Home theater magazine has a great and extensive review of the newest home theater in a box that is being produced believe it or not by Denon.
Home Theater: Denon DHT-487DV Home Theater in a Box
Denon is a great manufacturer of home theater and audio products and seeing this in action, of course hearing that is would be a real treat
Look at this Toshiba review for their new projector. This is an ultra light and ultra portable projector that you can carry around with you....just don't drop it!
A home theater in a box is something that home theater purists just are not ever happy about but in reality this is a great way to get into the home theater marekt without having to know too much and to have something really quite good to see and hear.
Some people describe the Onkyo HT-S990THX as the first THX-certified home-theater-in-a-box system. Before I go any further, please note that I'm using the HTIB moniker just this once so you'll know what I'm talking about. The Onkyo and THX people prefer, not unreasonably, to call this an "integrated home theater system." Their nomenclature rules from this moment forward.
Is a THX-certified integrated system the electronic equivalent of high-end chocolate? It's a tempting analogy, with your average compact system as the humble Hershey bar and the Onkyo HT-S990THX as, say, Côte d'Or Noir de Noir Intense. But I'm going to walk away from this analogy for one simple reason: There's nothing wrong with a Hershey bar, even if the cocoa content is on the light side. But the integrated-system category is riddled with inadequacy, and, short of banning the nasty things by legal fiat, the only way to improve the situation is to invent a better mousetrap.
I'm talking about an integrated surround system that transcends its genre by performing up to THX specifications. It should have monster bass, a credible soundfield, good dynamics, and an affordable price. Not ridiculously affordable—Onkyo's list price is still in the low four figures. But the street price might well be in the high three figures if you look around.
Great Big Boy
The HT-S990THX came, indefensibly, in a single 143-pound carton. Don't try to handle it by yourself. If one lands in your front yard, open it there and carry the pieces into the house.
It is a 7.1-channel system with three woofer-tweeter-woofer speakers for the front left, center, and right channels. Four smaller monitors using similar drivers—except with just one woofer each—handle the side surround and rear surround channels. All of the midwoofers are made of A-OMF (Advanced Onkyo Micro Fiber).
The receiver is an Onkyo HT-R940. Not sold separately, it has a higher power rating than most budget receivers and a features set that's stronger in some areas (cool THX listening modes) than in others (no onscreen menus or HDMI). A DVD player is not included—add that to your budget if you're starting a system from scratch. XM plug-and-play compatibility is a plus—to take advantage of it, add $20 for the antenna.
Read the rest of this review at Home Theater Magazine
Another upconverting DVD player to allow you to upconvert your DVD to your HDTV so that you can take advantage of that great HD resolution that your HD monitor can put out. The great thing though is that this one is really cheap, well under $200
So you have a HDTV, but nothing to connect the HDMI port to? The most low cost device that can be connected to it is a DVD player with HDMI. Better yet, get an upscaling DVD player that uses all available lines on your fine HDTV. Most upscaling DVD players do 720p. The now shipping neodigits Helios H4000 is even able to upscale to full high definition resolution (1080p).
I had some doubts about the benefits of upscaling before reviewing the H4000. I was pleasantly surprised that it really makes a difference.
Overview
The neodigits Helios H4000 upscaling DVD player is not the only DVD player supporting 1080p upscaling. Denon offers the DVD-5910Ci, but we talk two different product categories here. The Denon DVD-5910Ci sells for $3,799.99 on Amazon.com. The Helios H4000 only costs $169.
The H4000 has pleasing design in an all black slim line case. It has not full-size component measurements, which I am not a fan off. This means you only can place the H4000 on top of your component stack. Measurements are 360x250x50mm. All buttons are on top of the player. The H4000 looks well made. The drive runs smooth and silent.
Read the rest of the review at i4u News
Pioneer has a nice new 7.1 Dolby Surrond reciever out in the $700-$900 range.
The good: Pioneer's high-end 7.1-channel A/V receiver is tightly packed with a full range of top-notch features, including a Faroudja HD scaler that converts all analog video inputs to your choice of 480p, 720p, or 1080i resolutions over the receiver's HDMI output. It offers three 1080p-capable HDMI inputs and highly accurate autosetup. The THX Select2 certified receiver is also XM-ready and--with the included connecting cable--offers iPod compatibility.
