With TV manufacturers installing full HD 1080p resolution in ever-greater numbers of sets, Planar has introduced its newest line of LCD flat-panel TVs, all of which feature 1080p on screens sized at 37 to 52 inches. Planar dealers will retail the sets for between $2,299 and $6,999.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment expects to release its first Blu-ray Disc titles April 8. The release of the BD-Live titles coincides with the rollout of Profile 2.0 enhancements to Sony’s PlayStation 3, which will make the game console the first Blu-ray player that can connect to the Internet to access bonus features.
Canton has added the Movie 80 CX and Movie 120 MX home-theater speakers that provide 5.1 surround sound to its offerings. Both systems feature four silver or black satellite speakers and a horizontal, center-channel speaker and subwoofer.
Sony is bringing BD-Live to PlayStation 3 later this month that will make user experiences more interactive. Sony also will enable console owners to copy PS3 photo and music playlists to a PSP.
Several products will help collectors of old, musty vinyl records listen to them and record them to computer hard drives. But they are not cheap, and they can be exasperating to use.
Decreasing demand in North America for large-screen flat-panel TVs has forced Japanese companies to put more resources into producing smaller models, between 26 and 40 inches, they say. The manufacturers largely blame the weak dollar and the global credit crunch for the falloff in sales.
HDTV adoption will increase by 17 million homes to 47 million in the U.S. by the close of this year, according to Pike & Fischer, which predicts the number of U.S. households paying for some sort of HDTV service or equipment will skyrocket to 103 million by year-end 2012. Multichannel video providers will see revenue of $2.6 billion in the next four years.
Onkyo said that its new Powered Zone 2 A/V receivers are its first multiroom product designed for an entry-level market as the company moved to price them more economically, at US$379 and US$479. Onkyo said the receiver’s rear surround amplifier channels can power speakers in another room and still provide separate multichannel source outlets so consumers can use different devices in each location. These products will possibly be in Australia later this year
Toshiba Chief Executive Officer Atsutoshi Nishida’s decision to pull out of the HD DVD business surprised analysts who thought the format war would go on longer. In a Q-and-A with The Wall Street Journal, Nishida talks about why the timing of the pullout was right, the next generation of standard DVD players and the future of Toshiba.
