Home Cinema

As reported in News, there's a whole stack of new home cinema equipment on the way from Yamaha over the next couple of months.
Above is the £1100 RX-V2065 receiver. complete with set-up microphone and its two remote control handsets, while below are first the BD-S1900 Blu-ray player and  below it the more upmarket BD-S1065.



There are two new Digital Sound Projector home cinema solutions in the line-up, offering one-box surround sound and designed for mounting under your TV. Both are available in December.

This is the larger of the two, the £1499 YSP-5100: it has HD audio decoding, four HDMI inputs and one output, Intellibeam steering, Univolume level equalisation, and Yamaha's Airwired wireless technology to connect an iPod or iPhone and the optional subwoofer.

The smaller YSP-4100, selling for £1199, has similar features in a smaller housing.

This is Yamaha's £499 YHT-S400 system, combining a slimline Onebar speaker housing with a unique combined receiver and subwoofer. Selling for £500, it creates surround sound effects using AirSurround Xtreme processing, has mutlichannel LPCM audio input, and three HDMI inputs and a monitor output.

Other facilities extend to a socket accepting the £78 YDS-11 iPod dock or £98 YBA-10 Bluetooth Wireless Audio Receiver for music streaming.

Or for £949 you can buy the system with the BD-S1065 Blu-ray player, as the YHT-S1400. The systems will be available in the next month or so.

Finally there's the MCR-640 stereo micro system (below). It has a CD player, 30-preset FM/DAB tuner, integrated iPod dock and a USB port. It delivers 2x65W, and will be available in December complete with two-way speakers for £599, or £490 without the speakers.

 

UPDATE: AS OF 27.10.09, OPPO HAS ANNOUNCED THAT THE EUROPEAN LAUNCH OF THE BDP-831 HAS BEEN 'POSTPONED INDEFINITELY'

Not so long ago, buying a do-it-all disc player was simple: you picked up a ‘universal’ DVD machine, also able to play Super Audio CD, DVD-A and standard CDs, and you were happy.

Blu-ray Disc has complicated things a bit, especially if you want to move up to the latest movie format but still enjoy SA-CD, as I do. Yes, there are ‘universal’ BD/DVD-V/DVD-A/SA-CD/CD machines either available or on the way, but they tend to be a tad pricey, to say the very least.

Denon’s DVD-A1UD won’t leave you much change from £5000, and the Marantz UD9004, which broke cover at the Munich High End Show back in May, costs the same. Hmmm…

So to say that I was excited when the first news broke of Oppo’s entry into this arena is something of an understatement. Here was a player offering multiformat playback plus excellent DVD upscaling, and all for a price that looked likely to be sensibly within three figures, not well into four.

I’ve been quite an Oppo fan for a while now, having used a variety of the company’s players as SA-CD sources, transmitting DSD into my Onkyo receiver over HDMI. I’ve also explored their video capabilities in that time, and been pretty impressed with what I’ve seen, so I was obviously happy that I could look forward to some box-count reduction when I no longer needed separate players for Blu-ray and SA-CD.

It started last December...
The waiting began, from the initial announcement last December until now. I’ve lost count of the number of emails to have gone back and forth between Oppo and me asking when I could get my hands on a player, and I’ve been frustrated by the arrival in the UK of parallel import US-market players.

Several times I’ve been tempted to bite the bullet, buy one from the States and enjoy; every time I’ve realised that if I did so and mentioned it online I’d be pressured for views on it, and would have to decline to offer an opinion until proper UK-spec, UK-supported hardware appeared.

Mind you, had it been decided not to make a UK model, then I would have bought a US one like a shot, and taken a flyer on support in the future, but even then that would have been a personal decision, and not something I’d suggest others do.

I wouldn’t like to be on the end of endless forum posts saying “you told me to buy it, and now I have a dead machine and I have to send it back to the States for repair.”

BDP-831 it is, then...
So anyway, the long-awaited call from Oppo eventually came: the player was going to be launched officially in the UK, albeit with a slightly different model number to the US one. BDP-83 for the States, BDP-831 for the UK.

There would be an official UK online shop selling it, and official UK support. About time, too: I’ve been holding off buying a Blu-ray player waiting for this one to arrive...

