Sony shows off new home cinema systems

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Sony has launched a range of home cinema systems in time for the holidays, so if you’ve got a bit of money to spare and want an all-in-one package, these are worth considering.

First up is the HTP-BD3iS, which combines Sony’s BDP-S350 Blu-ray player and HT-IS100 5.1-channel surround sound system that features subwoofer, powerful S-Master digital amplification, surround sound processing, and automatic audio calibration…

Denon DVD-A1UD high-end universal Blu-ray player

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Okay, I’ll have to admit I asked for this a bit. In my last post about Denon Blu-ray players I demanded to know what Denon would describe as ‘high-end’, after their ‘entry-level’ player cost £600.

Well, this is it. It’s the catchily-named DVD-A1UD, and it’ll play back Blu-ray discs, Super Audio CD (SACD), DVD-Audio, DVD-Video and plain old CDs. The DVD-A1UD is the replacement for the Denon’s previous universal DVD player – the DVD-A1XV. Full specs are over the jump.

It costs a massive £3,300. I can safely say that I don’t know anyone who’d splash out £3,300 on a DVD player, but someone must, or they wouldn’t make the damn thing. It’s going to show up across Europe in March 2009, in either a silver or black finish. Who knows, perhaps by then you’ll be rolling around in pots of money. Denon can only hope.

Medion launches Akoya P8610 18" media centre notebook

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Medion, the mid-range laptop producer who sell great machines at surprisingly low prices, yesterday announced the Akoya P8610 at Dolby’s sound laboratories in deepest darkest Soho. It’s a whopping 18.4″ beast of a machine, with Blu-ray drive, and some awesome Dolby sound-enhancing technology. Let’s take a look in more detail.

The aforementioned 18.4″ screen runs at 1,680 x 945 resolution, which the astute among you will recognise as 16:9 aspect ratio. The Dolby audio system will happily output in 5.1 surround, or alternatively you can use the surround virtualisation filter on a stereo signal to make it sound like it’s a surround source, either on a speaker system or on headphones.

Sharp intros new 46-inch AQUOS HDTV and Blu-ray player

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Sharp has added another size to its range of D65 high definition LCD TVs. The 46 inch version, the largest yet released, features a full 1080p panel, 20,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 450cd/m2 brightness, and a reasonable 6ms response time.

Three HDMI inputs will enable you to connect up all your high-def gear, and there’s a built-in Freeview digital tuner plus two SCART ports for connecting other equipment and a USB slot for memory sticks or cameras.

Featuring two 10W speakers, the set shouldn’t embarrass itself if you don’t plan on hooking it up to an audio system. Sound features include automatic volume control and clear voice technology…

Bad eyes or missing equipment? One in five Americans can't tell HD from SD

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One in five Americans can’t tell the difference between high definition and standard definition TV according to a recent piece of research.

In fact, that’s probably a little misleading. More people probably would be able to tell the difference if they were shown a standard definition broadcast and a high definition broadcast (or, better yet, a Blu-ray film) side-by-side. What’s actually happening is that viewers aren’t sure when they’re watching normal TV and when they’re viewing higher resolution TV.

There are likely many reasons for this problem…

Onkyo launches first Blu-ray player: DV-BD606

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Onkyo, which made its high definition disc player debut on the HD DVD side last year, has finally launched its own Blu-ray player.

Focusing far more on video and audio quality than on the newer interactive features of Blu-ray, this Profile 1.1-compliant player offers full 1080p playback including 24fps “film mode”, Deep Colour via HDMI, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio formats including direct bitstream output via HDMI or 7.1-channel audio output, and superb audio quality thanks to a 192kHz/24-bit DAC from Burr-Brown…

Denon announces 'entry-level' premium Blu-Ray player

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If this is ‘entry-level’, then I’m mildly terrified to see what Denon would describe as ‘high-end’. Oh wait. Now I’m scared. Anyway, back to the DVD-1800-BD. It’s a Blu-Ray player. It’s got HDMI 1.3a, full bit stream output of Dolby and DTS-HD audio, and 1080p upscaling of DVDs and 2-channel audio. It’s also got a stereo output, if you want to use it as a very expensive CD player.

There’s an SD card slot, too, and it incorporates a secondary audio and video decoder for picture-in-picture functionality, if you can handle watching two things at once. It’s going to be available at the start of December, and cost a whopping ‘entry-level’ £600. It’ll be available in Black and Silver.

Denon

Related posts: Denon shows off super-high-end DVD-3800BD Blu-ray player | Denon DP-200USB turntable – the stylish way to turn your records into mp3s

Allio's 42" Blu-ray-playing all-in-one media HDTV with BONUS PC in the case

Ladies and gentlemen! Roll up! Roll up! The gadget freak show is in town! Here, behind a wall of steel for your safely, is the Silicon Mountain Allio – a 32″ or 42″ HDTV that also squeezes a Core 2 Duo PC and Blu-ray player into its case.

It even manages PVR-like recording features thanks to its PC bit’s hard drive. Plus you can split the screen if your brain’s capable of multitasking and you want to watch TV, browse the internet and play video games simultaneously because you’re THAT CONNECTED. Here’s a look at the beast…

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Careful, she’s hungry! The 42″ model does the full 1080p spec, with the…

Denon shows off super-high-end DVD-3800BD Blu-ray player with "wonder" DVD upscaling

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If you thought standard Blu-ray players were still a bit pricey, wait ’til you see Denon’s DVD-3800BD, which comes in at a cool £1,600.

For that, you do get some superior technology, including reference-standard Blu-ray disc playback offering Denon’s best pictures to date, with fantastic audio reproduction to match.

Denon is the first manufacturer to use the 10-bit Silicon Optix Realta chipset, as well as HQV video processing, digital noise reduction, and 12-bit/297MHz video DAC…