September 3rd, 2008 by
Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
Sony’s BDV-IT1000 HTIB was outed late last month, but that’s not stopping the powerhouse from making it official alongside the BDV-IS1000 today at CEDIA. As you likely know, these two are Sony’s first offerings in the burgeoning Blu-ray HTIB market, as both packages come bundled with an elusive BD-Live-capable deck (the BDP-S350, we presume?) along with integrated support for the firm’s S-AIR technology. Each set packs a pair of HDMI inputs, XMB menu navigation, 5.1-channel surround sound, Digital Media Port (for hooking up your PMP), BRAVIA Sync and even an IR repeater on the IT1000ES. The aforesaid BDV-IT1000ES ($1,999) includes oh-so-slim drivers (pictured after the jump), while the $1,000 BDV-IS1000 includes the same “golf ball-sized” speaks as the HT-IS100. Both sets are shipping next month, or so says the release waiting after the break.
Continue reading Sony’s BDV-IT1000ES and BDV-IS1000 HTIB systems do Blu-ray
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Posted in sony, Blu-ray, audio, htib, speaker, speakers, blu ray, BluRay, bd, surround sound, SurroundSound, multichannel, s-air, cedia, 5.1, es series, EsSeries, Cedia 2008, Cedia2008, BDV-IS1000, BDV-IT1000ES, es-series | No Comments »
August 28th, 2008 by
Filed under: Home Entertainment
We suppose it was just a matter of time before iPod docks and HTIBs achieved some sort of unholy union, and their demonic lovechild has appeared at IFA — say hello to the Philips CinemaOne. Essentially a mashup of an iPod speaker system, a DVD player, and a soundbar, it’s designed to plug in to your flatscreen via HDMI and provide surround audio through five DSP-driven speakers and 4-inch sub, all in a package about the size of a football. The DivX-compatible DVD player seems decent, with 1080p scaling and Dolby Digital and DTS support, but even though the speakers use the same soundbar tech found in Philips’ Ambisound line, we’ve got our doubts that this thing sounds any good — most soundbars we’ve heard require a separate large sub to be effective. No pricing or release date yet, but we’d wait to actually hear this thing in person before we started to set aside spare change. Action shot after the break.
Continue reading Philips intros the CinemaOne iPod / DVD soundbar
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Posted in philips, htib, ipod dock, IpodDock, ipod speakers, IpodSpeakers, surround sound, SurroundSound, soundbar, ambisound, cinemaone, cts4000 | No Comments »
July 8th, 2008 by
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Portable Audio
Be honest, you were terrified that Turtle Beach would leave the awesomely titled Ear Force series sitting in lurk at X3, weren’t you? Thankfully, that’s not the case at all, as the Ear Force X4 wireless headphones have just been revealed. Designed with Xbox 360 gamers in mind, this headset / headphone combo promises to provide Dolby 5.1 surround sound out of just two earcups (we’re still checking on the velvet-lined part), and more importantly, the Chat Boost Dynamic Talkback Expander “automatically adjusts incoming XBOX Live chat levels during loud game moments” to keep you from going deaf when NewbX1337 gets all whiny on you. Can’t say we’re thrilled by the $199.95 price tag, but these are available now for those who are.
[Via IGN]
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Posted in xbox 360, Xbox360, audio, headphones, wireless headphones, WirelessHeadphones, headset, dolby, surround sound, SurroundSound, earphones, x4, 5.1, ear force, ear force x4, EarForce, EarForceX4, Turtle Beach, TurtleBeach | No Comments »
June 20th, 2008 by
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Media PCs, Peripherals, Portable Audio
Earlier this month, ASUS introduced the “world’s first HDMI 1.3a compliant audio / video enhancement combo card.” Who knew numero dos was so close behind? Auzentech has just announced its very own HDMI 1.3-native PCIe audio combo card, which is built around Creative’s X-Fi processor and enables PC users to easily output 7.1-channel audio with no downsampling. Essentially, the Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater 7.1 “accepts video from either an internal or external connection, mixes it with digital audio, and outputs the combined video and lossless multichannel audio via a single HDMI 1.3 port.” Yep, that means Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio codecs are fully supported. The only digs? For one, pricing remains a mystery, but the real kicker is the September release — talk about a long wait.
