Issue 21

BUMPER HOLIDAY COMPETITIONS WIN $8500+ IN PRIZES

TANNOY HTS200 • KODAK CAMERA PACKS • YAMAHA RXV 663 AV RECEIVER • HP TOUCHSMART IQ515

TRUE BLU EDITION

A U S T R A L I A’ S C O M P L E T E D I G I TA L L I F E S T Y L E C O M PA N I O N

Why the time is right for Blu-ray

5 players ranked and rated

ISSUE 21

$7.95

Latest movies reviewed

PIONEER’S

9TH-GEN KURO AND BD PLAYER

IT’S A WRAP

The 12 tech days of Christmas

REVIEWED THIS ISSUE

PASSPORT TO FUN Holiday gear as mobile as you are

MORE TOP TECH: CAMERAS, MOBILE PHONES, GPS S U PL HOW TO: MAKE YOUR SYSTEM FAMILY FRIENDLY

• SAMSUNG LA46A950 • SONY XBR KDL46XBR45 • KLIPSCH CS-700/ ROOMGROOVE • GRUNDIG MISURO GLCD2206HDV • DENON AVR-589/ SYS-56HT PACKAGE • GENEVA MODEL XL

LOVE GAMES BUT WANT MORE?

The new, bigger 80GB PLAYSTATION 3 allows you more of everything: more fantastic games, plus photos, video, internet, film and music – and more space in your living room.

The 80GB PLAYSTATION 3 is in stores now for

10 THINGS TO DO WITH YOUR PS3 AND ITS HANDY HARD DRIVE

$699.95 RRP

The new 80GB PLAYSTATION 3 is making a serious play for the centre of your home – and it’s worth taking a look at what’s on offer. The best in games, media capabilities and ample storage space means this bit of high-tech kit enables you to experience all-round entertainment for the whole family.

Of course, this is PlayStation – so you can expect great, original games as standard. You can give your brain a workout, enter an off-road race or, with a broadband internet connection, become part of the huge online family building new challenges for other players in LittleBigPlanet. You can invite the family over and download a game for the kids, giving you space to catch up with the gossip before causing family strife with a National Geographic Buzz! trivia quiz. When the weekend rolls around, you can throw a roof-raising SingStar party where everyone becomes a performer.

Play top-selling games at great prices with Platinum from just $49.95 Party with your friends on SingStar or Buzz!

Register with PlayStation Network and play online for free with PSN communities Download demos, trailers and videos Buy great add-ons for your games Surf the web Play your favourite music Keep and view your photos Buy a PlayStation Eye camera and video chat online with friends Enjoy movies on DVD and Blu-ray

But it’s not only about great games: with PLAYSTATION 3 you can choose your own form of entertainment. PLAYSTATION 3 plays high definition Blu-ray movies, standard DVDs and audio CDs. Then, there’s the web as well as your music, photo and video collections, which you’ve now got in one handy place.* The sizeable memory – 80 gigabytes worth – means that you don’t have to fight with friends, family or flatmates for storage space. You just have to fight about what to do with your PLAYSTATION 3 next – whether that’s trying out the latest downloadable games, chatting with a pal overseas via PlayStation Network, subjecting everyone present to a slideshow of holiday snaps, or throwing a party and letting PLAYSTATION 3 provide your favourite music.

So what’s the catch? Well, when you consider its amazing gaming power as well as all its other abilities, PLAYSTATION 3 is fantastic value. It also delivers in terms of actual space: imagine a games machine placed on a Blu-ray player stacked on top of a stereo balanced on a PC (with a digital video recorder teetering on the top of the pile); it’s an unpleasant image compared to this sleek black box that opens up a world of digital entertainment. As far as we can see, the only catch is that your sofa’s going to take some wear and tear in the near future.

FOR A LIMITED TIME, IF YOU BUY A PLAYSTATION 3 YOU CAN GET A FREE GAME. CHOOSE FROM ONE OF FOUR NEW-RELEASE TITLES: • LITTLE BIG PLANET • SINGSTAR ABBA • RESISTANCE 2 • MOTORSTORM: PACIFIC RIFT * Broadband internet connection required for online functionality

Check out au.playstation.com for more details.

The Latest Technology.

HD Audio? That’s just the Marantz Home

QLF435 L

The Greatest Sound. beginning of your Entertainment Experience…

The new Marantz SR8002 AV Receiver maintains the high standards for which Marantz has been known for since 1953.

With performance levels arguably surpassing that of separate pre-power components in both sheer brawn and subtle sophistication, this THX Certified AV Receiver offers a clean power output of 125 Watts RMS from each of its seven current-feedback amplifiers, accurately recreating both movie soundtracks and music.

With HDMI 1.3 connectivity providing brilliant High Definition video switching (Deep ColorTM compatible) and full HD Audio (Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital TrueHD, DTS High Definition, DTS Master Audio and Multi-channel PCM), the SR8002 is ready for High Definition Blu-ray and HD-DVD soundtracks.

Reflecting Marantz’s music heritage, the SR8002 incorporates customised components for superior sound quality, a copperplated chassis to minimise unwanted interference and a huge Toroidal Transformer with shielding for instant delivery of high power levels.

Even MP3, WAV or AAC compressed music files (including iPod music) will now sound better with the activation of the built-in M-DAX (Marantz Dynamic Audio eXpander) compressed audio enhancement feature.

Setting up your system could not be easier, thanks to Marantz’s application of Audyssey’sTM ‘one touch speaker set-up’ feature.

The programmable main remote allows control of your entire system – and for music in additional rooms of your home, Marantz have even included a separate dedicated remote control.

To experience the phenomenal performance of the new SR8002 (or its smaller brother, the HD Audio-equipped SR7002), please contact us or your nearest Marantz stockist.

Distributed in Australia by QualiFi Pty Ltd • (03) 8542 1111 • info@marantz.com.au www.marantz.com.au

QLF435 R

FAST FOREWORD

Good, bad and Santa T

here’s good news and bad news. First, the bad.

The high cost of exchange rates following the decline of the Australian dollar on world markets means New Year pain for home entertainment and technology buyers. Since October, the dollar has dropped around 30 percent in value against the Greenback, from a high of 95 cents down to a low of just over 60, the rock-bottomest bottom in eight years. With Australian electronics distributors negotiating product deals with overseas factories in US dollars (or Japanese Yen or Korean Wan, against which the Aussie is doing equally dismally) their shopping lists are now significantly more expensive. Someone has to pay, and it’s us.

After Christmas, just about all consumer electronics gear – including the tellies, amps, speakers and AV source equipment so beloved by us at Home Entertainment – will cost more. Sony has said its Bravia TVs will increase by between 5 and 15 percent from 1 February 2009, with rises in audio, visual, digital imaging, personal audio and recordable media products also slated for that time. Sony warns the cost of its digital imaging products will rise by between 5 and 30 percent, with notebook PCs and car audio products to increase from 1 January.

Samsung and LG have also indicated their AV products will be more expensive from late-January or early-February, with LG indicating increases of 5–10 percent. Panasonic, too, has said prices will rise, but didn’t specify when.

These forthcoming price rises are something of a precedent for the audio-visual industry, where heavy discounting is commonplace and consumers routinely negotiate with ready and receptive retail staff for even better bargains.

According to Sony Australia General Manager – Consumer AV/ IT Sales, David Hargreaves, currency fluctuations have never in the history of the Australian television market given rise to a price increase, and that next year’s hikes will be the first to the Bravia range since its introduction three years ago.

Publisher Peter Blasina peter@gadgetguy.com.au Managing Director Valens Quinn valens@gadgetgroup.com.au Editorial Director Anika Hillery anika@gadgetgroup.com.au Editorial Contributors Anthony Fordham, Nic Tatham, Thomas Bartlett, Max Everingham, Nathan Taylor, Alex Kidman Art Director Bill Chan bill@gadgetgroup.com.au Advertising Sales Daniel Russell daniel@gadgetgroup.com.au Director Tony Read tony@gadgetgroup.com.au Printing The Quality Group Distributed by Gordon & Gotch www.gordongotch.com.au

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Panasonic echoes that position, with Electronics Director, Paul Reid, saying he’s never seen a price rise in the television category in over 20 years of sales experience.

So our favourite toys will soon cost us more, but not, at least, before that time of the year when we bend the plastic more than we would usually. So that’s good news, but not the good news.

All year we work, work, work and work and just as we’re ready to expire we get a glimpse of Christmas and the week or more that follows where we don’t work and it’s like we can breath again.

From late November, we see bus drivers wearing Santa hats, carol singers at train stations, our neighbour’s eves festooned in lights, council trucks draped in tinsel, presents under the tree and, from the 24th to New Year’s Day, the shimmering promise of sarongs and boogie boards, sleep-ins and the guiltless consumption of lethal amounts of pavlova.

To help you enjoy whatever time out you have coming to you, this edition is brimful of ideas for keeping you and your nearest and dearest entertained, whether you’re home or away, or in transit between the two. Be it one of the new sharply priced Blu-ray players hitting the market, a portable media device, your favourite movie or TV show on disc, or a flat panel TV and sound system to enjoy with the family during the year to come, we’re confident you’ll find something in these pages you never knew you wanted.

So start making your list. Spend with your head not over it. And if you wind up with any ‘excess’ baggage after the holidays, we hope it came with a frothy umbrella drink and gold lame hotpants.

Cheers Anika Hillery

All care is taken in the compiling of this magazine,the editors and proprietors assume no responsibility for the effects arising therein.Correspondence,manuscripts and photographs are welcome,and books, equipment and materials may be submitted for review.Although care is taken,the editors and publisher will not accept responsibility for loss or damage to material submitted.The magazine is not aligned with any company or group within the Australian electronics industry.Its editorial policy is completely independent.Views expressed are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher.

All rights reserved and reproduction without permission is strictly forbidden.

Price on cover is recommended retail price only. ISSN 1327-0338 Copyright 2008

powered by passion

CONTENTS DECEMBER 2008 – JANUARY 2009

22 34 FEATURES Blu Yule

REGULARS 22

Compelling movies. Affordable players. The best picture and sound achievable at home. Nic Tatham outlines the many reasons why the time to take the Blu-ray leap is right.

Power Trip

30

Large-screen TVs are becoming a significant contributor to green house gas production. Ella Smith reports on the scheme designed to make them greener and cheaper to run.

Kid-proof your Kit

34

Got killer sprogs? Max Everingham outlines how to keep them safe around your precious home entertainment setup.

Gift Rap

38

Anthony Fordham presents 12 gift ideas for each of the 12 days of Christmas, any of which work as the bulk of a stocking with serious home entertainment intent.

Want Home Entertainment delivered straight to your door?

6

38 92 Random Play

Home entertainment news and product highlights.

You Wish

8

28

From the land of the Kiwi comes the Prerenaissance, a 4000 watt $US140 000 speaker system its maker promises will be the last of its kind.

In Motion: Taking it with You 82

A roundup of audio and video gear that allows your movies and music to be as mobile as you are.

Gear Log

A showcase of standout electronica.

89

Ultimate AV: Laps in Luxury 92 Designed by audio guru Mark Levinson, the entertainment system in the Lexus 600hL is worthy of the car’s $250 000 price tag.

Ear & Eyes & Thumbs

94

Subscribe on page 81, or online at Warp 98 www.isubscribe.com.au Time A retrospective of milestone entertainment products and Watch, listen, play. Max Everingham’s roundup of the best movies, music and games.

technologies. This issue: 3-D video.

LEXUS L600 L600hL

VISIT US AT

28 46

Reviews, articles and news from Home Entertainment magazine online

Exciting digital page-turning format!

WIN Digital Lifestyle Package worth $6500, plus one of three Kodak Camera prize packs See page 61 and 64 for details and enter online at www.gadgetguy.com.au

BOX FRESH

COLUMNS Guy Talk

18

LG BD300 Blu-ray player

49

Sony BDP-S350 Blu-ray player

50

Yamaha BD-S2900 Blu-ray player

51

Sony BDP-S5000ES Blu-ray player

52

Panasonic DMP-BD35 Blu-ray player

53

Klipsch CS-700 AV system/ RoomGroove dock

54

Geneva Model XL speaker

56

With the current batch of Blu-ray players fully tricked up and costing often less than $400 in shops, DVD’s replacement is earning its place under the TVs of Australia.

Thomas Bartlett evaluates five of the latest models.

Pioneer Kuro PDP-LX609A plasma TV/BDP-LX71 Blu-ray player

58

TechLife: Notebooks

Sony XBR KDL46XBR45 LCD TV

66

Samsung LA46A950 LCD TV

68

Denon AVR-589/SYS-56HT package

70

Denon AVR-789 AV receiver

72

Channel Seven’s GadgetGuy, Peter Blasina, reports today’s technology trends.

Tech Corner

20

When HDMI replaced many cables with one cable, there was much rejoicing. Now with wireless HDMI around the corner, Anthony Fordham says it’s time to party like never before.

HOW TO BUY Blu Movie Stars

45

73

Light, small and portable, with a design and feature-set to suit all needs, the notebook computer is becoming a staple of today’s digital households. Nathan Taylor explains what upgraders and first-time buyers should know before hitting the shops.

Grundig Misuro GLCD2206HDV LCD TV 62

7

RANDOM PLAY

Sony’s technology comes home Sony’s UCHI (Japanese for ‘home’), a converted warehouse in an inner Sydney’s industrial suburb, is the place that Sony likes to show off its technological wares. In the run-up to Christmas it had a lot of new gear to demonstrate, including the world’s thinnest LCD TV – the Bravia ZX1, which at just 9.9mm is approximately the same width as a CD case. Its new Z series LCDs shows what the company’s 200Hz Motionflow technology is all about – another TV first for the company – and the full HD VPL-SW80 projector combines SXRD panels (Sony’s name for Liquid Crystal on Silicon, or LCoS) with the company’s Bravia2 video processing engine and Advanced Iris 2 technology to deliver a contrast ratio of 60 000:1, a two millisecond response rate and an image up to 300 inches in DISTRIBUTOR diagonal. The SW80 SONY AUSTRALIA (below) costs $6999 PHONE 1300 720 071 WEB www.sony.com.au and the ZX1 is not

8

available for sale locally, but look out for a Z Series review in our next issue.

On the audio front there’s the world’s first digital noise-canceling headphones and a new series of MP3 playing Walkmen (above).

The NC500D ($699) headphones offer the benefit of reducing up to 99.1 percent of the noise at 160Hz, the peak frequency of a jet engine, according to Sony, while the E Series Walkman offer extended battery life, the A Series Bluetooth connectivity and the S Series inbuilt noise cancellation claimed to reduce “up to 75 percent of ambient noise at the flick of a switch”. Prices range from $129 to $249, with capacities from 4–16GB. First seen at the IFA show in Berlin, the Soutina loudspeakers (opposite) were also on show at UCHI. These illuminated 1.85m columns are made of glass and leather and produce sound around a full 360 degrees, but are not available for sale locally.

Tivo movie of the week In a prelude to a multitude of downloadable movie and TV content services planned for March 2009, Tivo owners will receive a free weekly movie download from Blockbuster from 1 December. Movies will be released every Monday, with TiVo users notified in the preceding week of the next film to follow. The aim, according to Tivo’s distributors, Hybird Televsion Services, is to “allow people to road test downloading video content over the internet straight to the lounge room and understand the critical role both internet speed and download quotas play in ensuring the service is a pleasurable one”. While next year’s service will enable progressive downloads and greater file compression, download costs and speeds will still have an impact on household broadband allocations.

The Tivo media device provides DISTRIBUTOR TIVO AUSTRALIA twin HD tuners, an internetWEB www.tivo.com.au based EPG and a 160GB hard drive for recording. A Tivo-certified terabyte drive can be added in 2009 to expand storage, and with the latest firmware update the device can share photos stored on a PC with the home entertainment system in the living room over a wireless network.

While currently priced at $699, Hybrid Television Services has hinted that the Tivo media device will cost more in the new year.

Free Wii Buyers of any Panasonic Viera full high definition (1080p) plasma TV between now and 24 December will receive a free Wii games console, with Wii Sports game valued at $400. The games bonus can be claimed via redemption from a dedicated website.

Paul Reid, Panasonic’s Director of Consumer Electronics Group, says “the latest models offer 134 billion viewable colours for powerfully-rich and smooth colour, while the dynamic contrast ratio of

1,000,000:1 creates deep blacks for an amazing viewing experience.”

Panasonic’s plasma lineup includes 42, 46, 50, 58 and 65 inch models, with prices ranging from $2500 up to $12,000. While all plasma televisions included the promotion provide full high DISTRIBUTOR definition resolution, the Wii PANASONIC AUSTRALIA console and Wii games are WEB www.panasonic.com.au/ vierabonus standard definition video only.

9

RANDOM PLAY

Making it musical Two new Marantz AV receiver models continue the company’s tradition of delivering movies and music in equal measure. The $1399 SR5003 and $1899 SR6003 (pictured) have been designed to meet the needs of today’s high definition AV formats, while sounding the business with music. Both are clad in Marantz’ newlook ‘M1’ chassis, and incorporate an independent audio circuit that is isolated from noise produced by the video processing and other circuitry.

Decoding of all the latest HD audio formats is supported by both models, including Dolby True HD,

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QUALIFI PTY LTD

PHONE (03) 8542 1111 Dolby Digital Plus and both WEB www.qualifi.com.au DTS-HD formats. To make the most of compressed music from your iPod or MP3 player, both receivers feature Marantz’ M-DAX system which boosts the audio quality of digital music files.

The SR5003 is rated at 7 x 90 watts per channel, while the SR6003 musters some 100 watts across each of its seven channels. Both will upscale video sources to 1080p quality via HDMI, and feature Audyssey’s MultiEQ Auto setup for optimising the soundfields in up to six separate seating positions.

Not quite final Sharp’s $499 BD-HP21X Blu-ray is described as “Final Standard Profile for Picture-in-Picture (PinP) function”, however it’s far from final. The player meets the Profile 1.1 standard, meaning it has the PinP feature, but no BDLive compatibility, which only comes with Profile 2.0.

Sharp informed us that a firmware update to Profile 2.0 is not being made available for this player.

One of the nifty features of Blu-ray and the BDHP21X is the PinP function which pops a second video window up on screen, allowing you to view additional content such as actors or directors commentary and cast/crew interviews – all while the main feature is

DISTRIBUTOR

DISTRIBUTOR

SHARP CORPORATION AUSTRALIA PHONE 1300 135 022 WEB www.sharp.net.au

playing. Its specifications boast full HD 1080p24 HDMI video output as well as x.v.Colour support, and the player’s audio decoding includes Dolby True HD and Dolby Digital Plus. DTS HD-Master Audio needs to be output digitally in bitstream via HDMI to an AV receiver with the appropriate decoders.

Connections include a single HDMI 1.3 output, plus the usual composite, S-Video and component video outs. The player also comes equipped with Sharp’s Aquos Link which allows it to integrate with the company’s Aquos LCD TVs, allowing both to be controlled from one remote handset.

NOTEBOOK BUYERS GUIDE

AUGUST 2007

Mercury F1 Custom speaker– group test winner “A wonderfully ully articulate and ive performer.” expressive nnoys are brilliant “These Tannoys performers for the money, and they’ll work well with a wide range of systems.”

A compact and efficient bookshelf or stand mount ount loudspeaker with excellent dynamic performance.

Where space ace is at a premium, the Mercury ry F1 Custom is the ideal solution ion for home cinema front and surround or as an exceptionally lly refined compact two channel el stereo system.

SHIELDED LONG THROW DRIVER WITH COATED MULTI-FIBRE PAPER PULP CONE.

Tall and impressive, this loudspeaker uses a 25mm (1.00”) soft dome HF, 165mm (6.50”) mid range and a supplementary 165mm (6.50”) bass driver. Huge scale dynamics combine with tight, punchy bass, open mid range and clean high frequency to make it an ideal solution for medium to large home cinema or hi-fi systems, especially in larger rooms.

The neat, compact design of the Mercury FR Custom makes it the ideal solution not only for rear effects / surround applications, but also as a front stereo pair where installation space is at an absolute premium. Pre-fitted to the rear panel is a fixing device that allows the speaker to be easily flush mounted to a wall.

Perfectly matched to the rest of the range, the Mercury FC Custom centre speaker is voiced to deliver clarity, tonal balance and well focussed imaging and effects across the front soundstage. Compact and solidly constructed, this centre channel speaker has magnetically shielded drive units.

25MM NITRO-URETHANE LAYER DAMPED WOVEN POLYESTER DOME, SHIELDED NEODYMIUM MAGNET ASSEMBLY.

For more information please contact: Syntec International | Free Call 1800 648 628 | www.syntec.com.au

11

RANDOM PLAY

PS3 evolution Sony’s PlayStation has changed a lot over the years and 2008/2009 is set to see a number of hardware and software innovations to the popular gaming console. The recently released 80GB Playstation3 doubles previous storage capacity, and with the a wireless keypad that fits into the top of the Dual Shock 3 controller, PS3 users can now use a a QWERTY keyboard instead of the system’s onscreen one.

Play TV has also been promised early next year.

Equipped with dual tuners, this add-on module will allow you watch and record high definition digital TV broadcasts via your PS3 (though 80GB won’t store a

DISTRIBUTOR

SONY AUSTRALIA PHONE 1300 720 071 WEB www.sony.com.au

heck of a lot of HD video, so get yourself some outboard storage), record a whole series at the touch of a button or watch a program on the go via Remote Play on the Playstation Portable (PSP). Speaking of which, the PSP3000 (the latest iteration of Playstation’s little takeanywhere gamer) has received an upgrade in the form of a higher resolution LCD screen and a built-in microphone.

On the software front, EyePet will please many a parent as this title, used in conjunction with the Playstation Eye camera, creates a responsive virtual pet (which looks a bit monkey-like) that follows your every move.

THX tick of approval A new batch of AV receivers from Onkyo is always something to look forward to and the latest models all carry THX certification. At the midpoint in the marketplace are the new $1999 TX-SR706 (pictured) with THX Select2 Plus certification and the $2650 TX-SR806, which is THX Ultra2 Plus certified. Both are 7.1-channel configured and power output from the 706 is 100 watts per channel, while the 806 rates at 130 watts per channel. Video upconversion to 1080p via HDMI is handled by Faroudja DCDi processing, and both receivers have onboard decoding for the latest multichannel audio formats, including Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio.

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Heading a rung or two DISTRIBUTOR further up Onkyo’s receiver AMBER TECHNOLOGY ladder is the $3399 TX-SR876, PHONE 1800 251 367 WEB ambertech.com.au and topping off Onkyo’s range is the $4999 TX-NR906, both with THX Ultra2 Plus certification. The 876 comes equipped with tasty technology such as HQV Reon-VX video processing, and it’s one of the first to employ ISF (Imaging Science Foundation) video processing, as does the 906. The latter is also a home network-capable receiver, meaning it can make the most of virtually any media be, it internet- or computer-based.

NOTEBOOK BUYERS GUIDE

THE HI–FI HEADLINES NEWSLETTER

No.173

Good, Better, and Best The past year has been a big one in many ways. Len Wallis Audio marked its 30 Year Anniversary in a business which constantly changes and adapts to new technologies and lifestyles. It was a big year for Awards – we won 6 CEDIA Awards (runner up in two more) and also the Sound & Image Custom Installation of the Year.

There were a lot of new products released in 2008; it’s impossible to list them all here, but we’ll run through a few highlights: Surround Receivers came to grips with the fact that Blu-ray will deliver higher grade multi-channel audio.

By the time this magazine is out we will have the Yamaha RX-V1900, RX-V 3900 and the RX-Z7. All of them offer the better surround modes such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio, and optional Bluetooth adaptors can be used with them. HDMI 1.3a and USB connections are on the increase too.

Marantz are in the process of releasing their new “003” series of surround receivers, which offer all the new technologies plus very attractive premium styling.

The use of compact and in-ceiling or in-wall speakers has continued to expand. While we know that larger speakers will still provide the best sound, the options for sound quality in a less obtrusive form continue to multiply.

The Focal Dome range represents another boost on the quality scale for the satellite brigade.

Using superior drivers and very rigid enclosures this new range sets a high standard, guaranteed to win converts to the sat/sub approach.

The development of HD Projectors has reached a new and exciting stage, with full 1080p capabilities now available at extremely competitive prices. In fact the Mitsubishi models we now stock are equipped with a 17-element (14 groups) glass lense and the Silicon Optix Reon-VX chip to project stunningly good HQV (Hollywood Quality Video) images in the $3999 to $4999 price range. Lamp life is also reaching out towards the 5000-hour mark. They’re still made in Japan too!

High-end Audio in the classic stereo form has seen new players and amplifiers in the ranks too. Musical Fidelity’s A1 Amplifier and A1 CD Pro player are new technology but delightfully retro in appearance. Likewise the Yamaha stereo components, starting with the A-S2000 and CD-S2000 but now reaching down to the extremely affordable A-S700 and CD-S700 are reviving the quality music system at whatever level your budget can stretch to.

64 Burns Bay Road Lane Cove NSW 2066 • Ph (02) 9427 6755 Fx (02) 9427 2490 ABN 40 001 592 383 • sales@lenwallisaudio.com.au

www.lenwallisaudio.com.au

13

RANDOM PLAY

Meeting place Sonos’ multi-room wireless music system has proved remarkably popular for its simplicity of configuration and use, but it could only be controlled by its own remote. This forced people wishing to integrate control of their house-wide AV system to use two remotes; one for their multiroom system and another for everything else.

Until now, that is.

Technology developed by Sydney-based AVD Australia now enables Sonos multi-room systems to interface with the Philips’ Pronto TSU9600 and Marantz RC9001 touchscreen remote controls, allowing whole-house AV systems to be controlled using just a single handset. The usual Sonos menus can be enjoyed on the Pronto or Marantz, including the ability to: see current and next track info (including album cover art); browse music by artist; control volume and play modes’ link; control playback in different areas (up to eight); manage and edit the music queue, as well as

control your home’s entire multi-room AV systems or smart home devices such as DISTRIBUTOR lighting or air conditioning.

AVD AUSTRALIA PTY LTD Pricing starts at $695 for a PHONE (02) 9906 2424 single remote and Sonos zone, WEB www.avd.com.au with configurations using up to QUALIFI PTY LTD PHONE (03) 8542 1111 eight Sonos zones and Pronto WEB www.qualifi.com.au remotes available.

From the studio to the streets Developed from Sennheiser’s extensive recording studio-based know-how, the new IE range of ear canal headphones puts the listener in control of monitor-style audio quality. There are three models – the IE 6 ($299), IE 7 ($399) and $599 IE 9 – all of which are full-range dynamic transducers by design, and each of which has individual musical tastes in mind.

The IE 6 (pictured) has been developed for those who like a bit of bass with music on the move. Suitable for lovers of rock and pop, the frequency range extends down to 10Hz and reaches a high 18kHz. For a more neutral sound, there’s the IE 7. This is said to give a more natural, lifelike sound quality, with particular attention paid to reproducing a faithful top end (treble). The top of the range IE 8s are for the sound techies among us. You

14

DISTRIBUTOR

SYNTEC INTERNATIONAL PHONE 1800 648 628 WEB www.syntec.com.au

can decide how much bass response you want from these earphones by using an adjustable screw to regulate the lower frequencies.