And when the package arrived from Oppo it was clear this was exactly the same player the US gets, and not the much-rumoured ‘lite’ version. The relationship was confirmed by the lack of an instruction manual with this early sample, and an emailed note to just download the BDP-83 manual.

In fact the only difference between the US and UK versions is that whereas ‘theirs’ is Region A Blu-ray and Region 1 DVD, ‘ours’ is B/2. That’s a slight problem when it comes to providing a complete solution for this household, as we tend to buy a lot of DVDs from overseas.

And whereas Japanese movies are Region 2 DVD, same as here, they’re Region A Blu-ray. Oh well, time to look at the aftermarket firmware and hardware mods to turn the player multiregion – they’re available for the BDP-83 already, so chances are they’re going to work on this version, too – but that can wait for a while.

UPDATE TO THAT: taking a flyer, I ordered the region-free modification from Bluraychip.dk. It arrived within three working days, cost just short of £50 delivered, and took all of five minutes to install.

You unplug one ribbon cable within the player, plug that cable into a small circuitboard, and plug the circuitboard into the original socket. Power comes from another socket conveniently left unused inside the player – I wonder what for?

Anyway, while you should be aware that this modification invalidates your warranty, it does make the Oppo multiregion for DVD, and region-selectable for Blu-ray. All I need now is some truly region-coded software to make sure all is working as it should: so many discs may say Region A or Region B, but in fact carry no coding, so I’m now awaiting a known-to-be-coded disc from the States to check things out.

UPDATE AGAIN: Borrowed a couple of definitely region-coded Blu-ray discs from the office, and the multiregioned Oppo plays them with no fuss at all, once you’ve selected the right region.

All you have to do, with the player in standby, is press 1 on the remote to wake it up in Region A, 2 for Region B, and 3 for Region C.

It’s also possible to set the modded player to a specific DVD region, rather than the default Region 0 the add-on delivers. That’ll help it get round those Region 1 DVDs with RCE.

I also bought a wireless bridge to connect the player into the home network, for the princely sum of £18 delivered: it’s USB-powered, and can be run off one of the two sockets on the Oppo – one on the front, one (conveniently) on the back. Since installing this, I’ve seen the Oppo do a couple of automatic firmware updates – before the product was even launched!

Fast to start, fast to load
For now, I’ve just been getting to grips with what the BDP-831 can do, and the first thing you notice about it is that it’s exceptionally fast both to fire up from standby and to load discs. Oh, and the onscreen graphics are a long way from the functional but basic menus on the Oppo DVD players, making setting up and using the machine a pleasure; they also operate on the fly, superimposed over a dimmed-down picture.

And put simply, this is an excellent player: in the brief time I’ve had it I’ve tried it HDMI’d into my receiver, connected via the analogue multichannel outputs, and also hooked up using the dedicated stereo outs.

I’ve played Blu-ray discs from ZZ Top: Live From Texas to Korean ‘western’ The Good, The Bad and The Weird, a variety of DVD titles, more than a few SA-CDs from rock and pop to jazz and classical, some CDs and even a smattering of DVD-Audio discs.

In each case, the Oppo has delighted, delivering rock-solid, clear and beautifully sharp pictures, whether from Blu-ray or – using its Anchor Bay VRS video processing – from DVDs. There’s excellent shadow detail, bags of resolution and a smooth, natural look to pictures without any signs of obvious video nasties.

But – and this is the big but – even more impressive is the sound of the BDP-831, whether used for Blu-ray or DVD soundtracks, or as a pure audio player.

I’ve tried it both streaming soundtracks from Blu-ray in native form to the receiver and outputting them as LPCM, but this is also an exceptional machine via its multichannel analogue outputs, which is a tribute to the quality of the onboard audio conversion.

Living up to expectations
I’m not prejudging the results of the formal tests for the magazine, as the Oppo has to go in front of pairs of eyes and ears with a lot more experience of Blu-ray players at all levels of the market, but so far the player’s living up to everything I’d hoped it was going to be when first I saw the pre-release information.

Certainly to these eyes it leaves for dead the likes of the mid-market last-generation Panasonic I’ve been using recently, and it has an assured feel about it from the build – it’s a good deal heftier than the company’s DVD machines – to the way it displays video and plays music.

Which Dark Side?
I’ve been listening to some new Linn Records SA-CD releases through it of late, using it purely as a transport, and the sound is powerful, mature and totally involving.