The bad: Densely packed menus will intimidate novices. Analog-to-digital video conversion has some issues which may bother discriminating videophiles.
The bottom line: With an extensive feature package, rock-solid build quality, and awesome sound, the Pioneer Elite VSX-82TXS is a worthy combination of everything we expect in a high-end A/V receiver.
Read the rest of the review at CNET
The good: The Pioneer S-A4SPT-PM speakers are audiophile-grade compact speakers housed in luxurious, finished cabinets made from aged whiskey-barrel wood. Each speaker boasts a high-quality woofer and tweeter and all-metal speaker wire connectors.
The bad: The whiskey-barrel speakers are expensive, and there are no matching center speakers or subwoofers.
The bottom line: Made from old oak whiskey barrels, Pioneer's S-A4SPT-PM speakers deliver a rich and clear sound that belies their small size.
Read more at Cnet reviews
I grew up with the idea that, where high-end audio was concerned, simple was best. My father, who was a true audiophile of his day, had a McIntosh amp custom built (he said) to Navy specifications and, when I started listening, a single but extremely massive Electrovoice Patrician loudspeaker. That minimalist setup served as my musical education until I began playing the cello at the age of ten and, a few years later, putting together my own system. Until then, I spent whatever free time I could steal from studying or playing baseball at the park, and whenever the living room was free, lying in front of the Patrician listening in total rapture to my father's record collection until I knew it all by heart.
My dad was slow to adopt to stereo (hey, he was slow to adapt to color television, too; on the other hand, he did have one of the first Porsches on the West Coast) but eventually he managed to fit a second Patrician into our living room together plus an Electrovoice center speaker. Those horn-loaded Patricians sure could go loud without much strain!
Following the family heritage, once I reached my maturity, I used amps that rarely if ever had tone controls, and looked on the graphic equalizer with haughty condescension. When the various attempts at surround sound came onto the market, and went, I turned up my ears at them. Finally, however, about coincident with the dawning of the new millennium, I began acknowledging surround sound and the fact that I was increasingly having to use friends' high-end systems to review multichannel CDs and DVDs.
Still, it was with a great deal of apprehension that I approached Outlaw's Model 1070 7.1 Channel Surround Sound Receiver. Could I figure out the complicated setup instructions? Could I hear any difference? Would my conventional CD listening be compromised?
As it has turned out, after more than two months of living with the Outlaw, and the high-end home theater system from Premier Acoustics that it runs, I admit that I have been converted. If it's classical and it's on DVD, that's likely to be my first choice. And, with the selection of classical material on DVD still surging, I am becoming a very happy classical music reviewer.
Fiund the rest of this review at Audiophile Audition
I know that a playstation or other game console is not really a piece of home theater equipment. I have seen all of the hype lately about BluRay DVD which will give this unit as well as the XBox360 the ability to play Hgih Definition content.
As the long wait for the much-anticipated PlayStation 3 game console dragged on, gamers started to joke that Sony stood for Soon, Only Not Yet.
The next-generation console finally goes on sale in the US today, though there probably won't be a large enough supply to meet the demand. Having spent in-depth, quality time with a US$599 shipping version of the PS3, I can tell you this: The system's impressive weaponry makes the wait worthwhile.
Under the hood
Before I drill down to the PS3's various features, I should mention the technology that has gone into the console. It may not entirely justify the controversial pricing, but it does explain the graphical appeal, not to mention the vastly improved physics and environmental (including lighting) effects.
Weighing about 11 pounds and measuring 12.8 inches wide by 3.86 inches high by 10.89 inches long, the PS3 is certainly larger than the original PS2, the diminutive Wii, or the Xbox 360. Like those consoles, it can be oriented vertically or horizontally. Either way, the PS3's striking design looks right at home in the living room (admittedly, however, its polished top surface is prone to finger marks). The PS3 runs more quietly than the Xbox 360 but is a bit louder than the almost silent Wii. Though the unit itself doesn't get too toasty, the air around it tends to feel warm after a few hours of continuous play.