Noise attenuation is also addressed, with up to 95 percent of ambient noise (up to 26dB) dealt with, according to Sennheiser.

All feature small, medium and large ear-fit sets for a comfy insertion into your ear canal, and Kevlarstrengthened cables for durability.

First with four Foxtel has switched on its iQ2’s four-tuner functionality, which means subscribers can now use the PVR to record two programs while watching a third one live, simultaneously. For example, a typical night in might mean watching live Monday Night Football while recording Project Runway and a movie for the kids, all at the same time. The IQ2’s fourth tuner is reserved for Foxtel’s interactive HD and Box Office on-demand services.

This ability to record what you want, when you want and not argue over the remote produces “a more harmonious household for both families and couples”, according to research on PVR use. The research (by Consumer Analysis Limited for electronics firm NDS) also revealed that some 75 percent of households find

DISTRIBUTOR

their PVR an indispensable bit FOXTEL PHONE 1300 785 622 of technology, and 76 percent WEB foxtel.com.au/hd * reported fewer household arguments over what to watch. Furthermore, 78 percent of couples surveyed said that their relationships had been dramatically enhanced thanks to their PVRs, as each person can enjoy their own programs.

Foxtel has also extended its EPG to provide 14 days of advance programming information for IQ and IQ2 subscribers. A fortnight’s worth of advance program information can also be viewed online at www.foxtel.com.au, with the schedule searchable via genre, keyword and classification. Recordings can be automatically scheduled from a PC or 3G phone using the Remote Record function.

In Sync with PSB Canadian speaker manufacturer PSB has a new flagship range of home theatre loudspeakers it has dubbed ‘Synchrony’. There are seven models in all, comprising the Synchrony One ($5999) and Two ($3499) floorstanders, One C ($1999) and Two C ($1499) centre channels,

One B ($2499) and Two B ($1999) bookshelf speakers and the tri-mode Synchrony S ($2499) surrounds.

The unique design of the Synchrony S surround allows it to be used in three ways – either in dipole, bipole or monopole modes, making it very flexible for 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 channel configuration.

Three years in development, the Synchrony line-up is described by designer Paul Barton as “his most exciting speaker system to date”.

Improvements include a new titanium dome tweeter, laminated cone drivers and a re-engineered crossover network.

The Synchrony’s cabinets have also been refined compared to previous models and use extruded aluminium front and back panels together with seven-layer, handveneered sides. The result is a very strong, resonant free enclosure, according to PSB. DISTRIBUTOR

AUDIO PRODUCTS (02) 9669 3477 audioproducts.com.au

PHONE WEB

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RANDOM PLAY

Designed for greatness ‘Greatness’ was part of the design brief for JBL’s new LS series loudspeakers, apparently, with the company borrowing the Bi-Radial Horn compression driver used in some its most fanciful speakers – namely its $80,000 Everest DD66000 – to achieve it. The highspec driver is used throughout the LS range, which starts with the $2299 LS40 bookshelf monitors. Then there are The two floorstanding models – the $3799 LS60 and $4999 LS80 – with dialogue handled by the $1499 LS Centre and the low stuff courtesy of the $1999 LS120P 12 inch active subwoofer.

Cabinet construction of the LS series has a dual purpose – to look good and improve sonic performance.

Gently curved sides and a wedge shape help reduce unwanted internal resonance, according to JBL, and high-mass MDF is used throughout. Each is finished with high gloss, rich mahogany side panels. Partnering the horn compression driver, the lower frequencies are provided by pulp cone woofers using a staggered crossover network. This new series is, according to JBL, a speaker system that “doesn’t favour music over movies, or small rooms over large ones”.

Spin me round Akai’s ATT10U Professional USB turntable not only plays your collection of vinyl, its USB port enables connection to a computer so that you can import LPs to the hard drive for archiving and/or copying out to portable players. The included Audacity software is compatible with Mac and PC, and allows you to remove clicks, pops and other noises, as well as export the tracks into WAV or MP3 formats.

The ATT10U supports 331/3 , 45 and 78 RPM playback speeds, and provides a static balanced tonearm with detachable headshell, a built-in phono preamp, and anti-skating control for minimising the ‘skating’ force that pulls the tonearm towards the centre of the record as it plays. This, says Akai, helps deliver a clear, balanced sound. A slip pad is also a feature, and allows you to produce ‘scratching’ sounds and other special effects without damaging records. It costs $300.

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DISTRIBUTOR

CONVOY INTERNATIONAL PHONE (02) 9700 0111 WEB www.e-hifi.com.au

DISTRIBUTOR

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For more information, visit www.crestonline.biz

GUY TALK

Tivo time W

hen launched into the Australian market in August 2008, TiVo was categorised by the market and the Channel Seven Hybrid TV Services group distributing it as a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) or Personal Video Recorder (PVR). Hybrid TV made it clear at this time that, down the track, firmware upgrades would allow Tivo to become more of a media hub device, but that the product’s time shifting and intelligent program search would be the focus of all promotion during its introduction period.

Now journalists hear a lot of hype and hope from companies spruiking new businesses and products, so were understandably sceptical about what Tivo promised and, in general, ignored representations about how functionality would be upgraded in line with Hybrid TV’s marketing schedule. Instead, many criticised the product for being too late into the market, too expensive (even though it was half the price of some comparable products) and nothing like the American version of TiVo. Many concluded that Tivo in Australia was doomed to failure, and still is.

Perhaps some members of the media need to wander into their local retail store and get a ‘smell of reality’ when it comes to home entertainment products.

The numbers tell a different story. Australians buy around 5000 PVRs a month, according Gfk figures, and that figure is in decline. In its first month onsale, Tivo sold 4500 units – making it the leading PVR brand at debut – and is currently outselling the leading PVR by a factor of five, according to Tivo CEO, Robbee Minicola. Gfk figures report that 14, 000 units have been sold into store, and the target, according to Minicola, is 50 000 units in 2009.

So here we are down the track in phase two of the marketing strategy and Tivo is now a media device, offering content and services in addition to its staple of free-to-air high definition recording. An alliance with DMG Radio has put Nova and Vega radio content into the living rooms of TiVo users, and a partnership with Dominos means that users can also order pizza via their television sets. This dovetails nicely with the free weekly movie download from Blockbuster.

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Tivo has also started packing in more free games and services with a free Games Pack, including ‘Skull & Bones’, ‘Wordsmith’, ‘SameGame’, ‘Sudoku’, as well as ‘Classy Couples’ (matching famous couples) and ‘Wild Pairs’ – a children’s game.

On top of the Sunrise Weather application launched in October 2008, the new ‘Service Pack’ includes Horoscopes with daily updates, World Clock to set national and international time zones as well as PixelEyes, a unique service that allows users to view photos on their TV via Tivo once they have been uploaded to either Picasa or Photobucket. Tivos in different locations can even be linked, allowing online photo albums to be shared between friends and family members.

According to Minicola, TiVo will receive a major memory expansion with the arrival of a terabyte hard drive in 2009, and ‘Tivo To Go’ will allow video recorded to Tivo to be copied to a portable player. Regular upgrades will continually add value to the product, she says, with the addition of pay-per-view movies, channels of non-mainstream international programming, and ‘Tivo uncapped’ deals with internet service providers all possibilities. Along with the new 2009 digital channels from free-to-air networks, the accelerating adoption of digital high definition TVs, and consumer desire for a variety of different programming, Tivo is perfectly placed as an enabling technology in the living room, she says.

Despite these forward steps in functionality and services and the promise of much more to follow, TiVo’s critics persist. Maybe Tivo is just too tall a poppy? Or maybe those who trade on website clicks simply find it useful to post inaccurate, narky and negative comments to deliver more site traffic?

In its most basic iteration, Tivo has the potential to provide the 70-something percent of Australians watching only free-to-air television with an easy-to-use, high definition time-shifting alternative to videotape. I absolutely love that it does that for my household, just as I love how the IQ2 allows the same for pay TV. What’s more, I speak to lots of consumers who feel exactly the same way.

The GadgetGuy™, Peter Blasina, is the technology reporter for Channel Seven’s Sunrise program, appears regularly on other network programs and is broadcast weekly on various national radio stations. At the time of writing, Peter Blasina had a commercial arrangement with Tivo.

Built with the same state-of-the-art technology of the legendary NevoSL, the new NevoQ50 now offers a customisable control solution on a lower budget.

Stylish, elegant and designed to eliminate the need for multiple remotes, the NevoQ50 offers complete control of any audio and video device, giving you the ultimate control experience. With 31 programmable hard buttons and endless personalisation options, the NevoQ50 is the perfect choice for any home.

NevoS70 takes technology a step further with the capability to control AV media via WiFi from supported UPnP media servers along with a larger, higher resolution touch screen.

The optional NevoConnect wirelessly links with both the NevoQ50 & NevoS70 via Z-Wave to allow control of remote devices by way of RS-232 and IR.

For more information or a personal demonstration of the international award-winning NevoQ50 & NevoS70 remotes, call 1800 251 367, (02) 9452 8600 or visit our website www.ambertech.com.au Australian distributor Amber Technology Ltd. AMB4407

The Optional NC-50 NevoConnect, offers complete control of components in another room or hidden away.

TECH CORNER

No strings attached O

ne of the ironies of HDMI – the all-in-one AV cable of the future – is that even though you eliminate the old-fashioned composite video and RCA cables of older gear, you’ll then install three or even four HDMI-enabled devices in your rack.

In other words, HDMI simplifies any given device, but encourages you to buy more devices, so you end up with just as many cables in behind the TV! The other thing about HDMI is that even though you can get five metre cables, often you’ll find yourself having to position everything close together, because the cables you can afford are only one metre long.

Even if you do manage to set up the perfect HDMI-enabled AV rack, you’ll be left with this nagging feeling: aren’t wires just a little bit 20th Century? After all, your internet is beamed around your house via the wireless transmitter on your router, so why not your AV entertainment as well?

Fortunately, Wireless HDMI does exist. It uses the 5GHz band and has enough bandwidth to carry a full 1080p signal. It’s not a proper standard like HDMI itself, but more of a marketing term so consumers can understand what it’s all about. Actual implementations of it can be non-proprietary, which means it’s potentially cheaper because no license fees have to be paid to a consortium.

The system does use some common elements, such as the ZeroWire chipset, which ensures there will be universal compatibility.

Companies such as Belkin and Monster have announced their first generation of Wireless HDMI boxes, with several smaller manufacturers promising devices too. You’ll want to count your pennies before splurging on a pre-order though: the entry price ranges from $700 to $1000!

Shrewd readers will realise a potential pitfall of all this wireless HD streaming, though.

And that’s piracy The kit includes a rather stylish transmitter box, encrusted with inputs, and a receiver that plugs into your AV receiver or TV’s HDMI port. The transmitter doesn’t just accept HDMI inputs from Blu-ray players and the like, it also has ports for humble RCA cables, and optical too. Standard definition inputs are automatically upsampled to 1080p and beamed to the receiver.

One of the more important elements that need to work is support for High-bandwith Digital Content Protection, or HDCP. And it’s the ZeroWire chipset that has the certification to work with HDCP. This means movies so protected can be beamed across the room wirelessly.

The benefits to making your HDMI devices wireless should be obvious. Your gear doesn’t have to sit in a stack underneath or next to your TV, and for users of projectors – which must of course go at the back of the room – the system could be a real boon.

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What’s more, the system Wireless HDMI uses – called ultrawideband or UWB – transmits its data in a fundamentally different way to the current WiFi standard, with the result that the signal is either on or off.

There’s no fading or interference problems. A mere boast? Time will tell.

I mentioned above that Wireless HDMI isn’t actually a standard, but there is a wireless high definition standard. To keep things simple, it’s called WirelessHD and it aims to work above the layer of different plugs and data formats, and provide a more mechanical standard for all sorts of wireless high definition applications.

Like most transmission standards, WirelessHD is being developed by a groups of companies, which includes Intel, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba. You’ll note a couple of those names are ones you’d normally associate with IT rather than AV, and that’s because WirelessHD will probably first see action in PC displays.

Since PC desktop resolutions are in fact higher than 1080p HD, WirelessHD will have plenty of capacity for Blu-ray and other high-def content.

Want some numbers? Well, HDMI 1.3 can push 10.2 gigabits of information down the wire every second. WirelessHD, by contrast, has a maximum bandwidth of 25 gigabits a second. This means it’s well future-proofed for greater colour depth and high resolutions. Maybe even 3-D! Shrewd readers will realise a potential pitfall of all this wireless HD streaming, though. And that’s piracy. We already know how unscrupulous internet users can leech off your wireless router if you don’t use proper security, and the same risks apply to WirelessHD. Fortunately though, physics is on the side of the copyright holder.

Because WirelessHD operates in the 60GHz Extreme High Frequency band, it needs direct line-of-site between transmitter and receiver.

You’ll get around this in your house thanks to a clever radio thing called beamforming, but as a result people could also theoretically pick up your wireless signal and record it.

But one of the peculiarities of the 60GHz band is that it is readily absorbed by oxygen molecules. So the very air itself will serve as a sort of shield, and pirates will need to be very close to the transmitter to get any meaningful signal.

One of the more interesting things about this sudden tech-grab for true wireless interoperability is the sheer number of proposed standards. Joining Wireless HDMI and WirelessHD is Wireless USB, which will help IT products communicate at a more modest bandwidth of 480 megabits per second. There’s also much work being done on the Wireless High-definition Interface, which like all the other formats here aims to eliminate wires from the workplace.

Oddly, though, all this technology is taking some time to make it to the market. Even though several companies have announced devices, release dates keep getting put back... and back. Belkin was supposed to have its FlyWire unit ready for Christmas, but you’ll have to wait until the new year (or even later) to see it. Monster too promised a 2008 release for the Digital Express HD, but this has also been delayed. The technical challenges are mighty indeed when you’re dealing with this much data.

Still, there’s little doubt the future will be wireless, and for Australia’s woeful broadband internet, wireless could be our best hope. Just imagine: the rats nest of cables behind the AV rack, not tidied up, not simplified, but banished altogether.

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BLU YULE

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PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

Dreaming of a Blu Christmas? Nic Tatham explains why there’s never been a better time to make the leap

T

he ball is now well and truly rolling for Blu-ray as more and more manufacturers and film studios get behind the effort to make Bluray the de facto format, not just for high definition, but for movies full stop. It’s taken a while, though, with hardware and software sales remaining sluggish, even after Toshiba pulled out of the rival HD DVD format almost a year ago.

Extremely cheap upconverting DVD players had a part to play in this, as did the comparatively high cost of BD players and software, but all that is changing now. LG, Sharp, Samsung, Panasonic, Pioneer and Sony are targeting the mass market with aggressive pricing on new models, offering sub-$500 players with the interactive Bonus View and BD-Live features that take full advantage of the format’s capabilities.

The $500 ticket price and the festive timing is historically significant. DVD only really started to kick when hardware reached that price in Christmas 2001, with households quickly embracing the format and all its advances on videotape.

Naysayers argue that times are different now. That Blu-ray doesn’t offer the same compelling quality and convenience improvements of DVD over video tape; that the benefits of full HD on a sub-40 inch screen is indiscernible from DVD; that people don’t want to feel forced into replacing their library of DVDs with a new format; that pricing needs to be more like $299 to entice ‘working families’ to open their wallets, or that the global financial crisis will keep wallets firmly shut and all but crush the ambitions of Blu-ray’s backers.

WhY TimE iS RiGhT FOR BLU-RAY • • • • • • • • •

Latest Profiles now supported Hardware now less than $500 Great retail bonus incentives on offer before Christmas Hardware prices will increase in 2009 Plentiful choice of software Software widely available Provides a quality match with your full HD TV Best quality sound and picture that can be enjoyed at home Inbuilt upconversion makes conventional DVDs look better

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BLU YULE REviEWED ON PAGE 46

WhY YOU’D WAiT FOR BLU-RAY

LG BD300, $499 Sony BDP-S350, $449 Yamaha BD-S2900, $1499 Sony BDP-S5000ES, $2299 Panasonic DMP-BD35, $495

• Internet-based supplementary material still in development, so not terrifically compelling • Region coding rigorously implemented, restricting access to titles available in other markets • Prefer to download movies

All systems go The industry, however, is confident that Blu-ray will replicate the pattern set by DVD. LG’s TV category marketing manager, Warren Kim, speculates that 100,000 Blu-ray player units will be sold in 2009, excluding gaming consoles. Figures from September put Blu-ray player sales at 400 000, with just 40,000 being standalone players. The other 360,000 are accounted for by the Playstation 3 console.

He also pointed out that the latest Blu-ray pricing trend indicates that prices are eroding faster than the industry expected, more so than it did with DVD hardware. For consumers, that means that Blu-ray is actually cheaper than DVD was at the same stage in its life cycle.

“Locally,” Kim adds, “there has been a BD push from various manufacturers. In the case of LG, we are offering bonus BigPond DVD rentals for four months valued at $79.80. This is an added incentive for consumers who are considering purchasing a BD player.”

Samsung is adding value too, giving away a Blu-ray player with select model televisions, while Pioneer is supplying free Blu-ray movies with its entry-level player. When it comes to seeding Aussie homes with BD players, though, Sony tops the honours list. In July 2008 it bundled a Playstation 3 console with select model Bravia LCD televisions, with the allotted 35,000 consoles all accounted for before the month was out.

The company is currently promoting Blu-ray to a wider audience, running television advertising telling viewers “what a waste” it is to watch standard definition video on a high definition TV.

Pioneer, Samsung and LG are offering incentives to Blu-ray buyers

Blu-ray is actually cheaper than DVD was at the same stage in its life cycle 24

Lots to see The big movies houses have put their backs into supporting the hardware camp too, strengthening the appeal of Blu-ray to consumers by expanding their offering of back catalogue and new-release titles for sale and rental.

Blockbuster and Video Ezy are promoting the format in more than 200 stores, with active displays demonstrating both BD software and hardware. Some rental stores will also be offering Blu-ray discs for sale. Online vendor, BigPond movies, has some 400-odd BD titles available for hire, with the web-based Quikflix and MovieGuys also offering Blu-ray titles for rent via the Australian postal service. Typically, it costs the same to rent a Blu-ray Disc as it does a DVD. Building up a Blu-ray movie collection is becoming more affordable as well. When first released, BD software commanded a substantial premium over DVD, but that

Blu-ray discs, such as The Dark Knight are available for hire and purchase from Australia’s major online vendors

Download bonus features, out of the blu.

With BD Live on LG’s new BD300 Blu-ray Disc Player, you can download and view bonus features for selected Blu-ray DVDs, via the internet. All you have to do is connect your BD300 to the internet, insert a Blu-ray Movie Disc and follow the link.

Kick-start your Blu-ray viewing with LG’s bonus BigPond DVD Rentals* deal, valued at $79.80 for four months. There are 32,000 DVD titles to choose from, including more than 300 Blu-ray titles. Offer available at participating retail outlets. Ends 31st January 2009.

www.lge.com.au/BD300

4 Month

DVD Rentals valued at

$79.80

with every purchase of LG Blu-ray Player BD300

*Conditions apply.

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BLU YULE

Specialist nameplates are joining the Blu-ray camp, with Maranz, Onkyo and Denon releasing models in 2009 gap is closing. Expect to pay around $5-8 more for the same movie on BD, but as developers recoup development and tooling costs and mass market economies of scale kick in, pricing will only become more affordable. Blu-ray discs can be bought at all the usual places too: off the shelf in your K-Marts, Big Ws and JB Hi-Fis, or if you prefer online, Ezy DVD has over 500 titles to buy. Prices range from $29.97 to $44.97 for a single disc release, with boxsets costing around $80.

Overseas Blu-ray is certainly gaining momentum, and it’s widely predicted that Blu-ray player and software sales will triple in 2008. That’s in line with international trends. In Europe, BD accounts for some 79 percent of all HD movie sales (the other 21 percent comprise sales of residual HD DVD discs) with the two million mark reached in BD disc sales. To quote from the European Blu-ray Disc Association now’s the time “to move Blu-ray Disc into the mainstream,” a sentiment echoed throughout the global consumer electronics industry.

In the US, disc sales have topped the 11 million mark and research by American market watcher, Redhill, also revealed that more BD titles were bought in the first five months of this year than during the whole of 2007.

The mating game Players are more affordable and capable than ever before, movies more plentiful and the outlook positive, but if you need another reason to buy into Blu ray, consider that nice big full HD flat panel TV you’ve got, or is on your end-of-year reward list. Only BD will really show you what it’s capable of. Similarly, the latest Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master surround sound

Blu-ray recorders integrate a HDD for timeshifting from the telly, with the complementary BD recording drive allowing you to archive favourite high definition shows to disc

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encoding can make Blu-ray sound better than your local cinema, so with the latest AV surround gear you can enjoy 7.1 channels of uncompressed audio at home.

As Blu-ray evolves, it’s been changing what’s called ‘Profiles’ and the latest, Profile 2.0, offers the best interactive feature - BD-Live - and is the most future-proof. BD-Live allows you to do funky online things like download previews and special features related to the movie, or access live events and gaming activities. These are features DVD simply can’t deliver and although upconverting DVD players squeeze the last drop out of standard definition DVDs, it’s no comparison to the full high definition picture quality of Blu-ray, especially if you’re viewing on a large screen TV or projector.

Play a DVD in a Blu-ray player and its own digital number crunching will actually make them look better than in a conventional player also. Blu-ray also makes home theatre better than what you’ll see and hear at your local multiplex cinema – for the first time you can enjoy the latest HD movies at home without having to worry about someone’s head in the row in front blocking your view, or those notoriously uncomfy cinema seats spoiling your movie viewing.

Another encouraging sign for Blu-ray’s mass adoption is that many other manufacturers are releasing players. Brands such as Marantz, Denon, Onkyo, Yamaha, Sherwood and Cambridge Audio are already onboard. Locally, Panasonic markets a Blu-ray

XBOX 360 AND hD DOWNLOADS Industry speculation is rife that Microsoft has been working on a Blu-ray playing version of its Xbox 360 gaming console.

Having initially backed HD DVD, Microsoft and Intel are both now looking at adopting Blu-ray, with Microsoft in the US saying it has already developed a standalone Blu-ray player that can be connected to the Xbox 360. Availability could be as early as May 2009, although the company warns that the HD format war is likely to move online, with consumers choosing to download 1080p video content in the future rather than buying it on a physical disc.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY The Blu movie scene With hardware now hitting family friendly pricing, Disney has been marketing its family friendly Bluray catalogue strongly through a three-month-long shopping centre promotional tour on the eastern seaboard. Last year’s heavy hitters – Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Cars, Ratatouille and TV’s Lost – will continue to figure well in stockings this Christmas, with this year’s top-notch HD transfers being No Country for Old Men, Kill Bill and The Nightmare before Christmas.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Universal are the other main studios now producing BD software, but even the smaller film companies are dabbling with the HD medium. Hot Christmas BD releases to look out for include Hancock, The Dark Knight and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. From the big players, look for Shine A Light, the Bond boxset, Iron Man and Transformers. recorder, with models from Samsung, Sharp and Sony available in overseas markets. These are designed to make the most of the format’s ability to record high definition and will even allow you to playback pre-recorded material while simultaneously recording high definition video being broadcast on digital TV.

Blu horizons Blu-ray will probably be the last time we buy movies as a physical format. Already devices such as Foxtel IQ, Apple TV and Tivo allow movies to be delivered as digital files direct from the Web onto our screens over a home network, and the convenience this offers is undeniable. In two minutes you’ve selected and received your movie ready for viewing, and

Hancock on Blu-ray

without having to leave the couch to find the car keys or find a place in the entertainment rack for the hard case.

Online download will, eventually, be the way we consume all our entertainment, with whatever movies, music or games we purchase or rent stored on a hard drive server somewhere in our homes… or on a server farm in Belarus. But before this occurs, such services need to streamlined, content choice expanded, broadband infrastructure vastly improved and made more affordable, and people’s attitudes to purchasing in this new way changed.

In short, a lot has to happen for the online high definition alternative to become a mainstream proposition, and until then Blu-ray is the best show in town. n

Wall-E: Family titles are crucial to Blu-ray’s success

27

OBJECTS OF DESIRE

Arvus Prerenaissance All of the speakers we feature here in You Wish punch well above the weight of the average stereo system, and not just in terms of performance. Speakers actually weighing 100plus kilos are the norm, but none go quite as far as the Arvus Prerenaissance.

Even before we get to performance, the sheer physicality of these speakers will take your breath away. Especially if you try to lift one, because it’s 2.25 metres tall and weighs 348 kg.

Arvus calls the Prerenaissance a quad-chamber, quasi five-way active DSP corrected loudspeaker system. It also uses Arvus’ trademark Hypacoustic technology.

Hypacoustic was originally developed for cinemas, because Arvus founder Matthew Simmons says, psychologically, audio makes its biggest impact in the first 100 milliseconds – and that’s precisely when most speakers distort.

In fact Arvus claims its loudspeaker systems engage people emotionally, and Hypacoustic technology has been so successful in the select New Zealand cinemas in which you’ll find it, it’s managed to drag people away from their DVDs and back into the matinees.

Let’s rock

But back to these amazing speakers. That the Prerenaissance intends to make a design statement should be obvious. Arvus says it took design cues from all the world’s beautiful machines: musical instruments, high-end sports cars (the Prerenaissance is often photographed alongside the Maserati Granturismo) yachts and their scientific keels, even the Coca Cola bottle.

And of course, from nature the female torso gets a nod.

The plinth is hand-carved from a solid block of Indian granite, so there’s not much chance of you knocking it over during one of your exclusive cocktail parties.

Though if you did use the Prerenaissance for party music, conversation might be difficult. The system packs 4000 watts RMS power output, with three channels of amplification per speaker.

The curve on the front panel focuses the sound, but you can select from a distance of three metres all the way up to ten.

The active variable frequency response is 87dB to 120dB and the system responds flat from 0 to 87dB, thanks to that

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trademarked Hypacoustic tech. Room-corrected frequency response at the selected focal length is 17Hz up to 43kHz, and crossover frequencies occur at 240Hz and 3570Hz. The system has a maximum continuous output of 120dB.

What’s in a name?

What’s the deal with the name? Well Arvus claims – rather coyly – the company has been working on a revolutionary new loudspeaker technology that is radically different from the conical drivers we take for granted.

According to Simmons, Renaissance Loudspeaker Technology (or RLT) has been in development for eight years and still needs another two or three years of work: he’s expecting a launch in 2011.

But it seems fans of Arvus can’t wait another two or three years. Simmons says the company was actually pressured into creating and releasing the speakers you see here. And on a promise of a sale from a close friend, the project went ahead and this is the result.

Arvus says this is the last set of speakers it will produce using traditional drivers. It’s the final release before the Renaissance. Thus: Prerenaissance.

The system will set you back $140,000. But that’s in US dollars so depending on the state of the Aussie at the time you read this, could mean up to $250,000. And don’t forget to take into account customs charges.

