How big is your telly? JVC would like it to be 70in. The company has overhauled its rear-projection TV range throughout the year and now you can get your mitts on the new 70in, rear-projection HDTV – originally announced in September. The HD-70FH96 boasts JVC’s three-chip D-ILA (Direct-drive Image Light Amplifier) technology used in its professional projectors. The company says that D-ILA can continuously reproduce a flicker- and burn-free picture, while an invisible pixel structure means there are no colour or motion artifacts. The HD-70FH96 boasts a 1920 x 1080 pixel high definition resolution. It also comes with the fifth generation of JVC’s D.I.S.T. (Digital Image Scaling Technology) which can upscale any video source to display at full high definition 1080p. Shipping soon, and this is the best bit, it will cost around £3,500 – the same as a good 42in flat screen HDTV. If you have the room, then forget skinny TVs and go rear-projection. To see what the experts think, go here.

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Posted by Martin Lynch on December 22, 2005 in Active Home, Television | Permalink | Comments (0)

The digital home has meant many living rooms are littered with too many controls for a vast array of consumer electronics equipment. The idea of universal remotes is not new but the choice is certainly improving with mainstream companies now entering the field with midrange and high-end offerings. Philips has just launched its new RU990 ProntoPro touch-screen remote with 48Mb of memory. It is designed to work with all AV equipment. Just point it at your other remotes – or download codes via the USB cable off the Net – to put all your devices under the control of one remote. Lord of the Rings eat your heart out. RF support means you can also control devices that are not in line-of-sight. The bundled software even lets you build your own interface on a PC for the remote’s LCD display. At £599, this is certainly not at the budget end of the universal remote scale but if home cinema/hi-fi occupies a large chunk of your free time, then a serious control is worth considering.  

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Posted by Martin Lynch on December 21, 2005 in Active Home | Permalink | Comments (0)

With the massive increase in sales of flat, LCD and plasma TVs, there is a move to put other home cinema components on a diet too. Jamo has done just that by replacing three traditional boxy speakers with a single, slim speaker designed to sit flush with your new TV. The new LCR (left/centre/right) A360 speaker comes in black and houses six drive units (3 x 90mm bass drivers + 3 x 90mm co-axial midrange drivers with integral 19mm tweeters). The new speaker measures 3.6in deep – roughly in line with the depth of many flat screen TVs. The A360 is magnetically shielded and capable of pumping out up to 100Watts of power. It costs £300.

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Posted by Martin Lynch on December 20, 2005 in Active Home | Permalink | Comments (0)

It’s tiny projector time again and this time it’s Toshiba rolling out the goods. Meet the TDP-FF1ADLP, a tiny DLP projector measuring just 5.5 x 4 x 2.2ins and weighing in at a pocket-friendly 1.2lbs. For all its size restrictions though the specs, on paper, are not bad at all. Picture resolution is 800 x 600, which means its capable of DVD quality playback, like most of the larger projectors on the market today. It has a respectable 1500:1 contrast ratio and picture sizes range from 11-68ins. Brightness, thanks to it’s size, is just 400 ANSI Lumens, so you will need to be in a dark room for the best results. Even better, it will run off a battery that hooks up at the back and will give you two hours of viewing pleasure. Due out early next year, it will cost around £400.

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Posted by Martin Lynch on December 19, 2005 in Active Home | Permalink | Comments (6)

It’s always good to see innovation in the speaker arena. Proving that not everything related to audio has to be rectangular, Cinemateq has announced its “natural” 5.0 surround sound system. The name applies to the 3-D nature of the sound they pump out. Many speakers are designed to produce their best sound in a narrow area often known as the ‘sweet spot’. The natural speakers differ in that the sound pillars disseminate the sound “nearly as naturally as an instrument”, according to Cinemateq. It says that just like in a cinema or concert hall, your seating position has no influence on the sound quality. 3-D sound is not a new thing and some audio companies offer their own version of true surround sound, but few have wrapped the concept up in such distinctively designed speakers. There’s no price on these yet but you can be assured that they will not be cheap. More

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Posted by Martin Lynch on December 19, 2005 in Active Home | Permalink | Comments (0)

Denon continues to unveil more converged home cinema products this week with the launch of its high-end AV receiver, the £1,500 AVR-4306. Chief among the new bells and whistles is the ability to listen to digital radio over the Internet without the need for a PC. The AVR-4306 can be hooked up to your broadband connection and tuned to www.radiodenon.com for access to more than 2,300 global radio stations. In addition, the receiver boasts Ethernet facilities to allow of audio streaming from a PC using Windows Media Connect or a PC designed to support the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) standards. Other key features include HDMI video upscaling to 1080i high definition, iPod and MP3 player interface, 7 x 130 watts of full-bandwidth surround sound power, and the ability to play music from USB-enabled devices, ranging from players to memory sticks.

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Posted by Martin Lynch on December 15, 2005 in Active Home | Permalink | Comments (2)

The bitter battle over the future of the type of DVD disc we’ll be using from 2006 has taken another ill-fated twist. Toshiba’s hope to be first to market with next-generation DVD technology have been dashed due to technical problems. Toshiba, which heads up the HD-DVD storage format, was due to launch the media in Japan before Christmas but has now admitted that it might not be until early next year. The company said that there are still copy protection issues with the AACS (advanced access content system). This a major blow to the technology in its fight against Blu-Ray disc technology, developed by Sony. Both technologies have a big-name Hollywood studio support. Toshiba had been hoping to secure a three month advantage by launching HD-DVD first and, in truth, it needs it. Blu-Ray has been winning the marketing battle in recent months and with HD-DVD losing its launch window, those in the Blu-Ray camp will no doubt redoubling their efforts to guarantee a Spring 2006 launch. 

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Posted by Martin Lynch on December 14, 2005 in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bass is all-important in a home cinema set-up. Without it action sequences sound tinny and flat and your room doesn’t shake like it ought to. Getting a subwoofer properly integrated into your home cinema sound system though can be tricky. Velodyne, makers of award winning subwoofers, knows a thing or two about sorting out bass and to prove it, it has introduced a system for use with any subwoofer. The Subwoofer Management System (SMS-1) is a separate bass processing system that uses Velodyne’s Digital Drive room correction software, normally only found in Velodyne subs. The process for measuring and correcting room anomalies simply means placing the microphone in your fave listening position and hitting a few buttons. The system does the rest, displaying your room’s subwoofer and the room’s sound anomalies on your telly. From there you can adjust it as necessary, or let the SMS-1 do it for you. It has four pre-set bass modes for action adventure movies, general movies, pop/rock and jazz/classical, plus a fifth programmable one. The SMS-1 costs around £300.

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Posted by Martin Lynch on December 13, 2005 in Active Home | Permalink | Comments (0)

Investing in a home cinema set-up is no longer about performance but about how the new kit will fit into your living space. Audio/video purists may look on in horror as kit is designed to be décor-friendly but there is a big market out there for technology that breaks away from the normal black or silver. Crystal Audio is the latest firm to join the trendy set with its Smart 4 surround sound speakers with interchangeable panels. At £800, the smart 4 series comprises four slimline, tower loudspeakers, a dedicated centre channel and a THX Select- certified subwoofer. They are finished in a range of colours, and apart from the traditional silver or black, you can also get them in deep dark cherry, maple, bright red, and “Ferrari Yellow”. For those that want to add a style-statement to good sound, this could be for  you. The series comes with a five year warranty.

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Posted by Martin Lynch on December 12, 2005 in Active Home | Permalink | Comments (0)

Iomega has taken the wraps off a portable drive aimed at people that want to store and view digital content on their TVs without needing the PC. The ScreenPlay Multimedia Drive is a pocket-sized, 60Gb drive designed to store digital video, music, photo albums and work files. According to Iomega, the drive’s in-built multimedia features, including DVD player-style keys and audio/video outputs, let’s you take your digital content off the PC, and hook it up to TVs and sound systems wherever you are. An on-screen TV navigation menu allows you to browse the contents of the drive and there’s a wireless remote for easy control. The drive is capable of storing up to 240,000 photos, 90 hours of DVD-quality video or 1,110 hours of music. Compatible video formats include MPEG-1 (AVI, MPG, DAT), MPEG-2 (AVI, VOB), and MPEG-4 (AVI, XviD). Prices average £120-130, but you can get it for £115 here.

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Posted by Martin Lynch on December 8, 2005 in Active Home | Permalink | Comments (0)

The living room is the next big battle ground for PCs and consumer electronics. Media PCs are just starting to take off because frankly, they look more like DVD players than PCs and are relatively easy to use. Evesham is hoping that making its Media PC even less obtrusive will boost home sales even further. Meet the Evesham Mini, courtesy of its recent deal with AOpen, which has designed and built this uncanny Mac Mini look-alike. It certainly wins style points and measuring 16.5 x 16.5 x 5cm, means it’s the smallest Media Center PC in the world. It is available in 40GB and 80Gb versions, powered by Intel's 2GHz Pentium M 760 processor or a Celeron M 360. It will run Windows XP Media Center Edition and sports a dual-layer DVD-RW drive with connectivity consisting of USB, FireWire, DVI, TV, Gigabit Ethernet, S-Video, microphone and speaker ports. There is no monitor, keyboard or mouse. So, while this may look like the Mac Mini, the price does not. Mac Mini prices start at £359 and run to £499. The 40GB version of this will cost £499, leaping to £699 for the 80GB version.

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Posted by Martin Lynch on December 7, 2005 in Active Home | Permalink | Comments (0)

Digital products like flat screen TVs, MP3 players and game consoles are driving a boom in the consumer electronics (CE) market across Europe, with the UK top of the heap. According to the European Information Technology Observatory (EITO) the market has grown by 9.2 per cent in 2005 to an overall value of 36.7bn. MP3 players experienced the highest growth at 98 per cent, while flat-screen TVs and projectors have outsold traditional cathode ray tube (CRT) TVs for the first time. Thankfully, for us consumers, demand has resulted in severe price competition in most sectors. In terms of growth, Italy has grown fastest by 13.6 per cent, followed by Spain and Germany. The UK, described by EITO as "technically enthusiastic", managed to grow by 9.1 per cent but remains the biggest market by far at £8.6bn.

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Posted by Martin Lynch on December 6, 2005 in Active Home | Permalink | Comments (0)

The high-definition (HD) train just keeps gathering speed as Toshiba joins the ranks of projector suppliers unveiling a HD-Ready model. The MT700 is a midrange/high-end DLP projector with a £1,700 price tag. It has a native resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels and an HDMI interface, which is needed for transferring digital content without any analogue conversion. Image size tops out at an impressive 315in (or more than 26ft) which should be more than enough for even the biggest home cinema. It boasts Faroudja DCDi processing and an O+ Scaler to guarantee image clarity and ensure that fast moving sequences are reproduced without blurring. The unit has a contrast ratio of 2500:1, a 6-segment colour wheel and a claimed brightness of 1,000 ANSI Lumens. Shipping now.

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Posted by Martin Lynch on December 5, 2005 in Active Home | Permalink | Comments (0)

There was a time when respected audio equipment makers wouldn’t touch the digital music market with a barge pole. Thanks to the success of the iPod, however, they have all changed their tune, realising that digital music and players represent a global shift in how people store, distribute and listen to music. Jamo has never been slow on the digital uptake though, and now it’s preparing to launch the  i300 system for the iPod. This is a stylish subwoofer/satellite speaker system with a separate universal iPod dock, aimed at audiophiles. A long-range radio frequency remote control means you can control the iPod and system from another room. Extra connections will allow you to hook up a console, PC or portable DVD player as well. Due out next month, it will cost £299.99.

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Posted by Martin Lynch on December 2, 2005 in Active Home | Permalink | Comments (1)

Who says speakers have to be square or rectangular? Certainly not the folks at high-end audio manufacturer Eclipse, which has just released some details of its next ovoid speakers, the egg-shaped Time Domain 510 series (TD510). The new series of diminutive speakers, which follows in the footsteps of the acclaimed TD512 series. Despite their size, these are audio heavyweights, with many Eclipse predecessors in use in sound studios and by musicians including Brian Eno and John Williams. The egg-shape is no novelty either. Traditional box-type enclosures of wood or plastic result in a “coloured and warmed” sound by the flapping panels and resonances within. The TD510’s design, composed of mineral-loaded resin, provides an accurate signal from the drive unit by preventing any masking of the audio signal. There are more tech specs here but what you may want to consider is that two of these wee eggs will set you back around £1,200.

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Posted by Martin Lynch on December 1, 2005 in Active Home | Permalink | Comments (1)