More HDMI Connections in Latest Audio Components – Many audio manufacturers showing at the recent CEDIA Expo introduced new AV preamps, processors and receivers with multiple HDMI connections and decoding of the latest HD audio codecs on Blu-ray – Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD lossless. Entertainment systems for thruout the home – both wired and wireless – were an attraction. And of course every description of loudspeakers, including some disguised as rocks and others as potted plants.
Berlin Show Gadgets – Another consumer electronics show recently happened in Berlin. Home appliance manufacturers were invited to add their displays to the usual home electronics. Among the new gadgets were a bedside clock radio from Philips which gradually brightens to wake you up, but then hits you with the radio or a buzzer of the increased light didn’t do it. A Slovenian company showed an Apple-sanctioned iPod refrigerator. It even has a video screen and speakers to view recipes or movies from the iPod in its door. Samsung, Philips, Sony and others showed environmentally-correct low-power LED screens, which offer better LCD display performance (though at higher cost so far). Some of the ultra-thin displays had an edge profile as thin as a DVD disc case. Toshiba showed its “near HD” DVD players using advanced processing to gain higher resolution from conventional DVDs. And Panasonic had its first Blu-ray disc recorder for the European market, with twin HD digital tuners and a 500GB hard drive letting users view one program while recording another.
Sony Launches iPod and iPhone Audio Products – Sony will be adding to their iPod-docking AV receivers with a quartet of products including a boombox with iPod dock, a clock radio with a hidden dock for iPods and iPhones and a tabletop HD Radio with an iPod dock and iTunes tagging. The new models are designated by Apple as “Works with iPhone” – meaning they have RF shielding to enable the cellular radio in the iPhone to stay on when docked without causing interference when iPhone music is played back. When calls come in, the music automatically mutes.
TDK Launches 6x Recordable Blu-ray Discs – TDK will begin shipping of the fastest-recording Blu-ray blanks next month. Their data transfer rates are equivalent to 20x recordable DVD media. The discs come in either single or double-layer versions, with special hard-coating technology to resist scratches, fingerprints and dust, as well as being resistant to breakdown from exposure to light. The discs will be priced at about $14 each for the BD-R and $33 for the BD-R DL discs.