Worried you don’t have the fortitude to install a 696 kg speaker system and its custom pre-amp crossover, or concerned you lack the quarter-century of acoustic engineering experience you need to set it up in a way that does it justice?

Don’t worry: as part of the package, Arvus will fly a technician to your location to install and configure the whole thing. Even if you’re one of those Bond-style supervillains who lives in a volcano.

Just so long as your mansion has a minimalist polished concrete forecourt with a Stromboli Grey Maserati Granturismo (or Ferrari 430 Scuderia at a pinch) parked in it, the Arvus Prerenaissance will feel right at home.

Anthony Fordham

Arvus Prerenaissance loudspeakers $US140,000 per pair Arvus Loudspeakers New Zealand +64 3355 1950 www.arvusloudspeakers.com

…If you did use the Prerenaissance for party music, conversation might be difficult. The system packs 4000 watts RMS power output, with three channels of amplification per speaker 29

The Power TriP

The Power TVs that save money and the environment are on the way, but what’s taking so long?

Ella Smith reports the slow progress of the energy labelling scheme

W

ith Australian households having an average of 2.4 each, it’s easy to see how our appetite for televisions is contributing more than ever to levels of greenhouse gases. But it’s not just that we’re watching more sets in more rooms of the house more often, and all at once, it’s because the LCD and plasma panels that are stampeding out of retailer stores into Australian lounge rooms demand far more energy than the traditional, smallerscreen CRT sets we’ve moved into the kids’ room, or placed on the median strip for the council clean-up.

TV energy use has increased fourfold from 1986 to 2006, according to an E3 Television Industry meeting report tabled in

30

July 2008. One industry source we spoke to for this story claims that if you compare the average size CRT at 68cm and the average-sized LCD and plasma at 106cm, there would be around a 2:1 power consumption difference between CRT televisions and LCD and plasma televisions.

Compounding the issue is our appetite for larger screen sizes. Every square centimetre of screen draws power (though the relationship between size and watts is logarithmic rather than linear), and while 106cm televisions are currently the most popular size, the 127cm upgrade option (and tomorrow’s replacement market leader) presents almost 20 percent more surface area. Ever larger screens are in the works too, with

fast facts • TVs account for 7.5 megatonnes (MT) of CO2 emissions annually. With the growth of LCD and plasma TV take up rates, this could grow to as much as 20 MT in 2020 — the same amount generated annually by 5 million cars.

• Australians own around 2.4 TVs per household.

• There are more than 17 million TVs in Australia with a further two million sold each year. Of these, 55% are LCD TVs, 21% are plasma TVs and conventional sets make up the remaining 19%, according to GfK data for the 12 months to September 2008. mandated nationally for these products – and clothes washers, clothes dryers and dishwashers – nearly two decades ago, so the time is ripe for a similar scheme to inform consumers about how to make an energy efficient TV purchase.

The Federal Government has set a timetable for such a scheme, with a proposed start date of 1 April 2009. From this time, TVs (plasma, LCD and CRT TVs) released into the Australian market should feature an energy label, indicating their energy efficiency and energy consumption.

The theory behind such labelling programs is that energy consumption, along with features and price, will become another important point of difference influencing a consumer’s TV buying decision. As consumers vote with their wallets for TVs with green cred, manufacturers will focus more research and development into energy efficiency, with benefits for all.

Judging success

Trip

Panasonic offering a 261cm (103 inch) model and Sharp a 274cm (108 inch) model. There might not ever be a huge domestic market for these sizes, but as more homes tool up for the 2013 digital TV switchover you can bet the number of large-screen flat panel TVs being installed into living rooms will explode.

If the environmental imperatives aren’t enough to motivate you, consider the personal dollar cost to your household.

Your televisions are now costing you more to run that ever before, and with across the board price hikes forecast by major electricity suppliers next year, there will be only more to pay.

Labelling to create better products In household appliance terms, flat panel televisions rank behind fridges, freezers, air conditioners and hot water systems as major contributors to greenhouse gases. Energy labels were

If the experience of energy labels for whitegoods is anything to go by, it’s unlikely that an energy label alone will be the key driver to any TV purchase. Whitegoods brands interviewed by Home Entertainment said the influence of the energy label usually becomes apparent only once shoppers made a shortlist of models in a price bracket. It’s here that the energy efficiency has an influence on the final buying decision.

Overall, though, the results of regulation and labelling for fridges serves as a positive example for the TV industry, with one supplier interviewed indicating that the amount of energy fridges consume has halved in around ten years. This is a significant reduction in energy consumption in anyone’s terms, but it certainly hasn’t been achieved quickly.

Today, you can still buy fridges with only a few stars, but regulation has meant manufacturers with poorer performing models cannot hide their inferior products.

It’s highly unlikely, however, that an energy label alone will be the key driver behind which model people ultimately buy 31

The Power TriP WHat tHE tV ENERGY LaBEL LOOKs LIKE Advice supplied from manufacturers and Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) is that the energy label stickers for TVs will include two types of information.

1. A star rating that enables shoppers to compare like-for-like screen sizes.

2. Energy consumption (in KwH/year), giving a measurement of the energy consumption of a TV in kilowatt hours per year for comparing running costs of all labelled TVs, irrespective of the screen technology or screen size. The KwH/year measurement is based on 10 hours’ daily use in ‘Home/ Normal’ picture mode.

The stickers will also explain how TVs on show in store will be displayed at full brightness, or in ‘Shop’ or ‘Display’ mode.

As the typical factory default setting for most televisions, this makes the picture stand out on the showroom fl oor under fl uorescent lighting and consumes the maximum amount of power. The TV’s ‘Normal’ or ‘Home Mode’ setting is less bright and consumes less power.

As for policing the integrity of TV labelling, manufacturers will be randomly audited by The Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) to ensure they meet relevant guidelines displaying the sticker on all TVs, as well as making accurate energy claims. If discrepancies are found to exist and a consultation process between DEWHA and the manufacturer/supplier fails, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission then steps in to manage the problem and apply heavy financial penalties if necessary.

What the label will look like The proposed energy label will feature a one-to-six star rating with increments of half a star. Super-efficient models with sevenplus stars are also being accommodated in the new label and these will be rated in full star increments, although it’s unclear when these super-efficient varieties will hit stores.

In addition to an energy label, TVs will also need to meet Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS). Planned for late 2009, this aims to do for the TV arena what a similar scheme did for fridges, and that is to remove from the Australian market products that consume more than certain amount of energy. Under a MEPS scheme, the worst performing TVs (with less than one-star efficiency) simply will not go on sale in Australia.

As for how much more efficient forthcoming televisions will be, neither government nor industry has put a figure on it. They may be 30 percent more efficient, or ten, five or two. Every one involved is staying mum about overall energy reduction goals.

Slow progress Mandatory labelling for TVs was originally proposed in the 1990s when screen sizes averaged a mere 68cm against today’s metre or so of diagonal. The scheme faltered, however, due to a lack of agreement about how a TV’s energy efficiency should be tested and rated.

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In 2008/09 TV manufacturers have been incredibly busy behind the scenes working towards the creation of a TV energy label that contains two types of information: a TV’s star rating (for comparing like-for-like screen sizes), and a TV’s energy consumption (measured in kilowatt hours, or KwH/year).

Like the previous attempt, however, similar issues have beset development of a label. CRT, LCD and plasma technologies, for example, generate an image in completely different ways, each one with different power requirements. Finding a measure that adjusts for this has been a squabbling point, especially between the LCD and plasma camps.

Power use for LCD and plasma varies, too, according to the video program material displayed, so a test disc replicating ‘average’ viewing habits (including cartoons, fireworks, standard definition and high definition, bright scenes, nature scenes etc) had to be developed to aid the testing process.

These points help measure how much power is used by a TV, but a further challenge is the development by industry players of an algorithm that determines the spread of stars, or how power used calculates as a star rating. At the time of going to press, this important piece of maths had not been finalised.

The final algorithm must account for increases in energy efficiency that occur when technologies improve. What is agreed to be called six stars today could be called two stars in 12 months if the algorithm is not carefully engineered!

Final word Even though mandatory labelling for TVs has been timetabled for 1 April, 2009, the current pace of progress makes this seem unachievable. In the meantime, all suppliers of TVs and their industry associations have committed to a voluntary, uniform labelling scheme based on draft standards that are in place. A handful of brands will market labelled products by Christmas, and while these may not conform to the final spec, it is certainly a move in the right direction. ■

AVIC-F900BT

Premium navigation with all the extras.

The Pioneer AVIC-F900BT delivers premium navigation with all the extras. Extra audio, extra visual, extra information and extra communication combine in a stylish, functional and intuitive system. The intelligent features of the Pioneer AVIC-F900BT are engineered to deliver an exceptional in car experience that is more enjoyable, more exciting and more precise. A seamless connection that enables you to take all of the extras in your life, on the road.

ALL SYSTEMS GO

iPOD® CONNECT Take your complete iPod® music and video collection on the road without the hassle and clutter of an additional adapter and enjoy all of your favourite music and video whenever and wherever you want.

BLUETOOTH® Parrot Bluetooth® technology connects your Bluetooth® enabled mobile phone. Your phone can be anywhere in the vehicle and AVIC-F900BT gives you full communication control and all the phone’s functionalities on the touch panel.

NAVIGATION Navigation accuracy and efficiency is the Pioneer trademark and with multi sensor technology, inbuilt mapping for all of Australia and over half a million POI’s, Pioneer will keep you on track.

DVD/MUSIC Mobile entertainment should be an extension of the driving experience. That is why the AVIC-F900BT range can handle a variety of DVD, MP3, audio and video formats.

www.navxtra.com.au

FLASH/PIOM309

KID-PROOFING YOUR KIT

Kid-proofing your Kit

Making your system good is one thing, but how do you make it safe for the ankle-biters of your household? Max Everingham gives some family friendly pointers

T

here are plenty of fights and confrontations that you can spot coming from a mile away when you decide to start building your dream home entertainment system. ‘Negotiating’ with the beloved significant other on allocating part of your house to be the home theatre area or, if you’re really fortunate, entire room is the obvious first one.

Persuading the same gorgeous partner that a heap of ‘piano black’ boxes, as the manufacturers optimistically dubbed the move from silver or gold to a glossy black finish, is probably your second conflict. But even then, once you’re through the spouse-laid minefield of unreasonable objections and random preferences, you might just have one last family hurdle before you finally get into your stride – the kids.

Because as fabulous as your new home theatre system looks, we’re still a ways away from achieving the invisible but omnipresent, centrally located voice-controlled system – a home entertainment ‘Hal’ for your lounge room, if you will – and, as

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such, there are still plenty of buttons, trays, knobs, cables and chunky boxes for your dear children to trip over, fall onto, crash into or otherwise slowly demolish as you watch helplessly from the snug nest you’ve just created for yourself on the couch

Heavy lifting Almost certainly the heaviest and most cumbersome element of your home theatre system, your flat panel TV is also the most prone to being accidentally knocked or otherwise abused, because it’s so exposed. One of the most common assaults suffered by your TV – small hands repeatedly bashing up against the screen itself, whether in simple enthusiasm or plain boredom – can be remedied in a couple of different ways.

The easiest is to ‘enclose’ the screen in the middle of a big ol’ entertainment centre, pushing the TV itself back into the cubby hole and up against the wall, thereby ensuring it’s both protected from the sides and is stable. Some flat panel TVs

real danger In October 2008, a two-year-old girl from the NSW Central Coast was hospitalised in a critical condition after suffering serious head injuries from a falling television. There are no statistics on the number of children hurt or killed in Australia by televisions falling on them, but in the US several children are killed each year (11 in 2006) and in 2007 more than 3000 were hurt. Most of the victims were under the age of five.

Young children are especially vulnerable to injury, as they are often tempted to climb up on dressers or cabinets to get closer to their favorite TV or movie character, or to reach toys or other objects of interest. They are not strong enough to protect themselves when the TV over-balances.

The Central Coast toddler was injured by a 15 inch television, not one of the heavier 40-plus inch behemoths starting to populate Australian lounge rooms. As our televisions become larger so does the likelihood of injury, making it more important than ever to ensure that your furniture supports any TV upgrade you make. If it doesn’t, upgrade the furniture as well.

aid this by supplying robust cable ties that attach on one end to the rear of the panel and screw at the other to the rear of your cabinet, providing added bracing to ensure the panel can’t topple forward on its plinth… and onto your toddler (see boxout).

This method is fine if you’ve: 1) already got a big ol’ entertainment centre, and 2) are prepared to sacrifice the complementary aesthetic appearance of your new home entertainment system for the sake of protection. If, however, you’re all about a system that looks as good switched off as it does when it’s in full flow, you might want to consider the trickier option of wall mounting your television. Most, if not all, TV manufacturers now charge a premium for this service, one way or another, but if you have a good spot picked out with sufficient wall space and it’s not above the fireplace, a wall-mounted flat panel TV can be worth every cent.

Quite apart from the ‘show off’ factor of it looking very professional and ‘lifestyle’, if it’s fixed firmly to a wall, it’s unlikely to be in reach of the little people. If you don’t want to

When upgrading your television to a large flat panel LCD or plasma, be sure that your existing furniture can support the additional weight, or purchase furniture that does.

Criterion Furniture www.criterion.com.au

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KID-PROOFING YOUR KIT

pay for someone to do this for you, another option is to go DIY, as most consumer electronics stores carry at least a limited range of wall mount brackets, but we’re not sure we’d actually recommend the minor savings you can make here – remember kids, safety first! Oh, and the last thing you want to be woken up to in the middle of the night is the sound of your new home theatre centrepiece crashing to the floor.

For extra security, you can go for a ‘Kensington’ cable lock, which snaps neatly into the provided hole on the back of your TV (most have this facility) and either secures to a metal plate you can attach to a wall or loops back onto itself after going around a heavy, fixed object in the living room – your Grandma, for example, if she’s settled in for the night. This is probably overkill, though, unless you live in a shared student house or really, really don’t trust your kids.

alter the components of your system but, more importantly for the family friendly system, can be a vipers-nest of snaring opportunities for any kiddies venturing around back there.

The cheapest method of tackling this problem is, of course, cable ties. Available in black, ‘neutral’ (which is a bit like the beige colour everyone’s painting their homes these days), or even coloured versions so you can coordinate with the item it belongs to, or just mix up for easier identification, cable ties are simple strips of plastic that allow you to bunch the leads together and tie them off. It’s easy, but they can still look pretty ugly.

A smarter solution is ‘cable zippers’, which are long, coiled plastic covers that allow you to gather several AV cables together and then feed them into the zipper, effectively

Spaghetti spasms A pet hate of us all here at Home Entertainment has to be the horrible ‘spaghetti’ mess of audiovisual leads that seems to organically multiply behind your entertainment centre, AV rack or inside those cupboards. This insidious build-up of cables can present a challenge more frustrating than sifting through tangled fishing lines if you ever have to move or

SaFeTY TIPS Always keep a watch on young children when playing around the entertainment system, and back up constant supervision with these precautions: • For maximum safety, have a professional wall-mount your flat panel TV • Push TVs as far back inside, or to the rear of, an entertainment cabinet as possible; secure to cabinet with anchors • Make sure your furniture can support a bigger TV when you upgrade, or upgrade your furniture at the same time • Don’t put toys (or anything that might tempt your child) on top of a TV • Anchor unstable speakers to a floor or wall • Never allow children behind the back of your AV system • Tape down any cables that trail across the floor

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Front surround systems, with multichannel effects created by only two speakers, reduce cable trails KEF FiveTwo Series, deskstand Model 7 www.ambertech.com.au

Speaker cables making one large cable out of all the smaller ones and keeping them neat and tidy. Cable zippers come with the bonus of being reusable, and very easily removed and reapplied if you need to move your system around or add or subtract components from the stack. Use these, follow the lines of the table or AV unit as you lay down the cable zippers, and you’ve just removed an annoying, messy obstacle from the equation.

Some products will help tame the mess of cables in your system, and protect your equipment from power surges and spikes. Belkin’s Conceal Surge Protector keeps the power cords of connected equipment tidy in their sockets, with its hinged cover serving to conceal the cables and keep them out of reach of kids.

Big shiny buttons Kids like to turn things off. And on. And off again. Buttons on the front of your DVD player, TV, amp or whatever, can prove to be just too much temptation for the average killer sprog, so you might want to consider ways to reduce this kind of wear and tear — and if you’re a videogamer, you’ll be keen to prevent any accidental ‘offs’ before you have the chance to save your progress!

There are widgets you can get to place over buttons and controlling knobs, but the best option without defacing your gear is to stick them in a cupboard, or invest in a professionallooking, hinged AV rack that you can position above (adult) waist level and swing out when required.

The advent of HDMI and, more accurately, HDMI-CEC, has also given us all another way to tackle this problem because, if you have compatible equipment and hook the system up with HDMI cabling, you’ll find that you can control the whole game show with a single remote – usually the one that comes with your flat panel TV - allowing you not only to hide all the boxes in cupboards away from view but also cutting down the number of tempting shiny-button-filled remotes visible to the little people to just one. Guard it with your life!

The last great kid-unfriendly element of your home entertainment system is the speakers. Many floorstanding or stand-mounted models can be top heavy and prone to tipping when bumped, so anchor them firmly – as you would your TV – where possible. And if you like how your speakers look with the grilles off, bear in mind that your child might too. Keep the grilles on spares your drivers any potential damage from enquiring little fingers.

Whether it’s as a garage for Matchbox cars, a tunnel for toy trains or a place to secret all manner of objects unsuitable for storage within a speaker, bass reflex ports cannot be plugged without impacting the performance of your sound system. If you don’t fancy ruining the appearance of your speakers by taping fine gauze across the ports, however, the alternative can only be constant supervision.

Now to the wires running between all your speakers and your amplifier. If you’ve built your home theatre room from scratch, chances are you’ve gone the ‘concealed’ route and had the smarts to hide all these wires inside the walls. If you’re like the rest of us, though, you’ll be looking for something a little more practical that doesn’t involve remodelling the whole room. So go wireless, or go virtual.

Chief among the options available to you here has to be the wireless speaker system. Most of these are not fully wireless systems, usually offering just the rear two speakers as a wireless option, but for most people it’s those back two units that present the biggest problems and so they’re worth a look.

The other option, the virtual one, comes in many different flavours, from single speaker boxes (or soundbars) attempting to stand in for at least four others to full 5.1 systems that allow you to place all the speakers right in front of you, flanking the telly.

This is known as ‘front surround’ and Sony, KEF and Pioneer at least offer this solution right now, signalling an end to wires trailing all across the floor and upsetting the wife, the dog and your equilibrium-challenged offspring. n

Reduce tripping hazards in the home with surround systems that cut a few cords: 1. Home theatre systems with wireless surround speakers Sony DAVDZ870W (left) www.sony.com.au 2. Single speaker surround solution, such as soundbars; Yamaha YSP-4000BSWI (right) www.yamaha.com.au

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GIFT RAP

GIFT RAP Whether giving or receiving this holiday season, check out Anthony Fordham’s presents with presence

H

ome Entertainment can be a hard magazine to read at Christmas time. All these fabulous products you’d love to give to your nearest and dearest, but can’t because cumulatively they’d cost more than your mortgage.

Is it time to accept that being an audio-visual enthusiast means you can’t afford to buy people gifts? Not at all. There are plenty of innovative products priced just right for the giving season. Sure, these aren’t exactly Secret Santa material, but if you’re looking for something for a husband, wife or favourite child, here are 12 ideas for each of the 12 days of Christmas, any of which are more than worthy as the bulk of any serious stocking.

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In fact Christmas is a time to remember that home entertainment is about more than just a giant LCD TV or high-spec AV receiver. It’s also about some of the greatest gadgets in the world. It’s about games that push the boundaries of what videogames are all about. It’s about new ways to buy and distribute music and movies. And it’s about taking your entertainment on the road with you, and escaping the lounge room.

Most importantly, this Christmas is about affordable, powerful technology that can completely change the way you think about home entertainment.

1

TiVo

Ideal for: Young families, the working sports fan, people without wristwatches Price: $699 More info: www.tivo.com.au You know TiVo thanks to endless product placements in US TV shows and movies, but this digital media device is set to go new places in 2009. Most particularly, with functionality that expands on the unit’s core role as a TV receiver and recorder Already, Tivo owners can download a free movie from blockbuster every week, order a pizza and check the weather up to five days ahead using the Channel 7 Sunrise weather channel. And these are just the start of a range of proposed broadband-based services and content to become available via Tivo next year.

Also in 2009, the unit’s teeny 160GB drive will be expandable to one terabyte with the addition of a Tivo-certified external drive (this uses the superior eSATA interface, which is much faster than USB2.0), and the TiVo To Go system will enable you to export recorded video to portable players (and vice versa). Tivo’s new networking capability will also allow you to stream content from your PC to the big screen and sound system in the lounge room. With all these new capabilities, your TiVo will end up just as versatile and useful as a custom-built home theatre PC… and a lot less expensive and bulky.

2

Apple TV

Ideal for: Movie lovers, TV fans who hate commercials, minimalist lounge rooms Price: $329 (40GB), $449 ($160GB) More info: www.apple.com.au Apple TV has had a slightly troublesome launch in Australia, since on release it wasn’t possible to download movies from iTunes, and the unit has no HDTV receiver. Thankfully for Christmas 2008 it’s now possible to buy TV shows and movies from the iTunes Store, and rent movies in HD. One thing people often forget about Apple TV is that it links up with iTunes on your Mac and PC, allowing you to play all your music through the main AV system in your lounge-room via stereo RCA, optical or even HDMI. It’s also possible to view home movies and photos using the elegant Apple TV interface.

Thanks to continuous upgrades to both the unit itself and iTunes, Apple TV is just getting more and more capable. What was once a fairly limited system is now nearly as versatile as any media player, except it has the advantage of Apple’s build quality and user interface.

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GIFT RAP

3 Digital Download Vouchers Ideal for: Teenagers whose music you just don’t understand, music fans without credit cards Price: $10–100 More info: www.apple.com.au / www.bigpondmusic.com

As an enthusiast, you already know that downloading legal music is a revelation. Just plug in your credit card details and within moments the album or track you want is right there, ready for you to sync with your player.

Alas, some people are still afraid of digital downloads, or at least leery of handing over their credit card details. You can help them see the light with a download voucher.

You can get these everywhere, from electronics stores to petrol stations.

The user simply creates an account, enters a unique code, and voila: up to $100 in credit, ready for spending.

What’s especially interesting about these vouchers is that you can even use them yourself to buy music as a gift. Obviously they’re ideal for teenagers who might not see the ironic awesomeness of a Duran Duran album, but will buy two tracks here, and another there, and a TV show, and a music clip. That’s what these vouchers are all about: flexibility.

4

Fatman Red-i

Ideal for: Old-school audiophiles, valve-fans, iPhone owners Price: $999 More info: www.fat-man.co.uk Fatman’s valve amps captured our attention late in 2007 when the company’s first range of products appeared. The unusual thing about Fatman? That each amp came with an optional iPod dock.

The Red-i takes the concept of the valve-powered iPod dock a step further by including a set of matched speakers (the custom red diaphragms give the unit its name). The amp itself is still serious, as it uses high quality banana plug cables to pipe its 25 watts of hi-fi power to each channel.

Three valves provide that warm and detailed sound you crave, though the output stage is integrated. The unit is also GSM shielded, which means when you plug in your iPhone you’ll still be able to take calls without any interference or feedback through the speakers.

And as a conversation piece on the mantle, the Red-i — like all of Fatman’s products — really has no equal.

Nintendo Wii

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(plus Wii Fit plus Shaun White Snowboarding) Ideal for: Couch potatoes, kids, parties that need a bit of spice Price: $399 + $149 (Wii Fit) + $79 (Shaun White Snowboarding) More info: www.ubi.com/au Where most videogame consoles see you slumped in front of the TV vaguely twitching your thumbs on a controller, the Nintendo Wii demands rather more of a physical investment. The innovative Wiimote and Wii Sports captured our attentions last Christmas, but this year it’s all about the Wii Fit balance board.

A digital scale, the balance board can detect how your centre of gravity is shifting as you stand upon it. The Wii Fit game uses yoga and basic muscle exercises to improve your health, but the most entertaining part is the downhill skiing balance mode.

Shaun White Snowboarding takes this concept and builds a proper snowboarding game around it. Use the balance board to send your heavily-sponsored snowboarder howling down the mountain, while working out many of the muscles you’d use in the real thing. Except this time, you don’t have to worry about wiping out hapless skiers. Just the family dog.

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6

Logitech Squeezebox Duet

Ideal for: Digital music enthusiasts, simplifying AV racks, keeping the PC out of the lounge room Price: $799.95 More info: www.logitech.com Until Logitech bought up SlimDevices and massively improved the Squeezebox’s user interface, network music players were always rather technical. The Duet hugely simplifies the business of streaming digital music off your PC into a proper AV rack, without having to bring the PC into the lounge or rely on its rather lacklustre DACs. Despite the diminutive box, the Duet has a high quality 24-bit DAC, and most importantly the remote can work with multiple Squeezebox players. This means you can use the little player on a kitchen or family room stereo, while splurging on the hardcore Transporter ($3799) for the lounge room.

The Squeezebox system is designed to be open, so it can accept nearly the full range of possible audio formats, including most importantly uncompressed and lossless codecs.

Quick and easy multi-room audio is the name of the game with Squeezebox, and if you have the technical nouse to get the most out of this system, you’ll be richly rewarded.

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Seagate FreeAgent Go

Ideal for: Digital music and movie junkies, students, day-to-day PC users Price: $169 (250GB), $189 (320GB), $369 (500GB) More info: www.seagate.com Everybody needs an external USB hard drive now, it’s as simple as that. You probably figured this out years ago, so now’s your chance to give the gift of freedom to a friend. As 2.5 inch hard drive capacities continue to increase, so too do these ultraportable drives.

Unlike a big 3.5 inch external drive, the FreeAgent Go uses a notebook drive so it only needs a single USB cable to work: no auxiliary power required.

Functionality here is basic (there’s some backup software included) but the style really suits the iPod generation. Those little pinpricks on the case light up when the drive is working.

The FreeAgent Go comes in silver, blue, black and red and you can get a dock for it as well for about $30. This lets the drive stand upright, iPod style.

In a world where everything from your TV to your games console to your AV receiver and car stereo has a USB input now, there’s just no excuse not to carry (or backup) all your most precious files on a slim and sexy little drive like this!

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GIFT RAP

Sony KDL32V4000R

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Ideal for: Style-conscious AV enthusiasts in small but very trendy apartments, gamers Price: $1799 More info: www.sony.com.au Most TVs concentrate on the quality of the LCD panel inside, but clad the whole thing in a rather generic black or dark grey case. If you’re lucky you might get a bit of silver flair or some shiny piano-black finish.

Sony takes things a step further with this red Bravia display. It’s a 32 inch TV with full 1080p support thanks to a 1920 x 1080 panel. And it uses all the tech you’ll find in the bigger more ‘serious’ displays, such as the Advanced Contrast Enhancer and Bravia Engine 2.

Naturally, it also has 24p compatibility, making it an ideal partner for your Blu-ray player or, for the young and funky gamer types, Sony’s own Playstation 3.

Three HDMI inputs give you plenty of options, and you control said inputs and configuration via the Cross Media Bar or XMB. That’s the same interface as the Playstation 3!

Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5

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Ideal for: Audiophiles on the road, joggers, hikers, hermits Price: $329.95 More info: www.ultimateears.com

Until late 2008 Ultimate Ears was an exclusive US brand supplying high-end earphones to musicians and performers. Logitech has just bought the company and now this amazing earphone tech is filtering down to us.

Instead of using a diaphragm speaker, Ultimate Ears uses armature technology. Rather than vibrate a conical membrane, these speakers tap a tiny metal arm on a metal box. The result is big sound in a tiny package.

The Super.Fi 5 earphones are balanced for a wide range of music, but if you’re serious you can pay twice as much for a set that includes three drivers in each earbud, as well as models designed for specific genres such as jazz or rock.

Lanyard design means you can hook these earphones over your ears in such a way that no manner of physical activity will dislodge them. Just watch out for traffic, because thanks to passive noise cancelling, you sure won’t hear it!

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Crest Earth Smart

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Ideal for: The environmentally conscious, saving money on electricity, protecting expensive AV gear Price: $249.95 More info: www.crestonline.biz Thanks to recent focus on big issues like climate change and carbon footprints, 2008 could be the first Christmas ever where giving a surge protector as a gift could make someone happy.

As all AV enthusiasts know and regret, even when your TV is switched off it consumes standby power while connected to the wall.

The Earth Smart board uses clever electronics to detect when a device is in standby mode, and dramatically reduces the amount of electricity consumed. Crest says it can cut a 20–60 watt draw down to as little as 0.4 watts!

Naturally there’s surge protection as well, so your $20,000 rack of AV gear won’t blow all its fuses the next time the transformer in the street explodes.

And the icing on the cake with the Earth Smart board is that it has been built carbon neutral. The product is currently being assessed by the Carbon Reduction Institute, so by the time you get one it will be certified good for the planet.

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Belkin N1 Vision Ideal for: Folks setting up their first home network, sharing your broadband, tech heads and gamers Price: $349.95 More info: www.belkin.com.au

To many, the whole concept of the router is confusing and arcane. All you know is it’s a box that somehow shares your internet connection among multiple computers, but figuring out even if the darn thing is working properly is an exercise in deciphering green, amber and red LEDs. Belkin has injected a bit of plain English into the router experience by giving the N1 Vision an LCD. This provides you with all sorts of information, from basic connection status for each PC or device, to the maximum download rate you can expect.

Routers are an essential part of any home entertainment setup, as they allow you to wirelessly stream media from a PC (or Mac) to your TV. The N1 Vision has 802.11n WiFi, for maximum bandwidth, but if that’s still not fast enough you can run Ethernet cables for data exchange at up to a gigabit!

And unique among routers, the N1 Vision actually looks like something you’d have sitting on a hall table instead of shoved away in a drawer in a tangle of cables. For the first time, the router is more than mere equipment.

12 Sanyo PLV-Z3000

Ideal for: Home cinema enthusiasts on a budget, lovers of huge screens, awkward lounge rooms Price: $3999 More info: www.sanyo.com.au Sanyo’s Z-series LCD projectors have been firm favourites of the mid-range home cinema community for some years now.

Each model has included a flexible lens shift system, which makes the projector ideal for rooms where placement might be a bit awkward: you can position the Z3000 more than half a screen width to the left or right of your ideal spot and adjust accordingly.

This latest model boasts technology that prevents leaking of polarised light, so the claimed contrast ratio is an incredible 65,000:1. Brightness is 1200 ANSI lumens, and while colour is often a problem on these lower-cost projectors, but Sanyo banks on its ‘cinema colour filter’ which pays special attention to accurate skin tones.

Really though the Z3000, like all its older brothers, is a winner because of its compact size and flexibility of placement. That it performs beautifully is just an awesome bonus!

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HOW TO BUY

When you want to get into home entertainment but need to learn more, our How to Buy section is the perfect starting point. Our expert advice and buying tips will help put you in the know before you venture onto the shop floor.

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HOW TO BUY Blu movie stars

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Blu-ray is here to stay, providing that true-cinema-like quality so many of us have been hankering after for years.

Thomas Bartlett grabs a bucket of popcorn and five of the latest models for a great night in.

BOX FRESH Reviewed in this Issue

68 73

LG BD300 Sony BDP-S350 Yamaha BD-S2900 Sony BDP-S5000ES Panasonic DMP-BD35 Klipsch CS-700/RoomGroove Geneva Model XL Pioneer Kuro PDP-LX609A and BDP-LX71 Grundig Misuro GLCD2206HDV Sony XBR KDL46XBR45 Samsung LA46A950 Denon AVR-589/ SYS-56HT Package Denon AVR-789

49 50 51 52 53 54 56

Notebook Buyers Guide

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58 62 66 68 70 72

Notebooks are both workhorse and entertainment centre, capable of playing back music and movies, and acting as a conduit to the content riches of the web. Choosing one can be a tricky business, however, so we’ve compiled a checklist of the major features you need to understand.

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HOW TO BUY

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blu-ray mini test

BLU moVIE STaRS

DVD has served us well for a decade but Blu-ray is an even better format, and the latest generation players prove how it has come of age.

Thomas Bartlett reviews five of the best

o

ccasionally I get worried that Blu-ray will end up becoming just another wannabe format. DVD was sure to be a success since it offered so many advantages over VHS. It offered a huge quality boost, of course, but it also offered convenience (random access, no need to rewind after watching), additional features (multiple languages and subtitles, plus special extras) and robustness (unlike VHS, each viewing episode didn’t add to wear and tear).

By contrast, the chief advantage of Blu-ray over DVD is quality.

With a modern high resolution display panel, and even more so with a front projector or a very large plasma or LCD, the quality improvement is marked. Nonetheless, if you stop someone in the street at random, chances are they will claim that they would not even be able to notice the difference.

Historically, too, quality alone hasn’t been enough to ignite mainstream interest. Take DVD-Audio and SACD, for example.

The quality improvements they offer over CD are significant, though not enough, it has proved, to compel consumers to buy them.

the GooD anD less GooD GooD

• The best picture • The best sound • The best special extras

LESS GooD

• Usually slower in operation than DVD • Blu-ray region coding scheme still fairly robust • Got to replace the favourite movies yet again!

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HOW TO BUY

But Blu-ray seems to be accelerating. As I write, a major Australian online DVD retailer has over 550 Blu-ray titles either available now or coming soon. In the US many more are available.

The range of titles encompasses music concerts, blockbuster movies of the last decade, dramas, new releases and some high quality back catalogue items going right back to the 1950s.

At the same time, as you will see over the coming few pages, a whole bunch of affordable Blu-ray players are becoming available. With each new generation of player, the prices take a decided leap downwards, and the feature set an equally decided leap upwards.

Going cheap So now sub-$500 is the new norm for Blu-ray players. Oh, there are more expensive models with a greater emphasis on solid physical construction and the use of premium components, but

hiGher ProFiles The first Blu-ray players to go on sale here were classified as Profile 1.0, and did not provide many of the advanced features now available on current generation players. Some did not even provide 1080p24 output. While some of these first generation machines may still be available, to enjoy the maximum benefit from Blu-ray discs in the future look for players supporting Bluray Profile 1.1 or 2.0.

BD Bonus View (Profile 1.1): The new minimum standard for Blu-ray players, ‘1.1’ players will allow Picture-in-Picture sound and video, plus 256 MB of local storage for storing bookmarks.

BD-Live (Profile 2.0): An optional standard, players that support 2.0 will allow Picture-in-Picture sound and video, and provide 1GB of local storage plus Internet connection capability for accessing web content (eg. games, shopping, competitions) associated with the disc.

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What to looK For • BonusView support • BD-Live support • 24 frames per second output (1080p24) for smooth, jerk-free playback • Decoding for high definition audio • Output connections that fit with your existing equipment • Quick operation there were also plenty of premium DVD-Audio and SACD players.

It is the widespread availability and affordability of both player and media that makes for success.

In addition to the low prices, the new batch of players has finally bridged the remaining gap with the features offered by the now defunct HD DVD: internet connectivity. This was called ‘web-enabled content’ for HD DVD, and is called ‘BD Live’ for Bluray. Recent Sony Pictures Entertainment releases have almost routinely included a BD-Live section, but this has basically been to allow you to download trailers for other movies, and similar inane activities.

Paramount Home Entertainment has offered more interesting downloadable extras, such as an interactive trivia quiz for Iron Man and a tracking, location and information tool for Transformers. In fact, with the latter, the new Blu-ray release of Transformers is effectively identical to last year’s HD DVD version.

Blu-ray player makers are still in the process of creating the complete Blu-ray player. For example, decoding to their maximum quality all the different audio formats permitted on Blu-ray apparently remains daunting, although at least one of the players we look at here does it satisfactorily.

Nonetheless, it is now looking like Blu-ray is a format which is here to stay, providing that true-cinema-like quality so many of us have been hankering after for years.

blu-ray mini test

LG BD300 T

he demise of HD DVD earlier this year wrong-footed LG, which had led the way to hybrid HD DVD/ Blu-ray players. So this is the first dedicated Blu-ray player that I’ve seen from LG, and I have to say that it is excellent in just about every way. At just under $500, you get a unit that supports all Blu-ray features, including the Picture-in-Picture modes of BonusView, and Internet connectivity of BD-Live.

First the criticisms: there are but two and both have to do with storage. The advanced features of BD-Live and BonusView require you to add storage memory to the unit in the form of a USB memory stick. But the socket for this is on the front panel, so it sticks out the whole time. Irritating.

Second, some players allow you to delete all the information stored on the stick which relates to a specific movie. This unit only allows you to zap the entire contents of the stick.

But here’s the good stuff. First, it played every disc I threw at it, and it happily played them all. It downloaded trailers from the

internet using recent Sony Pictures titles, and the Iron Man quiz, with no glitches and at roughly the same speed as a Playstation 3.

Second, it played all my PIP (picture in picture) titles properly, muting the main sound as required to let the PIP audio be heard.

Third, it started up quite quickly, loaded discs about as quickly as a Playstation 3, and had a responsive remote control.

Fourth, it had a good range of transport controls, allowing single frame stepping even with Blu-ray discs, a high speed scan of up to 180x, and even an unusual progress bar arrangement with fast movement using the remote’s arrow keys.

Finally, and most importantly, it produced brilliant picture quality, not just with Blu-ray but also with PAL DVDs. It sailed through my DVD tests with among the best performance I’ve seen.

The unit does not decode DTS-HD Master Audio (it does decode Dolby TrueHD), so for some movies the best sound will be achieved by piping the bitstream to a good home theatre receiver.

Finally, and most importantly, it produced brilliant picture quality, not just with Blu-ray but also with PAL DVDs

LG BD300 Price: $499 Warranty: 12 months Contact: LG Electronics Australia 1800 725 375 www.lge.com.au Features: Output: HDMI, component video, composite video, stereo audio, coaxial digital audio, optical digital audio; Advanced connections: Ethernet, USB (front panel); Audio decoding: Dolby TrueHD, not DTS-HD; HD Audio bitstream out: Yes; Advanced features: BonusView, BD-Live Dimensions (WHD; Weight): 430 x 58 x 277mm; 3kg

PROS Fast operation First-rate video processing for Blu-ray and DVD Full support of all Blu-ray features Four months free DVD/Blu-ray rentals

CONS USB memory pokes out of front of unit Not able to clear BD-storage for individual movies Power and Eject buttons on unit a little stiff

ratings Overall Performance Features Ease of use Value for money

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HOW TO BUY

SonY BDP-S350 S

ony says that DVD player sales really started happening when the price of DVD players fell to $400. The Sony BDP-S350 is just about there, with the lowest recommended retail price of any of these players (and is being advertised, as I write, for $399). It is a departure by Sony in two different ways. First, previous Sony Blu-ray players have been based on Pioneer technology, whereas this one seems to be all Sony’s own work. Second, it uses the PS3-like Cross Media Bar (XMB) as its menu system.

The player has both BonusView and BD-Live support, but you have to supply the memory.

Specifically, you need to insert a USB memory stick (1GB or more) into a recessed socket at the rear. If you’re buying a stick especially for this, check to make sure it will fit before purchase.

The unit has a ‘Quick Start’ mode. As with most such facilities, it works by leaving much of the unit switched on, even though the various displays are off. Consequently, it uses about

9 watts during standby, or not that much less than the 15-ish it uses when the unit is actually playing a disc, and a lot more than the 0.1 watts used in standby when this option isn’t selected.

It had a disc ready to play in 23 seconds, versus 32 seconds without it. I wouldn’t bother.

One important setup point: if you are using a good home theatre sound system, switch the ‘Dynamic Range Control’ setting under the Audio menu to ‘Off’ (it defaults to ‘Auto’, which reduces the dynamic impact of the sound on some Blu-ray titles, such as Transformers).

As to playing your favourite movies: this unit worked very nicely. All the BonusView and BD-Live discs worked precisely as they should. And it was pretty snappy in operation.

The picture quality of Blu-ray, delivered over HDMI at 1080p24, was superb, and the video processing was excellent.

Oddly, Sony has dropped some of the expected transport control features. There is fast forward and rewind, but no slow forward nor slow reverse, nor single frame stepping in either direction.

The picture quality of Blu-ray, delivered over HDMI at 1080p24, was superb, and the video processing was excellent 50

sony bDP-s350 Price: $449 Warranty: 12 months Contact: Sony Australia Limited 1300 137 669 www.sony.com.au Features: Output: HDMI, component video, S-Video, composite video, stereo audio, coaxial digital audio, optical digital audio; Advanced connections: Ethernet, USB (rear panel, recessed); Audio decoding: Dolby TrueHD, not DTS-HD; HD Audio bitstream out: Yes; Advanced features: BonusView, BD-Live Dimensions (WHD; Weight): 430 x 60 x 220mm; 2.9kg

PROS Excellent value for money Fast operation High quality picture and sound with Blu-ray Full support of all Blu-ray features

CONS No frame step or slow playback modes Recessed USB can limit types of memory employed

ratinGs Overall Performance Features Ease of use Value for money

blu-ray mini test

Yamaha BD-S2900 T

he Yamaha BD-S2900 is Yamaha’s first entry into the Blu-ray field, and this model appears to be based on Panasonic Blu-ray technology.

But this is not merely a rebadged Panasonic player. It looks like a Yamaha, with Yamaha’s customary amber LED and styling that makes it a perfect match for any Yamaha home theatre receiver. In addition, Yamaha has added remote control in/out ports and an RS-232C interface, which will be greatly appreciated by system integrators.

Having said that, this unit is a little behind the times. For one thing, it will decode none of the new high definition audio standards, although it will deliver them all in bitstream format to a receiver which will decode them.

So, while the unit provides full BonusView picture-in-picture performance, it has to use the ‘core’ Dolby Digital or DTS audio embedded within the high resolution audio tracks in order to deliver the sound from that extra content.

Likewise, the unit lacks BD-Live capability, so some of the interesting additional content available for Paramount titles, and presumably

future releases from other companies, is not available.

But the unit does support the addition of extra memory, in the form of Secure Digital flash memory cards. It can display photos from those cards up to full high definition resolution, and play AVCHD video from those camcorders that capture in the format.

The video quality from Blu-ray was routinely superb. You can choose from a number of preset video processing options, or fine tune things with a ‘User’ setting. The sound was great with bitstream of HD audio to a home theatre receiver. In theory, the unit will deliver high resolution audio as a bitstream unless there is menu or PIP sound, but in practice it wouldn’t with most discs. So to get the best of both worlds (HD sound and PIP), I had to keep going into the setup menu.

The DVD video performance wasn’t quite as good because the ‘Auto’ deinterlacing circuit would, like the Sony players, get confused on some difficult material. Unlike the Panasonic, you cannot force this unit into ‘Film’ mode for the best results.

The video quality from Blu-ray was routinely superb. You can choose from a number of preset video processing options, or fine tune things with a ‘User’ setting

yamaha bd-s2900 Price: $1499 Warranty: two years Contact: Yamaha Music Australia 1300 739 411 www.yamahamusic.com.au Features: Output: HDMI, component video, S-Video, composite video, stereo audio, 5.1 channel analog audio, coaxial digital audio, optical digital audio; Advanced connections: Secure Digital (front panel), RS-232C, Remote control In/Out; Audio decoding: not Dolby TrueHD, not DTS-HD; HD Audio bitstream out: Yes; Advanced features: BonusView Dimensions (WHD; Weight): 435 x 96 x 316mm; 5.8kg

PROS Well built Blu-ray player High quality picture with Blu-ray Excellent system integration features Good information display

CONS No BD-Live No HD audio decoding at all Not able to clear BD-storage for individual movies

ratings Overall Performance Features Ease of use Value for money

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HOW TO BUY

SonY BDP-S5000ES n

o sooner had Sony assaulted the accessibility problem with Blu-ray by launching its $449 BDP-S350 budget player (reviewed page 50), and its higher-spec BDP-S550, than it comes up with this behemoth. At over ten kilograms, this is a premium player.

In operation it isn’t very much different to the S350, it’s cheaper cousin, but it has these little things about it that scream quality. One such is a little thing that truly marks high quality equipment: a smooth and silent disc drawer.

System integrators will love the RS-232C interface. Sony says that you also get a full DTS-HD Master Audio decoder, complete with 7.1 channel analog audio outputs.

There was no noticeable difference between this unit and the BDP-S350 in video performance. It offered essentially the same features and, seemingly, the same video processing circuits. On Blu-ray these were brilliant. On PAL DVDs they were fairly good, but the deinterlacing circuitry was tricked by my test clips into thinking film-sourced material was video sourced, and its quality was thereby reduced. This was identical to the treatment by the BDP-S350, but somewhat different to other players, so I conclude the same processors are used.

I could not test the claimed ability of the unit to decode DTS-HD Master Audio, due to an odd design choice. You can set the Blu-ray audio output to ‘Direct’ (which feeds the audio bitstream unaltered to your receiver via HDMI)

52

or to ‘Mix’. If you choose ‘Mix’, then you also get secondary audio from BD-Live material, but the unit uses the standard DTS core from the high definition audio track.

Apparently the DTS-HD Master Audio decoding only comes into play if you select ‘Direct’. With a modern receiver, this sends the undecoded bitstream to the receiver for decoding. But if you have a HDMI receiver without this capability, then the player will fully decode this sound.

I have to confess that I don’t see why Sony would have implemented it this way, especially as the unit will decode Dolby TrueHD with the ‘Mix’ setting (albeit, limiting the output frequency to 48kHz).

The remote control is a little disappointing, being essentially identical to that of the low cost model, except with the addition of a backlight for about half the keys.

PROS Fully equipped Blu-ray player Magnificently well built Fast operation Super smooth tray High quality picture and sound with Blu-ray Full support of all Blu-ray features

CONS DTS-HD Master Audio decoding of very limited usefulness No frame step or slow playback modes Recessed USB can limit types of memory employed

sony bDP-s5000es Price: $2299 Warranty: 12 months Contact: Sony Australia Limited 1300 137 669 www.sony.com.au Features: Output: HDMI, component video, S-Video, composite video, stereo audio, 7.1 channel analog audio, coaxial digital audio, optical digital audio; Advanced connections: Ethernet, USB, Control S/IR In, RS-232C; Audio decoding: Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD; HD Audio bitstream out: Yes; Advanced features: BonusView, BD-Live, 1GB USB memory stick supplied Dimensions (WHD; Weight): 430 x 125 x 365mm; 10.2kg

ratinGs Overall Performance Features Ease of use Value for money

blu-ray mini test

Panasonic DMP-BD35 I

n many ways the Panasonic DMP-BD35 is the same as the Yamaha unit included in this review, except that it is of a much lighter build, lacks the system integration features, and is a generation more advanced.

This last point is due to the addition of two things: a BD-Live implementation, and decoders for all the audio standards including the high definition ones.

For BD-Live you use the usual Ethernet port, and persistent storage is provided not with a USB memory stick but with a Secure Digital card slot on the front. This is under a flimsy panel, and so is not visually intrusive. You can also display JPEG photos and run AVCHD video from SD cards. You have to buy the SD card for yourself.

The BD-Live functions worked precisely as they should, allowing me to download some trailer clips for Sony titles, and interesting (and relevant) supplementary material for such Paramount titles as Iron Man and Transformers.

The BonusView function also worked well on such titles as Batman Begins. And the unit was fairly fast, although perhaps not quite so speedy as the Sony and LG units.

The other area in which it shone was that, of these players, it was the only one that could decode DTS-HD Master Audio sound during BonusView PIP playback of Blu-ray discs.

The decoding on offer is called DTS-HD Master Audio Essential, which apparently

omits the ability to decode DTS Neo:6 from Blu-ray. No great loss there. That also makes this Panasonic unit ideal for those with an older home theatre receiver with support for HDMI audio, but lacking high definition audio decoders.

This player was like the Yamaha with PAL DVDs, except that it also includes a setting to force film mode deinterlacing, allowing perfect high resolution performance with these discs.

The unit also has some stuff that I like: like a comprehensive information display which tells you what formats are being used by the video, plus five slow motion speeds and single frame stepping (both forwards only).

Less conveniently, it lacks dedicated keys on the remote control for changing audio and subtitles, instead requiring you to arrow around an onscreen display.

PANASONIC DMP-BD35 Price: $495 Warranty: 12 months Contact: Panasonic Australia 132 600 www.panasonic.com.au Features: Output: HDMI, component video, composite video, stereo audio, optical digital audio; Advanced connections: Ethernet, SD card slot; Audio decoding: Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio Essential; HD Audio bitstream out: Yes; Advanced features: BonusView, BD-Live Dimensions (WHD; Weight): 430 x 49 x 249mm; 2.6kg

PROS Excellent value for money Fast operation High quality picture and sound with Blu-ray Full support of all Blu-ray features Includes usable decoding for DTSHD Master Audio

CONS No coaxial digital audio output Not able to clear BD-storage for individual movies

ratings Overall Performance Features Ease of use Value for money

Conclusion Prices are falling for Blu-ray players, and capabilities are increasing.

We are nearing the end of the second of these processes, and the recent fall in the value of the Australian dollar is likely to slow the rate at which prices are falling. So there’s not really that much point in waiting around to get into Blu-ray.

If you aren’t at all interested in the internet-enabled BD-Live capabilities of some discs, then the Yamaha makes a quite decent player. However I like my equipment to have full command over all

the features available to their supported formats.

I would be happy with the LG, or with the lower cost Sony. And I definitely prefer the flexibility of USB external memory rather than SD. Still, for me the Panasonic DMP-BD35 is the best overall package.

It offers full support for BonusView and BD-Live. It allows discs to be single-stepped, and it decodes DTS-HD Master Audio discs to their highest quality in way that can be used with modern HDMI-equipped home theatre receivers.

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BOX FRESH

Klipsch CS-700/ RoomGroove T

o be honest, some so-called ‘wireless’ AV systems are more trouble than they’re worth. There’s plenty of AV gear that calls itself ‘wireless’ and is anything but – especially home theatre systems. Thankfully, this Klipsch CS-700 system and partnering RoomGroove iPod dock are some of the first truly ‘wireless’ audio-visual components I’ve come across since manufacturers supposedly started ditching the cord spaghetti.

Features The CS-700 is a 2.1-channel AV system providing Dolby Virtual Surround. The active subwoofer is wireless, while two satellite speakers connect to the CD/DVD/tuner component with cables.

Along with a couple of power cords, this is the only cabling. The system incorporates KlipschCast wireless technology that uses the 2.4GHz band to transmit and receive (to a certain degree) between other KlipschCast components – namely the company’s RoomGroove iPod dock/speaker system.

The central electronics component incorporates a CD/DVD

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player plus RDS FM and AM tuner. It outputs up to 1080i resolution via its HDMI or component video outputs and two auxiliary inputs for connecting other AV sources. The satellites are small, feature Klipsch’s customary horn-loaded tweeters and together with the active 200mm (8 inch) 200 watt subwoofer, aim to do the job of a conventional 5.1 speaker system, using Dolby’s Virtual Surround processing.

The RoomGroove sports a retractable iPod cradle (compatible with iPhone too) or you can plug in other MP3 players; is fully remote controllable and will receive audio from the CS-700. You can easily add more RoomGrooves around the house (an unlimited number, according to Klipsch) to create a wireless network transmitting audio from the CS-700’s FM/AM tuner or inbuilt CD/DVD player, or a connected PVR or HD settop box. The CS-700 is also multi-source, capable of delivering audio from two different sources – say radio and CD – to two rooms simultaneously You can also transmit audio from RoomGroove to RoomGroove, but not from RoomGroove back to the CS-700.

Klipsch CS-700/RoomGroove Regarding the former, Klipsch distributor, Powermove, says “If a RoomGroove is transmitting and a second RoomGroove is told to transmit, the second RoomGroove will bump the first RoomGroove by occupying its wireless channel. However, in systems not incorporating a CS-700, two RoomGrooves can transmit simultaneously. To enable this feature, all of the RoomGrooves must be assigned to a home code from 5 to 9. Selecting a home code from 5 to 9 will allow a second RoomGroove to occupy the wireless channel which was previously assigned to the CS-700.”

Performance Up and running in no time at all, this is one of easiest home theatre in a box systems to install. What’s more, the wireless functionality came on song without any hassles also. I was expecting trouble, but soon had stereo sound – a CD playing on the CS-700 system – pumping out of the RoomGroove.

I also loved the way you could control the CS-700 from the RoomGroove’s remote, changing source, volume and tracks.

Despite its compactness, the RoomGroove pumps out a solid bass, but things start to distort a little if the volume’s cranked too far. It worked great receiving audio from the CS-700 in the same room, so I tried it in another part of the house, only to find that with around 18 metres between the two, the audio began to break up.

SPECIFICATIONS Klipsch CS-700 Price: $2199 Warranty: 12 months Frequency response: 30Hz–20kHz (±3dB) Amplifier power: 200 watts (subwoofer, continuous) Speakers: 75 watts, 2 channels driven Crossover frequency: 125Hz, 24dB/octave Maximum SPL: 112dB HF Horn: Micro Tractrix, 25mm tweeter Midrange driver: 75mm paper cone Subwoofer driver: 200mm paper cone, downward–firing Inputs: Audio: digital coaxial optical, line level analog Video: 2 x composite, 2 x S-Video Outputs: Video: 1 x HDMI, component, S-Video, composite Weight: 18.14 kg

Klipsch RoomGroove Price: $449 Warranty: 12 months Frequency response: 65Hz–17kHz (±3dB) Amplifier: Class D Maximum SPL: 98dB HF Horn: Micro Tractrix, 25mm tweeter Midrange driver: 60mm paper cone Inputs: iPod docking connector/stereo mini auxiliary input Dimensions: 178 x 400 x 114mm Weight: 2.7 kg

Klipsch claims around 30 metres as an average range for the system when used in wood and/or gyprock (rather than metal and concrete) constructions. Our test location is gyprocked/fibro clad, so I would have expected better transmission/reception. Moving the RoomGroove a couple of metres closer to the room with the CS-700 improved things, but the sound was not what you’d call CD quality.

