HighDef
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Marantz's new VP-11S1 1080p DLP projector
Marantz has a new projector, but you'd better listen up, because even if they're not incredibly well known for their HD gear this side of the Pacific, this thing's a DLP powerhouse. Their freshly minted VP-11S1 features a full 1080p high definition picture, Konica Minolta lens, 6,500:1 contrast ratio, pumps out 700 ANSI lumens, and has dual HDMI, dual component, VGA, S-Video, and composite video inputs -- all for a mere 1,800,000. Ahem, that's about $15,300 US. In other words, you'll have a little time to scrap for spare change before they release this thing Stateside -- if they release this thing Stateside.[Via Impress]
Panasonic's DVDS52 $100 up-scaler
Samsung ain't the only company out with a cheap up-scaler now: ladies and gentlemen, say hello to Panasonic's DVDS52, the other high definition DVD up-scaler with HDMI-out and a $100 price tag. We've yet to vouch for the quality of the picture (perhaps because it's not out yet, so far as we can tell) or even get some firm details on this puppy, but as long as you're waiting for your Blu-ray or HD DVD player, you may as well at least be watching video on that HDTV the right way (and the cheap way, which itself is sometimes the right way).
Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player goes topless
Although not the complete screw-by-screw disassembly that we're accustomed to, here's your first chance to get a glimpse inside Toshiba's new HD-A1 HD-DVD player and check out the magic circuitry delivering all that 1080p goodness. As we learned yesterday, a few retailers (we're looking at you, Best Buy) jumped the gun on Tuesday's scheduled rollout and began selling some of their stock early, much to the delight/frustration of early adopters who got the latest tech but no HD content to play on them. Luckily for us, one of those foolish trailblazing souls was kind enough to remove the lid from his unit's case (gently, we hope) and snap some photos of the guts for all Internetland to peep. Nothing really exciting here -- like the VCRs and DVD players before it, most of the content is air -- but there is a nice closeup of the rather imposing heat sink, along with the obligatory CPU and RAM shots. Click on for another pic, or hit the "Read" link for the entire set...[Via HD Beat, thanks Dave Z.]
TDK hard at work on 8-layer 200GB Blu-ray Disc
Since Sony, et al. hammered out the Blu-ray Disc spec, there's been speculation, theorization, and discussion of an 8-layer 200GB disc. Sony even supposedly had some working 200GB BRD demos way back in 2004. Well, now those mammoth coasters are in the works over at TDK, who apparently hope to commercialize the first presumably quad-layered dual-sided discs (or possibly octo-layered single-sided discs -- yeah, right). They're not giving it up as to when these discs could come out or how much they'll cost, but right now we're more worried about just getting our hands on some players, you know?[Via TechDigest]
Pioneer launches PDP-5000EX for June
It's been a while since we heard about Pioneer's "world's smallest" 50-inch 1080p plasma at CEATAC 2005 (which was knocked down a couple of months later by Fujitsu & Hitachi's 42-inch 1080p plasma), but they may yet be the first company to actually get theirs on the market. Pioneer's launching their PDP-5000EX 1080p Pure Vision Black 1080p set in June with component, composite, HDMI, and HDCP DVI inputs. Of course there's no telling what it's going to set you back, but they just better hope Fujitsu & Hitachi don't swoop in for the kill and release theirs first.[Via NewLaunches]
Sharp's new 20-inch LC-20AX6 HDTV
Another day, another Sharp Aquos gets announced -- today it's the LC-20AX6, a simple livin' 20-inch LCD HDTV featuring a 1,366 x 768 panel with a brightness of 500cd/m2, 1,200:1 contrast ratio, 8ms pixel response, integrated digital and analog tuners, and VGA, composite, and S-Video ins, among others (sorry, no DVI / HDMI listed). No figure for a price tag on this thing (or if we'll see it in the States), but it sounds like a decent smallish mid-range set for broke city dwellers such as ourselves.
NuVision to drop the first 1080p LED DLP?
We didn't think it'd be a no-name like NuVision that took the eh-kinda-illustrious title of first company to release a 1080p LED DLP, but they're claiming to have their 52-inch non-wobulator on the market in 3 months. We'll believe it when we see it, but we've no doubt that a good LED DLP would do our respective livingrooms some serious good. Unfortunately we don't have a lot of information on this thing right now, so we'll be scanning HD Beat for the schoop at EHX just as you'll probably be scanning us for an update.
Intel Mac minis great little HD machines
That's what Ben Drawbaugh over at HD Beat says, and he should know since he eats, lives, and breaths in HD (I think in much lower resolutions myself). Head on over to HD Beat to get the nitty gritty details, but it seems that support for HD resolutions is now built into OS X (before it requires some extra software) and that's pretty sweet.Does this mean we'll see higher res stuff from the iTunes Music Store? I certainly hope so.
Half of Sundance Festival is high-def
We didn't make it out to Sundance like some of the WIN crew; after all, who wants to see movie screenings when we can relax in our home theaters with high-def televisions, right? What's that you say....over half of the 193 films at the Sundance Festival are in high-definition? No, say it ain't so. Yes it's true, so now we feel totally duped by our obviously much smarter peers over at Cinematical. We should have known we were missing something when our very own CEO headed out West for Sundance. Sorta makes sense why he's the CEO and we're the bloggers, now doesn't it?In all seriousness, we're thrilled to see the number of high-def screenings increase by leaps and bounds. Eventually, whatever happens during the screenings makes it's way to the screens in the theaters, so you go Sundance!
HighDefForum.com reaches 100,000 posts
Good for them. High Def Forum is a great resource for HD and they just hit the 100,000 post mark. The forum was started back in March 10, 2004. It slowly grew and with HD becoming more and more prominent, they website grew. Not to take away from High Def Forum's limelight, but feel free to ask us a question anytime on our comment page. Sometimes a person needs to "talk" to someone about a HDTV though and this is a great place.
