News Archive
Fri 10 March 2006
Samsung and Panasonic Blu-Ray players available in ‘Autumn’
At the CeBIT goodies show this week Samsung finally announced May 26 for the US launch date for the first commercial Blu-Ray disc player, the BD-P1000. The UK, however, is going to have to wait until Autumn, i.e. just in time for Christmas. Similarly the Panasonic player will be available in ‘Autumn’ as well.
Samsung BD-P1000
The BD-P100 will not only be able to playback full HD but also upscale standard DVD to a higher definition. It is quite chunky though, and as a first-generation device is it really worth it at £680? We will have to wait and see.
Panasonic
The Panasonic player will play back all existing DVD formats as well as high-definition Blu-ray discs, including BD-ROM package software titles. It will have full-HD 1080 progressive output capability as well as something called “HDAVI Control” to simplify connecting it to other devices. HDAVI Control will let you activate and operate all devices in a home cinema, including the digital cable set-top, with a single remote and through a unified user interface. Hooray for convergence. No price tag yet though.
For more information on HD see "High definition of definitely hype"
Fri 10 March 2006
"...No really, I seriously am a Secret Agent"
Ok, so biometric fingerprint doors are cool and on a scale of 1-10 for Bond cred they get a respectable 7 but hidden passageways with books for switches easily gets an 8.5 and an Indiana Jones rating of 10. Creative Home Engineering are appropriately named and unsurprisingly based in America, what a great business.
See Moat & Drawbridge for further info on Smart- Home security systems.
Fri 10 March 2006
"Seriously, I’m a Secret Agent"
This high-tech door handle uses a combination of fingerprint biometrics and keypad pin for access. It stores up to 50 fingerprints and also keeps a log of everyone who has gained access. With one of these on your front door all you would need to do is handcuff your briefcase to your wrist when you came home from work for instant ‘Secret-agent’ role play. Don’t forget to look over each shoulder with a controlled yet suspicious glare before entering as well. For this amount of pleasure everyday it totally justifies the $600 price tag.
See Moat & Drawbridge for further info on Smart- Home security systems.
Fri 10 March 2006
Impressive ‘home-cinema-in-a-box’ by Toshiba
At CeBIT 2006 Toshiba introduced the et20, the third projector available which integrates a DVD player into the main chassis, the only other such model available in the UK is the Optoma MovieTime. As well as full Dolby Digital 5.1 support and a progressive-scan DVD player, the truly impressive feature of Toshiba's et20 is its throw distance. The projector can create a 2m image from only 1m away from the screen, which is perfect for people with small living rooms. The projector also has an image enhancer Toshiba calls Realta HQV, which attempts to enhance DVD video so it looks like HD. It uses 10-bit video processing and pixel-by-pixel noise reduction, along with motion adaptive video de-interlacing and a few other features Toshiba had previously incorporated into its £35,000 Teranex Xantux box. The et20 will be available in April for just over £1000.
Related article: Custom Install v. ‘Off-the-shelf’ home entertainment systems
