CEDIA 2006
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Just Polking Along
CEDIA 2006
Darryl Wilkinson • Sep 19, 2006 • 1 comments
Polk Audio's newest in-wall speakers were on display for all CEDIAnistas to see. In a separate part of the booth, Polk demonstrated the company's - and the world's - first THX Ultra2 Certified in-ceiling loudspeaker, the RTS100, along with the RTS105 in-wall. On static display were two THX Ultra2 Certified hopefuls from Polk: a dipole in-wall and an in-wall center channel.
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JVC 1080p for $7000 (or so)
CEDIA 2006
Geoffrey Morrison • Sep 16, 2006 • 0 comments
JVC was showing off a new 1080p projector. They claim a 10,000:1 contrast ratio without the use of an iris. They’re not sure on pricing yet, but they’re expecting sub-$7000 (as in $6,999.99 probably). Look for it around February.
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JVC Gets Down
CEDIA 2006
Tom Norton • Sep 16, 2006 • 1 comments

JVC demonstrated a new 1080p/D-ILA video projector that is expected to sell for around $7000 when it becomes available next year. it looked outstanding, even outperforming the Sony VPL-VW100 ("Ruby") set up side-by-side with it. I saw no significant shortcomings, at least under show conditions. It even had the best contrast I've yet seen on a JVC projector, by far.
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Kama Chameleon
CEDIA 2006
Fred Manteghian • Sep 16, 2006 • 2 comments

Salamander's new Chameleon furniture line is going to thrill a lot of Suzi Homemakers who want to find a home for hubby's electronic toys. The Hampton model here sells for $1,899, and there are four other models available as well. Options (not included in the price) are rear mounted power strips and Plasma mounts. The optional fan cooling and IR repeaters will come in handy when those solid wood doors are shut too. This little company is located in my neck of the woods in Connecticut and you have to admire how they've grown. Their products are well engineered and assemble easily. I've had one of their Synergy racks for over three years and I love it. These look even nicer still.
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LCD with LED
CEDIA 2006
Geoffrey Morrison • Sep 15, 2006 • 0 comments
Planar showed off a prototype LCD panel that is the coolest thing I’ve seen so far at the show. It’s a normal LCD panel with 800 individual LED backlights that are on an active matrix back plane. What that means is that each LED is individually addressable depending on the video signal. Want a section of the screen to be dark? Dim the backlight in that area. The result is a fantastic legitimate contrast ratio, and actual blacks (cause the light is off). The picture above is just what the backlight is doing with the LCD “off.” It’s at least a year away from a real product, but it looks amazing. More on this in the future.
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Lexicon Mates with Revel
CEDIA 2006
Mark Fleischmann • Sep 15, 2006 • 2 comments
When Revel revamped its highly successful 10-year-old Ultima line as the Ultima2, the Lexicon people needed come up with new high-current amps that can drive difficult loads. Say hello to the ZX-7 ($7999), RX-7 ($5999), and GX-7 ($2999). The biggest gun delivers 300 watts times seven into eight ohms, 450 watts into four ohms, and is stable down to two ohms. Oh, and make sure you've got a dedicated 20-amp circuit to run it.
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LG 3D Smart TVs
CEDIA 2006
Scott Wilkinson • Jan 05, 2011 • 0 comments
LG holds the coveted position as the first official press conference of CES, which is great for the company, but murder on journalists, who must get to the Venetian before 8:00 AM if they want a seat in the huge ballroom. (Apparently, 3D-glasses maker Xpand had an unofficial press conference at 7:00 AM, but I sure wasn't going to make that!)

As expected, LG's TV lineup for 2011 includes more 3D models and more network connectivity, which is quickly turning out to be the TV story at the show. Out of 31 new LCD TVs, 10 are 3D-capable, and all but five are what LG calls Smart TVs; of the 12 new plasmas, eight are 3D and four are Smart TVs. In both cases, many models include both feature sets. Also, two-thirds of the LCD TVs use LED edgelighting or backlighting.

There are two big tech stories here. First, the LED-edgelit 3D models use passive-polarized glasses instead of active-shutter glasses, a technology LG calls Film-Pattern Retarder (FPR), which I'll discuss in more detail in a following post. Second, the top three LCD TVs—which reach up to 72 inches diagonally—are LED-backlit with local dimming using a technology LG calls Nano Full LED, in which the LEDs are smaller than usual and deliver brighter, cleaner, smoother local dimming in a cabinet less then one inch thick.