I even dug out my Dark Side of the Moon SACD for a quick listen and then, on a whim, hunted down a DVD-R disc I have of the (allegedly) original quadraphonic mix of the same title, in DVD-A MLP Lossless format, and that proved even more attention-grabbing than the later multichannel effort.

Sunny afternoon, cricket on the TV with the sound off and DSOTM as it was (probably) originally meant to be heard – it wasn't an entirely unpleasant way to spend part of the weekend...

And after all the experimentation with the various outputs, and a bit of a play with a set-up disc or two and the Oppo’s extensive video menus, I’ve come to the realisation that at its core this isn’t just the kind of enthusiast’s tweaky machine the tweaky enthusiasts would have you believe.

It’s actually pretty amazing straight from the box, and is as likely to please those who want a ‘fit and forget’ solution for all sorts of discs as it is those who consider themselves a cut above those of us who just want to enjoy our movies and music as well-presented as possible with the minimum of fuss.

OK, you can play with all those settings as much as you want, but you don’t have to mess around with the Oppo for ages to get it performing exceptionally well. And that explains why I’m now using it just about at the factory default settings, and with a single HDMI connection between player and AV receiver, carrying video and all flavours of audio.

As I write this I’m having one of those lost weekends, hurling endless discs at the player, trying to catch it out. Or at least that’s how I’m justifying it to myself, but in fact I’m just having a ball watching and listening to familiar stuff, and exploring some new discs – Blu-ray, BD audio and SA-CDs.

Reviewing workhorse
Interestingly, I’ve just started a monthly column in Gramophone highlighting the best new releases on SA-CD and Blu-ray – if new rock and pop SA-CD releases are thin on the ground, the format is still being supported with some enthusiasm by the classical labels. So I’ve been looking for an all-in-one player for use as a reviewing workhorse, and looking with some trepidation at the prices of the ‘universal’ hardware beginning to trickle onto the market.

With the arrival of the Oppo player, that decision has just become a whole load simpler, and easy on the pocket. And that could give this remarkable player an appeal way beyond ‘those in the know’ on the web forums, as well as giving the well-known mass-market names something to live up to.

If you’ve been following the Oppo saga online on our forums, you’ll know I’ve been accused of everything from supporting the big boys in the face of the challenge from the unofficially imported BDP-83s to pouring cold water on the news of the BDP-831. And all because I decided to take my time before giving any opinion on the machine on this site, rather than rushing into HTML with half-formed views.

Truth is, I’ve been looking forward like crazy to the launch of an official UK version of this player, hoping against hope a) we actually got the machine, b) we didn’t get a watered-down specification and c) it was all it was cracked up to be.

In my opinion, the wait was all worthwhile – as far as I can see, the BDP-831 is all the universal player I’ll ever want, or need.

The Oppo BDP-831 will be available for £449 from www.OPPOstore.co.uk – the site will go live soon.
The price includes a Spears and Munsil video calibration disc, and a high-definition audio demonstration/test disc from Aix Records.

You can read the What Hi-Fi? Sound Vision verdict on the player in the Awards issue, on sale October 20th and available earlier to visitors to the Manchester Sound and Vision Show on October 17th-18th.

If you're a subscriber to What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision, or you buy the November 2009 issue at Tesco, you'll get a free pair of THX Optimizer glasses. Alternatively, head on over to ebay where you can buy them online for just £6.

Once you've got your THX glasses, you can use them with any DVD disc containing the THX Optimizer to fine-tune your TV to get the best possible picture quality. Here's what you have to do:

OK, you’ve got your shiny new TV home, wired it up and set all your video sources to their best level of performance. So, you’ve achieved televisual nirvana, right? Nearly. The thing is, it’s a crowded market, with hundreds of big-brand TVs competing for your attention on the high street.

As a result, more-or-less every set you can buy is factory-preset to levels of brightness, contrast and colour that scream ‘look at me!’ from across the shop floor. Get your purchase home and look at it in the more natural light of your living room, and chances are it’ll appear unnaturally punchy and too bright, with little depth or nuance to its black or white shades, and an unnatural vibrancy to solid blocks of colour. It’ll also be consuming more power than it needs to.

Thankfully, sorting out your TV’s picture is easier and cheaper than you’d think: all it takes is a few minutes’ effort, a suitable THX-certified DVD disc (see below) and a pair of THX Optimizer glasses.

