Chinese HD DVD Format - Phoenix Rising?

No, that's not a typo. Rising from the ashes of HD DVD, the Chinese version of the format is getting ready to launch. Yup — almost a year after the demise of HD DVD,  Shanghai United Optical Disc is set to power up its production line of CBHD by the end of the fourth quarter.  CBHD (China Blue High-definition Disc), recently called CH-DVD (China High Definition DVD) is similar to HD DVD, but supposedly with more robust copy protection.

We gotta ask — what are they thinking?

Polk Debuts SoundBar 360

People with lots of speaker cabinets in their listening room can laugh all they want, but soundbars are still pretty cool. This newest kind of speaker fits neatly under your flat screen, and creates a good, if not great, soundfield. In some cases, the soundbar system contains all sorts of other electronics. Case in point is the new SoundBar 360 from Polk.

The SoundBar 360 contains a speaker system (eight drivers total), along with a DVD/CD player, AM/FM tuner, multichannel amplifier, and soundfield processor. The bar is sizable (44-1/2 inches wide) so make sure your screen is appropriately wide too. Note that the SoundBar does not contain a Blu-ray player. Interesting.

The SoundBar 360 comprises two units. The bar itself, and a console, connected via a single cable. Onboard are multiple inputs: RCA, optical digital, coaxial digital, S-Video, component video, HDMI, and USB. There is no external subwoofer, but there is a subwoofer output line. The bar is 44-1/2 (W) x 4-7/8 (D) x 4-1/8 (H) inches. The console is 16-1/2 (W) x 11-1/2 (D) x 3-3/16 (H) inches. The SurroundBar 360 will be available in September. Retail price is $1,199.

A larger question is whether soundbars represent a new direction in the audio market....

Bohemian Rhapsody

The Apple iTunes store will go down in history as a textbook success story. Other music services, such as Rhapsody, might just go down as footnotes.  While iTunes has prospered, Rhapsody has struggled. The service offers over 5 million songs, but employs a subscription business model. Users essentially rent their music, paying a monthly fee of about $15 a month, and can play as much music as they want. However, if you don't ante up the monthly nut, you lose access to your tunes.

Unfortunately for Rhapsody, most consumers have opted for the iTunes model, where they buy their music a la carte. For 99 cents a tune, you download the song you want, and it's yours forever (within digital rights limits). Maybe it's a fear of commitment, maybe it's just one monthly fee too many, but forever reason, that's the way it's shaking out.

Yahoo Music, once considered a serious force, threw in the towel, sold its assets to Rhapsody, and will shut down its music subscription service this September. Napster lost 75,000 subscribers last year, and has started up a non-subscription download store (adjunct to its subscription offerings. .

Lights out for Rhapsody and its subscriptions? Not quite....

Nice Rack

Are you interior-space challenged? Are your audio/video aspirations bigger than the cubby hole you call home? Do you live in Europe? Then Sharp has the answer to your prayers. The AN-PR1500H home cinema rack system is a triumph of form and function. It is an all-in-one home cinema system with 2.1 front surround speakers, an advertised 300 watts of output, integrated upscaling DVD/CD player, HDMI output, support for digital formats like DivX, MP3 and WMA, FM tuner, and even a clock/timer. A USB port lets you display photographs such as JPEGs. No need for additional wires or cables; it's all right there. The piano black finish should fit into most decors and best of all, the rack functions as a TV stand, comfortably holding screens up to 46 inches.

New Sony Bravia Home Theater Systems

Exciting news from the European front. A few months back, we showed off the latest Bravia speaker system from Sony, the HT-IS100, originally only available in Japan. Now Sony has that, plus two more complete systems for the European market.

The two other systems mimic the look, but each has its own advantages.

Target Targeting Home Installation Market

Just because you've bought your home theater equipment at bargain retailer Target doesn't mean you're going to be left on your own to figure out how to make it all work. Target just announced a partnership with Zip Express Installation. Zip will come out and do a variety of projects, ranging from wall-mounting your new flat screen TV, setting up a computer network, to building the DIY equipment rack that always seems to be missing a part.

How does it all work?

Royale Ripoff?

First, the facts: Sony Pictures will release a Blu-ray two-disc "collector's edition" of Casino Royale on October 21. This date coincides with a new DVD re-issue.

