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Ask Engadget HD: Which AV receiver has the best upscaling chip?
It's that time of week again, and considering that AVRs have remained strangely absent from our Ask Engadget HD series, Vinesy's question couldn't have arrived at a more opportune time: "I'm considering the Sony STR-DA5300ES, Denon AVR-3808CI, and the Onkyo TX-NR905, and while I'd bet the Onkyo wins in sound quality, I do favor Sony's user interface. I'm open to suggestions outside of those three, but I'm particularly interested in the quality of the upconverting chip. Is the Reon-HQV or the Faroudja DCDi better? Will they both take the 1080i HDMI signal from my FiOS set-top-box and give me 1080p? Help me legion of nerds. Fanboys: attack me with knowledge and then make fun of me like you do best." Well, you heard the man! For you receiver freaks out there, here's your shot at bestowing knowledge upon the newbies in the field. But be gentle, will ya?Got a burning question that you'd love to toss out for Engadget HD (or its readers) to take a look at? Tired of Google's blank stares when you ask for real-world experiences? Hit us up at ask at engadgethd dawt com and keep an eye on this space -- your inquiry could be next.
Haze doesn't quite measure up to 720p
We knew native 1080p gaming wouldn't necessarily be the standard this console generation, but especially in light of Sony's "HD era doesn't start until we're on the market" comments, things are getting a bit ridiculous. PS3-exclusive Haze is the latest to slide in underneath the 720p bar, with sharp eyed pixel counters finding a mere 1024x576 resolution in the demo on PSN, anumber confirmed by the game's creative lead after it was originally denied on the U.S. Playstation blog. Haze is hardly the first game to do this, with GTA IV on the PS3, Call of Duty 4 on Xbox 360 and PS3 and Halo 3 on Xbox 360 all using upscaling to deliver extra effects over pixels, but someday we'd like to have our cake and eat it too. Of course, judging by early reviews, how many pixels are present might not have saved lackluster gameplay.[Via PS3 Fanboy]
OPPO pushes DV-980H upconverting DVD player for Mother's Day
Mum a little overwhelmed with digiframes? Fret not, as OPPO Digital is telling you straight up that a brand new upconverting DVD player is sure to make this Sunday one to remember. C'mon, even you know your mother wouldn't approve of spending a mortgage payment or two on a hamstrung Blu-ray player, and that much newer (and nicer) DV-983H just isn't worth the coin. Our only question is how desperate must you be (or overran with excess inventory) to pimp a 9-month old upscaling DVD player for Mom's Day? Ah well, we've certainly seen worse.
PBS baby-steps towards HD
We come down pretty hard on stations that try to push stretch-o-vision off on us (upscaled SD is a lesser offense), but we might cut not-for-profit PBS a little slack. A little. Suffice it to say that between costs for production and satellite bandwidth, PBS is feeling the crunch. Only about 20-percent of PBS programming is headed to HD this year, and even then you may not be able to actually view it. PBS is strapped for satellite bandwidth, so three of the five time zone feeds (Mountain, Central and Alaska/Hawaii) will be getting the axe to make room for the HD streams. This means affected affiliates which do not have the ability to time-shift HD will be out of luck. The result for customers of said affiliates is, you guessed it, stretch-o-vision. Our advice -- if your local affiliate doesn't have the HD programming you want, donate some money or look into alternative ways of getting your PBS-fix.
LG unveils HT972TR HTIB, favors Chocolate
If you thought LG had milked the Chocolate for all it was worth, you've got another thing comin'. That thing would be the HT972TR HTIB, which includes five satellite speakers, a 225-watt subwoofer, 1,000 total watts of amplification and a DVD player that handles 1080p upscaling as well as DivX. Moreover, the system boasts HDMI, DTS support, an AM / FM tuner and a USB port for loading up portable media. Not a lot of details beyond that just yet, but do yourself a favor and check out two more delicious shots waiting after the jump. [Via Electronista, images courtesy of Le Journal du Geek]
Pioneer's DV-800AV DVD player upscales to 1080p, plays SACD
Nah, Pioneer's DV-800AV won't play back HD DVDs or Blu-ray discs, but it should make those vanilla DVDs look an awful lot better. This fairly high-end device sports HDMI / component outputs and optical / coaxial digital audio ports, and it plays nice with a plethora of file types including WMV, DivX, JPEG, MPEG-4, AAC and WMA. For those still clinging to the fledgling music format, there's even support for SACD, and the Burr Brown 24-bit / 192kHz PCM1796 DAC should impress, too. The unit is all set to launch late next month for ¥70,000 ($611).