The CS-700 system makes plenty of noise itself and despite reservations, the Dolby Virtual Surround did a convincing job.

There was a definite centralisation of dialogue and, at times, even rear effects sounded as if they were coming from the right surround spots. I wouldn’t say it’ll give you the presence and spread of a conventional 5.1 system, but it does the trick nonetheless without the box count and messy wires. Musically, the Klipsch can hold a tune and as a sub/sat system the trio delivers a nicely balanced performance, with ample dynamics from such compactness.

Conclusion These Klipsch components take the hassle and expense out of putting together a wireless multi-room audio network. It has limitations, but essentially Klipsch’s efforts with both these components have resulted in a surround solution that sounds and looks good, plus it keeps a wonderfully low visual profile around the house.

Nic Tatham

PROS Effective and friendly wireless multi-room audio Wireless networking a doddle to use Great sound and picture quality from CS700

CONS Volume limitations with RoomGroove Wireless range may be an issue

RATINGS

Performance Features Ease of use Value for money

55

BOX FRESH

Geneva Model XL T

he Geneva Model XL Sound System is a single box FM radio, CD player and iPod/iPhone dock. But that sells it short, for it is as large as a bar fridge, packs 600 watts of amplifiers and full three-way stereo loudspeakers.

Features So, yes, there are a total of six speaker drivers in this box, from a pair of 25mm soft dome tweeters down to large 203mm bass drivers. It seems that each driver has a 100 watts of power available to it, supplied by six D2AUDIO digital amplifiers. The drivers are bass reex-loaded in this very sturdily constructed box. The whole thing, standing 613mm tall and 55mm wide, weighs a full 38kg!

Underneath are connections for the power cord, FM aerial and a stereo analog cable. The base of the unit is held up by four screw-on feet, and a oor stand ($399) is optionally available.

The sound stage opened up, both to the left and right, and to the front and back.

Excellent depth appeared in a most attractive way 56

The sides, top and back of the unit are finished in a shiny white (or red or black) gloss, while the front is fitted with a colour-matched perforated metal grille. On the top is a fold-up panel that reveals four basic controls, a 3.5mm input socket, and an iPod docking connector. Behind this panel is a slot for inserting CDs.

Geneva Model XL MORE SIZES TO CHOOSE FROM If budget doesn’t stretch to the $3999 for the Geneva Labs XL, the Swiss manufacturer also offers the M for $1749 and the L for $2399. The 7.2kg M provides dual tweeters and dual woofers, and 4 x 25 watts outputs from a cabinet designed to for a tabletop, while the Model L provides the same power output – but using larger drivers – from a larger cabinet. Each comes in red, black or white finishes.

The system went nicely loud. Not as loud as I was expecting, given the size of the unit and the power provided, but it still managed room-filling levels. When really pushed, the sound became a little harsh, confused and dynamically compressed.

But that was with sound levels peaking well over 100 decibels.

The volume level is displayed as a scale from 0 to 100. If you switch off the unit with the volume above 50, on the next startup it reverts to 50: a nice safety measure.

The sound was well balanced tonally to the extremes of the treble, and all the way down to below 50 hertz, with usable output down to about 35 hertz.

A problem with single-box speaker systems is the lack of stereo separation, and to deal with this Geneva has employed ‘Embracing Sound’ technology. This processes the signal (apparently by primarily feeding some phase-adjusted sound to the opposite channels) to produce a wider stereo effect from closely spaced speakers, and ‘Embracing Sound’ claims this produces better actual results than normal stereo speakers.

I was about to completely dismiss this concept because to me the sound stage was confined to the face of the unit. Then I sat myself carefully facing it, right on its centre axis. The sound stage opened up, both to the left and right, and to the front and back. Excellent depth appeared in a most attractive way.

Just don’t expect that behaviour when you’re not in the unit’s very small sweet spot.

Conclusion The Geneva Model XL Sound System a large, heavy and very expensive box, but it’s a beautifully finished box that does provide very good performance.

Thomas Bartlett You get a remote control and the information is provided by a 22mm tall five-digit LED, visible through the perforations in the top right corner of the grille.

Performance The iPod or iPhone charges even when the unit is switched off.

The remote control allows you to skip tracks and to pause, but it provides no menu navigation. The FM radio tuner was unusually good, providing clean reception on stations that are usually pretty noisy in my area.

SPECIFICATIONS Price: $3999 Warranty: 12 months Contact: Audio Dynamics Pty Ltd (03) 9882 0372 www.audiodynamics.com.au Power: digital, 6 x 100 watts Drivers: 2 x 25mm tweeters, 2 x 133mm woofers, 2 x 203mm subwoofers Cabinet: bass reflex loaded Sources: 1 x slot-loading CD player (built-in),1 x FM radio (built in), 1 x iPod/iPhone dock, 2 x analog stereo audio (1 via 3.5mm mini-jack) Features: D2AUDIO digital amplifiers, Embracing Sound stereo technology Supplied accessories: remote control; manual; ‘Sound Check’ sampler CD Dimensions (WHD): 550 x 613 x 370mm Weight: 38kg

PROS Very good audio performance Excellent stereo sound stage when sitting in sweet spot Useful remote control and extra inputs

CONS Large, heavy, expensive Little stereo effect outside of sweet spot

RATINGS

Performance Features Ease of use Value for money

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BOX FRESH

Pioneer Kuro PDP-LX609A and BDP-LX71 P

ioneer has not been one to play the electronicsas-a-commodity game. Instead it has chosen to service the end of the market mostly concerned with quality. Nowhere is this more evident than with its full high definition BDP-LX609A plasma TV, and premium BDP-LX71 Blu-ray player.

Features When you’re developing a premium quality TV, you can go for a large feature set, or aim for superb performance, or opt for sheer size. What the Pioneer Kuro PDP-LX609A offers is all three in the one package.

No, at 152cm (60 inches) it isn’t the very largest flat screen TV we’ve ever seen, but it isn’t far off it. It offers a full 1920 by 1080 pixel high definition display, supports the essential 1080p24 signal from Blu-ray, and has three HDMI inputs.

Pioneer is a little coy about its performance measures, refusing to specify for example a contrast ratio. I have quite a bit of sympathy with this, because when you are talking about recent claims of one million to one, you are getting into unmeasurable territory. So see below for my take on this TV’s performance on such matters (a preview: it’s simply brilliant).

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So it’s big, and it has performance. But there are also features. Such as a high definition digital TV tuner, along with an analog one. Such as a USB socket, from which you can display photos. Most impressively, such as an Ethernet socket which is ‘DLNA’ certified. DLNA is a widely based industry standard designed to allow easy connection of consumer electronics to computer networks. In this TV’s case, it can play back a very wide range of multimedia formats covering photos, video and sound (see the feature list for details).

It’s difficult to be quite so unequivocally enthusiastic about the features of the BDP-LX71 Blu-ray player. After all, it costs more than twice as much as very respectable Blu-ray players from some other brands, yet lacks the most advanced feature of those lower cost players: BD-Live. That is an Internet connectivity feature that allows additional material to be downloaded for some Blu-ray discs.

If, however, you like to keep your internet and your home entertainment in separate domains, then this will be no loss to you. What you do get is more important: BonusView support. That is the picture-in-picture, sound-in-sound function that is starting to be inventively used on a number of Blu-ray discs.

PIONEER KURO PDP-LX609A AND BDP-LX71

As I write, the unit has full audio decoders for Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD, but not (like just about every other player) for DTS-HD Master Audio. However Pioneer promises to have a firmware upgrade available for the unit in January 2009 which provides this capability as well.

This will allow the unit to provide the maximum possible audio quality – delivered via either its 7.1 channel analog audio outputs, or via HDMI as 7.1 channel PCM – even while the PIP features are being used. Most players fall back on the standard DTS ‘core’ when called upon to do this.

Instead of the usual push buttons for eject, stop, play and so forth, the Blu-ray player has touch sensitive patches on its front for these controls.

Performance So how well did these premium products work? In short, the Blu-ray player worked very well, and the TV worked absolutely brilliantly.

To dispose of the minor stuff first, the TV’s DLNA functionality worked precisely as it was supposed to. The picture quality from still photos was excellent, with the full resolution of the TV used. And the TV did indeed play back the thousands of MP3 tracks on my computer once I had connected it to my home computer network. It’s best to feed these back to a high quality sound system using the TV’s optical digital audio output.

After all the TV has, well, TV speakers: fine for their purpose but definitely limited when it comes to music.

The TV tuners worked well, but the brilliance of this TV resides mostly in its plasma panel, and the electronics that drive it. As mentioned, Pioneer doesn’t specify the TV’s contrast ratio.

In fact, it delivered black levels that result from a true absence

SPECIFICATIONS • BDP-LX71 Price: $1299 Warranty: one year Contact: Pioneer Electronics Australia 1800 060 852 www.pioneer.com.au Outputs: 1 x component video, 1 x S-Video, 1 x composite video, 1 x HDMI, 1 x stereo analog audio, 1 x 7.1 channel analog audio, 1 x optical digital audio, 1 x coaxial digital audio Other: 1 x control Features: 24 frames per second output, Consumer Electronics Control (CEC), on-the-fly output resolution support, BonusView, Complete audio decoding (coming soon), noise reduction options, controllable deinterlacing Supplied Accessories: remote control, manual Dimensions (WHD): 420 x 124 x 380mm Weight: 5.7kg

of light, rather than a mere diminution. Even when there were bright elements on the screen, the parts of the picture that were supposed to be black remained so. This was particularly easy to spot, seeing as how the picture was so damned large!

It was almost like having a front projector, but without its disadvantages.

The picture was plenty bright enough, and the colours were extraordinarily natural in their appearance.

One of the reasons for the great picture was the superb processing of video provided by the electronics. This did brilliantly on deinterlacing both 1080i and 576i video, whether delivered from a disc player, or by the unit’s own built-in digital TV tuner. TV has never looked as good as it did with this unit … even with SDTV! The BDP-LX71 Blu-ray player also performed flawlessly. I have one complaint: while noticeably faster than previous Pioneer models, it remains one of the slowest of those released over the past few months. Part of this is just silly design: why should it take 30 seconds to open the disc draw from switch on? This ought to happen as soon as power is applied (if you start it up by touching the ‘open’ spot on the front panel). The machine

PROS Excellent picture quality on BD Excellent picture quality on DVD Full decoding of HD audio (coming soon) High quality build

CONS Lacks BD-Live Slower operation than some other players

RATINGS

Performance Features Ease of use Value for money

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BOX FRESH

PIONEER KURO PDP-LX609A AND BDP-LX71

initialisation process should continue while this is happening.

That said, this unit has a number of unique virtues (especially now that Sony is no longer using Pioneer players as the guts of its). The main one is the on-the-fly resolution control function provided on the remote control. Other BD players we’ve seen force you to stop play in order to alter the resolution settings, or to go into the setup menu. Pioneer just does the whole thing with a couple of remote control keys. This offers no real advantages in practice, as with the output resolution set to ‘Auto’, the unit does a fine job (1080p24 during Blu-ray movie playback, and 1080p50 or 60 for everything else). Still, I think it’s cool.

The picture quality was immaculate, and not just with Blu-ray discs; the unit did a respectable job with PAL DVDs. You can adjust the video display parameters (and apply a number of various noise reduction processes) using a dedicated key on the remote control. There are a number of video presets and three user memory settings that are very convenient. But if you purchase these two units as a package, you should choose the ‘Pioneer PDP’ setting, which of course optimises the player for top performance with this Pioneer TV.

SPECIFICATIONS • PDP-LX609A Price: $10,999 Warranty: five years Contact: Pioneer Electronics Australia 1800 060 852 www.pioneer.com.au Image: plasma; 152cm diagonal; 16:9 native aspect, 1920 x 1080 pixels; brightness not stated; contrast ratio not stated Inputs: 3 x composite video, 1 x S-Video, 1 x component video (supporting progressive scan and HD), 1 x D-SUB15 RGB, 3 x HDMI, 6 x stereo audio, 1 x USB (for photo display), 1 x Ethernet Outputs: 1 x optical digital, 1 x headphone Audio: stereo, 2 x 18 watts Features: HD digital TV tuner, analog TV tuner, ‘Optimum’ display mode, field noise reduction, mosquito noise reduction, block noise reduction, 3D Y/C separation, 1080p24 support, DLNA operation, supporting WMV9, MPEG2, MPEG1, MPEG4, MP3, WMA, LPCM, AAC, JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF and BMP files Supplied accessories: remote control; manual; desktop stand Dimensions (WHD): 1465 x 876 x 93mm (without stand) Weight: 50.8kg

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One little extra offered by this player that puts it ahead of most of the others: transport controls. Want to do an A-B loop?

This unit supports it for Blu-ray in addition to DVDs. If you pause a Blu-ray (or DVD, of course), you can frame step both forwards and backwards. That makes finding the specific frame you want easy. You can even do an A-B repeat loop on a Blu-ray.

Conclusion The Pioneer Kuro PDP-LX609A TV is, truth be told, about as good as you can get today. Indeed, it’s hard to see how it could get any better. The BDP-LX71 is an excellent Blu-ray player in all respects … except for its failure to support BD-Live functions.

But if that isn’t something you’re dying for, then you will be Thomas Bartlett pleased with this player.

PROS Brilliant picture performance Massive screen size Good video processing operations DLNA

CONS Three HDMI inputs a little below the premium TV norm these days

RATINGS

Performance Features Ease of use Value for money

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Terms & Conditions of Entry 1. Information on how to enter forms part of the terms and conditions of entry. To enter the Win a $6,500 Digital Home Set-up competition visit www.gadgetguy.com.au, click on the Win a $6,500 Digital Home Set-up graphic, and answer the 25 words or less question. Eligible participants are required to provide their name, address, postcode, telephone number and a valid email address to complete their entry. 2. There is a limit of one entry per each valid email address 3. Entry is open to all permanent residents of Australia, but to be eligible to win the prize the email address you submit with your entry MUST be actively subscribed to the weekly GadgetGuy Grapevine newsletter at the time of the prize judging. 4. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence shall be entered into. Prizes cannot be transferred or redeemed for cash. 5. This is a game of skill and chance plays no part in determining winners. 6. Judging for the competition will take place on February 25, 2009 at Gadget Group, 120 Cathedral St, Woolloomooloo NSW 2011. 7. The promoter will not be held responsible for any late, lost or misdirected mail. 8. No employees, relatives or associates of Hewlett Packard, Cameras Direct, Yamaha, Syntec or Gadget Group Pty Ltd can enter the competition. 9. The winners shall be notified by email, and upon confirmation of the winners’ contact details the names will be published in the weekly GadgetGuy.com.au newsletter. 10. Prize value is the recommended retail value as provided by the supplier and is correct at the time of printing. All prize values are in Australian dollars. 11. The promoter shall not be responsible for any loss or damage whatsoever that is suffered (including but not limited to direct or consequential loss) or any personal injury suffered or sustained in connection with any prize/s, except for any liability that cannot be excluded by law. 12. The competition commences November 14, 2008 and concludes on February 16, 2009. All entries become the property of the promoter. 13. Prize winners once notified by email of their win have 3 months from the despatch of our email to supply us their contact details. If no reply is received then the prize will be re-drawn on May 16th, 2009, at 12 pm at the offices of Gadget Group, 120 Cathedral Street, Woolloomooloo NSW 2011. 14. There is one prize, comprising four components - the Canon EOS 1000D camera (prize value $999.00 RRP), a Yamaha RXV 663 ($1,099 RRP), a Tannoy HTS200 (4 x floor standing speakers; 1 x ctr speaker; 1 x active subwoofer - $1,999.00 RRP) and an HP TouchSmart PC IQ505a ($2,499 RRP) - that together are valued at $6,596 RRP. 15.

The promoter of this competition is Gadget Group Pty Ltd, ABN 52050106502.

BOX FRESH

Grundig GLCD2206HDV F

or some AV enthusiasts, style is everything. It’s not enough to just have high quality components, they need to be stylish too. And sorting out the lounge room is no problem these days, with dozens of sleek devices to choose from. But what about your secondary AV spot? The kitchen, study or bedroom TV? You need a small, but quality display and if you can somehow get digital HDTV and DVD playback in a low-profile package, all the better.

Fortunately, there are a number of smaller LCD TVs with integrated tuners and DVD players on the market right now, and this is Grundig’s offering.

It’s called the GLCD2206HDV but it’s also part of Grundig’s Misuro family so for the sake of brevity, that’s what we’ll call it.

Other models in the range include a 40cm (15.6 inch) variant ($599) in fire red, midnight blue, high gloss white or piano black finish; a 48cm/19 inch model (in white or black only) for $749, and a $1200 (white or black) 81cm/32 inch model, which excludes the 12 volt power adaptor. This top-of-the range model has two HDMI inputs, 1366 x 768 resolution, a coaxial audio output for sending multichannel surround from HDTV broadcasts to an outboard AV receiver and 2 x 8 watts speaker output.

Features When it comes to functionality, the Misuro under review here has you covered. The 56cm LCD has a native resolution of

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1680 x 1050, and inputs include component, HDMI and VGA. That means you can use it as a PC monitor as well.

There’s an integrated HDTV digital tuner which can store up to 100 channels (overkill for this country!), and a slot-loading DVD drive.

The unit itself has a piano-finish black fascia and a few style elements such as the round plinth and recessed silver strip. Oddly though, the construction is actually quite light and plasticky, more so than we would have expected at this price point.

The included remote favours functionality over ergonomics, and DVD controls aren’t exactly front-and-centre. All the buttons you need are there, though, including an aspect ratio button for all your older 4:3 DVDs. The Misuro also supports teletext – but does anyone still use it?

Another handy accessory is the 12 volt AC adaptor for your car or boat.

Performance As with all 56cm displays, this one can’t actually do proper 1080p or even 1080i HD. The 1050 vertical pixels are exactly 30 pixels short, but the system can interpolate a 1080p signal and give decent results.

These 56cm panels are being churned out at a breakneck rate, mostly to service consumer PC monitors: 56cm is one of the most popular sizes now.

Grundig GLCD2206HDV

What’s surprising about this Grundig-branded display, sold at a Grundig price, is that there’s no bespoke technology powering the TV. No “smooth motion” or “colour enhance” or any other trendy trademarked functionality. This is just a decent-quality panel in a standard TV chassis with a basic DVD player in the back.

Image quality is good, but no better than you’d expect from a Korean or Japanese TV – or indeed from a PC monitor that might not have a tuner or a DVD player in it, but will cost you less than half this price.

Conclusion The styling of this TV is almost identical to a number of Samsung products. Especially the power button on the fascia.

It’s not a rebranded cheapie by any means, but we expect slabfaced German minimalism from Grundig.

And that’s the essential problem with the GLCD2206HDV. When you buy Grundig, you expect something different, special even. And this is just another TV with some extra functionality.

SPECIFICATIONS Price: $849 Contact: www.grundig.com.au 02 9714 3434 Warranty: three years Display: 56cm (22 inch) LCD TV, 1680 x 1050 pixels, 1000:1 contrast ratio, 300cd m2 brightness, 16.7 million colours, 5ms response time, 170 degrees horizontal viewing angle Audio: 2 x 3 watt speakers Connections: 1x composite video, 1x S-video, component, 1x HDMI, 1x SVGA Extras: onboard HDTV tuner, onboard slot-loading DVD player, 12V car adaptor Finish: high-gloss white and black, fire red and midnight blue Power consumption: 60 watts Weight (with stand): 8.5kg

If it cost the same as any other TV, that would be fine. But we’re paying a European premium here, so we can be a bit disappointed at the lack of European style.

Still, the three-year warranty is a welcome bonus, and if you’re a Grundig loyalist, this TV certainly won’t put you off your favourite brand.

Anthony Fordham

PROS Stylish design Built-in DVD player Good connectivity options 12 volts power supply for use in caravans and boats

CONS No bespoke technology No true 1080p HD High price

RATINGS

Performance Features Ease of use Value for money

63

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Answer online at www.gadgetguy.com.au • ENTRIES CLOSE 10 MARCH 2009 TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF ENTRY 1. Information on how to enter forms part of the terms and conditions of entry. To enter the Kodak Camera Pack competition visit www.gadgetguy. com.au, click on the Win Kodak Camera Pack graphic, and answer the 25 words or less question. Eligible participants are required to provide their gadgetguy.com.au membership email and password to complete their entry.

2. There is a limit of one entry per each valid email address 3. Entry is open to all permanent residents of Australia, but to be eligible to win the prize the email address you submit with your entry must be actively subscribed to the weekly GadgetGuy Grapevine newsletter at the time of the prize judging.

4. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence shall be entered into. Prizes cannot be transferred or redeemed for cash.

5. This is a game of skill and chance plays no part in determining winners. 6. Judging for the competition will take place on March 16, 2009

64

at Gadget Group, 120 Cathedral St, Woolloomooloo NSW 2011.

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8. No employees, relatives or associates of Kodak Pty Ltd or Gadget Group Pty Ltd can enter the competition.

9. The winners shall be notified by email, and upon confirmation of the winners’ contact details the names will be published in the weekly GadgetGuy.com.au newsletter.

10. Prize value is the recommended retail value as provided by the supplier and is correct at the time of printing. All prize values are in Australian dollars.

11. The promoter shall not be responsible for any loss or damage whatsoever that is suffered (including but not limited to direct or consequential loss) or any personal injury suffered or sustained in connection with any prize/s, except for any liability that cannot be excluded by law.

12. The competition commences December 10, 2008 and concludes on March 10, 2009. All entries become the property of the promoter.

13. Prize winners once notified by email of their win have 1 month from the despatch of our email to supply us their contact details. If no reply is received then the prize will be re-drawn on April 16, 2009, at 12 pm at the offices of Gadget Group, 120 Cathedral Street, Woolloomooloo NSW 2011.

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BOX FRESH

Sony XBR KDL46XBR45 E

ventually technology reaches it limits. Take the CD player – technically, there’s not a lot more that can be extracted from a CD and players have pretty much reached technical perfection. But what about TVs, and more specifically, LCD panels? For years the TV remained fundamentally unchanged (apart from the advent of colour), but today’s flat panel HDTV explosion has seen TV technology virtually start from scratch.

Features Sony’s Bravia XBR45 Series (there are 40, 46 and 55 inch/101, 116 and 140cm models) is described as Sony’s ‘most advanced’ Bravia TV. The $6999 KDL46XBR45 under review here employs RGB Dynamic LED backlighting, the latest Bravia Engine 2 Pro processing and Motionflow Pro 100Hz technology, designed to sharpen and stabilise horizontal, fast-moving images.

This works by creating a new frame between each of the existing 50 frames, then entering the ‘inter-frames’ into the output signal to double the frame rate from 50 to 100. Backlight blinking then deactivates horizontal fields of the backlight for the inter-frame calculations, meaning the image is sharpened and is convincingly clear, according to Sony.

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(Sony’s Z-Series Btravia’s feature world-first 200Hz processing, whereby three additional frames are created for every original frame. This increases the typical 50 frames per second to 200, which Sony claims assists in presenting smoother, less blurry fast-action scenes. The company’s 100Hz Pro televisions, such as the model revewed here, are, however, positioned above these Z Series Bravias.)

The backlighting uses red, green and blue LEDs to help deliver deeper blacks, richer colours and a dynamic contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 (panel contrast is 3000:1). The distinction between these two measurements is that the much higher dynamic ratio is measured during darker scenes when the LCD’s backlight is dimmer. Conversely, the lower panel contrast ratio figure measures the ratio of the light output of an all white image (full on) and the light output of an all black (full off) image. A neat trick of this Sony’s backlight is that it turns on and off in sync with the pixels, so there’s no lingering image glow in darker scenes.

Naturally, this screen’s native resolution is 1920 x 1080 pixels.

Connectivity’s well catered for with four HDMI inputs, plus it has ample media streaming capabilities with an Ethernet socket and DLNA-certification (Digital Living Network Alliance) for accessing photos and music from a networked PC. USB 2.0 ports

Sony XBR KDL46XBR45

LCDs have long fallen short in producing truly deep and stable blacks, but it looks as though this is a thing of the past with this Sony are provided for playing back photos and music stored on USB devices and flash drives, and wireless Bluetooth connectivity is also possible with the optional $249 TDM-BT1 Digital Media Port, so you could wirelessly stream audio and images from your Sony Walkman or Bluetooth mobile phone.

The XBR features a new XMB (Cross Media Bar) menu system, which will look familiar to anyone who’s ever used the company’s Playstation 3. It makes a welcome change and together with a decent remote handset, finding your way around this TV is straightforward, unlike some previous Bravia models.

Performance Bright, strong, bold colours and some of the deepest blacks I’ve seen on an LCD, this XBR’s image quality is dressed to impress.

The initial set-up needs some picture enhancement adjustment, mostly dropping the colour level by six or so points, which to my eyes looked more natural. But, back to those blacks. This is one screen that definitely looks like it’s achieving very high contrast ratios, dynamic or otherwise. Figures don’t mean anything – the proof is in the pudding.

LCDs have long fallen short in producing truly deep and stable blacks, but it looks as though this is a thing of the past with this Sony. In a darkened room, equally dark scenes impressed with their smoothness and depth, which is no doubt partly down to the good work of the backlight’s LEDs. On Bluray, the ever-excellent Casino Royale shows just how good this Sony handles things. Fine details are really well resolved in dark scenes and there’s none of the grayish/black homogenous mass

SPECIFICATIONS Price: $6999 Warranty: one year Contact: Sony Australia Limited 1300 137 669 www.sony.com.au Image: LCD, 116cm diagonal; 16:9 native aspect, 1920 x 1080 pixels; 100,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 3000:1 panel contrast ratio, 8ms response time Inputs: 3 x composite video, 2 x component video (supporting progressive scan and HD), 1 x D-SUB15 RGB, 4 x HDMI, 9 x stereo audio, 1 x USB, 1 x Ethernet, 1 x DLNA Outputs: 1 x composite video, 2 x analog stereo audio, 2 x optical digital audio, 1 x headphone Audio: stereo, Nicam, A2, 2 x 10 watts (speakers), 2 x 12 watts (subwoofer) Features: HD digital tuner, analog TV tuner, Bravia Engine 2 PRO, Motionflow 100Hz PRO, DLNA certified, 24p True Cinema, Digital Media Port, S-Force Front Surround Supplied accessories: remote control; manual; desktop swivel stand Weight: 38kg (including stand)

that lesser LCDs produce.

Detail retrieval is excellent right across the Sony’s particularly vibrant, but realistic-looking, colour spectrum. I didn’t detect any motion blur either, thanks in part to the 100Hz Motionflow Pro and a quick response time of 8 milliseconds. Fast-moving scenes look realistic too; that can’t be said for all 100Hz TVs, which can still leave a trail of slow-moving blurriness. The screen’s not perfect though – there’s still a loss of colour saturation and a decrease in contrast ratio as you move off viewing axis by a few degrees, although it’s not as marked as some, especially earlier LCD models.