The technical specifications of the new set will be similar to the previous Blu-ray edition, released in March 2007. The title will be presented in 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 video and uncompressed PCM 5.1 Surround audio. New to the special edition, there will be a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround option.

Now, the commentary: This is fabulous news, and also disturbing. It is yet another example of a trend that is becoming all-too-familiar. First, a studio releases a film on DVD or Blu-ray, with essentially no bonus features. Then, a short while later, a deluxe edition appears. What do they think we are? Stupid?

40-in OLED in 2011?

Previous rumors about a 37-inch Panasonic OLED have been upgraded with more rumors describing a 40-inch Panasonic OLED. Japan's leading business newspaper, The Nikkei, reports that the 40-incher will be ready to roll by 2011. Matsushita (Panasonic) has not confirmed, or denied, that 40-inch speculation. But the company has stated that OLED is a technology of interest, and that it is setting up OLED production lines at a planned Japanese plant. Panasonic has invested $2.8 billion in the plant set to be running by 2010.

The Nikkei article continues by saying that OLED test production will begin in 2009, with mass production in 2011. This would put Panasonic in competition with Sony, Sharp, Samsung and other major manufacturers to develop huge-screen OLEDs. Sony has sold an 11-inch OLED TV since December 2007, and Samsung showed a 31-inch OLED TV prototype at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

It now appears that major financial commitment is being made toward OLED...

Sony's Stringer

Sony is one of the most recognized, and respected, corporate names in the world. How many Sony products do you have at home? But when's the last time you bought a Sony product? The electronics juggernaut struggled to cope with monumental technological changes such as personal computers, the internet, and MP3 players, as well as global economic changes such as the rapid shift to low labor-cost manufacturing. The company whose Walkman once owned the portable music player business watched as Apple's iPod took control. Perhaps even worse, it watched as flat-panel TVs crushed the revered, but suddenly old-fashioned, Trinitron.

To chart its future, and turn around the company, Sony called on Sir Howard Stringer. Forbes Magazine has a fascinating article, aptly titled, It Takes a Crisis, describing Sir Howard's mission to transform Sony. When president of CBS, Stringer famously hired David Letterman away from NBC. Later he spent six years running Sony's U.S. operation. Impressed, three years ago, Sony called upon him to run the entire show. As he says now, "Look, I didn't know what I was doing...."

SoundSense's Active Noise-canceling System

We all know and love noise-canceling headphones. Who can bear to fly without them, right? Now, imagine that same technology used in your home theater? Come on, who here has a completely acoustically quiet home theater? Between air-conditioners, electronics' fans, outside rumble, or even the dishwasher running down the hall, there are many noises that detract from the performance of your ultimate home theater, try as you might to eliminate them.

SoundSense has been known for passive acoustic solutions. Noise-reducing wall treatments and architectural designs were great, but there had to be more they could do. So, SoundSense has come up with a new concept in noise-reduction for home theaters. Active noise reduction. How's that work?

Netflix Sticking to Subscription Strategy

It seems like an interesting game. All the major players in the home-video market are jockeying for position — trying to position themselves in the one location that will remain viable in the future.

Netflix is sticking to what they know best. Their subscription-based service will hopefully remain strong as their free streaming service gains popularity.

See what Netflix CEO Reed Hastings had to say on their decision to focus on subscriptions.

Alas, Cassettes, We Hardly Knew Ye

I regret to inform you of the passing of the Compact Cassette. At the age of 45 (that's about 135 in technology years) the cassette finally succumbed to market forces. Cause of death, tragically, was the cassette's own offspring, the Compact Disc. In addition, digital downloading is suspected of foul play.

The Compact Cassette was developed by Philips and introduced in Europe in 1963 and in the U.S. in 1964. The cassette (cassette is a French word meaning 'little box') was originally designed as a dictation device, but technical improvements (such as Dolby B noise reduction) made the cassette suitable for music recording and playback. Partly because Philips gave out cassette licenses for free, and partly because of the Sony Walkman (the iPod of its day) the cassette became extremely popular and challenged the LP as the music carrier of choice.  The ability to record custom mixes on cassettes was a huge plus, particularly because the LP was a playback-only medium. The zenith of cassette technology was perhaps Nakamichi's Dragon cassette deck that offered excellent (for its day) sound quality.

Then Philips introduced the Compact Disc (borrowing the term 'Compact' from the previous invention) and the days of the cassette were numbered, particularly when recordable CDs became available. As music cassettes faded away, the cassette lingered on in the form of audio books, sales dwindling.

