Toshiba’s U.S. subsidiary is recalling 142,000 AC adapters sold with the company’s portable DVD players, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced Tuesday. The adapters can fail, causing the portable DVD player to overheat and posing a burn hazard to consumers.
TrustedReviews has reviewed the Sony Bravia VPL-VW200 SXRD, which is the company’s latest home theater projector. It features 1080p full HD 24p true cinema resolution courtesy of a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens. The device has a contrast ratio of 35,000 x 1, a brightness level of 800 lumens, 2.5ms of response time, and a 100MHz of frame rate. Priced at 17,300 (£8,500), the VPL-VW200 only provides two HDMI 1.3 ports. this projector. Here is a verdict.
Gateway recently introduced the Gateway 30-inch LCD monitor (XHD3000), the world’s first “Quad HD” display, delivering more than four times the resolution of standard 720p high definition, claimed the company. The new monitor is ideal for the high-end gaming market, music and video production and editing, graphic and 3D design as well as offices running demanding media applications, said Gateway. The company is offering the new model at US$1,699.99.The 30-inch monitor features a resolution of 2560×1600 and uses the Silicon Optix Realta HQV video processor. In addition, the new model’s range of inputs include HDMI, single-link/dual-link DVI-D, VGA, component, s-video and composite interfaces.
LG has recently introduced its new “Chocolate” home theater in the Korean market. Known as the HT972TR, the home theater system features an integrated CD/DVD player and offers a total power of 1000W. The system has 5 speakers with 155W and a subwoofer with 255 Watts. The touchscreen buttons on the front of these speakers are inspired by the navigation buttons on the LG Chocolate cellphone. In addition, the HT972TR plays MP3 and WMA audio files, JPEG images and DivX videos (DVD±RW, DVD±R, DVD), CD-R and CD-RW. This home theater also adopts the VSM technology (Virtual Sound Matrix/three-dimensional sound) that extends the original 5.1 to emulate a 10.1 channel configuration.
It’s official. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has just announced a new 40GB PS3 which will launch in Europe for the price of €399. It will be available starting October 10th. As predicted, the new model features two USB 2.0 ports rather than four and no longer includes the multi memory card port. Strangely, the model also loses backwards compatibility support for PS2 games.
On the very same day that the president of Matsushita Electric, the parent company of Panasonic, proclaimed at the CEATEC electronics show in Chiba that the format war for high-definition recorders was already over in Japan and customers there had already overwhelmingly chosen Blu-ray, Toshiba showed a prototype of an HD DVD recorder capable of burning up to two hours of 4 Mbps MPEG-4 high-definition video. That video is apparently being burned using a red laser — not blue — to an ordinary DVD-R, DVD-RW, or DVD-RAM disc.
Nintendo announced today the Wii Remote Jacket that will be given to all system owners completely free of charge. The Wii Remote Jacket is a silicon cover made specifically to fit the Wii Remote and “provides cushioning for the Wii Remote for people who might accidentally throw or drop their Wii Remotes while playing games.”
Sharp has developed a new 8-inch LCD panel for in-vehicle applications that achieves a contrast ratio of 2,500:1, the industry’s highest, the company claimed.
Until now, the market for LCDs for in-vehicle applications has been expanding centered mainly on rear-seat entertainment (RSE) systems to watch television, DVDs, etc., in the back seat, and car navigation systems. Recently, the trend to incorporate LCDs into the instrument panel has also been accelerating. In this light, Sharp has successfully developed an LCD, the company said.
Sony’s new HD projector boasts 1920 x 1080 resolution and claims to give you less blur and more movie-ness. Full specs after the jump.
Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 1.8 time zoom lens
0.61 Type SXRD (Silicon X-tal Reflective Display), approximately 6,220,000 pixel (2,073,600 pixel ×3)
800 lumina brightness
35,000 contrast ratio
24p signal
HDMI input
Analog RGB and PC connection
One-touch play
New ImageDirector 3.0 software
Metallic blue
RC controls performance, contrast, brightness and sharpness
Fan noise of 22dB
$900 bulb
The VPL-VW200 hits Japan in November, but be warned, a replacement bulb will set you back $900
Forrester research has come up with a report claiming that HD DVD might beat Blu-ray. This is news for everyone in the world, though it’s vital to read between the lines. The publication says that the two camps are “fighting what seems to be a war of attrition for consumers’ hearts and minds”, but concludes that Blu-ray makers need to cut prices dramatically: