A 110 inch monster coming to a home theatre near you!

		Tuesday, 04 September 07 - 06:28 PM (GMT -05:00) By Dennis Landayan in Electronics

When it comes to a home theatre television, the bigger the screen the better the experienced. It used to be only the rich and famouse can afford to have a home theatre room. Today with the popularity of LCD, Plasma, and DLP televisions, almost anyone can have a high tech home theatre room. The last few years the prices for these televisions has plunged tremendously and manufactures are introducing bigger and bigger screen sizes every year to attract more consumers.

Well JVC is one of those manufacturers that is showing a 110 inch projection LCD tv using the D-ILA technology. Basically, this technology employs the use of the liquid crystal on silicon chips to project the large high resolution image to the screen. This monster tv was shown at the IFA trade show in Berlin and it's a prototype so there is no price for the actual unit. If the high demand for a high definition tv is any indication, this size will not be the last stop for manufactures.

via: Crave

Simply a monster of a device! Ultimate High Definition Entertainment Center

		Thursday, 07 June 07 - 10:36 PM (GMT -05:00) By Dennis Landayan in Electronics

Alienware's Hanger 18

When the Apple TV was released a couple of months ago, a simple media device is finally available that is truly plug and play. The price is affordable and with the Apple name brand it is winning a lot of accolades among Apple and PC users. In addition, the announcement of a YouTube partnership will bring thousands of videos available for viewing. My on quibble about this feature is when you watch a YouTube video on a computer screen the segment tends to be grainy so viewing them on a high definition television will probably be less than stellar. So a lack of a high definition playback on the Apple TV really limits its audience with high end equipments.

So when Alienware announced that they will be releasing a HD entertainment device, i know it will be full-featured but at the same time expensive. The Hanger 18 HD entertainment center is truly a monster of a product, not only in can output in 720p but also in full high definition resolution at 1080p ( hi-def heaven)! This feature alone is worth the entrance price, especially the popularity of hi-def programing. Another amazing capability is the expandibility of the hard drive up to Two Terabytes of storage enough to accomodate all of your favorate high definition programs. The Vista media center feature will also allow users to streams photos, music and videos from their computers.

I could go on and on but the long list of features of the Hanger 18 is simply incredible and the price is also incredible ( but worthed if you have the dough). The release date will be June 21st and the starting price will be $1999 with the 250 GB hard drive and $3999 with the 4 GB of memory and 2 Terabytes of storage.

Specs:

Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium

Processors: Athlon 64 X2 Dual core processors

Memory: Supports up to 4GB of memory

Storage: 250 GB HDD expandible to an incredible 2 Terabytes!

Networking: using gigabit Ethernet or 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi

Graphics: Choice of Nvidia integrated graphics with 720p HDMI output, or Nvidia dedicated graphics offering with 1080p HDMI output

Tuners: up to four tuners (two each, analog and digital)

Audio: 5.1 surround sound system with 200 watts per channel, direct subwoofer connection

Connectivity: Analog Audio in,Optical Audio out, Subwoofer out,HDMI Video,VGA,S-Video,Analog Video Out

For full product specification click here: Hanger 18

Link: Alienware

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A must read: Don't buy an LCD or Plasma TV without this!

		Wednesday, 09 May 07 - 05:41 PM (GMT -05:00) By Dennis Landayan in Electronics

Flat panel screens are the hottest piece of electronic display today. Infact last holiday season, the number one item on most people's wish list is a high definition tv.Today, the prices of this high-end flat panel displays considerably drop to the point that the heavy and bulky tube televisions are no longer an option.

Because of the federal mandate to shift over-the-air signals from analog to digital transmission, more and more studios are broadcasting in high definition signal.

The competition between cable, satellite, and recently the phone company ( Verizon with their Fios system...will soon have one yeepee!), the high definition delivery signal is gaining momentum.Infact, cable giants HBO, Showtime, and Starz have a dedicated channel just for high definition broadcast. My favorate cable channel have to be the "Discovery Channel" in high def with their spectacular selections of nature films and documentary shows.

According to isupply, shipments of digital televisions increased 113 percent, from 1.7 million units to 3.7 million units, from 2002 to 2003. From 2006 to 2009, the shipments of LCD televisions will increase to 61.2 million units.

This means that high definition sets will be the standard entertainment display in our living rooms in the next few years. Now to go back to my title "Don't buy an LCD or Plasma tv without this?"

The answer is an "HDMI" connection or "High Definition Multimedia Interface"...now that's a mouth full.

Most LCD and Plasma models that will be coming out this year (2007) will have an HDMI connection built-in. Some higher-end models will have 2 HDMI connection and the higher ...higher end will have 3 to 4 connections.

HDMI simply means without getting too technical, the audio and video are transmitted on a single cable, unlike component which requires seperate video and audio cables. It is also capable of carrying a higher bandwidth of video signal and upto 8 channel of uncompress digital audio so the result is an amazing picture and sound..

Most video devices that are coming out this year will have an HDMI inputs. High definition dvd players are slowly becoming popular because of their high resolution pictures and multi-channel audio. Game gears like the Playstaion 3 and Xbox 360 ( Elite version) consoles are design to take advantage of this technology.

The reason for my title as indicated above because a lot of consumers are bargain hunting ( who isn't these days) when it comes to shopping for high definition sets. If you look at your Sunday ads you will notice a lot of this televisions are price below the thousand dollar range. Now that's very attractive, but if you look closer to the ad you will notice that they don't have an HDMI connection but "dvi"( digital video interface) or component.

Remember, HDMI will be the standard in the next couple of years so buying an LCD or Plasma with this feature is future proofing your purchase. If the ad does not show the input features, just call the store to check or get the model numbers and check the internet.

Tips on buying an LCD TV or Plasma TV:

Always buy a brand name television like Sony, Panasonic,Sharp,Toshiba,Phillips,Mitsubishi and LG....stay away from no-name brand.
Size is important so make sure the room is big enough to accomodate the set.
Make sure its the latest model and not a discontinued item.
If you have a Playstation 3 or an Xbox 360 make sure you get the model with atleast 2 HDMI inputs, just incase you want to add an additional device (HD-DVD players will go down in price soon).
If you are planning to hook the LCD tv to a computer, a VGA input is required
If you plan to showcase your digital pictures on your television, get a model with a memory card reader ( usually its the SD card version)..
Never buy an HDMI cable at a retail store...get it from the internet, way cheaper.
If you ever need more HDMI inputs, a simple solution is to purchase an HDMI Switch. This will allow you to select multiple HDMI sources into 1 high definition television.