|
Coverage of CEDIA
Expo ' 99
Sony's product-information press conference was held September 23rd at the Hyatt Regency hotel. Hosted by Sony America’s president of consumer sales, Tony Piazza, the press conference was titled "Driving Home Integration" and introduced a number of new audio and video products.
Sony has also expanded their line of DVD
changers. New to the lineup is the DVP-CX850D, a 200-disc DVD/CD changer (shown in picture
below left).
|
|||
Copyright © 1999 |
|
![[SOUNDSTAGE! LIVE]](../../covers/ssmainlive.gif)
Sony’s new
LCD projector, the VPL-VW10HT, uses three wide XGA-capable LCD panels to provide a maximum
resolution of 1366x768. The projector provides a maximum brightness of 1000 ANSI lumens,
and incorporates 3D gamma-correction circuitry. The new projector also includes a
"Cinema Black" mode, which is designed to provide more accurate black and
color-balance settings. This mode also reduces the projector’s brightness to 750 ANSI
lumens, which has the additional benefit of doubling the lamp’s service life. The
VPL-VW10HT is also extremely quiet, due to its long air duct, which reduces the ambient
fan noise by 30dB. The VPL-V10HT has composite and S-Video inputs, and will be available
in December at an estimated retail price of $6990 USD.
The DVP-CX850D has an onboard Dolby Digital
5.1 decoder, as well as a DTS output (but no onboard DTS decoder). It also includes a new
feature, which Sony calls "Disc Explorer 200," a management and cataloging
system for the player’s array of discs. Disc Explorer 200 uses a graphical user
interface to allow the user to sort through discs alphabetically or by genre. It also has
the ability to store and display the jacket picture (either as a thumbnail in the Disc
Explorer or as a full-screen image when a movie has finished playing back) from DVDs which
support this feature. The recent DVD release of Ghostbusters and the forthcoming
releases of Big Daddy and Easy Rider, as well as future releases by New
Line, MGM, and Sony Music Entertainment will all support this. The DVD-CX850D can also
read DVD Text or CD Text off of supporting media. The DVP-CX850D will be available within
days through Sony dealers, with an estimated retail price of $899 USD.
Finally, Sony
introduced two new members of their ES series of home-theater components. The new
TA-9000ES uses what Sony claims to be the first 32-bit floating-point CPU in a
home-theater receiver to process DSP soundfields, including a new "Digital Cinema
Sound" (DCS) mode designed to replicate accurately the environment of Sony
Pictures’ soundtrack-recording soundstages. Sony also unveiled the new STR-DA777ES
receiver, which includes a "Cinema Studio EX" DSP mode. According to Sony,
Cinema Studio EX uses DSP processing to "psychoacoustically enlarge the listening
room." The STR-DA777ES also includes multiroom capabilities, and includes a two-way
LCD remote control, which can be used to control an entire home-theater system. The
STR-DA777ES is available now, with an estimated retail price of $1500 USD.