So what is the THX Optimizer? It’s a set of calibration patterns developed to aid consumers intent on achieving better picture quality, and it’s so effective we regularly use it in our testing process. Load it up and you’ll find a simple step-by-step series of picture test patterns.

Dig out your remote control, follow the instructions, and away you go. However, to get the very best results, you’ll also need some THX Optimizer glasses. Then simply follow the five tests below...

1) CONTRAST
The large white box in the centre is sub-divided up into eight small white boxes. Turn the contrast up until the brightest small box bleeds into the next, so you can no longer see the line dividing the two. Then very slowly turn the contrast down until you can just make out the eight distinct boxes.

2) BRIGHTNESS
Turn the brightness up slowly and you’ll see a THX logo in the middle of the screen. Turn it up even more, and you’ll also notice there is a drop shadow behind the logo. Now, very slowly, turn the brightness back down until you can’t see the drop shadow, and can only just make out the logo.

3) COLOUR AND TINT
This is the American NTSC test pattern: the British PAL version does much the same job, but uses six horizontal bars featuring alternating primary and secondary colours. With the glasses on, you should see a single shade of blue running across all the bars, with no variation in intensity.

4) DISPLAY PERFORMANCE
This test pattern is useful to check your TV’s sharpness – which is almost always set too high. See those vertical white lines near the bottom of the screen? Turn the sharpness up until these start to look fuzzy, noisy and indistinct, then slowly turn it back down until they look sharp, but are nonetheless stable.

 

5) ASPECT RATIO
If your Blu-ray or DVD player is set to the correct 16:9 widescreen mode, and your TV is in a similarly appropriate mode, you should see the circle
in this pattern as a proper, perfectly round ring. If it appears at all distorted (as shown here), make sure that your kit is correctly set before proceeding!

 

WHAT IS THX?

THX was founded in 1983 by George Lucas’ company, Lucasfilm. THX stands for Tomlinson Holman’s eXperiment – Holman being the chief developer of the standard – and the name is also a reference to Lucas’ 1971 feature film, THX 1138.

The THX system aimed to serve as a technical standard-setter, a watchdog for cinematic performance that set qualitative benchmarks for speakers, amplifiers and acoustics with the aim of ensuring a better cinematic experience for an eager generation of Star Wars-enthused cinema goers.

Over the years, the company’s remit has expanded greatly to incorporate home cinema technology, including AV receivers and speaker packages, cabling, disc players, discs and, most recently, displays. 

THX-APPROVED DVDs YOU MAY ALREADY OWN:

There are 335 THX-certified DVDs on the market (for a full list, visit www.thx.com). Selected highlights include the remastered Alien box-set, Finding Nemo, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Lion King, Pearl Harbor, Pirates of the Caribbean, all six Star Wars titles, Titanic and Toy Story (1 and 2).

Sadly at the moment there are no UK-specification Blu-ray discs that carry the Optimizer but a couple of titles have been released in other regions.

For more help on how to get the best from your TV, watch our 'How To' video.

 

You can read all about Cambridge Audio's much-anticipated new universal Blu-ray player, the 650BD, and its partnering multichannel receiver, the Azur 650R, in our news story. Here are some more pictures of both models for you to enjoy:

 Cambridge Audio 650BD Blu-ray player $779

Cambridge Audio 650BD – newly designed front panel

Rear panel of the Cambridge Audio 650BD

Inside the Azur 650R AV receiver

Cambridge Audio 650R – front panel

 

Cambridge Azur 650R – rear panel

Here's a closer look at some of the new Sony home cinema products, launched yesterday at the International Funkaustellung – or IFA – show in Berlin.

Seen here at a jaunty angle, this is the STR-DA3500ES receiver

while below is its big brother, the STR-DA5500ES
.

For the socket-spotters, here's a rear view of the STR-DA5500ES

The flagship of the mainstream Blu-ray player range is the Wi-Fi enabled BDP-S760 (below), a review of which will be coming in the magazine very soon

And just to send you on your way with a fright, here's the monster Blu-ray/DVD/CD megachanger joining the company's ES range. This is the BDP-CX7000ES

You can read our full review of Sony's new PS3 Slim here, and below is a selection of pictures we've taken of Sony's new leaner, fitter PS3 console for you to enjoy:

 

 

 

 

 

As promised in our news story, here's a closer look at all the new Onkyo products launched today.

