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Peerless' RMI-1 spins your display right round in 15-degree increments

by Steven Kim, posted Oct 12th 2008 at 11:55PM

You Spin Me Round
If you just couldn't be bothered to use a level when hanging that new flat panel or you want to make your living room look more like the SportsCenter set, the Peerless Rotational Mount Interface (RMI1) might be what you need. The RMI1 rotates displays up to 71-inches large through a full 360-degrees in 15-degree increments with the pull of a lever and a spin of the display. At $149, this is a relatively cheap way to either salvage some pride from that install that went terribly wrong, or have a display you can flip between portrait and landscape at between plays; either of these is way more fun than the suggested "waves, zigzag and 45-degree angle patterns."

Velodyne spells out details on Impact subwoofers

by Steven Kim, posted Oct 12th 2008 at 8:01PM

Velodyne Impact-Mini subwooferWe gave a heads up on Velodyne's new Impact line of subwoofers just before CEDIA, and even though it's taken a bit longer than we expected, now we have some details to share. There are three models to choose from: the Impact-Mini (6.5-inch forward-facing driver, a 8-inch passive radiator on the bottom and a 300-Watt amp), and the Impact-10 and Impact-12 featuring downward-firing ports, 250- and 275-Watt amps respectively, and driver sizes you can probably guess from the model names. Prices are definitely on the affordable end of Velodyne's range, coming in at $549, $399 and $499 for the Impact-Mini, Impact-10 and Impact-12, respectively.

History Channel UK bringing HD Bio and Crime channels

by Steven Kim, posted Oct 11th 2008 at 10:34PM

Bio, Crime and Investigation channelsLife and crime go together kind of like life and taxes, so it's fitting that The History Channel UK is bringing out HD versions of the Biography Channel and The Crime and Investigation Network to Sky's lineup. Between Bio's pledge to get serious about HD and the worldwide party that History is throwing, this gives Brits something to cheer about. If things go smoothly and the Sky EPG can spare a couple of slots, these two new offerings should be available by the end of the year.

Panasonic cranks out its 300 millionth TV

by Steven Kim, posted Oct 8th 2008 at 3:56PM

Panasonic -- over 300M servedWe've wondered why Matsushita Electric took such a long time to make the name switch to Panasonic, but this little factoid might explain some of the timing -- Panasonic just capped off its 300 millionth TV. Even though the company has always badged TVs with the "Panasonic" name plate in the US, 105 million units were cranked out under the "National" brand before "Panasonic" was used across all markets for the subsequent 195 million units. According to the press release, the company isn't slowing down, either -- it may have taken its sweet time (since 1961) to hit the 300 million mark, but the 400 million figure might come up in the next "few years." We figure that after the first 300 million, the company can pretty much produce TVs in its sleep.

Chrontel chip eases HDMI-CEC integration

by Steven Kim, posted Oct 8th 2008 at 9:19AM

Chrontel logoUniversal and centralized remote control of HT gear has long been the promise of HDMI-CEC, but the efforts of some CE manufacturers aside, all the flavors of HDMI-CEC have spoiled the party for everyone. Between talk of a unified HDMI-CEC standard and off-the-shelf solutions like Chrontel's CH7323 chip, we're hoping for a more standard, um, standard. The chip is a HDMI 1.3a-compliant, single-component solution that manufacturers can use alongside HDMI transmitter silicon to bring HDMI-CEC (even vendor-specific commands) to devices, whether the device operates as a "master" or "slave" in the control chain. We're not expecting full HDMI-CEC to explode on the scene overnight, but we'll take these baby steps for now.

Canal+ prepping Sport HD, Film HD for Spain

by Steven Kim, posted Oct 8th 2008 at 6:43AM

Canal+ logoNow that Canal+ customers in Spain have developed a taste of HD sports, Canal+ is readying Sport HD for its debut in the fall. But to introduce a little more variety into the HD-diet, Film HD is also being brought to the TV food pyramid. It sounds like Spaniards are loving their HD, with 92-percent of iPlus HD PVR owners reporting they'd recommend the device to friends. Specific offerings for Film HD weren't given, but the Sport HD channel has UEFA Champions League soccer, NBA basketball and tennis lined up -- all the better to bring the Spanish countryman Rafael Nadal's progress in December's Australian Open.

DISH appeal denied by Supreme Court, TiVo to receive $104 million payout

by Steven Kim, posted Oct 7th 2008 at 1:43PM

DISH fights TiVo
Bust out the forks, because it looks like the long-running dispute between DISH and TiVo is coming to an end (yes, again). The Supreme Court denied DISH's appeal in the DVR "time-warp" patent infringement case and in the next few day DISH will release $104 million ($94 million plus interest) from an escrow account to TiVo to cover damages stretching back to September 8, 2006. The dust isn't all settled, though, as there's more litigation in the pipeline regarding DISH's supposed workaround software currently deployed to its DVRs. Certainly, this is good news for TiVo's finances, but we'd really like to see some improvements with TiVo itself -- LiquidTV / TiVo PC is a small step in the right direction, but more advanced concepts are what we're calling for, here.

Jamo intros IW 827 in-wall speaker to the world, DMR 70 DVD receiver to US

by Steven Kim, posted Oct 7th 2008 at 6:41AM

Jamo IW 827 LCR in-wall speakers and DMR 70 DVD receiver
Jamo is embracing streamlined AV gear with its latest two product introductions -- the IW 827 LCR in-wall speaker is totally new, and the DMR 70 DVD receiver is new to US shores. The IW 827 LCR is a 2.5-way speaker with a 1-inch tweeter, 7-inch mid/woofer and a 7-inch woofer that directs sound ever so slightly downwards, so be sure to place them high on the wall. Once you've hidden the speakers, you can grab a DMR 70 DVD receiver to complete the minimalist look. The DMR 70 adds 5x65-Watts of Class D amplification to the 2-inch high upscaling DVD player. With the IW 827s going for $800 each and the DMR 70 coming in at $449, there might not be too much market overlap here, but putting fashion first can make for some unexpected component matches.

