Yamaha RX-Z9
Yamaha is now shipping their RX-Z9 receiver. This
truly is a "has everything" unit. It starts off with a THX Ultra 2 processor
with all the audio formats and standards that are associated with THX.
Then Yamaha has implemented one of the most impressive video processors I
have ever seen in a home receiver. It support up-scaling and
down-scaling of video signals simultaneously. This allows you to
watch a 1080i HDTV signal being scaled to 720p on a projector, while the
composite signal is feeding the same signal somewhere else in the house at
480i. If that isn't enough, they threw in nine channels of power
and one of the nicest interfaces I have experienced on a receiver setup menu.
Speaker distance settings are in 0.1 foot
increments, which should allow for enough flexibility in any
situation.
|
|
|
Yamaha DVD-S1500
Yamaha’s new budget DVD-S1500 should make some people
very happy. It is a progressive DVD-A/SACD player which has Faroudja DCDi
processing at $399.
|
Yamaha Acoustic Projector
Yamaha has taken a panel array of numerous 2” drivers
and added some DSP processing to create a single speaker which can create
a full surround experience. Most interesting was the speaker's (or should
I say acoustic projector's) ability to separate two independent audio
signals and project them to two independent audiences. In the demo, they
split the screen playing a baseball game on one half and
"Friends" on the other. Each side of the room was only able to hear the
programming material from that side of the display. Needless to say, we
were
pretty impressed.
|
|
|
Universal Remote Controls - New Consumer Oriented
Line of Remotes
Universal Remotes realized that some of their
high-end remotes were too complicated to program for the average user. To
help fix this problem, they are releasing a new line of remotes, ranging
from $100-$300, which you do not require a PC to program. They do come with a
DVD containing a 10 minute tutorial which will walk you through the
process of programming.
|
Accurate Image - Accurate 9
The Accurate 9 CRT projector was being
displayed in the DTS demonstration booth. If you ask me this 9”
three-gun CRT
projector looks as good as almost any fixed pixel display I (Sandy Bird)
saw at
the show.
|
|
|
Creative Labs Portable Media Center
While not scheduled to be released till summer, you
can see where portable entertainment is going. The Creative Labs Portable
Media Center is a hard drive-based portable device similar to an MP3
player, but has a small LCD screen allowing users to watch video and view
pictures in addition to playing music. The interface looks very similar
to Windows Media Center. |
Creative Labs Gaming
Surround sound gaming was on display by many
vendors. Creative had several ‘pods’ set up for surround gamers in 5.1
surround. Also, every time I visited Creative’s booth, the pods were
full of people giving this new gaming experience a try. If I had to judge
by the number of people involved, it is going to be a big hit.
|
|
|
During the show, our Editor, John Johnson (on the right) produced video
interviews of industry executives, was a judge for the TechTV Best of CES
2004 Awards, and was interviewed on Los Angeles AM radio station KFI by
Leo Laporte (on the left). |
Media servers are a huge item this year, and this one is by Philips.
These servers store your audio and video files, and transmit them to TVs or hi-fi
systems throughout your home via CAT-5 cable or wireless networks. |
|
|
Thiel's new SW-2, with two 15" drivers is a very big system. |
Paul McGowan, of PS Audio, shows a module from his new multi-channel power
amplifier. |
|