Phast's CF-10 cardframe forms the central location for interchangeable cards, enabling control via serial communication, relays, contact closure, infra-red, and telephone, as well as integration with the more industrial AMX devices in home automation.

Phast offer's a variety of control interfaces, keypads shown above.

A Phast Viewpoint RF wireless touchpanel

Parasound unleashed a two-channel monster, the HCA-3500, sporting dual 1.4 kVA transformers, and 196,000 uF of filter capacitance.  $2,499

Pioneer displayed a prototype DVD recorder.  Only available in. Japan, the rough equivalent cost in US dollars is $2,400 .

Pioneer also had prototype HD (1080i) DVD.  With 27.46 GBytes of storage capacity, it can support 4 hours at 15 mbps.

Panasonic had one of the largest plasma screens we've seen yet, and with HDTV resolution.

Pioneer had their own version of Dolby EX for everyone to see, of course, a prototype.

In-walls are coming a long way.  Sonance showed off both their THX Select and THX Ultra approved models.

Probably the hit of the show, the Sony Dogs with artificial intelligence.  Sparky wanted to show his muscles in front of Francine, who unfortunately wanted to chase her pink  balls instead of paying attention to him.  Don't give up Sparky! They've got 18 motors and interact with their environment.  They won't, however, eat your leftovers.

We thought THX certified multimedia systems were interesting.

And then we saw THX certified car audio!

Evan getting shook with a ButtKicker tactile transducer.

MediaSkope 600 disk robotic DVD changer.  Four-zone output with four SCSI DVD drives and an embedded web server for control.

Meridian DSP33 Digital Active loudspeaker

Monster Central line of AV distribution products targeted for the home wiring closet

Klipsch is getting aggressive with their pricing: Their Reference bookshelf with wood veneer: $800.

Panasonic's PT56WXF95, a 56" rear projection 16:9 TV, is the first in its class to produce a native 720p picture.  Price: $5,000.

This new LCD based rear projection TV from Sharp features a new and proprietary LCD system capable of 1080i.  The picture is very good but at $59,000 the target market will likely be slim.

The greatly anticipated RX-V1 from Yamaha was on display, but no live demonstration was available.  Watch for a review  this spring.

Meridian's new DSP-8000 reference digital loudspeaker.  They retail for $45,000 a pair!  Contains five 100 watt amplifiers and four DACs  (192/24-bit resolution). The speaker cabinet is made of layered steel and hardwood for extreme rigidity.  There are three 8" woofers on each side of the cabinet.  The mid and top are located in a separate box that sits on top.

Edge Audio showed us their model 500 Series speakers that will only be sold on the web. This set, for example, has four of the speakers shown on the top and one of the center channel speakers shown on the bottom, plus a 10" powered subwoofer, all for $1,499. They all have real Capirona wood enclosures and appear to be rock solid in construction.

Jamo has some very interesting surround speakers that come in lots of different colors.

Polk Audio has a new home theater package that includes the processor, all power amplifiers, subwoofer, and the rest of the speakers too. $3,500.