it fresh, yanno?
With the largest price-tag of the three new series, the ZF is their new flagship series under the REGZA umbrella. They’re sporting those ultra-thin bezels we saw at CES, at just 0.9″ wide, and with three sizes…
More Toshiba REGZA tellies, the XV series with full 1080p
Another series for Toshiba presented this week, the XV series is housed under the REGZA brand, and carries some new technology, including audio description, game mode and Active Vision LCD Picture Processing.
With the usual 32″, 37″ and 42″ models available, they’ll each have 1920 x 1080 resolution (that’s full 1080p), three HDMI sockets, a digital tuner, and contrast ratio of up to 30,000:1.
All of Toshiba’s new series debuted this week – the CV, XV and ZF, will carry the aforementioned Game Mode, which gives 1:1 pixel mapping using Exact Scan, and increases response time dramatically. Not only…
Upgrade your CRT telly to Toshiba's new CV series – WXGA 32, 37 and 42"
In addition to the numerous DVD players, camcorders and laptops Toshiba has launched, they also updated their C series of LCD TVs, and renamed it CV.
Comprising of 32″, 37″ and 42″ models, they don’t quite have the 1080p resolution the industry bandies around as being the be all and end all, with these TVs being aimed at upgraders who’ve discarded their CRTs.
They’ll offer 1366 x 768 resolution…