Conclusion Decent sound from the slim speakers and that lovely ‘floating’ screen design top off a rather nice LCD TV. All this comes at a price though, and with an RRP just shy of seven grand, this Bravia is expensive. It’s got blacks on par with the best plasmas, bags of detail and a strong, natural colour balance. This latest Bravia is a sure sign just how far LCD TV technology has come in a short space of time.

Nic Tatham

PROS Sumptuous-looking 1080p display Excellent blacks – on par with the best plasmas No visible motion blurring Excellent connectivity

CONS Critical viewing angle

RATINGS

Performance Features Ease of use Value for money

67

BOX FRESH

Samsung LA46A950 T

he weakness of LCD TVs in comparison to plasma TVs has been their black levels. Put your feet up in the evening, turn off the room lights for an involving movie, and whenever the picture goes dark, your LCD will glow. Irritatingly.

Blu-ray, playing at 1080p24, was the best, of course, but HDTV often looked more like a window into the world of the action, than a mere representation of it on a screen 68

In recent years, some brands – including Samsung, which has done as well as or better than its rivals – have included clever features which reduce the brightness of the backlight behind the LCD panel when the picture goes dark. This still had limitations, such as when the picture was bright in one part of the screen, but dark elsewhere. Turning down the backlight risked eliminating the impact of the bright part.

Well, the Samsung LA46A950 LCD TV is the first of a new breed of LCD TVs that have eliminated this problem.

Features The trick is to use not one but many backlights. That’s what Samsung has done with this TV. Behind the LCD panel are hundreds of tiny LED lights, and these can be controlled so that areas of the screen can be made bright or dark independently of other areas.

Imagine, a dark room is shown in a movie. In the corner of the screen, a door is flung open, glowing brightly against the gloom. With this TV, there need be no compromise. In the dark areas of the screen the brightness can remain low, while where the door has opened the backlights can burn brightly.

Samsung LA46A950 This is a premium TV for Samsung (it costs over $1500 more than the next model down in the same size), so it gets Samsung’s full premium feature-set, including USB card reader, PIP, built-in HD tuner and four HDMI inputs.

And it adds one rare extra: a Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) network port. Plug it into your home network and with suitable server software on your computer (Windows Media Player 11 will do) you can play back photos, videos and music stored within it using the TV. The TV can also display news and weather snippets which it captures from the internet, and has some built-in art works, kiddie entertainments, exercise instructions and recipes (we’re keen to see the kitchen that can accommodate a 117cm/46 inch screen).

Performance But let’s get back to movie watching. I gave it the hard test: 10pm, all the lights out, Blu-ray movie on. A scene in the movie faded out and there was a brief moment of blackness during the transition to the next scene. The light from the Samsung TV’s screen also faded to complete blackness. The screen area was indistinguishable from the bezel. It was truly dark.

Then there was the real test, easily done with one of the built-in photographs. This has fireworks shown against a dark background. In my dark room, the black background really was black. But that could be a trick of the eyes because of the bright areas on screen, so I used a light-proof rug to mask off the bright areas of the screen, and the black parts remained black.

Perfectly black. Brilliant!

The DLNA stuff worked well (that’s the whole point of DLNA certification), much as it does with high-end home theatre receivers.

As for all other aspects of the TV’s operation, they worked just like Samsung’s high-end TVs always do: very well. Blu-ray, playing at 1080p24, was the best, of course, but HDTV often looked more like a window into the world of the action, than a mere representation of it on a screen.

SPECIFICATIONS Price: $5499 Warranty: three years Contact: Samsung Electronics Australia 1300 369 600 www.samsung.com.au Image: LCD; 117cm diagonal; 16:9 native aspect, 1920 x 1080 pixels; brightness 500m2; 2,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio; response time not stated Inputs: 2 x composite video, 1 x S-Video, 2 x component video (supporting progressive scan and HD), 1 x D-SUB15 RGB, 4 x HDMI, 6 x stereo audio (one as 3.5mm stereo socket), 1 x USB, 1 x Ethernet Outputs: 1 x optical digital audio, 1 x analog stereo audio, 1 x 3.5mm stereo headphones Audio: stereo, 2 x 10 watts, 4 speakers Features: LED backlight, PIP, Teletext, analog and HD digital tuners built in, four HDMI inputs, Samsung DNIe Pro picture processing, Movie Plus 100Hz processing, USB for photo display and MP3 playback, DLNA certification for Ethernet for multimedia playback Supplied accessories: remote control; manual; desktop stand Dimensions (WHD): 1160 x 669 x 108mm (without stand) Weight: 26.3kg (without stand)

Conclusion The Samsung LA46A950 LCD TV has brought the LCD TV, finally, into full competition with the very best of plasma TVs. This truly is a state-of-the-art television.

Thomas Bartlett

PROS Full high definition display Brilliant black levels Excellent picture quality Excellent video processing Plentiful range of inputs

CONS No rear-mounted S-Video input

RATINGS

Performance Features Ease of use Value for money

69

BOX FRESH

Denon AVR-589/ SYS-56HT Package I

am not a big fan of home theatre in a box systems. Too often they don’t end up being good value for money … once you realise that aspects of them need to be improved.

But I am a big fan of Denon’s take on the theme. That’s probably because it isn’t really a home theatre in a box. It merely encroaches on that genre through its pricing.

Features Instead, this combo system consists of a high quality 5.1 channel home theatre receiver, the Denon AVR-589, and a compact satellite/subwoofer speaker system, the SYS-56HT (which does indeed come in one box).

The receiver is incredible. I remember when component video inputs were the preserve of prestige home theatre receivers. This one has two sets of inputs. It also has two HDMI inputs!

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These provide full support for all forms of HDMI video, faithfully passing it through to the display. But the receiver does not support audio over HDMI, so you need to parallel the HDMI cable from your Blu-ray player with an optical or coaxial digital audio connection.

The speaker system consists of five small satellite speakers (one is slightly larger and sits sideways, so as to operate as a centre channel) and a subwoofer. The satellites each have two

Denon AVR-589/SYS-56HT Package

57mm drivers, while the subwoofer has a 50 watt amplifier powering its 160mm driver in a bass reflex-loaded enclosure.

The satellite speakers all use spring clips for connections. Thin speaker cables and an RCA link for the subwoofer are provided.

Performance One of the other things that quite belie the low cost of this system is the inclusion of Audyssey automatic calibration (using the supplied microphone). Naturally, it had no problem detecting that the speakers were ‘Small’, and set the crossover between the satellites and the subwoofer to 120 hertz. There is no onscreen display, but the front panel is fairly clear when adjusting the few setup items you may require.

Lacking HDMI sound, the receiver does not include decoders for the new audio standards from Blu-ray (these need HDMI to be delivered). Instead, using an optical or coaxial digital audio connection you will get the standard Dolby Digital or DTS core from the Blu-ray disc. Some recent Blu-ray players include a ‘DTS re-encode’ option, allowing you to get full surround sound even from multichannel PCM soundtracks.

SPECIFICATIONS System price: $999 Warranty: two years Contact: Audio Products Group 1300 134 400 www.audioproducts.com.au

Denon AVR-589 Power: 5 x 75 watts, 20Hz-20kHz, 8 ohms, 0.06% THD Inputs: 4 x composite video, 3 x S-Video, 2 x component video, 7 x analog stereo audio, 1 x 5.1 analog audio, 2 x optical digital audio, 2 x coaxial digital audio, 2 x HDMI, 1 x calibration microphone Outputs: 2 x composite video, 2 x S-Video, 1 x component video, 2 x analog stereo audio, 1 x subwoofer, 1 x HDMI, 1 x 6.5mm headphone Features: Audyssey automatic calibration and audio processing; 32 bit DSP; Full HDMI 1.3a through video; front panel AV input (composite and stereo audio); AV sync adjustment; 1080p24 video pass through Supplied accessories: remote control; calibration microphone Dimensions (WHD): 434 x 171 x 377mm Weight: 10.8kg

Denon SYS-56HT Drivers: SC-A56 satellites, SC-C56 centre: 2 x 57mm full range drivers DSW-56 subwoofer: 1 x 160mm driver, downwards firing Frequency range: SC-A56 satellites: 90-25,000 hertz SC-C56 centre: 80-25,000 hertz DSW-56 subwoofer: 30-200 hertz Nominal impedance: All: 6 ohms Power: SC-A56 satellites: 30/100 watts (IEC/peak) SC-C56 centre: 30/100 watts (IEC/peak) DSW-56 subwoofer: 50 watts (output, 6 ohms, 55 Hz, 10% THD) Sensitivity: not stated Supplied accessories: speaker cables, subwoofer audio cable Dimensions (WHD): SC-A56 satellites: 84 x 189 x 110mm SC-C56 centre: 263 x 84 x 110mm DSW-56 subwoofer: 210 x 353 x 379mm Weight: SC-A56 satellites: 1.2kg SC-C56 centre: 1.4kg DSW-56 subwoofer: 9.2kg

For under a grand, this system provides a great (repeat: great) low-cost entry into home theatre sound The HDMI video worked well. There appeared to be no analog-to-HDMI video conversion facility, so if you have analog video sources you will need to run suitable cables all the way to your display.

The driver complement in the satellite speakers, and that of the subwoofer, didn’t really give me much hope for great sound. I was unduly pessimistic. Denon has clearly spent a bit of time tuning them up so that they deliver, with the subwoofer, a balanced and hi-fi-like sound. The stereo and surround imaging was pretty decent as well, and the subwoofer was extended enough to deliver satisfyingly with kick drums.

The real limitation on them was volume level. Up loud they tended to get a bit confused and harsh, but used within their limits they were – and I can’t believe I’m writing this – lovely!

Conclusion For under a grand, this system provides a great (repeat: great) low-cost entry into home theatre sound, and lends itself readily to step-by-step upgrading in the future. It is far, far better than the similarly priced home theatre in a box alternatives.

Thomas Bartlett

PROS Good, no frills 5.1 channel audio performance Brilliant value for money Convenient HDMI picture switching Good basis for building on in the future

CONS Oddly organised remote control

RATINGS

Performance Features Ease of use Value for money

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BOX FRESH

DENON AVR-789 The unit also converts the various analog video inputs to HDMI, making for more convenient operation.

Performance

Denon AVR-789 D

enon’s AVR-789 is a home theatre receiver for those who want to get the best out of their Blu-ray discs (and other source devices), but don’t want to explore the confusion of networking and internet features now starting to make an appearance. As such, it comes as a good price, and with a strong focus on its audio performance.

Features This receiver offers support for a full 7.1 channels, with 90 high fidelity watts from each of the seven power amplifiers. The two nominally allocated to surround back functions can be redirected to provide bi-amplification for the front speakers, or to drive speakers in a second zone. The latter is a particularly useful feature for those who don’t want 7.1 sound.

The unit has three HDMI inputs and features full decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, the two high definition audio standards available from Blu-ray. The HDMI inputs also support all video standards, and they simply pass it through, whatever it might be, to your TV. That includes the highest quality 1080p24 from Blu-ray.

SPECIFICATIONS Price: $1,199 Warranty: Two years Contact: Audio Products Group 1300 134 400 www.audioproducts.com.au Power: 7 x 90 watts, 20Hz-20kHz, 8 ohms, 0.06% THD Inputs: 4 x composite video, 3 x S-Video, 3 x component video, 7 x analog stereo audio, 1 x 7.1 analog audio, 2 x optical digital audio, 2 x coaxial digital audio, 3 x HDMI, 1 x calibration microphone Outputs: 2 x composite video, 2 x S-Video, 1 x component video, 2 x analog stereo audio, 1 x subwoofer, 1 x HDMI, 1 x optical digital audio, 1 x analog stereo audio for Zone 2, 1 x 6.5mm headphone Surround standards: Dolby Digital EX, Plus and TrueHD; DTS ES and 96/24; DTS-HD Master Audio and High Resolution; Dolby Pro Logic IIx, DTS Neo:6 Features: Audyssey calibration and processing; decodes new Blu-ray audio formats; Zone 2 capability, video conversion (composite, S-Video & component to HDMI); onscreen display; front panel composite and stereo audio inputs; AV sync adjustment; 1080p24 video pass through Supplied accessories: remote control; calibration microphone Dimensions (WHD): 434 x 171 x 377mm Weight: 11.4kg

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None of the remote control keys would seemed to invoke the onscreen menu. I couldn’t believe that Denon would release a receiver in this price category without an onscreen display.

But there was a menu button on the front panel which brought it up. Excellent. That still left the mystery of the remote control. I checked the manual. It talked of pressing the ‘A. Menu’ key on the ‘Rear’ of the remote control. The penny dropped.

There is indeed a fold out flap on the back of remote. This conceals 36 extra keys, more than are on the front.

Once that hurdle was overcome, the rest was easy. A microphone is supplied for the Audyssey automatic calibration system, so after wiring up the speakers and sources, it was just a matter of plugging in the microphone and letting the receiver’s internal computers do their thing.

The performance of this receiver was both robust and excellent. It was robust in that it worked nicely with two different Blu-ray players, a Playstation 3, a DVD player, two different brands of high definition digital TV receiver, all connected via HDMI (not at the same time of course!) I would not hesitate to use this unit with any and all sources.

It was excellent in that it provided great sound from the two different sets of loudspeakers I used it with. The volume levels were quite strong enough for the medium-sized room I was in. If you have a large room and like your movies really loud, you may want to consider higher sensitivity loudspeakers.

The analog to HDMI video conversion worked well, delivering excellent picture quality. So well, I wouldn’t bother running the extra analogue cables to the display.

Conclusion The Denon AVR-789 home theatre receiver offers excellent performance, a good feature set for home theatre operation and Thomas Bartlett very good value for money.

PROS Good solid performance on home theatre basics Supports new high definition audio standards Good video handling

CONS Oddly organised remote control

RATINGS

Performance Features Ease of use Value for money

GEAR GUIDES FOR DIGTAL LIVES

NOTEBOOK BUYERS GUIDE 73

Taking Note As powerful as they are portable, notebooks are also as different as they are the same. Nathan Taylor explains the varieties on offer, and how to choose the right model for your needs.

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t’s a tricky business, buying a new notebook. Sure, it’s easy enough to decide on a colour you like, and weight and screen size is something that everybody understands.

But what about all those arcane specs? What is the difference between a Core 2 Duo T9300 and AMD Turion RM-80? What effect does adding an extra gigabyte of memory make? Which version of Vista works for me?

We’ve got you covered.

Categories of notebooks Probably the biggest issue you’ll be facing when buying a notebook is the trade-off between portability and screen size.

Quite simply, a notebook can’t be petite and have a big screen at the same time. Some manufacturers such as Apple and Sony have done some wonderful work lightening up their notebooks (often by removing things such as the hard disk and optical drive), but there’s still that fundamental trade-off between screen size and portability.

The basic decision comes down to whether you’re going to be carrying around the notebook a lot or whether it’s going to sit on a desk somewhere most of the time. If the former is the case,

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then a lighter, slimmer notebook is your best bet. If the latter, get something with a big screen.

Notebook manufacturers tend to categorise their notebooks into different segments to suit these different kinds of users.

There are no hard rules about what a different category means, but as a guide, here are some examples: Standard notebook: Not really a category so much as a balance between elements.

A typical mainstream notebook has a screen in the 13–15.4 inch range and weighs between 2kg and 3.5kg.

‘Desktop replacement’: Usually refers to a notebook with a very large screen size (usually 17–18.4 inch), a powerful graphics processor and the fastest processor going. These have all the top specs for a notebook, but frequently weigh 4kg or more, meaning you’re never going to want to have to carry one around.

NOTEBOOK BUYERS GUIDE Subnotebook: Typically a small screen (13 inch or less) and a processor designed for power saving rather than performance.

They tend to weigh less than 2kg.

Ultraportable/mobile internet device/’NetTop’: A new category of notebook, really created when Asus introduced the Eee PC. They’re often very light (1.5kg or less), but have small screens (as little as 4–5 inches, but more commonly 7–10 inches) and power-efficient processors such as Intel’s Atom. The original Eee PC 700, for example, was about the size of a paperback novel.

Tablet: They’re not very common, but if you search hard enough you can find a few around. The signature feature of a tablet PC is a touchscreen that lies flush with the body of the notebook and is always visible, kind of like an extra-large iPod touch. Some tablet PCs don’t have standard keyboards, though some other designs have a screen that can pivot or slide to switch between a regular notebook and tablet PC. Ruggedised: A rare breed of notebook designed to stand the rigors of outdoor life. They tend to be very expensive, but are also likely to be waterproof, dust proof and capable of withstanding a certain amount of jarring.

The NEC SheildPro Toughbook is an example of a ruggedised notebook.

THE GOOD AND LESS GOOD Good

• Light, small, portable • A design and feature-set to suit every needs • Can perform as mobile entertainment centres

Less Good

• All-in-one design not always good for functionality or ergonomics • Can be difficult to upgrade • Not as capable with games as desktop PCs such as web cams, TV output sockets and games. They typically have Windows Vista Home Basic or Home Premium installed.

Understanding The Specs For non-techies, understanding the tech specs is the hardest part of buying a notebook. Sure, we can all make our own decisions when it comes to design, weight and screen size, but very few of us can decode what the difference is between a U7700 and T5800 processor.

To guide you through the different steps, we’ve taken a typical notebook stat block – in this case from a Dell Inspiron 1525. We’ll talk about each of the specs in turn.

Processor The processor is the main workhorse of the notebook. A faster processor means that the notebook will be able to work better.

This one is tough to figure out, however, largely thanks to Intel’s exceedingly confusing naming schema. For example, the Core 2 U7700 is actually slower than the Core 2 T5850 processor.

We’ll try and unpack the differences for you over the page.

Business and consumer notebooks: Manufacturers also build different notebooks for different market segments. There is a difference between a business notebook and a consumer notebook – although sometimes those differences can be quite subtle.

Business notebooks tend to focus on security, and often come with fingerprint scanners, hard drive encryption software and sometimes smart card readers. They’ll usually have Windows Vista Business or Enterprise installed. They rarely have powerful graphics capabilities or consumer features such as web cams.

Consumer notebooks cover the gamut of possibilities, ranging from ultraportables to desktop replacements. They usually don’t have the security features of business notebooks, but often have better graphics capabilities and extra features

What to look for • Fast processor • 1GB memory minimum; 2GB for Windows Vista • High resolution screen, with good brightness • DVD writing ability • Wireless 802.11g minimum

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Understanding Intel processors There are three families of Intel processors that appear in notebooks today.

Core 2 is the fastest of the three (and the most common), and will typically appear in standard and desktop replacement notebooks.

Celeron sits in the middle, and is increasingly rare. It doesn’t have the performance of Core 2, but often uses less power, meaning your notebook has a longer battery life. It will appear in standard and subnotebook designs.

Atom is the slowest of the three, though its high-end models are competitive with the low-end Celerons. It is easily the most power efficient and is often used in NetTop computers like the Asus Eee PC. Within each of those families there is a range of processors available. When it comes to Celeron and Atom, figuring out which is the fastest is easy: the higher the model number, the faster the processor. The Atom Z540 is faster than the Atom Z520, for example.

When it comes to Core 2, however, things get very confusing indeed. A Core 2 model name is typically a letter and four digits.

For example: T5850. In some cases there are two letters.

Each of the characters in the name means something, but the most important thing to remember is that the letter at the beginning is more important than the digits after it. In order of performance, from lowest to highest, the models are Uxxxx, Lxxxx, Pxxxx, Txxxx, Xxxxx and Qxxxx. Thus a ‘T’ model processor is faster than an ‘L’ model processor (though it uses more power).

Also note: if there’s an extra ‘S’ at the beginning of the name (eg. The SP9300) – you can pretty much ignore the ‘S’ – it’s a packaging thing and not something you have to worry about.

Within those families, a higher number generally denotes a faster processor. It gets a little complicated, but most people can just bank on the notion that a higher number is better.

For example, a Core 2 Duo T9300 is faster than a Core 2 Duo T5850. If you want to know how much faster, though, you have to do some research since from here it gets very technical (for those geeky enough to understand, the T9300 runs at 2500MHz and has a 6MB cache; the T5850 runs at 2167MHz and has a 2MB cache.) If you want to do that research, we’d suggest Wikipedia’s List of Intel’s Core 2 Microprocessors as a good guide to the different processor specs. (http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_2_microprocessors) Understanding AMD processors AMD processors are much less common in notebooks than Intel processors, but there are still a few models floating around.

Like Intel, AMD uses an abstract model naming system. Broadly speaking, there are two families of AMD processors you’ll find in notebooks: Turion is roughly equivalent to Intel’s Core 2 processors.

Like Core 2 Duo processors, Turion processors contain two computing ‘cores’. A core is like an independent processor, so a dual-core processor is like two processors in one.

Sempron is slower than Turion and roughly equivalent to Celeron. It only has a single core.

The graphics chip in most notebook is fine for 2D graphics, but 3D games need high performance chips

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NOTEBOOK BUYERS GUIDE Thankfully, AMD uses a relatively linear naming scheme, even across its different families. Really, you can ignore the entire processor model name and just look at the last two digits. A Turion Ultra ZM-86 is faster than a Turion RM-72, for example – and you don’t have to know anything about the difference between ‘ZM’ and ‘RM’ to understand that.

Operating system Typically, you’ll get one of four options when it comes to the OS of the notebook: Windows Vista, Windows XP, Linux and Mac OS. Windows XP and Linux typically appear only as options on ultraportable notebooks such as the Asus Eee PC and Dell Inspiron Mini. These notebooks often don’t have the horsepower to run Windows Vista and so have to run with one of these lighter operating systems.

Though you might be familiar with Windows XP, don’t be too quick to reject Linux – it’s often easier to use, works faster and is much more secure than Windows XP. It is, however, more difficult to install new software on (though typically you get an office suite and a large batch of tools with the Linux notebook).

Mac OS, of course, is available only on Apple laptops. If you prefer Apple, it’s what you’ll get.

Most retail laptops, however, come with one of the flavours of Windows Vista: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and (rarely) Ultimate. Here’s a quick breakdown of the advantages and disadvantages of each: Home Basic is just the core – it doesn’t have Windows Media Center, or some of the applications for creating and managing multimedia.

Home Premium takes Home Basic and adds Media Center and a suite of multimedia tools.

Business/Enterprise is designed for work use, it comes with extra security tools such as a hard drive and data encryption, but it doesn’t have the multimedia tools of Home Basic or Home Premium.

Ultimate provides everything. Both business security tools and multimedia tools, as well as a few extras (at the moment, very few), like a couple of games and the capacity to set a video as your desktop background. It’s very expensive, however.

Memory The amount of memory in the notebook has a huge effect on performance. The more you have, the better – it’s that simple.

There are some baselines you should be aware of, however.

We wouldn’t recommend getting a Windows Vista notebook with anything less than 2GB of memory. Less than that, and you can be sure that Vista will run slow as molasses, no matter how fast the computer’s processor is.

Windows XP and Linux can run happily in 1GB, however.

The amount of memory in the notebook has a huge effect on performance. The more you have, the better – it’s that simple

DESIGN We’ve talked here a lot about the specifications of notebooks, but what about design? As we saw with mobile phones, design is becoming an increasingly important factor in buying decisions, with people wanting something that looks good in addition to working well.

Of course, we can’t really dictate your tastes (as much as we’d like to), so we don’t have a lot of advice on that front, except to say it’s a good idea to wander into a few computer stores every now and then to look for a design you like. Something that looks good in an internet picture may not be so cool in reality.

In particular, some of the designs we’ve been impressed with include: the MacBook Air, with its ultra-thin and light design; the brightly-coloured Dell Studio notebook models; Toshiba’s Qosmio series; and Sony’s Vaio notebooks, especially its ultraportable range.

Hard drive This is where your data and multimedia is stored.

Much as with memory, the more hard drive space, the better – especially if you plan on storing a lot of multimedia on there.

Video chews up hard disk space like nobody’s business, and even photos can quickly fill a 160GB hard disk if you’re the snap-happy type. You should look for a hard disk with at least 160GB capacity, or even 320 or 500GB if you can get them.

It should be noted that a few new notebook models don’t have hard disks at all – the MacBook Air and several Eee PC models, for example. Instead they use a kind of memory called flash memory to store data. Typically, this flash memory has nowhere near the capacity of hard disks, but it does consume much less power (extending the battery life) and is often faster to read from or write to than hard disks.

Also note that if the model of PC you want doesn’t have enough storage space, you can always expand it with an external USB hard disk (pictured). USB hard disks have become

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The Vaio TT series is the smallest and lightest Blu-ray enabled laptop on the market, according to Sony

almost ridiculously cheap in recent times, so notebook hard drive capacity isn’t quite the issue it use to be. You can pick up a portable 160GB USB hard disk for a little over $100 now.

Screen The screen size, as we noted earlier, is one of the first decisions you have to make when buying a notebook. A bigger screen is obviously better, but the trade off is portability.

We’d strongly suggest going to a store and seeing a notebook for yourself before buying. Even if you can’t check out the exact model you’re considering, look for one with a similar screen size.

Then imagine yourself lugging that notebook around with you, or sitting at your desk using it day in day out. This kind of impression is hard to grasp in theory – seeing a notebook in reality helps.

Of course, there’s more to a screen than just size. Screen quality is an issue as well, and again it’s not something that’s easy to judge without a firsthand look. Forget the specs, the marketing terms and the fancy technology names. How does the screen look to you? If you can, you should even try carrying it around to try it out in different lighting conditions. If you plan on sitting outside with your notebook, for example, you’re going to want to know how well it stands up to glare (and you’ll possibly want to buy a glare shield).

Any battery life listed tends to be best-casescenario and not indicative of real-world battery performance 78

Graphics chip Like processors, the graphics chip is very hard for the layman to understand. The basic purpose of the graphics chip is to accelerate 3D graphics, and a good one is essential if you want to play 3D games on the notebook. Thankfully, if all you want to do is web surf and work on your notebook, then you probably don’t have to worry about this spec at all – when it comes to 2D graphics (as in the Windows desktop), most graphics chips are pretty much created equal.

If you do care about 3D gaming, however, there’s a dizzying array of graphics chips available for notebooks and it’s not always easy to know which is good and which won’t cut it. The easiest way for us to help you here is to simply break down the various currently available chips into three categories: basic, mainstream and high performance.

In this example, you can pretty much forget about running 3D games on a basic graphics chip; on mainstream chips you can play the occasional game with moderate settings and high performance chips will be capable of playing the latest games. They’re not going to match up with desktop PC graphics performance, but they might come close.

Basic: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 and earlier (including all models in the 2000’s); Intel Integrated Graphics Media.

Accelerator X3100 and earlier; Nvidia GeForce 9100M, 9200M, 9300M, 8200M, 8M series and GeForce Go 7 Series.

Mainstream: ATI Radeon Mobility Radeon HD 3600 series; Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3500 and X4500; Nvidia GeForce 9400M and 9500M. High performance: ATI Radeon Mobility Radeon HD 3800 series, Nvidia GeForce 9600M, 9700M and 9800M.

optical device This is used for disc playback. Assuming the notebook has an optical device, you’re at least going to want something that

NOTEBOOK BUYERS GUIDE burns discs, so look for a DVD-RW device. Even better (and if you can afford it, since it commands a massive premium right now), try to get hold of a Blu-ray device, which will be able to play back high-definition Blu-ray movies.

