Introduction Is 52 the new 42 in the world of flat-panel televisions? Last year, the 42-inch flat panel was the marquee TV, offering the perfect convergence of size and price that consumers craved. As flat-panel pricing continues to drop, consumers will be able to move up to a larger screen size without moving up substantially in price. I predict the 52-inch panel will soon take center stage, thanks to new arrivals like Toshiba’s 52HL167. This product’s MSRP is $3,499.99, which is right on par with new, similarly sized panels from other big-name LCD manufacturers; however, several online retailers have already broken the magical $3,000 barrier with this big-screen LCD. The latest crop of LCD panels is especially interesting because many employ new technologies, like LED backlighting or a 120-Hertz refresh rate, designed to improve performance issues that plagued older LCD TVs. However, these technologies also add to the bottom line, which may be worthwhile for the ...

Introduction HD DVD vs. Blu-ray. It seems, once again, consumers are in the middle of yet another format war. While round one has seemingly come and gone with the introduction of both parties’ initial efforts a little over a year ago, like all good fights, nothing is ever won in the first round and consumers now find themselves entrenched in round two. You could argue that round one had to go to Blu-ray (despite missing the opening bell by months) with their true 1080p support trumping HD DVD’s 1080i-only resolution. However, the victory was a hollow one, for the first batch of 1080p discs were less than stellar and often looked worse then their HD DVD and sometimes even standard DVD counterparts. Now, both sides have full 1080p support and, with the introduction of the new Toshiba HD-A20 reviewed here, it seems HD DVD’s trump card is now price. At $499 retail, the HD-A20 ...

Introduction The HD DVD format has been out for just over a year now, and Toshiba is now on to the second generation of their high-def disc players. HD DVD was first to the market, beating Blu-ray by a few months. Despite a big shot in the arm from Sony’s Playstation 3 and Microsoft’s $179 Xbox 360 add-on HD DVD player, high-def discs have yet to explode the way that DVD did when that format was first launched. The initial reaction of most consumers was that the players were slow and clunky; many of the discs looked good, but some of the transfers were grainy and many felt that the picture quality of HD DVD was a tad sharper than Blu-ray. Hardware and firmware improvements in the first-generation Blu-ray players, such as the Samsung BDP-1000, have closed the gap that existed between the picture quality lead that HD DVD held over Blu-ray. Now, very ...

AV Education on RHT The High End Prewire Written by Jerry Del Colliano I recently bought a small home in the hills above Los Angeles and have taken on the project of renovating it, a process which includes two complete home theaters, high-speed Internet connectivity throughout the house, some distributed audio, lighting control, and more. The idea of this article is to show you some of what is possible in a whole-home prewire, so that when you build a new house or gut an existing property, you have a good idea of what to ask from a qualified AV installer. My project is based around renovating a home built in 1959 that is devoid of most, if not all, of the latest AV and communications protocols. Many newer homes come designed for much more technology, but only in rare cases will a house that you buy be properly prewired for everything a Revolution Home Theater reader ...

Introduction Cracking open the box of my first HD DVD player, I can’t help but think back to the days of the VHS vs. Betamax and DVD-Audio vs. SACD format wars. With the pending release of Blu-ray, the competing high-definition disc format, many consumers are taking a “wait and see” attitude about which one will be the champion of the high-resolution disc. Blu-ray players are going to be in the $1,000 to $1,500 range. However Toshiba is the first to market with their HD-A1 and HD-XA1 players, $499 and $799, respectively. Those thirsty for more HD content have braved the format war controversy and picked up these Toshiba units, which were virtually impossible to find in their first few weeks of release. However, this was partially due to a small inventory rollout from Toshiba. The company tentatively dipped their feet in the water with this player and the initial reports from consumers, AVRev.com staffers and ...