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Posted in nvidia, bitstream, dts-hd master audio, Dts-hdMasterAudio, creative, audio, pcie, Home Theater, HomeTheater, hdmi, sound, dolby, surround sound, SurroundSound, cyberlink, dts-hd, dts-hd ma, Dts-hdMa, silicon image, SiliconImage, lossless, x-fi, sound card, SoundCard, Auzen, Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater 7.1, Auzentech, AuzenX-fiHometheater7.1, hdmi sound card, HdmiSoundCard, multi-channel, true hd, TrueHd | No Comments »
February 16th, 2008 by
Filed under: Gaming
Select owners of Guitar Hero III for Wii have been moshing uncontrollably as best they can in mono for months on end, but it seems as if Activision has finally got its interconnects sorted and will start issuing replacement discs. According to direct end-user reports and the (admittedly blurry) shots in the gallery below, the firm is now dishing out pre-paid envelopes in which customers have to ship back their faulty GH III disc and wait “3 to 4 weeks” before getting a new, stereo-enabled one free of charge. Live sans your favorite game for a month, or keep rockin’ in the monaural world? Tough call, indeed.
[Thanks, Sam K.]
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Posted in Wii, problem, audio, guitar hero, guitar hero iii, GuitarHero, GuitarHeroIii, replacement, error, fix, mishap, solution, surround sound, SurroundSound, multichannel | No Comments »
February 11th, 2008 by
Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video
With all these companies honing in on bringing HD capabilities to handsets, we were beginning to wonder when someone would step up and lend a hand on the audio front. Thankfully, both Dolby and SRS Labs have come forward at Mobile World Congress to announce separate enhancements to mobile audio, so we’ll touch on the former first. Dolby Mobile, hailed as an “audio processing technology platform that brings rich, vibrant surround sound to music, movies, and television programs on mobile phones and portable media players,” is available as we speak on the FOMA SH905i and FOMA SH905iTV in Japan, but will hopefully float out to other handsets in due time. As for SRS Labs, it’s boasting its own SRS CS Headphone technology, which reportedly “takes stereo or surround encoded 2-channel audio and processes it using an ultra-low-power Circle Surround decoder to create 5.1 highly accurate channels.” Granted, we’re still wondering exactly how 5.1 channels make their way though stereo earbuds, but we’d be up for a listen, regardless.
Read - Dolby Mobile
Read - SRS CS Headphone technology
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Posted in srs, dolby, surround sound, SurroundSound, mobile world congress, MobileWorldCongress, dolby mobile, DolbyMobile, srs labs, SrsLabs | No Comments »
November 14th, 2007 by
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio
Samsung’s YA-BS900 won’t deliver any jams in 5.1, but it most certainly is “Hyper-Directional,” for whatever that’s worth. The interestingly designed speaker touts Bluetooth technology, claims to be “3-channel” in nature and possesses the innate ability to play back tunes streamed in with your BT-enabled cellphone or DAP. Furthermore, the unit will take Ozzy down a notch if it notices that a Bluetooth phone is answered, but we’re not told what other inputs (you know, like a totally convenient 3.5-millimeter jack) are included. Per usual, price / availability remain a mystery, but those tidbits can’t hide for too much longer.
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Posted in Music, samsung, bluetooth, audio, speaker, bluetooth speaker, BluetoothSpeaker, surround sound, SurroundSound, 3-channel, Hyper-Directional, YA-BS900 | No Comments »
November 13th, 2007 by
Filed under: Gaming
We don’t know who thought it’d be smart to mess with the gods of rock, but choosing not to include surround sound support for Guitar Hero III just doesn’t sound like an intelligent move. Nevertheless, a assemblage of Wii gamers are reporting that the game is outputting audio in mono, despite the packaging advertising that Dolby Pro Logic II is supported. We’ve even seen users with Pro Logic II-capable decoders explain that while other Wii titles sound fine, GHIII in particular refuses to cooperate. Supposedly, Activision is busy looking into the problem, but there doesn’t seem to be a definitive time frame for when we can expect a fix. So, any of you shredders out there experiencing something similar, or have we only heard one channel, er, side of the story?
[Via Joystiq]
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Posted in Wii, problem, guitar hero, guitar hero iii, GuitarHero, GuitarHeroIii, error, activision, dolby, dolby pro logic II, DolbyProLogicIi, surround sound, SurroundSound | No Comments »