Recently, in the New York offices of publisher Hachette (the same outfit that owns Sound & Vision), a 'funeral' was held to mourn the passing of this 'dear friend.'  As reported by Andrew Adam Newman in The New York Times....

Blu for Two

Netflix is onboard the Blu-ray express. They dropped HD DVD like a hot potato, and now they are charging a little extra if you want to come home and find Blu-ray discs visiting a mailbox near you.

When you check the "I have a Blu-ray player" option in your account, it tacks $2 a month onto your plan. Then, you can start waiting in line for the BDs to arrive. (If you are signing up for a new account, you get a two-week free trial, so you get 50% off the Blu-ray premium for the first month.)  Now, that's not a $2 surcharge per disc, it's a flat $2 per month. If you amortize that over enough discs, it's not a big deal. What might be a bad deal is that this can be seen as a price hike over existing plans, and a way for NF to make a quick extra buck on BD....

A Million to One: LG's New LED-backlit LCD TV

LG is making a splash this summer with a rather impressive lineup of new products, obviously not waiting for the holiday buying season. One of the latest announcements is a new 47-inch model with 120Hz frame-rate processing.

Not for the budget-conscious, the 47LG90 is a 1080p LCD model that uses an array of 1,536 individual LEDs, combined into 128 blocks of 12 LEDs to provide local dimming regions that vary between full brightness or fully shut down.   

What does all that mean in terms we can actually understand?

More Matrix

We've already alerted you to the forthcoming release of the Ultimate Matrix Collection on Blu-ray. Now Warner Brothers is whetting appetites with more details. The seven-disc box set will hit store shelves on October 14. The set will include the trilogy (of course) as well as an hour of special features on each film. This includes the In-Movie Experience, The Animatrix (in high definition), and a whopping 35 hours of various bonus material. You'll also get a digital copy of The Matrix. Perhaps even better, the audio tracks for the trilogy will use 5.1-channel Dolby TrueHD (lossless ) coding. It is gratifying to see that studios are taking advantage of Blu-ray's ability to avoid lossy audio compression. Dolby Digital and DTS were fine, but nothing beats lossless (not even the original tracks).

Anyway, the downside to the whole thing is the breathtaking list price of $129.95. That's just way too much, considering that two movies in the trilogy were mediocre at best. What the world really wants is the original flick on Blu-ray. Meanwhile, you can pony up for this big box version.

However, if you decide to buy it, for heaven's sake, don't pay list. The boxes aren't even on the UPS trucks yet, and the title is already being heavily discounted....

Dishing It Out

The DISH Network has unveiled what is being called the biggest HD upgrade in pay TV history. They'll beam down 1080p programming, and up to 150 national HD channels; that's an industry first.

Their 100% all-HD suite of programming packages will be called TurboHD. Seventeen more national HD channels will go online immediately, and that exceeds DISH's goal of beaming 100 national HD channels, five months of schedule. Phase two is to increase that number to 150 HD channels by the end of 2008. That is possible courtesy of their Echo XI satellite, the newest and most powerful bird in their fleet.

The new HD services are supported by a proprietary system upgrade that is being rolled out to all MPEG-4 HD and HD DVR receivers starting August 1. The upgrade activates features in the set-top boxes, allowing the ability to output 1080p programming. DISH customers with MPEG-4 HD and HD DVR receivers will have the only set-top boxes in the nation enabled to display 1080p content, hopefully on their 1080p HDTV sets....

Hitachi's New 1TB DVR Drive – Shhh, Be Very Quiet

Don't you hate it when your perfectly tuned, acoustically isolated sound system is ruined by the steady hum of your DVR? Hitachi just announced two new hard drives destined for DVR use that tackle that problem, combine high storage with low power consumption, plus have variety of added benefits. The star of the show is the CinemaStar 7K1000.B with assorted capacities, topping out at an impressive 1 terabyte. The other unit is the CinemaStar 5K320 with storage up to 320GB, but it offers other benefits.

The CinemaStar 5K320 uses CoolSpin technology to create drive that runs quietly, using less power as it does so.  The 5K320 claims to use "the industry's quietest, most energy-efficient 3.5-inch hard drive."

What are the features and benefits of both players, especially, the 1TB 7K1000.B?

Beginning of the End?