Wireless networking Also known as Wi-Fi, this allows you to talk to other devices on your local network (including your internet modem) over the airwaves. To make use of it, you need a wireless access point in your home. Many home modem-routers (that’s the device that connects you to the internet) incorporate a wireless access point.

If your modem doesn’t have wireless capabilities, then you will need to buy a separate access point, or use wired networking.

The variants of Wi-Fi are called by their rather userunfriendly engineering names, such as 802.11g. It’s the last letter of that code that’s important.

Nearly all notebooks come with wireless networking, but the best will come with 802.11n networking, which is several times faster than the more common 802.11g (the easy way to remember this is that ‘n’ is better than ‘g’, which is better than ‘b’). To get the full benefit of wireless ‘n’ (as it’s known) you will also need an access point that supports it. A notebook that has 802.11n networking can still talk to an 802.11g access point, however, but only at ‘g’ speeds.

Note that wireless networking in this context is not the same as wireless broadband – it’s for local area wireless only. You can’t use the wireless networking in your notebook to connect to Telstra or Unwired’s wireless broadband services, for example.

When you sign up for either of these services, the ISP will provide you with a modem that you can plug into your notebook.

Service and support Here’s the simplest piece of advice we have for you in this entire article: if the notebook seller offers an extended warranty, get it. Of course, check the specifics before you do – there are often all sorts of caveats and exceptions and handling fees and rules where notebooks have to be sent to Kazakhstan for repairs that might take four or five months, but if everything seems reasonable, the peace of mind that an extended warranty gives you is well worth the extra money.

Other things to check out are support line opening hours, return policies and whether the support staff will handle software issues or just try and palm you off onto Microsoft (which will then charge you for support).

APPLE We actually haven’t had a lot to say about Apple notebooks up to now, and the truth is there isn’t much to say anymore. With the exception of the operating system, there’s little difference in the specifications between an Apple notebook and other vendors’ notebooks – they use the same processors, graphics chips, memory and everything else as other notebook vendors do.

Apple does have some very cool designs, including some very light and slim notebooks, but other vendors have also come out with neat designs as well. It boils down to this: if you like Mac OS and Apple’s designs, get a Mac. to a modern notebook than that. If you look at the specifications page, you might find a few extra details worth knowing.

Battery life: Once this would have made the front page of any notebook specs sheet, but now a notebook’s rated battery life tends to be buried, if it’s even listed at all. It’s not because battery life has become worse – it hasn’t – but because it’s so hard to measure with any accuracy. Battery life very much depends on how a notebook it used: light web browsing may only require a small amount of power, while watching high def movies may burn through a charge in less than two hours.

Any battery life listed tends to be best-case-scenario and not indicative of real-world battery performance.

Some notebooks will come with different battery options, and which you choose will largely depend on how long you plan to stay unplugged. Battery life tends to scale in a linear fashion: a 60-cell battery will last about 50 percent longer than

Weight As we mentioned at the top of the article, weight is one of the big trade-offs you have to think about when buying a notebook.

A bigger screen and more hard disk space usually means more weight.

Your tolerance for weight will largely depend on how strong you are and how often you’ll be carrying the notebook around.

As a rule of thumb, if you’re going to be carrying the notebook everywhere, you’ll not want something much over 3kg – and you’ll probably want a notebook that’s considerably lighter. One of the ultraportables, which can weigh less than a kilogram and can fit in a handbag might suit you best.

Other factors

Nearly all notebooks come with wireless networking, but the best offer the latest 802.11n standard

Of course, while these are the major specs, there is much more

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The global economic crisis has hammered the Australian dollar recently, and as a result we may soon see an uptick in prices for notebooks

Notebooks that accept PC Cards can be upgraded with HDTV tuners and wireless broadband modems a 40-cell battery. Another option is to buy an extra battery that you can swap out with the original.

Memory card reader: A memory card reader allows you to take the memory card out of your digital camera or mobile phone and put it directly into the PC. In Windows, a new drive letter should appear when you should do so, and you should be able to access any files stored on the memory card as if they were on the notebook’s own hard disk.

Express and PC card slots: Many notebook PCs, especially larger models, have these. ExpressCard and PC Cards are ways of expanding the capabilities of a notebook. PC Cards are

ERGONOMICS One thing far too few people think about when choosing a notebook over a desktop computer is the issue of ergonomics. In short, the ergonomics of notebooks is pretty terrible – the screen is too small and too low and the keyboard is too small. And don’t get us started on the glidepad.

It’s primarily for this reason that we recommend that people who are going to keep their computer situated in one place all the time buy a desktop PC instead. If you’re going to be sitting in front of it for hours every day, then it’s a good idea to get something that won’t do as much damage to your posture or wrist tendons.

If you’ve got your heart set on a notebook, however, we’d strongly suggest buying a desktop monitor and USB mouse and keyboard for when the notebook is at your desk. The desktop monitor should be raised so that the top of the screen is just below your normal eye level.

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roughly credit card-sized expansion cards, while ExpressCards are usually about half that size. They’re typically used for adding things such a TV tuner to the notebook (allowing you to watch TV on the notebook’s screen), wireless networking (if you wanted to upgrade to 802.11n, for example) or as a slot into which you can plug a modem for wireless broadband – you can get a Telstra 3G broadband ExpressCard, for instance.

Camera: A webcam embedded above the screen is a common feature of many consumer notebooks. It allows you to video conference over the internet using Windows Messenger or Skype or other net messaging software. The camera’s resolution isn’t really that important, since any video conferencing you do with the notebook is going to be in relatively low resolution anyway.

Bluetooth: Another common feature in notebooks, Bluetooth allows the notebook to communicate wirelessly with other Bluetooth devices, such as mobile phones, multimedia speakers and wireless headsets. For example, you could potentially use Bluetooth to wirelessly sync your notebook’s calendar with that of your smartphone.

Integrated LAN: A near-universal feature of notebooks, This is for wired networking with an Internet modem and other PCs. You use a copper Ethernet cable to connect the notebook to a switch or router, which is the hub into which all the other devices plug as well.

There are really two possibilities: 100 megabit (Fast) and 1000 megabit (Gigabit) Ethernet. Gigabit Ethernet is ten times faster, but for it to work at those speeds you need a Gigabit Ethernet switch.

A notebook with Gigabit Ethernet can still operate on a regular Fast Ethernet network, however, but only at Fast Ethernet speeds.

TV output: This allows you to plug your notebook into your TV set and effectively use it as a very large monitor. S-Video or composite outputs work with older, non-HD screens. Though newer HD flat TVs often also have these types of inputs, it probably won’t look very good.

An HDMI output on the notebook means you can plug it into you HD flat screen for maximum video quality.

Durability: This one is difficult to assess, and typically stores won’t allow you do any durability testing before you buy (they tend to get a little antsy when you start deliberately dropping their display notebooks to test how rugged they are).

There’s a small category of ‘ruggedised’ notebooks such as the Panasonic ToughBook or NEC SheildPro are designed to be abused, but most notebooks are fairly delicate. The most fragile parts are the screen and the internal hard disk – and notebooks that use flash memory instead of a hard disk obviously eliminate one of these potential points of failure. ■

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TAKING IT WITH YOU Whoever said you can’t take it with you sure wasn’t taking about movies and music. Whether it’s a long-haul flight, daily commute, holiday road trip or just time for chillin’ by the pool or in your bedroom, Nic Tatham’s round-up of gear is sure to keep you personally entertained this summer.

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SHE’LL BE APPLES A few years ago, music on the move (forget about movies) meant the original Walkman. Audiocassettes were the only way to compile your own playlists and, with both sides recorded, you’d have around 100 minutes of lo-fi analog listening. Boy, how times have changed. My 4GB Walkman will hold (at average quality) over 900 songs and play up to 15 hours of video, but this is small fry compared to what some portable devices are capable of storing.

Apple’s largest capacity iPod Classic, for example, boasts specs on par with home PCs from not very long ago. Up to 120GB of memory equates to 30,000 songs, 150 hours of video or 25,000 photos in your hip pocket. Joining it – and heading up Apple’s collection as “the funnest iPod ever” – is the iPod Touch. There’s capacity for 7000 MP3 files and up to 40 hours of video, a wireless web browser, the ability to send and receive emails or find the nearest coffee shop via GPS. You can even download movies, games and TV shows from Apple’s online iTunes and Apps store, and when paired with the Nike + iPod shoes and sports kit, loads of feedback about your run or workout (eg. distance travelled, time taken, calories burned) is transmitted from your sneakers directly to your Touch… and without interruption to your best motivation music.

APPLE IPOD CLASSIC 120GB $339 APPLE IPOD TOUCH from $329 (8GB) APPLE STORE 133 622

NON-IPODS Not long ago the MP3 player was a highly treasured little item, but with prices toppling to just a few dollars for a basic flash player, it’s become kinda disposable. If the kids accidentally swap theirs at school for a bag of chips or hop into the pool forgetting that it’s on, the financial damage needn’t be vast.

Players with larger capacities typically offer better sound performance and build quality, with greater functionality and better screen quality. More memory allows you to download MP3s at higher bitrates – say, 256 and 320 kb/s – delivering sound quality that’s barely distinguishable from CD. Our favourites include the iRiver SPINN and Creative Zen X-Fi multimedia players, with the standout being Sony’s new A Series. Its largest is only 16GB, but with Bluetooth, video support and really decent headphones, they sound the business.

SONY NWZ-A829KB $349 SONY AUSTRALIA 1300 137 669 IRIVER SPINN (8GB) $279 IRIVER AUSTRALASIA (C.R. KENNEDY & CO.) (03) 9823 1555 CREATIVE ZEN X-FI (32GB) $339 CREATIVE AUSTRALIA 1300 788 528

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MP3 DOCKS There’s a lot of variety when it comes to speakers that free the tunes from your portable player or iPod, from small tabletop form factors to models as large as you like. Whichever size, the starting point for choosing any dock is the embedded speakers, and it would be easy to say “just buy the one with the best speakers”, but it’s just not that easy. The thing that will actually determine how good the speaker dock sounds is the quality of what you’re putting in to it (choose 256 and 320 kbps encoding rather than the default 128kbps).

There is also a variety of add-on features that you can opt to buy into, from alarm clock systems to streaming and remote controls. Look, too, for equipment that provides good control of iPod menus, a 3.5mm audio input jack for connecting non-iPod players and portable CD players, compatibility with numerous iPod models and optional battery power.

PHILIPS DC910 $249 PHILIPS AUSTRALIA 1300 363 391 YAMAHA TSX-120, $TBA YAMAHA AUSTRALIA 1300 739 411

ROCK THE DAILY DRIVE If your daily drive isn’t factory fitted with a DVD head-unit and fold-down screens for backseat passengers, portable DVD players can be bought for around $100 from chain stores such as Aldi and Big W. More dollars buys a more robust unit; one likely to withstand the hazards of a nomad life spent in tents, caravans and motel rooms. Better quality models will sport bright, high resolution screens, power saving modes (whereby screen can be dimmed to conserve battery power), long-life rechargeable batteries, higher quality outputs, such as component video and optical audio, for connection to televisions and other equipment, dual headphone sockets and sturdy harnesses for in-cabin mounting.

For music, there is a wide range of affordable accessories that transmit the contents of your portable audio player – songs, audiobooks, podcasts – through your car’s speakers via a specified FM frequency on your car radio. Performance from these devices varies, especially in city areas where the crowded FM band causes interference.

A wired solution is better, and many aftermarket car head-units provide an auxiliary input for connecting portable players and iPods, with transport operations typically provided via the CD controls. A good connection between player and socket is essential here, so don’t be tempted to skimp on cable Many brands now offer dedicated iPod connections on aftermarket CD/ DVD head-units, meaning you can more safely access, view and control the iPod’s menus while driving by using the head-unit rather than the player. DVD head-units with integrated screen will also play video from portable media players.

PIONEER DEH-P7050BT $549 PIONEER ELECTRONICS 1800 060 852 KENSINGTON LIQUIDAUX (IPOD & IPHONE) $100 KENSINGTON COMPUTER PRODUCTS 1300 366 376

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NETBOOKS Portable DVD players are lighter, more affordable and offer longer battery life than a notebook computer with all its multimedia functionality, but for that middle ground between entertainment and computing the Netbook/Netop is the way to go.

These handle all the most common computing applications and connect to the net for emailing, browsing (‘facebooking’ and ‘myspacing’), web conferencing and downloading, but because they typically employ flash memory and a CD/DVD drive they are small and light enough to easily carry around. Screens are often a tad larger than portable DVD players (around 9 inches), making video easy on the eye; headphone sockets – as well as rudimentary speakers – satisfy most audio requirements. To boot, they cost very little compared to conventional notebooks, with most priced below $500.

DELL INSPIRON MINI 9 $599 DELL 1800 812 393 HEWLETT PACKARD HP2133 $899 HEWLETT PACKARD AUSTRALIA 1300 304 889 ASUS EEE PC 900 $599 ASUSTEK COMPUTER (AUSTRALIA) PTY LTD 1300 278 788

GAMES ON THE GO While most mobile phones come preloaded with games, they don’t hold a candle to what can be enjoyed on dedicated portable gamers such as the Playstation Portable (PSP) and Nintendo DS. These offer bright, colour screens with decent dimensions and resolution, superior control interfaces and, between them, several hundred titles covering broad genres, ability levels and age groups. They also offer wireless game play, download play and plenty of add-on accessories to expand play. The latest PSP also includes a microphone for games that utilise headsets and for making cheap phone calls over the internet using Skype.

The DS has typically been the choice of younger gamers, but Brain Training, Crosswords and Soduku are broadening its appeal. The PSP catalogue is skewed towards a more mature gamer.

An unexpected newcomer to this space is the iPhone. Unlike titles for PS3 or DS, many of the games that can be downloaded from the Apps store are free or cost just a couple of dollars. They are made all the more compelling by the iPhone’s large colour screen, accelerometer, real-time 3D graphics, positional audio and multi-touch interface.

SONY PSP 3000 $299 SONY AUSTRALIA 1300 137 669 NINTENDO DS LITE $200 NINTENDO CUSTOMER SERVICE (03) 9730 982 IPHONE 3G $799 APPLE STORE 133 622

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LOSE THE WIRES Wireless technology seems to be everywhere these days and it’s also a great way distribute music.

Studio Acoustics makes a novel ball-shaped speaker (SA92FWS ) that floats in the pool, merrily playing music transmitted from a source up to 50 metres away. It’ll also handle 30 minutes on the bottom if the kids can hold their breath that long. The brand also produces a wireless iPod-docking indoor/outdoor speaker that’ll take a bit of water splash in its stride (SA24WS).

Tivoli Audio made the humble radio cool again and it’s also gone on to develop some nifty wireless radio gear. Its new NetWorks Global Radios play the music stored on your computer wirelessly, anywhere in the house. So if you fancy some tunes in the bedroom, kitchen or wherever, the compact Networks radio will receive and play your music files or Internet radio, either via Ethernet or WiFi.

STUDIO ACOUSTICS SA92FWS $129; SA24WS $299 STUDIO ACOUSTICS (03) 8587 8889 TIVOLI AUDIO NETWORKS INTERNET RADIO $799 AUDIO DYNAMICS (03) 9882 0372

IN YER HEAD It’s fair to say that most MP3 players (not all) come with fairly standard ’phones and one of the easiest ways to improve sound quality is to upgrade them. Klipsch has a few models that will do just this. Its Custom 2 in-ear headphones seal your ears and make effective noise isolators, letting just the music in. They come with five sets of gel ear ‘plugs’ and an inflight adaptor so you needn’t use the rubbish headphones they hand out in economy class.

Headphone stalwart, Sennheiser, makes a prolific range, including true noise-cancellers. One of its best pairs are the PXC450 which are designed to cancel out up to 90 percent of the ambient noise surrounding you, while providing true ‘audiophile’ sound quality. And if you do want to hear what someone’s saying to you when you’re wearing them, a ‘talk-through’ button lets you do just that.

Another much smaller set of earpieces that claim to block out up to 85 percent of external sounds are Audio-Technica’s ATH-ANC3. The brand has been synonymous with microphone and headphone design over the years and these little cancellers make perfect iPod partners.

KLIPSCH CUSTOM 2 $299 POWERMOVE DISTRIBUTION PTY LTD (03) 9464 4999 SENNHEISER PXC450 $800 SYNTEC INTERNATIONAL 1800 648 628 AUDIO-TECHNICA ATH-ANC3 $249 TECHNICAL AUDIO GROUP (02) 9519 0900

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CEDIA CEDIA INSTALLER DIRECTORY

WANT A CUSTOM INSTALL? Make sure you use a CEDIA CERTIFIED PROFESSIONAL and have peace of mind.

CEDIA members specialize in the planning, design, supply, installation and concealment of automated electronic systems for the modern, intelligent home. They can install anything from multi-room audio and home cinema systems to complete home networks and sub-systems which intelligently control lighting, HVAC and even garden areas.

For more information go to www.cedia.com.au

ACT Millennium Audio Visual Unit C, 66 Maryborough St. Fyshwick ACT 2609 02 6162 3330 www.mav.com.au Sound Advice Australia 21 Molonglo Mall Fyshwick ACT 2609 02 6280 8777 www.soundadvice.com.au

NSW Advanced Entertainment Systems Unit 14 12 Cecil Road Hornsby, NSW 2077 02 9477 3377 www.aesonline.com.au Advanced Living 2/29 Mitchell Road Brookvale NSW 2011 02 9939 0188 www.advancedliving.com.au Andrew Parker Custom AV Installations 5 Honeysuckle Place Kellyville, NSW 2155 02 8824 7177 www.andrewparker.com.au Audio Connection 455 - 40Parramatta Road Leichhardt, NSW 2040 02 9518 3000 www.audioconnection.com.au Audio Connection (Caringbah) 381 Port Hacking Road Caringbah NSW 2229 02 9518 3000 www.audioconnection.com.au Audio Connection (Drummoyne) 137 Victoria Road Drummoyne NSW 2047 02 9561 0788 www.audioconnection.com.au Audio Junction 4/74-84 Tudor Street Hamilton, NSW 2303 02 4962 1490 www.audiojunction.com.au

Audio Solutions 1133 Botany Road, Mascot, NSW 2020 02 9317 3330 www.audiosolutions.net.au

E.C.S. Services Pty Ltd 22 Forestwood Cr West Pennant Hills, NSW 2125 02 9871 4061 www.ecss.com.au

Audio Visual & Security Unlimited 5/686 New South Head Road Rose Bay, NSW 2029 02 9371 2052 www.audiovisualunlimited.com.au

EBM Systems PO Box 1865 Hornsby Westfield, NSW 1635 02 9029 9245 www.ebmsystems.com.au

Audio Visual Lifestyle 86 Merewether Street Merewether NSW 2291 02 49 635304 avlifestyle@exemail.com.au

Electronic Enterprises Shop 2, 9 - 11 St Johns Ave Gordon, NSW 2072 02 9880 02111 www.electronicenterprises.com.au

AVD Australia Pty Ltd 55 Atchison Street St Leonards NSW 2065 02 9906 2424 www.avd.com.au

Electronic Environments 1 Lansdowne Parade Oatley, NSW 2223 02 9585 1233 www.electronicenvironments.com.au

Castle Integrated Media 372 B Military Road Cremorne NSW 2090 02 9953 8037 www.castleintegrated.com.au

Eris McCarthy Home Technology PO Box 8099 Tumbi Umbi, NSW 2261 02 4389 1990 www.erismccarthy.com.au

Chase Design 43 Junction Road, Summer Hill, NSW 2130 02 9798 2155 chasedesign@bigpond.com

Harvey Norman Commercial Home Automation Systems 15 - 21 Atkinson Rd Taren Point, NSW 2229 02 9710 4321 www.hncommercial.com.au

CONNEXIONS (NSW) Pty Ltd 19C Grace Ave Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086 02 9453 2766 connexions@cnxns.com.au Custom Home Electronics PO Box 564 Hamilton, NSW 2303 02 4940 0409 jefferson@customhomeelectronics.com.au David Leisk Electronics 25/1 Short Street Chatswood, NSW 2067 02 9882 3733 www.davidleisk.com.au Domayne AV/IT Castle Hill 16 Victoria Avenue Castle Hill NSW 2154 02 9846 8831 mark.borg@au.domayne.com www.domayne.com

Infra Red Entertainment & Automated Interiors Ste. 2, 11 Albany Street St Leonards, NSW 2065 02 9439 6444 www.infrared.com.au Insound Pty Ltd 108 West Street Crows Nest, NSW 2065 02 9954 9122 tex@insound.com.au Instinct Electrical PO Box 557 Dee Why, NSW 2099 02 9938 3188 www.instinctelectrical.com.au Intelligent Control Systems ‘ICS’ 13/3 Apollo Street Warriewood, NSW 2102 02 9999 0766 www.icsonline.net.au

IntelliStream PO Box 4018 Kotara East,NSW 2305 02 4957 8820 www.intellistream.com.au

Smart Home Solutions Unit 21 56 O’Riordan Street Alexandria, NSW 2015 02 9304 4700 www.smarthomes.com.au

JFK Audio Visual PO Box 78 Seaforth, NSW 2092 0414 434 535 www.jfk.com.au

Soundys Electrical and Computers 383 Goonoo Goonoo Road Tamworth, NSW 2340 02 6765 4477 day1@bigpond.net.au

Jory Home Systems Pty Ltd 6 Morrisey Way Rouse Hill, NSW 2155 02 9836 5132 www.joryelectric.com

Sturman Electronics Pty Ltd 443 Crown Street West Wollongong, NSW 2500 02 4226 6690 www.sturmans.com.au

Len Wallis Audio 64 Burns Bay Road Lane Cove, NSW 2066 02 9427 6755 www.lenwallisaudio.com

Sydney HiFi ASV PO Box 150 Mascot, NSW 2020 02 9578 0118 www.sydneyhifi.com.au

Life Style Store Pty Ltd Unit 8 - The Junction, 2 Windsor Road Parramatta, NSW 2150 02 9683 7222 www.lifestylestore.com.au

Sydney Home Cinema Pty Ltd PO Box 6072 Narraweena NSW 2099 0413 397 256 www.sydneyhomecinema.com.au

LovemyTV PO Box 3320 Bangor, NSW 2234 0439 888 113 www.lovemytv.com.au Mac Hi Fi Pty Ltd 17 Flinders Street Wollongong, NSW 2500 02 4227 6767 www.machifi.com.au Matrix Audio Visual Services 22 Palm Street St Ives, NSW 2075 02 9440 0282 bradley@matrixaudiovisual.com.au McLeans Smarter Home Entertainment Cnr Minto & The Entrance Roads Long Jetty, NSW 2261 02 4333 3545 www.mcleans.info Neutral Bay Hi Fi 89 Spofforth Street Mosman, NSW 2088 02 9908 1285 nbhifi@bigpond.net.au New Fidelity Pty Ltd 392 Darling Street Balmain, NSW 2041 02 9818 2333 www.newfidelity.com.au OPOC Solutions Pty Ltd 1 Campbell Avenue Normanhurst NSW 2076 02 9489 0906 www.opoc.com.au Pacific Hi Fi 62 Macquarie Stree Liverpool NSW 2170 02 9600 6655 www.pacifichifi.com.au SKE Communication & Automation Pty Ltd Unit 2, 51 Pacific Highway Bennetts Green NSW 2290 02 494 867 60 www.ske.com.au

The Directors Chair Sydney 1st Floor, 527 Botany Road Alexandria NSW 2015 1300 652 480 www.thedirectorschair.com.au TJA Communications PO Box 300 Seven Hills, NSW 2147 02 9838 4622 www.tjacom.com.au Tomorrows 430 New South Head Road Double Bay NSW 2028 1300 880 840 www.tomorrows.com.au Zeale Group P.O. Box 1196 Albury NSW 2640 02 6041 1484 www.zealegroup.com.au

QLD Audio Dreams Australia 17 Lillypilly Place Mooloolaba, QLD 4557 07 5444 8122 www.audiodreams.com.au Auztech Industries Pty Ltd PO Box 4368 Logenholme DC, QLD 4129 07 3806 3133 www.auztech.com.au AVTEC 12 Buckle Court Sinnamon Park QLD 4073 07 3279 6353 www.avtec.com.au Complete Audio 3 Rose Street Maroochydore, QLD 4558 07 5443 6721 www.completeaudio.com.au

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Custom Install PO Box 1250, Spring Hill, QLD 4004 07 3277 9823 www.custominstall.com.au

Todds Sound & Vision 1 308 New Cleveland Road Tingalpa, QLD 4173 07 3907 7777 www.todds.com.au

Custom Home Theatre PO Box 963 Berwick VIC 3806 03 9796 2617 www.customhometheatre.com.au

Electronic Interiors Brisbane (Formerly Toombul Music) 2 / 180 Northgate Road Northgate, QLD 4013 07 3266 2533 www.einteriors.com.au

The Directors Chair 3 / 49 Jijaws Street Sumner Park QLD 4074 07 3376 7065 www.thedirectorschair.com.au

Encel Stereo - Richmond 84 Bridge Road, Richmond, VIC 3121 03 9428 3761 www.encelstereo com.au

Videopro Level 1 1062 Ann Street Fortitude Valley, QLD 4006 07 3250 0000 www.videopro.com.au

Frankston Hi Fi 450 Nepean Highway Frankston, VIC 3199 03 9781 1111 www.frankstonhifi.com.au

Visiontronics PO Box 11, Landsborough, QLD 4550 0412 314 466 www.visiontronics.com.au

howdoi.com pty ltd 6a / 4 Rocklea Drive Port Melbourne, VIC 3207 03 9646 9116 www.howdoi.com.au

Visual Focus 16 Clifford Street Toowoomba QLD 4350 617 4632 0402 www.visualfocus.com.au

IBS Audio Visual Pty Ltd 43 Dalgety Street Oakleigh VIC 3166 03 9568 2800 www.ibsav.com.au

SA

Integrated Technologies Australia PO Box 570, Kilsyth, VIC 3137 03 9761 8700 www.integratedtechnologiesaustralia.com.au

Fi Audio Video 3/3 Gibson Road Noosaville, QLD 4566 07 5455 6300 www.fiaudiovideo.com.au Harvey Norman Home Automation PO Box 5935 GCMC Bundall, QLD 4217 07 5584 3128 steve.cavalier@au.harveynorman.com HomeTech Systems Pty Ltd PO Box 979 Nerang QLD 4211 07 5502 0760 info@hometechsystems.com.au Home Theatrix - Bundall 56 Ashmore Road, Bundall, QLD 4127 07 5531 7244 www.hometheatrix.com.au Home Theatrix - Murarrie Unit 11 Nautilus Business Park 210 Queensport Rd Murarrie, QLD 4172 1 300 555 270 www.hometheatrix.com.au Hoopers Sound Centre Shed 11 Durietz Court Gympie, QLD 4570 07 5482 3409 www.hooperssound.com.au In Sight & Sound Pty Ltd 125 Shamley Heath Road Kureelpa, QLD 4560 07 5445 7799 www.in-sight.com.au Skehan Antenna’s Pty Ltd 14 Goombungee Rd Kingstaorpe, QLD 4400 07 4630 0447 mjskehan@bigpond.com.au Star Home Theatre 9 Bonavista Avenue Doonan QLD 4562 07 5471 1194 www.starhometheatre.com.au Stereo Supplies Gold Coast Mail Centre PO Box 6817, Gold Coast QLD 9726 07 5531 7955 www.stereosupplies.com.au Stereo World Pty Ltd 139 Sheridan Street Cairns, QLD 4870 07 4051 1725 www.stereoworld.com.au

