CEDIA Time

By Shane Buettner • Posted: Sep 2, 2007

UAV will be temporarily relocating its headquarters this week as Tom Norton, Fred Manteghian and I head to Denver to cover the 2007 CEDIA Expo. CEDIA, which is very focused on home theater, has in many ways supplanted CES as the big show in our corner of the industry in recent years. Coming as it does in the fall, ahead of the big holiday shopping season, many companies use CEDIA to launch significant new products.

With all the product announcements leaking all over the Web some of you might be wondering why in the heck we're even bothering to go!

I can tell you first hand, I've got some embargoed press releases of stuff that hasn't broken everywhere yet that you'll want to know about. And while press releases provide some details, it's often the case that being on site and asking the right questions of the right people yields far better information. Not to mention the opportunities to see some of the products demonstrated.

This year's show is shaping up to be the most exciting in years. We'll get our first looks at Toshiba's third-gen HD DVD players, and believe me, things are going to get far more interesting on the Blu-ray player front at this show as well. Leaks from Europe's IFA show have told us that we'll be seeing new Blu-ray players from Philips, Sony and Sharp this fall.

Leaks from elsehwere have revealed that we'll be seeing new 1080p front projection from Marantz and Sony. Pioneer tells us we'll be getting our first looks at production units of its Kuro line of 1080p plasmas. Joe Kane has invited us to take a look at Samsung's 1080p DLP front projector which will undoubtedly be among the hottest products at the show.

Our coverage will start first thing on Wednesday when we post some currently embargoed press info. We'll be posting our coverage on the home page so you can't miss it. The big press conferences start at 3pm Denver time, Wednesday afternoon with JVC, Toshiba, Sony and Sharp hosting major events one after the other. Look for coverage of those events to post Wednesday evening as soon as I can get back my hotel to upload.

Thursday isn't much slower, and one of the things I'm looking forward to that day is a one-on-one that I have scheduled with Paramount's CTO Alan Bell. Alan has intimate knowledge of the technical details of disc mastering, authoring and production decisions behind Paramount's bombshell switch to HD DVD and I'm looking forward to speaking with him and reporting on that conversation.

So, yeah it's my job to pimp our coverage, but make no mistake. This year's CEDIA is one I'm looking forward to, big-time. Stay tuned this week!

Comments

Submitted by Cajun_Mike on September 2, 2007 - 7:14pm.

Great stuff Shane, can you do some digging as to what is going on with JVC's LCoS RPTV offerings for the coming year? I know they were bought out, so maybe there is some flux there. You go to their website and they only show two models, which are the slimline versions which have well documented geometry problems. Are they only going to offer slim versions? Will the geometry issues be corrected in future models? Any chance you will get a sneak peak at the new Sony A3000 SXRD or the XBR5 SXRD that's due out later in the fall? Will be checking in daily. Thanks, Mike

Submitted by Kevin Larrowe on September 2, 2007 - 8:39pm.

Shane, From the previous blog entry and other sources I understand that Blu-Ray has 90% of the studios lined up, sells 2 blu-ray discs for every HD DVD but, so far, the players do not support all the adverised interactivity features? And, except for the PS3, are very slow on start up. On the other side, HD DVD players do make all the interactivity features work and are getting more studios. Are the HD DVD players quicker on startup? I hope that you will report that Sony, etal, have gotten the problems resolved on the second generation Blu-Ray machines...with lower prices, too! I'm looking forward to your reports!

Submitted by Shane on September 3, 2007 - 11:03am.

Mike- JVC is our first stop on Wednesday and we'll get the bottom of its RPTV offerings. The Sony SXRD sets are due to start shipping in Sep tember if I recall correctly, and I hope Sony is demonstrating these new sets. The big notable there is that to my knowledge these will be the first RPTV sets not only doing 120Hz, but doing it as a 5x of 24p, not a 2x of 60p. That should yield the smoothest motion with film material. Kevin- To be clear the PS3 appears to be set for all coming levels of Blu-ray interactivity. But the standalone players are not. The current crop of standalones are not compatible with PIP or any networking interactivity. And what's more a number of the second and even third-gen standalones will not be compatible with these features. These players won't be upgradeable either, as hardware is at issue not firmware.

Submitted by Shane on September 3, 2007 - 11:04am.

I am preparing an article that will post after CEDIA with the complete scoop on this. It's fact-checked and ready to go, but I just want to see the new BD players at CEDIA and offer a scorecard that shows which players support which levels of interactivity. Interactivity might not be the tail that wags the dog for most, but I think there will be some people who are disappointed when their expensive standalones won't play the new features that are coming late this year and early next. I have heard that the third-gen Toshiba players have more processing power and perhaps faster startup. Sharp is touting quick startup as a key feature of its BD player.

Submitted by Cajun_Mike on September 3, 2007 - 3:32pm.

Shane, the new A3000's are already out in some areas as there are some end users around the net with them in their possession. The XBR5's are supposedly coming out in Oct ober, but Sony is notoriously late most of the time. Looking forward to your reports and have a safe trip.

Submitted by Ken Lockhart on September 3, 2007 - 9:21pm.

read your nov.2006 review of pioneer PRO-FHD1 today,this was by far the best review in recent past that I have read,great job.I viewed this unit at best buy sunday sept. 1st 2007, they were playing a standard edition of the last Stars Wars "DVD" via a bdphd1 elite player and the picture was "awesome", I can only wonder ( they did not have one on hand)what a blue ray, or HDtv dvd would look on it.I understand this is a monitor, what is the difference between this and a regular HDTV? What will I need to view Directv movies,sports and new DVD'S? At the Cedia show you will see the sony xbr4 and the Samsung 120hz.HDTV'S.How do these units stack up against the pioneer? All of these HDTV's are priced within $600.00.I viewed the sony and samsung at cir. cty. they were clear and the detail was "eye popping" I will be mounting this above a fireplace and the viewing distance is 12foot.I would appricate any comments,sugestions or directions. Thank You and have a great time at t