Is it the beginning of the end for Blu-ray?  Already? A new Blu-ray player from LG Electronics might just foreshadow the future of Blu-day, and its ultimate demise.

The rumor mill has been buzzing since January and now it's official. LG will introduce the BD300 Network Blu-ray player in September. It can stream Netflix movies in the U.S. That's right. Pundits have long predicted that someday we'll all get tired of handling (and storing) round pieces of plastic, and instead we'll just get the content online. In other words, formats such as CD, DVD and BD will disappear, and everything will be available in the ether. At least that's one view of the future.

Meanwhile, we have the BD300. Netflix subscribers can use it to instantly stream to their TV more than 12,000 standard-definition movies and TV episodes. This service is available at no additional increase in their monthly fee. You heard right.

More details and pricing.....

Another One Bites the Dust

The TiVo webstore has a glaring omission. The popular Series3 unit is AWOL. The Series2 is chugging along, and the TiVo HD is prominent, but the Series3 is gone and labeled "Out of Stock." Retailers still have inventory ($593 at Amazon) but it looks like the S3 is history.

Not too surprising, actually. The newer TiVo HD does most of the same tricks as the S3, at a lower price (MSRP of $299 versus $799, but on the street, the price difference was closer to $100). TiVo blew out the S3 with rebates (and that was not a bad deal, so don't feel bad if you bought an S3).

Factories and production runs and big boats plying across the endlessly blue Pacific Ocean are mysterious things, and it's possible that the Series3 will make a sudden comeback. But . . .

The (almost) $12,000 surround sound processor

Halcro, in case you haven't heard, makes some of the most bad-ass hi-fi gear on the planet. In a world gone mad for iPods and earbuds, Halcro is perfecting the art of really, really excellent componentry.  It's also really, really expensive componentry.

Case in point: their new SSP220 surround sound processor, shipping almost immediately (in August). It's built like a tank (and costs about as much as one) and is packed full of upscale technology. Since I'm not being paid by the word [ED NOTE: This is true], I will simply list the key words, and you can fill in the rest: discriminating, enthusiast, ultimate, unprecedented, performance, benchmark, reliability, make your neighbors jealous. The features are listed on the next page, but I'll just say: 1080p 24; multichannel linear PCM; true 7.1 discrete audio; lower noise floor, faster switching speed, and lower black levels. 

And the price? Are you sure you want to know? Really?

Meridian demos $185K 10-megapixel projector

Last Tuesday, high-end audio/video company Meridian put on what was surely one of the most dazzling home video demos ever. The demo, which took place at Stewart Filmscreen’s Torrance, CA, headquarters, featured Meridian’s new 10-megapixel video projector (that’s 4096 x 2400 pixels, the same resolution offered by many top digital SLR cameras).

The $185,000 810 Reference Video System starts with a reconstructed, very tweaked-out version of a JVC D-ILA commercial cinema projector. It uses four 1080p D-ILA chips, “mashed together and cropped to 16:9” as Meridian’s Ken Forsythe put it, in a way that gives Meridian an extra 2 megapixels of resolution relative to the JVC. The system also includes an Isco 3 anamorphic lens and a dedicated video scaler that resulted from a joint effort by Meridian and integrated circuit manufacturer Marvell.

Toshiba's Feature-Packed Budget Camileo

Who can resist a budget-priced piece of gear that still packs in the features you want? If you've put off buying a camcorder, this one deserves a closer look.

The Toshiba Camileo H10 is an SD-based high-definition camcorder that records in 720p. There's internal memory, only 64MB, but it can take up to 8GB SDHC cards, which will give you about 4 hours of record time. All video is recorded in the H.264/MPEG4 format.

Keep reading for more details.

MPAA's Helping Hand Movie Listings

Say what you want. The MPAA is about as popular as the RIAA, more known as a policing agency tackling pirates and illegal downloads than a helpful ally — right up there with the IRS in a lot of people's minds. But, maybe the MPAA is beginning to see the light.

The MPAA, the Motion Picture Association of America, is launching a Web site that will actually help movie-watchers watch movies legally. Imagine that.

John Mayer Ain't that Different from You and Me

I don't know about you, but I hate that celebrities get hounded by the paparazzi. Except for when they capture some truly priceless footage.