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LG Display FPR Polarized 3D
CEDIA 2006
Scott Wilkinson • Jan 05, 2011 • 0 comments
LG Display, a subsidiary of LG that manufactures LCD panels for its parent company as well as Toshiba and Vizio, held its own press conference today to introduce its Film-Pattern Retarder (FPR) technology, which allows the use of passive-polarized glasses with 3D TVs. Among the benefits of this approach are much less-expensive glasses that are lighter in weight and require no electronics, higher brightness and refresh rate, and no crosstalk. Of course, the main disadvantage is that each eye sees only half the available vertical resolution—540 lines instead of 1080, though the company reps argued that the brain fuses each eye's image into a "full HD" image.

The demo included several side-by-side comparisons with active-shutter glasses. For example, as seen on the right in the photo above, you can lie on your side and still watch 3D with FPR glasses, which use circular polarization, whereas shutter glasses completely darken at 90 degrees as seen on the left.

Another demo tried to illustrate how shutter glasses produce flicker while FPR glasses are flicker-free; from what I saw, this was extremely subtle. More pronounced was the comparison of crosstalk in several still images, which was obvious with shutter glasses and absent with FPR. Finally, a comparison of brightness revealed that passive 3D is indeed brighter than shutter glasses, though surprisingly, Tom Norton thought the shutter glasses display was actually brighter. We both agreed that the passive display looked more washed out and less punchy, and I thought the passive image was a bit softer in all cases, which would be worse on a larger screen.

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LG LZ9700 & LW6500 3D TVs at CES
3D Technology, CEDIA 2006, Ultimate Tech
Scott Wilkinson • Dec 30, 2010 • 3 comments
LG will have some big announcements at CES next week—literally. Perhaps the biggest is the 72-inch LZ9700, which the company claims is the world's largest LED-backlit 3D LCD TV.
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LG's Passive Resistance
CEDIA 2006
Scott Wilkinson • Jan 14, 2011 • 0 comments

John Taylor, LG's VP of Public Affairs and Communications, explains the benefits of passive-polarized 3D TVs.

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limelight
CEDIA 2006
Steven Stone • Sep 16, 2006 • 0 comments

Limelight audio premiered their line of furniture with built-in speakers. With full 360 degree dispersion due to an upward firing midrange/tweeter and downward firing woofer, these granite veneered cabinets have their own patent pending and a three-way light switch. They actually make sound and can produce filament shaking bass.
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Limelight Lamps Provide Light and Sound
CEDIA 2006
Mark Fleischmann • Sep 16, 2006 • 0 comments
In the base of each of these elegant table lamps is a bottom-firing 6.5-inch woofer. Located just beneath the shade is a silk-dome tweeter, firing into a diffuser. Both leak sound through grilles at top and bottom. The enclosure looks like granite but is an acrylic-like material. Nine years in the making, the Limelight lamp line made its debut at CEDIA but is not yet available. If you're interested, get in touch with inventor Scott Zwolski via limelightaudio.com.
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Location, Location, Location, Location
CEDIA 2006
Darryl Wilkinson • Sep 17, 2006 • 0 comments
Xantech's four-source HD44CC5 High Definition Component Video Matrix Switcher let's you send four streams of high-definition 1080i video and digital audio up to 1000 feet over CAT5. You'll need a HDRXGS01 CAT5 receiver in each zone. The receiver automatically senses the cable run length in 20-feet increments and self-adjusts for best picture quality. The HD44CC5 is coming in January 2007 for $1895. Each receiver is $250.
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Look Closely Into the Driver… You’re Getting Very Sleepy…
CEDIA 2006
Shane Buettner • Sep 16, 2006 • 5 comments

Due to popular demand in some quarters, here is a picture of your intrepid author and one of your guides through this maze of consumer electronics we call the CEDIA Expo. That space age looking device is not being used to assimilate you. It’s the coincident midrange/tweeter array from Thiel’s CS3.7 loudspeaker. And it looks cool.
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Look! Up in the Sky, It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a UIW RCS II Reference!
CEDIA 2006
Fred Manteghian • Sep 16, 2006 • 0 comments

Definitive Technology had some really intelligently designed and great sounding in-ceiling speakers in their room. Most in ceiling speakers we've seen are appropriate for the shoe department Muzak at Macy's, but I wouldn't let them near the home theater. Sandy Gross of Definitive puts a whole can and a half of whump-ass in these babies. I blew up a picture of the speaker and put it in the bottom right of the photo for you to get an idea. The baffles are angled, looking like what the roof looks like in the attic. Two woofers and a tweeter are angled down and towards the back of the room, while on the other other side of the "roof" you'll find two passive radiators. I was tremendously impressed by the timbre and solidness of the midrange and upper frequencies. Sandy also used some in wall subwoofers to round up the bass. I actually thought the bass was a little on the high side, but I guess that shuts up anyone who is worried that a 4" deep subwoofer can't keep up with the action.
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