Not that McIntosh ever really went anywhere, but it was still pretty cool to see the retro glass front panels and cool blue and green fluorescents lighting up an entire 7.1-channel home theater system.

The Pearl SXRD projector was not Sony’s only significant product introduction yesterday. Also shown to reporters and reviewers for the first time was the STR-DA5200ES AV receiver. This product shows that when Sony is big on something it shows up in all its products. That something here is 1080p.

On Wednesday I got my first look at Sharp’s XV-Z20000, a 1080p single-chip DLP front projector, albeit in a static demo. The new unit is finished in a sleek, glossy black and peaking around the back revealed two HDMI inputs in addition a DVI/HDCP input,

Toshiba fired another salvo in the ongoing next-gen HD disc format war by announcing that it will have its second-generation HD DVD players to market by the end of 2006.
The $499 HD-A2 will street in October, with the step-up $999 HD-XA2 following in December.