When TMZ captured pop-star John Mayer trying to talk his dad through finding software on his Apple laptop, we realize that no matter how famous you are, it's still just hopeless. This happens to me all the time — pathetically by the same people over and over (really, there are owner's manuals and the "help" key is where it's always been) and I'm sure it happens to most tech-savvy peeps. Plus, if you're at all A/V savvy, you know this scenario doesn't just apply to computer operating systems — it goes for confused people and their home theater setups too.

DirecTV Goes 1080p

DirecTV is fighting back against the competition, in a big way. Starting August 14, DirecTV will add another 30 HD channels, for a total 130 HD channels. All programming will have Dolby Digital soundtracks and be transmitted in the MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) standard.

Some of the new HD offerings are from Showtime Extreme HD, Planet Green HD, ABC Family HD, more pay-per-view, and 23 more Regional Sports Networks with 24-hour HD sports.

But, that's not even the big news.

Batman Vs. Pirates

The first place to see new theatrical releases is not in movie theaters, but on online file-sharing sites and DVD. Pirated copies, ranging from hazy camcorder copies, to pristine copies from original prints, can sometimes be found circulating weeks, or at least days, before the opening weekend. It's a lose-lose situation. If the movie is good, online and DVD copies can lead to lost sales. And if the movie sucks, online copies generate poor word of mouth, and hence, lost sales. Given substantially good buzz around The Dark Knight, Warner Bros. was most worried about scenario #1.

The LA Times is reporting how Warner Bros. was careful and cagey in keeping The Dark Knight out of the hands of pirates for as long as possible. Warner spent six months developing an elaborate anti-piracy strategy . . .

A Merger Made in Heaven

It's official. You should receive your engraved invitation to the wedding (er, merger) any day now. On Friday, with a 3-2 vote, the FCC blessed the proposed merger of satellite radio companies Sirius and XM. This is the first marriage (er, merger) for each. The pre-nup calls for the smaller Sirius to buy out its larger former competitor, XM, for $3.3 billion. The new company will be called Sirius XM Radio Inc.

The 18.5 million combined subscribers will be able to receive programming from both satellite services. Both companies have struggled financially, and one selling point for the merger was the argument that such a union would provide corporate cost savings (estimated at $400 million in 2009). Critics argued that a monopoly would lead to higher prices for consumers, but the FCC agreed that competition from online music stores, music phones, streaming internet, traditional radio, and other content sources would reign in satellite radio's pricing.

The question is, how long will it take to get interoperable radios to the market, and how much will subscriptions cost?

Samsung announces second generation of LED-LCD screens

Wednesday and Thursday, Samsung held a showcase of new products on New York's west side. I attended the shindig, and got a good look at some of the company's new and upcoming home theater products. The biggest pieces of gear was Samsung's new Series 9 950 LED-lit LCD TVs.

They're the second generation of Samsung screens to use Samsung's "LED SmartLighting," a backlighting system built around a matrix of LEDs instead of CCFL lights (see left), that turns off individual LEDs to better reflect black parts of the picture. We were pleased by the first iteration of that technology, which brought out surprisingly dark blacks for an LCD television. Samsung claims that the system gives the Series 9 screens a dynamic contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1, double that of Series 81 screens like the LN-T4681F, that so impressed us last January. Of course, whether those numbers will mean anything in a home theater installation remains to be seen.

'WarGames' Revisited

How appropriate. On the same day as the one-night viewing of the early-'80s computer geek classic WarGames, WIRED.com has posted an interview with the creators of the classic movie about an innocent hacker who launches the end of the world as we know it, before we even really knew what the word "hacker" meant.

The interviews are great, and give a real backstage view into how movies are made. Plus, there are tons of insider glimpses into the development of the story. Double plus...

The Matrix Trilogy on Blu-ray

Wake the kids. Call the neighbors. Mark your calender. October 14. The Ultimate Matrix Collection will be released on Blu-ray. Seven discs, $129.95, from Warner Home Video. This set has long been available on HD DVD, but that format is history. Now it's Blu-ray's turn. Warner straddled the HD/BD fence, but tended to release its big titles on HD. That bet didn't pay off, so now it's time to move those bits to the other format. Probably the same transfer as on HD, but maybe some new extras to sweeten the deal?

The first Matrix film was picked as one of Sound & Vision's Top 50 DVD's of all time — ranking a very respectable No. 10. The question, of course, is whether you really want to pony up for the entire trilogy, or just wait until the first film is available separately on Blu-ray. The first film was actually a terrific bit of creative genius. Here's what yours truly said about it . . .