Joystiq Guide: PlayStation 3 firmware 1.80
After a day spent wrestling with various settings, we're finally ready to report on our findings with the PlayStation 3's latest 1.80 firmware. The most notable new features of the update were DLNA media streaming support and 1080p upscaling for PlayStation / PlayStation 2 games and DVDs. Both of these features bring the PlayStation 3 that much closer to the functionality of the Xbox 360; unfortunately, we experienced a series of setbacks when playing with the functionality. Read on for our impressions, or check the gallery for a guided tour. %Gallery-3428%
Lenovo's ThinkPad Reserve Edition gets a teaser site
Nearly a month after Lenovo teased us with its Olympic-inspired laptop, and just days after loosing a bevy of Santa Rosa machines on the world, Lenovo is catching our eyes once more with an admittedly lacking teaser site for a Reserve Edition ThinkPad. The very non-interactive website sports an annoying background track, a cheesy selection of closeup leathermaking shots, and absolutely zero information about an actual computer. Of course, one could theorize that the firm has a leather-clad lappie in the pipeline for the affluent set, but it's not like you can't get that already. Nevertheless, this certainly isn't the first nor the last time we'll see such tease acts in order to hype up a currently unreleased product, but hopefully the deets on this one will end up surfacing as quickly as those on the Beijing machine did.[Via LenovoBlogs, thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Rotel unveils pricey 1080p upcoverting RDV-1093 DVD player
For the person who just has to have everything, or is willing to spend more money to stick with DVD than cave in and buy two separate high definition players (or not), Rotel has announced the forthcoming RVD-1093 upscaling DVD player. The high-end boutique has cranked out yet another snazzy looking standalone flagship device, which touts 1080p upcoverting, a built-in scaler, HDMI, component / S-Video / composite outputs, and silkly smooth progressive scan playback. Additionally, the device plays nice with recordable discs, SVCDs, JPEGs, MP3 / WMA CDs, and even the lost-but-not-forgotten DVD-Audio format. To somewhat justify the lofty pricetag, the company points to its "switching power supply" which reportedly touts "an advanced pulse circuit and individually regulated supply stages to generate optimal voltages," and also boasts about the wideband DA converters, "Adaptive Geometrical Chroma Mapping," optical / coaxial digital audio outs, NTSC / PAL-compatibility, RS-232 interface, and discrete IR commands. We're still not entirely convinced this player is worth the $1,499 asking price, especially considering the forthcoming price drops in the Blu-ray arena, but those still interested can pick one up sometime this quarter.
Keian intros KDVD850HDMI upscaling DVD player with DivX support
While we've seen quite a few luxurious upscaling DVD players come through for those still quietly sitting the fence as the Blu-ray / HD DVD war wages on, Keian's KDVD850HDMI offers up another reasonable substitute to full-fledged high definition discs, and throws in DivX support to boot. Aside from kicking plain ole DVDs up to 1080i via HDMI, playing back DivX files, and touting the admittedly strange dual microphone inputs for that karaoke flair, this unit also touts the ability to render picture-based slideshows and play back MP3 / WMA from USB thumb drives or flash memory cards (SD, MMC, MS, xD). Of course, you'll find the typical coaxial / optical digital audio outputs as well, and while this unit isn't apt to win any awards in the quality department, it should help your (presumably depleted) post-Christmas bank account out by demanding just ¥10,800 ($91).[Via Akihabara News]