The PlayStation 3 comes in two versions. The $599 model (which I tested) has a 60GB hard disk; built-in 802.11b/g wireless networking; and MemoryStick, SD, and CompactFlash slots. The $499 unit omits Wi-Fi capability and the media card slots, and has a 20GB drive. You can replace the hard drive on either version, and the supplied manual explains how to swap in your own 2.5-inch, serial ATA drive.
The differences between the two PlayStation versions end there; both provide a Blu-ray slot drive, HDMI-output, gigabit networking, four USB 2.0 ports, and built-in Bluetooth 2.0 support.
At the heart of the PlayStation 3 lies a CPU that'll impress even the most hardcore gamer. This powerful, multicore Cell processor, jointly developed by Sony, Toshiba, and IBM, runs at 3.2 GHz. An RSX Reality Synthesizer graphics engine, based on NVidia's G70 architecture, delivers the graphics. Working alongside these chips are 256MB of high-performance XDR main memory (based on Rambus RDRAM) and 256MB of GDDR3 video memory.
More of this review is at Digit
Around a decade ago I witnessed my first demo of a DVD player. I stupidly then proceeded to tell a room of fellow journos that it would never take off as a format until it was recordable. Well, as you can imagine, certain people have never let me forget that indiscretion. So when faced with the first sample of Blu-ray - the next generation DVD/high definition DVD (you decide) chances are I am going to play it safe. Well, alas no. In my opinion optical disk systems really are on their last legs and the future is hard disk and flash based storage and beyond.
So while there is a lot to like about Blu-ray and Samsung's player in particular, I'm not entirely sold on the format becoming anywhere near as ubiquitous as DVD. But for the time being if you want a high-definition movie player under your TV set it's going to be Blu-ray or Toshiba's HD DVD.
More of this review at The Register
Here is a review from Guide to home theater about the new Marantz 9600 reveiver. At $2,099, the DV9600 is Marantz' flagship "universal" DVD player. You can read about this player's many features in the Specifications section of this review, or on Marantz' own website. Some of the more significant ones are:
• Two i.LINK (IEEE1394) ports. These provide a direct digital audio connection for the audio from DVD-Video discs, SACD, and DVD-Audio, if the AV receiver or pre-pro at the other end is similarly equipped (some are, including some Marantz AV receivers, but most are not). Marantz has also equipped this link with their Jitter Free Transfer System (JTFS), which the company claims removes jitter in the bitstream when the player's i.LINK port is connected to another JTFS component.
• The player's v1.1 HDMI connection will also carry multichannel digital audio for both DVD-Video and DVD-Audio (but not SACD) to a compatible audio component.
• As an upconverting player, the Marantz will play DVD-Video discs from its HDCP compatible HDMI output in your choice of 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. The component output offers 480i and 480p.
• The player offers a wide range of audio and video setup options and controls, including four types of noise reduction, three Sharpness and Detail controls, Chroma Delay, and up to 200 msec of AV Sync delay.
• The player also provides two settings for its HDMI output: RGB-Normal and RGB-Expand. The former is the one you want. It provides a brightness range of 16 (black) to 235 (white). In this setting the player will display both below black and above white.
• On a confusing note, the manual (pg.6) makes a reference to a DVI output, and one of the menus provides a grayed-out option for such a connection. The player does not have a DVI output.
• The DV9600 includes chroma error compensation for those still bugged by this artifact.
• The DTS decoder is compatible with DTS discs of up to 24-bit/96kHz resolution.
• The analog multichannel outputs provide channel level settings, distance settings, and bass management for Dolby Digital, DTS, DVD-Audio and SACD. You get these adjustments for SACD only if you if you choose PCM for Super Audio CD Play in the Audio Setup menu. This converts SACD's native DSD coding to PCM (no digital signal processing can be performed in the DSD mode). I evaluated the player's SACD performance in the PCM setting.
• The headphone jack is equipped with Dolby Headphone, which operates with all sound formats except SACD)
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