Read - IW 827 LCR in-wall speakers
Read - DMR 70 DVD receiver

Pioneer KURO LCD pics from CEATEC emerge

by Steven Kim, posted Oct 7th 2008 at 2:42AM

KURO LCDs at CEATEC
In case CNET's pics of the upcoming Pioneer KURO LCDs weren't enough to get your wild speculation going, and you can't get over to Germany to pick one up for yourself, some more photos of the KRL-32V, 37V and 46V sets have emerged from the CEATEC show. Getting good photos from the tradeshow floor is tough, but these pics (especially the ones against a black backdrop) look promising in terms of black level, at least. The linked post hints that the LCDs may not have quite measured up to the namesake plasmas, so remember what we said about show floor pics. Still, even if Pioneer is sourcing the panels from Sharp, we're encouraged by the focus on image quality over slim profiles. Hit the link for more eye-candy and let us know what you think.

AVD plays matchmaker, brings Sonos and Pronto together

by Steven Kim, posted Oct 6th 2008 at 5:04PM

Pronto TSU9600 - AVD - Sonos
The Sonos music system consistently gets high marks for its easy-to-use Sonos Controller remote. But folks who want to control their whole home with a single device can't be bothered by another remote, and they've probably got some money to spend to fix the problem. Make way for the enterprising folks at AVD Australia and QualiFi, who have come up with 2-way communication between Sonos and a Philips Pronto TSU9600 or Marantz RC9001 remote, so you can ditch that now-obsolete $400 Sonos Controller. Up to 8 Sonos areas can be controlled by up to 8 remotes, so yeah, there's room to grow. All this convenience should be available this month, starting at AUD $695 (US $540) for a single remote and zone (Sonos and remote not included).

XStreamHD licenses audio processing from ARC, resumes radio silence

by Steven Kim, posted Oct 5th 2008 at 11:43PM

XStreamHD Media Receiver
When we last heard from XStreamHD, the company had grand plans on streaming movies via satellite to some boxes with great looking specs, Michael Douglas and a non-functional CES booth that failed to impress. Now we see that the company has licensed ARC audio processing for Dolby Digital Plus decoding, which presumably would come in handy -- if there were any content to decode. To be fair, there's still time for XStreamHD to meet its long-ago promised Q4 2008 release, but absent any of the "latest content from leading studios" the only audio that will get decoded is the sound of one hand clapping.

Kodak's new CCD brings HD to industrial applications

by Steven Kim, posted Oct 4th 2008 at 8:00AM

Kodak KAI-02150 CCDIf your day job involves some CCD imaging, Kodak wants to bring some HD excitement to your 9-to-5 with its KAI-02150 (the name alone says "buttoned-down") CCD sensor. The interline transfer sensor reads out its 1920x1080 pixels at 60 frames per second and boasts high dynamic range (64dB) needed for many industrial applications. Engineering samples are available now, which will give you a few months to retool your microscopy/machine vision/imaging science application with eye-popping HD before production hits its stride in Q4 2008.

Panasonic gearing up for re-entry into the receiver market?

by Steven Kim, posted Oct 2nd 2008 at 8:03PM

Panasonic SA-BX500 AV receiver
If the appearance of Panasonic's SA-BX500 AV receiver had you scratching your head, you're not alone -- we were doing pretty much the same here at EHD. Panny dropped the Technics name for CE gear seven years ago, and since that time we've seen Panasonic move its audio offerings to the HTIB and mini-system markets. But according to the linked article, Panasonic feels that a return to the receiver game is "long overdue," and we agree. A quick look at the specs on the SA-BX500 shows that a CE giant like Panasonic can combine support for the latest technologies with economies of scale that keep things affordable -- if picture and audio quality can keep up with the likes of Denon, Onkyo and Yamaha, we'd welcome Panasonic's return to the fold.

Boston Acoustics renames Vista speakers "VS" to avoid confusion

by Steven Kim, posted Oct 2nd 2008 at 3:11PM

Boston Acoustics VS speakers
Engadget HD public service announcement -- the Boston Acoustics Vista speakers have nothing to do with any other products (HT-related or not) in the marketplace using the name Vista. For both of the people out there who may have been confused on that point, Boston Acoustics is renaming the entire model line "VS," to signify the speakers as "a new Vision in great Sound." The company is not making even a suggestion that Microsoft applied any pressure, which makes us even more disappointed in the new name -- the "Vista" moniker was a lot easier to remember. We hope another PSA clarifying that these speakers can do more than play a certain Pearl Jam album is not called for.

Pioneer joins the crowd, badges three Blu-ray players as DivX Certified

by Steven Kim, posted Oct 1st 2008 at 8:57PM

Pioneer BDP-51FD Blu-ray player
Not one to be left out, Pioneer has jumped into the fray by bestowing DivX Certification upon its trio of recently-announced Blu-ray decks -- the BDP-LX71, BDP-LX08 and BDP-51FD. This is no DivX HD certification like we saw in UniPhier-packing Panasonic players, but we'd venture to guess it's a slightly more useful spec than Profile 2.0 for most folks. The units should ship with this feature onboard, which might give them a few months of time before a flood of DivX HD Certified devices hits the market and renders the spec "meh;" but we figure that if you're shopping these Pioneer devices that the styling as important as any other feature for you.
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