Posted by Home Theater Audio Video On December - 1 - 2009ADD COMMENTS
Best Buy’s new Rocketfish Wireless HD adapter lets users put up to 33 feet of wire-free space between an HDMI-capable HD video source and their HDTV.
The world of wireless high-definition video solutions has been marked by far more failures than successes, but Sony and Philips have recently begun marketing solutions and now consumer electronics retailer Best Buy is getting into the game with its new Rocketfish Wireless HD Adapter, enabling users to send full 1080p/60fps HD content up to 10 meters (about 33 feet) without cabling. The technology works with most existing HDMI-capable gear: just plug an HDMI video source into one unit, plug an HDTV into another, and the adapter does the rest.
“We asked our customers about their ideal home entertainment experience, and used these insights to create the new Rocketfish WirelessHD adapter, which responds to their desire to transmit high definition video wirelessly in the same room,” said Rocketfish CTO Nigel Waites, in a statement.
The Rocketfish WirelessHD Adapter runs on a 60GHz radio frequency—so it’s not going to get interference from things like cordless phones and microwaves— and (in addition to supporting full HD 1080p content at up to 60fps) handles all the data that can accompany a high-def feed, including 7.1 surround sound, DTS-HD audio, Dolby TrueHD, and Deep Color. The unit supports a single HDMI input and output, and is wall-mountable for discrete installation…although each end of the connection requires its own AC adapter. The idea is to enable home theater fans to set up their TVs or projectors anywhere in a room they might want, regardless of where their gear rack may be located—all without the hassle of running cable.
Key features of the Rocketfish WirelessHD Adapter include:
Operates in the open and interference-free 60GHz radio band
Sends full 1080p/60fps HD content up to 10 meters
Supports Deep Color, 7.1 surround sound, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Audio
Compatible with HDMI CEC control functionality
The Rocketfish products utilize WirelessHD technology, the standard for 60GHz wireless connections for consumer electronic, personal computing and portable devices.
Source: digitaltrends.com
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Posted by Home Theater Audio Video On November - 26 - 2009ADD COMMENTS
New Panasonic PT-AE4000U just lowered the bar, on price, but not quality. This LCD projector retails for $2499, though some say it can be found for less, even from authorized dealers for hundreds less. Consciously designed for smaller home theaters, the PT-AE1000U can project a 120-inch image from as little as 11 to as much as 24 feet away. You sure can’t get that in a flat panel display for a mere $2.5k.
Panasonic incorporated the new Red-Rich Lamp, which increases the luminance efficiency of the projector, to achieve 150% brighter Cinema Picture modes compared to the previous PT-AE3000. Prior to the development of the Red-Rich Lamp, much brightness was lost to attain the desired color purity/balance for the rich color reproduction of Cinema Picture modes due to the lack of red luminance. The newly engineered lamp successfully adds red luminance, and enables the projector to produce brighter images with excellent colors. Rated at 1,600 lumens, the PT-AE4000 is plenty bright for the average home theater.
For maximum clarity and sharpness of full-HD images, the PT-AE4000U was outfitted with an advanced optical system employing a full-HD-optimized lens unit comprised of 16 lens elements in 12 groups, including two large-diameter aspherical lenses and two high-performance ED (extralow dispersion) lenses. Each lens is carefully aligned to assure a uniform focusing balance from the center to the edges of the screen.
The double-speed display (120 Hz or 100 Hz) greatly improves the clarity of motion images. Panasonic’s Frame Creation interpolates one new frame for each existing frame by analyzing the characteristics of the adjacent frames to reproduce sharp and clear images for fast moving scenes in sports and action movies. For 24p signal input, three frames are calculated and interpolated for each existing frame, to enable 4x speed (96-Hz) display. There are four modes (mode 1, mode 2, mode 3, and off) to choose from.
The Point Color Correction mode allows you to pick a point in the image and adjust that color without affecting the neighboring colors, so it is easy to get just the right color equalization in hue, luminance and saturation. The Six Color Correction mode enables independent adjustment of red, green, blue, cyan, magenta and yellow. Making adjustments on the fly has never been easier either. You can freeze any scene you wish, and then make adjustments while easily comparing the original image and the adjusted image side-by-side.
The PT-AE4000U features the Pure Contrast Plate, which uses a newly engineered crystalline material that is carefully matched to the characteristics of the LCD panels to effectively correct the passage of light exiting the panels. This enables the projector to block unwanted light leakage and successfully increases the dynamic range. It works together with the dynamic iris to achieve a remarkable contrast ratio of 100,000:1. The advantage being the PT-AE4000U works well in environments with high ambient light such as a living room.
To achieve a wide dynamic range, a fifth generation intelligent iris system was placed in the PT-AE4000U. It analyzes the brightness level of each image using a histogram, then adjusts the lamp power, iris and gamma curve accordingly to create the ideal image. The adjustments are made virtually frame by frame.
In the past, projector installation was considered a serious downside. However, as projectors become more affordable it’s less likely consumers will pay to have them installed. So, manufacturers are looking at ways they can make projectors virtually plug and play. Well, not quite but certainly far more flexible with simplified set up procedures. For instance, the PT-AE4000U provides wide lens shift for easy mounting almost anyway – the back wall , the ceiling – and it can even be a little off center.
Perhaps, the most advanced feature in the PT-AE4000U, which is something you won’t even find in many projectors for thousands more, is the Intelligent Lens Memory. Up to six settings can be stored in the Lens Memory, including zoom and focus positions for projecting in the normal 16:9 or 4:3 image ratio, and wide cinema projection settings. These memories can be recalled manually or can be set for automatic switching. The projector is able to detect 2.35:1 and 16:9 source and retrieve the stored setting automatically. This Lens Memory function lets you easily enjoy images with different image ratios on the new wide 2.35:1 screens for an immersive movie theater-like experience.