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Harvey Norman Mile End PO Box 288 Torrensville, SA 5031 08 8150 8000 www.harveynorman.com.au Sound & Vision Studio 237 Greenhill Road Dulwich, SA 5065 08 8364 4000 www.sv-studio.com.au

Interior Sound and Vision PO Box 1093, Niddrie, VIC 3042 03 9336 7643 www.isvinfo.com.au

TAS

Inteverge Pty Ltd PO Box 2501, Kew, VIC 3101 0409 178 076 www.inteverge.com

Soundtech Integrated Systems 262 York Street Launceston TAS 7250 03 6331 9900 www.soundsmart.biz

Livingstone Audio Pty Ltd 3 Lawrence Street Blackburn South, VIC 3130 03 9878 4800 www.livingstoneaudio.com.au

VIC

Smart Systems Pty Ltd 0Church Street, Hawthorn, VIC 3122 03 9818 8006 www.smartsystems.com.au

Advanced Lifestyle Solutions Pty Ltd PO Box 360, Niddrie, VIC 3042 03 8307 5618 www.advancedlifestylesolutions.com.au Audio Trends 10 Argent Place Ringwood Vic 3135 03 9874 8233 www.audiotrends.com.au Cableman Pty Ltd Level 1/1227 Glen Huntly Road Glen Huntly, VIC 3163 03 9572 8900 www.cableman.com.au Carlton Audio Visual 164 - 172 Lygon St, Carlton, VIC 3053 03 9639 2737 www.carltonaudiovisual.com.au

Steve Bennett Hi Fi 174 Ryrie Street, Geelong, VIC 3220 03 5221 6011 www.sbhifi.com.au Tasman AV Pty Ltd 6 Hood St, Collingwood, VIC 3066 03 9416 2255 www.tasmanav.com.au

WA AVARNTI 1/ 325 Harborne St Osborne Park, WA 6017 08 9443 1288 www.avarnti.com Digital Interiors 319 Hay Street Subiaco, WA 6008 0417 921 223 www.digitalinteriors.com.au Douglas Hi Fi Enterprises Pty Ltd 401 Murray Street Perth, WA 6000 08 9322 3466 www.douglashifi.com.au Electronic Interiors WA 125 Burswood Road Burswood, WA 6100 08 9472 4800 www.einteriors.com.au Frank Prowse Hi-Fi 6-14 Glyde Street Mosman Park, WA 6012 08 9384 1362 www.frankprowsehifi.com.au Hillstone Communications PO Box 599 Kalamunda, WA 6926 08 9293 3621 hillstone@westnet.com.au Home Cinema Systems 2 / 18 Port Kembla Drive Bibra Lake WA 6163 08 9434 5556 www.homecinemasystems.com.au Innovative Home Systems 7/3 King Edwards Rd Osborne Park WA 6017 08 9242 8983 www.innovativehomesystem.com.au Intelligent Home Automated Solutions 25 Wittenoom Street East Perth, WA 6004 08 9325 7775 www.intelligenthome.com.au Light Application Pty Ltd 78 Erindale Road Balcatta WA 6021 08 9240 6644 www.lightapplication.com.au Northam Home Cinema 5 Oliver Street Northam, WA 6401 08 9622 5198 bevanautopro@westnet.com.au Surround Sounds Unit 3, 83-85 Stirling Highway Nedlands, WA 6009 08 9389 6900 www.surroundsounds.com.au Starship Industries PO Box 30 Claremont WA 6010 0428 912 099 starship@global.net.au

Ultimation 488 Scarborough Beach Rd Osborne Park WA 6017 1 300 880 544 www.ultimation.com.au Vince Ross Audio World 162 Stirling Highway Nedlands, WA 6009 08 9386 8144 www.vinceross.com.au

NZ ALETRO Ltd PO Box 9680 Newmarket, Auckland +64 9 307 1238 www.aletro.com Automation Associates PO Box 109722 Newmarket - Auckland +64 9 377 3778 www.aa.net.nz Liquid Automation P.O. Box 300753 Albany Auckland 632 +64 9 444 2440 www.liquidautomation.co.nz Smartline 37 Cracroft Street, Waitara, Fitzroy New Plymouth 64 6 754 6771 www.homenet.net.nz Sound Advice First PO Box 12-145 Christchurch 8002 +64 3 379 9416 www.soundadvicefirst.com Soundline Audio Ltd Box 2650, Christchurch 8002 +64 3 379 5695 www.soundline.co.nz Soundline Audio Ltd Capital Gateway Centre, 56 Thorndon Quay Wellington +64 4 471 0542 www.soundline.co.nz The Listening Post 657 Victoria Street Hamilton +64 7 839 0135 www.listening.co.nz Strawberry Sound 90 Falsgrove Street Christchurch +64 3 379 8477 www.strawberrysound.co.nz Strawberry Sound 21 Bath Street Dunedin +64 3 477 7742 www.strawberrysound.co.nz

The GadgetGuy™ presents great gear and top tech for your digital life

GEAR LOG

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

NOKIA N96

Neat handful

The release of Nokia’s much anticipated N96 would make any member of the family a very happy mobile phone user this Chrimbo. It’s the company’s answer to Apple’s massively successful iPhone and in an effort of one-upmanship, does pack a few extra punches compared to the Apple.

Apart from making and receiving phone calls, the N96 is a ‘convergence’ of technologies, including a 5 megapixel camera, GPS receiver with turn-by-turn navigation using Navteq maps, up to 24GB of memory, and Nokia’s N-Gage gaming access preloaded. All of which is viewable via its 7cm screen.

The N96 isn’t so much of a phone, but a total mobile experience that takes video and camera capabilities, music playing, navigation and internet connectivity to a whole new level. You can download video content, shoot it yourself or share it among friends. Just make sure you’re not driving when doing so.

PRICE $1349 Nokia Australia PH 1300 366 733 WEB www.nokia.com.au

SONY ALPHA900

Great shakes

Got the shakes after a bit too much festive indulgence? Fear not, with its world’s first for a D-SLR ‘Steady Shot Inside’ anti-shake system, Sony’s new α900 compensates for the wobbliest of hangover amateur shooters. It’s got what counts in the spec department too, with what Sony claims is the highest resolution in its class – some 24.6 megapixels available on a 35mm full frame size CMOS sensor.

Working to make the most of all those pixels, the α900 employs not one, but twin ‘Bionz’ image processing engines which rapidly handle the image data when shooting at speeds of up to five frames a second.

Together with the image sensor, colours are said to be natural with rich tones, while there’s excellent image resolution with minimal noise.

Designed to take ‘serious’ pictures rather than simply ‘point and shoot’, budding Ken Duncans will no doubt appreciate the α900’s 100 percent coverage viewfinder, built-in eyepiece shutter, and 7.6cm extra fine LCD for on-the spot viewing.

PRICE $4499 (body only) Sony Australia PH 1300 720 071 WEB www.sony.com.au

UNIDEN TRAX 436

Making Trax

Uniden’s Trax 436 includes everything you’d want in a GPS, including the latest 2009 Whereis Maps with preloaded Australia and New Zealand maps, Bluetooth hands-free for making phone calls safely while driving, Text To Speech (TTS) and safety camera information. TTS gives precise spoken directions, describing ‘Turn right in 100 metres’ as ‘Turn right in 100 metres onto Smith Street’, for example, while information on upcoming fixed speed and red light cameras helps keep you safe on the road and avoid traffic infringement fines. To boot, the Trax 436 also provides information on road elevations, including overhead bridges, while driving, plus the ability to view more than 100 key Australian landmarks in 3-D, such as the Sydney Opera House, Sydney QVB and Melbourne MCG. Completing the elite GPS package is built-in lane guidance and TMC (Traffic Management Control), which allows subscribers to the service to receive live traffic updates.

PRICE $450 Uniden Australia

WEB www.uniden.com.au

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SAMSUNG HMX20C

Quick shot

Apart from a Turkey (if you’re going traditional), plenty of grog and a trip down to the beach, no Christmas should be without a camcorder to record the festivities.

Samsung’s palm-sized HMX20C will capture all the fun and frolics in full HD at 1920 x 1080 resolution. That’s as good as it gets.

So that you don’t miss any of the action, the ‘Quick Start’ feature captures video at a rapid 250 frames per second, while 8GB of onboard flash memory enables shooting four times faster than your DVD-recording variety camcorder. Happy snappers can use the 10x optical zoom lens to capture 4 megapixel still images, plus there’s all manner of connections, including HDMI, to hook it up to the TV and AV system, allowing you to sit back at the end of Christmas day and do it all again in crisp, lovely full high definition.

PRICE $1299 Samsung Electronics Australia PH 1300 369 600 WEB www.samsung.com.au

GIZMOSIS INFILL G4

Mobile computing

Remember the days when your incar head-unit used to chew your tapes and pick up scratchy-sounding radio stations? Thankfully, those days are long gone and we’ve now got bits of dash-mounted gear like the Gizmosis InFill G4. This is an ‘incar computer’ and one that would have made KIT from Knight Rider jealous, packing a 120GB hard disk drive and 1GB of RAM memory. It also runs a full version of Windows XP, has a 15cm touchscreen, or for driving safety’s sake, can be voice activated.

There isn’t much else it won’t do either: USB broadband connects you to the ‘net and will send/receive emails; it’s a GPS receiver; has Bluetooth connectivity for your mobile phone, and also supports wireless WiFi so you can cruise the streets looking for ‘hotspots’ or transfer files from your automobile to your wireless network at home.

Unfortunately, unlike KIT, it won’t drive your car for you. Not yet, anyway.

PRICE $4250 (excluding installation) Gizmosis PH 1300 449 667 WEB www.gizmosis.com.au

SAMSUNG OMNIA

Omni-talented

Gone are the days when your mobile phone was just that. Samsung’s new Omnia Smartphone puts the world at your fingertips with its intuitive high resolution touchsensitive screen and complete suite of multimedia functions.

This mobile is all about touchy-feely convenience for communications and entertainment on the move, with Samsung’s patented TouchWiz UI interface and advanced widget technology. It’s a phone; it’s a 5 megapixel camera; there’s Bluetooth and MultiCodec support; plus the Omnia’s 32GB of memory means there’s room enough to store and play up to 8000 MP3s, 23 DVD-quality movies or view up to 12,000 high resolution images.

If that’s not enough palm-held technology for you, then how’s about a fast 7.2Mbps HSDPA internet connection with full Windows Professional 6.1 and Microsoft Office usage? All of this in a device whose platinum-plated case is just 12.5mm thin – perfect to slip into any Xmas stocking.

PRICE $79 monthly cap plan through Vodaphone/Hutchison Samsung Electronics Australia PH 1300 369 600 WEB www.samsung.com.au

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NAVIGATE IN

3D

Navigating with Uniden is so easy with Spoken Street Names (Text to Speech) now on all navigation systems.

Experience driving from A to B with Uniden’s 360° 3D Landmarks and 3D Terrain software, to make navigating so much more realistic. Plus enjoy: • The latest Whereis mapping data • Speed and red light camera warnings • Over speed alert Discover a new dimension for in-car navigation. Visit Uniden on www.uniden.com.au for full range details or call 1300 366 895 today.

ULTIMATE AV

LAPS IN Lexus’ quarter-million dollar statement about the environment is worth listening to, writes Nathan Taylor

A

s one of the world’s leading manufacturers of luxury vehicles, Lexus knows a little something about going over the top. As you move further and further up its car line, the touches of luxury become a freak show of “because-we-can” excess.

At the top of the Lexus line, as the LS 600hL is, you have a host of incredible features: refrigerated cooler boxes, illuminated vanity mirrors, telescopic steering wheels, heated seats, electronic seat adjustment with memory of different passenger preferences, per-passenger climate controls, clean air filters, the most advanced GPS navigation systems, glare-resistant TFT instrumentation, hand-stitched leather, a power-operated

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ottoman (we kid you not) and mechanical seat massager in the rear seats, automatic sunshades and more. And those are just the elements that make this V8 hybrid more comfortable. The list of safety and performance features is even longer.

Cabin class Which brings us to the AV system in the 600hL. Designed by audio guru Mark Levinson, the sound system in the 600hL comprises no less that 19 separate speakers driven by an amplifier that outputs 450 watts at less than 0.1 percent THD (total harmonic distortion). Combined with the silent-running and well-insulated hybrid, these features are designed to provide the ultimate incar acoustic experience.

LEXUS L600hL

LUXURY The speakers are situated around the car to provide a surround sound experience to everybody in the car, not just the guys sitting in the front seats. There are eight source points around the car for sound: the front and rear centre consoles; the left and right front doors; the left and right rear doors; and another pair located on the left and right sides of the car, behind the rear passengers.

Each of the side audio source points comprises two or three speakers. A 25mm titanium dome tweeter and a 10cm metal cone midrange speaker is present at all six points, while the front and rear doors incorporate 15cm, 16.5cm or 23cm metal cone woofers. The front centre console, meanwhile, contains the same tweeter and midrange speaker combo as the side doors, while the rear parcel hosts a massive 25cm subwoofer driven by a 100 watt bridged amplifier channel.

Source with that Of course, it’s not just the number, power and symmetry of the speakers that make this an impressive piece of technology.

There’s the MLS Audio Software that creates phantom ‘centres’ for each passenger, so that every person in the car feels like they’re in the audio sweet spot. There’s also the six-disc changer that supports 5.1-channel DTS and Dolby Digital. There are audio controls on the steering wheel and in the rear seats. It can play back MP3- and WMA-encoded CD and DVD discs and also has an auxiliary input for portable music players.

It can also play DVD movies. Each of the rear seats has a drop-down 23cm LCD screen for movie viewing, while the main electronics console in the front seat, which is a GPS and powerregulation system when the car is running, will also play movies when the car is stopped. With all these features, you may never want to leave your car again. ■

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EARS & EYES & THUMBS

HIGH DEFINTION MOVIES Iron Man Rated M Distributor Paramount Bringing personality and a sense of real enjoyment to the ‘superhero’ genre, Robert Downey Jr plays this role with his trademark charm and style but, better yet for superhero movie fans, makes it look like a whole lot of fun. We’re become used to watching angst-ridden heroes moping around trying to hide their powers but here, building what has to be the coolest mechanical suit in the known universe, Iron Man revels in the power and the

glory, screaming around causing mayhem and battling his (disappointing) nemesis with obvious relish. Good on him!

Out simultaneously on Blu-ray and DVD, there are four flavours available – a single-disc regular DVD version, an ‘ultimate’ edition on both DVD and Blu-ray and a limited ‘collectors’ edition’ on DVD. We’d go for the ultimate edition if you’re looking for a gift to make someone’s Christmas day!

Incredible Hulk Rated M

Not as immediately successful as Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk gets off to the same slow start as the last Hulk movie did, agonising in an inexplicably self-indulgent manner over the setup and taking an age to deliver on the action that brought everyone to the movie theatre in the first place. Norton is a suitably troubled white-coated nerd who just wants it all to go away and Liv Tyler is your typical ‘supermodel in dowdy disguise’ love interest but it’s really Tim Roth’s time to shine in this outing. Cast

Distributor Paramount

as ‘The Abomination’ in an eerie revisit of the Iron Man premise where the arch-enemy turns out to be a similarlyequipped but much bigger version of our superhero, Roth plays the Englishman-villain-in-Hollywood in an entertaining and suitably excessive manner. But this is another one of those superhero movies where the protagonist is constantly, and tediously, intent on finding a way to ditch what made him super and be left alone “to live a normal life”. How dull.

Sleeping Beauty 50th anniversary edition Rated G Distributor Disney

Christmas just isn’t the same without a touch of Disney, so for fans of the oldies but goodies, grab the special ‘50th anniversary edition’ of Sleeping Beauty and settle down with all your girly friends for a bit of cartoon romance. Just don’t necessarily expect the younger female members of the family to share the joy, because Sleeping Beauty really is a very old-fashioned fairy tale and not immediately

Hancock Rated M

compelling to the really young, taking a very considerable time to get up to speed. To be fair, for a film made in 1959, it holds up fairly well, but the much-vaunted ‘digital restoration’ to the picture really can’t compete with today’s pristine cartoon productions, and the brand new Tinker Bell movie could be a much better choice for any youngsters in your home.

Distributor Sony

Just like buses, you wait for what seems like ages, then two come along together. Along with Iron Man, Hancock delivers a refreshingly differentiated superhero movie, but this time with the central conceit that the superhero in question is a drunken bum, more interested in dealing with his own personal demons than tackling the problems facing complete strangers. As such, it gets off to a rollicking start

with Will Smith in the titular role causing more problems than he solves as he intervenes in classic Superman-style saviour scenarios, trashing the joint until a friendly PR guy turns up and offers to help. Criticised for an unexpected change of pace and direction half way through, we actually found this both appropriate and exciting, making perfect sense for the denouement of the film as a whole. dull.

GREAT GIFTS FOR CHRISTMAS Actor Packs Rated Various (most MA 15+) Sony

Liven up the turkey-and-trimmings hangovers and get your Dad dancing on the ceiling with one of Sony’s new ‘Actor Packs’, releasing in time for Christmas. A collection of movies starring the one macho actor, the pleasingly-simply-named ‘Actor Packs’ feature the likes of Charles Bronson and Steven Segal in all their hard-hitting, manly glory. The packs include several discs and movies each – the Segal one has four, the Heath Ledger three, for instance — and represent pretty decent value for money, chiming in at only $24.95 for each collection.

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Animation Sensation Bond, James Bond, on Blu-ray Rated Various MGM/ Fox Gift Pack Rated PG Sony Six classic Bond movies make the leap to high-resolution If, like us, you think some of the very best movies these days are animated ones, the new ‘Animation Sensation Gift Pack’ release from Sony is going to make the perfect holiday present to yourself. Bringing the delights of Open Season, Surf’s Up and the excellent Monster House together in a single box, this movie collector’s pack is available now for just under $30.

Blu-ray disc this Christmas, their arrival impeccably and not at all cynically timed to coincide with the premiere of the shiny new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. Seriously, though, Bond collectors are going to be stoked to see fully-restored and remastered versions of Dr. No, Die Another Day, Live and Let Die, For Your Eyes Only, From Russia with Love and Thunderball to enjoy now on Blu-ray, whetting their appetites for Daniel Craig’s next adventuresome (new word!) outing on the 22nd Bond mission to save the world.

GAMES Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise Microsoft Platform Xbox 360 It’s a game about gardening, really, and attracting cute little animals to it, but don’t let that put you off. In fact, let it put you on, because Viva Piñata has immediate attraction as well as hidden depth. For Xbox 360 owners looking for a family-friendly game to play over the holidays, you can’t do better than this – there’s a new co-op function that gives really young players a way into the game, as they take turns with older siblings or parents and learn the ropes, plus a ‘Just for Fun’ mode that dispenses with all the management stuff and just lets you get on with enjoying the cutesy visitors. It’s bigger and better than the last game, with 32 new animals available, and a little quicker to get some of the more elusive animals on your roster and into your garden. Charming, sociable, challenging, and a whole lot better than watching It’s a Wonderful Life for the twentieth time.

LittleBigPlanet Sony Platform PS3

It’s been a really long time since Sony had any exclusive games releases to crow about (that is, a game that’s not on any of the other videogame consoles) but LittleBigPlanet has arrived, at last, and it’s brilliant. If you’re a Playstation 3 owner, you need to stop reading this right now and rush out and get this game, because it’ll make your day.

An ‘old-school’ game as far as the platforming ‘run and jump’ controls go – and ‘new-school’ in the way it lays itself wide open to manipulation and experimentation by gamers themselves – the power is now in your hands to create levels to entertain yourselves and your friends. Buy this for your kids for Christmas and you might be starting them down the road to becoming artists, designers, builders or engineers! If the PS3 has a game that makes it worth buying the system just to play it, this is it.

Pure Disney Interactive Platform Xbox360

This might seem a weird name for a frantic racing game based around quad bikes – or ATVs as they’re more officially known, apparently – but it very accurately describes what’s on offer here. Concentrating purely on making a breakneck racing experience that’ll have you holding your breath to make a really tight turn or as you hurtle over a precipice and fall for what seems like an age, Pure delivers big on excitement. It also ships with an excellent online game mode that is entirely lag free, so this is the perfect pickup if you’re planning to spend a bit of your Christmas holiday challenging your console-owning friends. And anyone sitting on the couch next to you will be equally impressed because this Disney game looks incredible.

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway Ubisoft Platform Xbox 360 Trying to introduce deeper story and tactical elements than usually seen in the World War II shooter genre, the new Brothers in Arms game from Ubisoft just ends up being a bit dull. Nowhere near as visceral and dread-inducing as the much older Full Spectrum Warrior and slower than the incredible Gears of War, this title has squeezed out into the shops ahead of the sequel to that last competitor and that might help quite a bit. If you’re looking to treat yourself while you’re out getting gifts for the kids and the more thoughtful, strategyheavy videogame is your style, it’s probably worth taking a look at this. If you like your shooter action fast and furious, however, steer clear.

It’s no longer news to remark on the burgeoning importance of videogames in the entertainment ‘space’, as seminal titles such as Halo and Grand Theft Auto pull in first-day sales figures that make most Hollywood movie productions look positive anaemic, but less immediately apparent is the acting talent these massive game releases can attract. Colin McRae, John Madden, Clive Barker and Tony Hawk have all lent their name to games that, in some cases, probably made them more widely recognised than what they originally did to become famous.

This is certainly true of Madden, who most gamers outside the US probably wouldn’t even know used to be a very successful NFL coach. But a much larger growth area is in ‘voiceover’ work – or VO – where established thespians lend their vocal talents to make a game more appealing.

Voicing your own likeness in a game is an obvious thing to do (think Tiger Woods in his eponymous golf games), but many actors have long been making extra dough by bringing characters to life that don’t have anything to do with their movie star personas. And it’s been going on a long time – Mark Hamill, famous for playing Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, of course, has been one of the most successful, ‘playing’ videogame characters for over 15 years, including the Joker in the animated series of Batman and a space-faring game called Wing Commander. This Christmas alone, you’ll be hearing and seeing the likes of Jonathan Pryce, Jamie Pressly, Mark A Sheppard, JK Simmons, and Maggie Q as they appear in blockbuster titles on your videogame console of choice.

And now Australia’s own multi-ARIA winning Gabriella Cilmi is the latest star to be drawn to the lucrative videogame trade, re-recording her song ‘Sweet About Me’ in Simlish, the pretend language created for the hugely popular The Sims game. If reports are to be believed, she even says she prefers the Simlish version of the song’s chorus!

Gabriella Cilmi’s ‘Simlish’ recording: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=E2hQf09VQHg

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TIME WARP

Eye Candy

“T

he MIRACLE of the Age!!! A LION in your lap! A LOVER in your arms!” shouted the cinema poster for Bwana Devil.

While it wasn’t such a hit with the critics, this 1952 United Artists film raked in the moviegoers. Why? It marked the beginning of something special – the age of threedimensional cinema. As the film was about a pair of rogue lions that terrorised the construction of the Uganda Railway, the directors had a chance to use something extra special to make the lions literally leap from screen and onto the laps of startled moviegoers. They found this in a technique called ‘Natural Vision 3-D’. Essentially, this consisted of filming and superimposing two slightly offset images that required the use of special glasses (with a red and a green lens), to trick viewers’ brains into seeing a single 3-D version. Bwana Devil was a big success and sparked a boom in 3-D cinema.

Natural Vision 3-D was introduced because, at the time, box office attendance was in serious trouble – by 1950 it had plummeted by nearly half of what it was two years before. And the reason? The introduction of television.

Natural Vision wasn’t the only eye candy being used to lure audiences away from their living rooms. Other cinema sweeteners included Cinerama, which was a huge ‘IMAX-style’ widescreen experience consisting of a gigantic 146 degree curved (and louvered) screen, three synchronised projectors and seven-channel discrete audio. Although stunning, Cinerama was doomed because it needed costly equipment and large custombuilt theatres.

Also released in the early-’50s was CinemaScope. Like Cinerama, this featured a widescreen experience about twice the width of conventional cinemas. However, CinemaScope used anamorphic lenses that enabled a widescreen image to be filmed by a single camera and presented by a single projector (CinemaScope’s anamorphic aspect ratio of 2.35:1 is still used by the movie industry today.) CinemaScope also used a less expensive rectangular flat screen, rather than a curved one.

It seems that we’ve come full circle since the ‘realism’ boom back in the 1950s. Today’s technologies are poised to bring the

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3-D experience back to the living room. This year, Samsung launched its ‘3D-ready’ PAVV Cannes 42 and 50 inch plasma TVs. Apart from regular content, viewers are able to watch movies and play games in 3-D, with the addition of special 3-D glasses. At the moment, the 3-D content needs to be fed to the TV by special software running on a computer but Samsung has partnered with Electronic Arts to produce future 3-D games, and is in talks with movie studios about 3-D movies.

What’s really exciting about 3-D home entertainment is that engineers are moving ever closer to the Holy Grail – holographic TV. Imagine watching a sporting event on your huge wall screen, and suddenly the action spreads out from the screen and into your living room where you can watch the action at any angle, without wearing 3-D glasses.

An incredible amount of detail is needed to depict a moving hologram, and this had, until recently, prevented the technology from progressing beyond a static image. Recent breakthroughs at the University of Arizona’s Optical Sciences Department, however, have seen the development of a rewritable and updateable holographic system.

Essentially the system works like this: the hologram of a 3-D image is recorded in a special high-tech polymer with a sheet of laser light and a ‘writing device’ called a spatial light modulator.

A weak laser is focused on a TV screen made of the same polymer. Waves of light reflected by the screen create a sort of ‘signature’ of the original image. This guides the laser to build up a hologram, which is projected out from the polymer TV screen, similar to the way Princess Leia was projected from R2-D2 in Star Wars. The computer then quickly updates the polymer screen’s image to create the impression of motion, without the need for special glasses. Researchers are now working on a three-colour version that can create a holographic image about the size of a computer screen. Çommercial holographic TV is probably ten years away, though some scientists believe that it may be ready in as early as five. At the very least, this allows movie studios time to prepare a new lure for attracting audiences away from the holograms in Valens Quinn their living rooms, and back to the cinema.

Regza XV Series LCD TV

From intensive care to intensive joy How about that Anna Meares? From a broken neck in January to an Olympic silver medal around her neck in August. As intensely proud sponsors of Anna we suggest you watch her amazing ongoing journey on a Toshiba 1080p Full HD TV featuring Exact Scan Mode for intensive detail.

Like us you’ll be yelling ‘Go Anna!’, and what could be more Aussie than that?

For more details visit www.toshiba.com.au/TV