Own other Panasonic gear? When you have other Panasonic VIERA Link-ready equipment, projection can be started by using only the remote control unit of the PT-AE4000, regardless of whether the source is a Blu-ray Disc or a TV program stored on an HD recorder. This eliminates the need for hassling with several remote controls. Course, you can easily program the PT-AE4000U to a universal remote to eliminate all that remote control clutter.
Source: hometheaterdesignmag.com
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Posted by Home Theater Audio Video On November - 21 - 2009ADD COMMENTS
Heavy Performer
Right now, you can get Blu-ray players for less than $200.
Well, you can, but do those players offer you onboard decoding of all the audio formats, upconverting of the 8-bit video to 16-bit, Marvell Qdeo processing, eight Wolfson DACS, tank-like build quality and pretty much everything else you can think of to eke out every last bit of performance?
That was a rhetorical question
At just over 30 pounds, Pioneer’s BDP-09FD blu-ray player is nearly as heavy as the Rotel RSX-1560 receiver.
Just as the low weight of the RSX-1560 is impressive given its specs, the tonnage of the BDP-09FD makes it an outlier in its product category.
It’s important, believe it or not, to make a high-end product feel like a high-end product. There was a time when manufacturers put sheets of lead at the bottom of a product to make it heavier (therefore feeling more “expensive”).
Not that the BDP-09FD needs lead to feel hefty. It does that with its own guts and chassis. Pioneer really got the feel of it right, from the disc tray to the solidity of the unit itself.
Inside, there’s a toroidal power transformer similar to what you’d find in a good power amp or receiver. There is even a power supply with massive capacitors dedicated to just the analog audio stage. In looking at the whole parts list, two words come to mind.
Glorious Overkill
With the BDP-09FD, Pioneer seems to have decided to go all out in making the ultimate Blu-ray player. A similar attitude brought us the KURO plasmas (may they rest in peace). The question is, and this is one many companies struggle with: How do you make a high-end version of a commodity product?
The first step is making it look and feel the part, which, as mentioned, they’ve pulled off. The bigger issue then is the performance.
“But I thought Blu-ray was perfect,” you say. Well, sort of. The potential is there for the content on Blu-ray to be perfect. Let’s say you have that perfect disc in your hand, can your player and display re-create that disc in all its perfection? Pioneer is betting no, and has a bunch of do-dads to clean it up before you send it to your display.
The first is an upconversion from the 8-bit video on the Blu-ray to 16-bit. This smoothes out the transitions between different shades of gray (and therefore, allowing more shades of colors). While this can be transmitted over HDMI, chances are your TV is going to neuter it back down to 8-bit to process it again; though, I suppose we can blame that on your display.
Suffice it to say, you’d be getting the best possible video to your TV. There are also extensive video adjustments and noise reduction circuitry. Sure most people wouldn’t need this level of adjustment, but it’s helpful in certain installs and probably won’t hurt.
The real überness of the BDP-09FD lies elsewhere.
Powerhouse
For the foreseeable future, most people’s movie collections are going to be predominantly DVD. The BDP-09FD makes DVD look as good as just about any consumer product I’ve seen. Using Marvell’s Qdeo chipset, it does so well on every processing test that you step away and wonder why other products can’t do this well.
De-interlacing all content is a no brainer, as is pickup of the 3:2 sequence from 480i and 1080i content. Where the BDP-09FD is really over the top is with diagonal lines. On lesser processers (either in your TV or in your BD player), diagonal lines can get the much despised “jaggies,” as in, jagged steps instead of a smooth diagonal line. With both SD and HD content, the BDP-09FD does a better job creating a diagonal line, no jaggies, than any product that comes to mind.
With the waving flag test on the Silicon Optix test DVD, a test of video processing, the BDP-09FD creates a smooth flag with lots of detail. Nearly flawless.
Detail with scaled DVD content is excellent as well.
Audiophile
Adding a whole other level to the performance is the audio quality. With the aforementioned dedicated power supply for the audio, plus eight 24-bit/192kHz Wolfson DACs, the audio sound quality was clearly an important aspect in product development. Sure you can send all the audio via HDMI to your receiver or pre/pro, but depending on what you’re using, the analog out of the BDP-09FD might actually sound better. When was the last time you thought that was possible with a Blu-ray player?
Using the analog outputs, I found the audio quality with CDs to be a bit more natural and smooth. A little less brittle. Again, this will depend a lot on what you’re using as a receiver or pre/pro, but it’s worth checking out. The BDP-09FD will also decode, on board, all the latest audio formats. So if your processor doesn’t have HDMI in, no worries. Again, thanks to the DACs, you may want to go analog.
Sadly, from the company that brought us the first “combo” player, the BDP-09FD doesn’t play DVD-Audio or SACD. These are essentially dead formats, but I still have a collection of discs I love, and I’d love to hear them on a player like this.
If you have a Pioneer receiver, the Precision Quartz Lock System (PQLS) eliminates jitter across HDMI for that extra bit of performance.
Ultimate
The BDP-09FD is a niche product to be sure. After all, you can get perfectly acceptable Blu-ray performance from any player. But that’s not what this product is about.
This is for those people who want the absolute best performance from every aspect of their system, and that extra little bit of video and sound quality. For those people, this is the source they should be looking at first. How do you build a high-end version of a commodity product?
Source : hemagazine.com
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Best Buy’s new Rocketfish Wireless HD adapter lets users put up to 33 feet of wire-free space between an HDMI-capable HD video source and their HDTV.