This is the new flagship AV receiver, the £2400 TX-NR5007...


... and here's the same model with its front flap open showing the minor controls.

Meanwhile for the input-spotters, here's a fat juicy close-up of the rear panel of the '5007

Fitting in below the '5007 are the £1700 TX-NR3007

and the £1300 TX-NR1007

This, meanwhile, is Onkyo's £2000 PR-SC5507 AV processor...

...which, along with state of the art audio and video processing, has extensive connectivity, even extending to balanced outputs for all 11 channels, as the rear-panel shot below shows

Completing the range is the £150 ND-S1 "Digital Media Transport for the iPod"

And just to prove it really does do digital out from the Apple players, here's the rear panel

Oh, and here's the last of Onkyo's new products, the CS-435UK system.

Just to back up our news story covering the launch of seven new Sony 'home cinema in a box' systems with Blu-ray capability, here's a stack of pictures of the new models.

This is the BDV-E300, which has optional wireless rear speakers with an add-on kit...

...while the BDV-E800W (not coming to the UK) takes the same formula and adds floorstanding speakers and wireless rears.

Both systems have Sony's Virtual 7.1-channel technology, but can be upgraded to full 7.1 operation with an add-on pack.

The BDV-Z7, below, is a 2.1 system using Sony's S-Force Front Surround technology.

Four of the systems are based around the BDP-S360 Blu-ray player. The HT-FS360 is another 2.1-channel set-up...

...while the HT-IS100 is a full surround system using the company's little golfball-sized speakers.

Meanwhile the HT-SS100 steps up with compact speakers. 1000W total output and the option of wireless rear speaker operation with an add-on module...

... and the HT-SS360 is the same core system, but with the addition of floorstanding speakers for the main left and right front and rear speakers.

 

 

Answering a forum question the other day I was surfing around for the best price for an SPL meter, and stumbled across a bargain I felt I should pass on.

Since Tandy vanished from our shores, and with it ready availability of the Radio Shack meters, setting up a home cinema system has got tricker – and a good deal more expensive. Yes, you can track down the Radio Shack meter – Cornwall Electronics sells both the analogue and digital versions - but otherwise you're looking at spending £50 or so for something to do the job.

Well actually not quite: currently in the Maplin catalogue for just £17.99 is the little SPL meter you can see at the head of this story – and having just got my hands on and tried one, I can say it's perfectly adequate for setting up an AV system. And at the price, it's a sensible purchase, not a "But how many times will I use it?" one.

But why do you need a meter in the age of Audyssey, DCAC, MCACC and YPAO, any of which systems can set up an AV receiver at the push of a button and whole load of odd noises?

Well, it's simply that I'm yet to find any one of these systems able to set up a surround system the way I like it, so it's handy to have a meter able to check sound levels and let you adjust them with some knowledge of what you're doing, not just by ear.

And the little Maplin unit is more than good enough for that: it has nothing more than an on/off button and the option of measuring maximum or minimum levels over time as well as taking instantaneous measurements. Oh, and a light sensor for the backlight on the LCD panel, plus auto shut-off after 15 mins of disuse.

That's is a major benefit over the old Radio Shack models, which always seem to have a flat battery because someone's left them turned on.

A tripod bush on the base completes the package.

It measures 'C'-weighted, which is the most useful weighting, will go up to 130db, and checked against a variety of other meters I had to hand seems pretty accurate, even down to low frequencies.

OK, so the THX professionals and those who aspire to a tool-belt may get a bit sniffy, and say for truly accurate measurement the only meter for the job is going to cost you a lot more than a smidge under £20. But then they also probably drool over the MachineMart catalogue, lusting after petrol-powered leaf-blowers and wondering why no one makes a big hunky diesel-fuelled one.

For the rest of us, the Maplin Mini is all the SPL meter we're ever likely to need.

To quote my learned colleague Mr Duncan, "Oh dear.
"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear..."

Y'see, this isn't going to please the 'digits is digits' brigade one little bit, and will almost inevitably stir up a hornet's nest of slanging from those who say they know the facts but have never tried – but here goes...

I've just changed the HDMI cables in my system, and the difference it has made is simply jaw-dropping.

I don't just mean subtly better; I'm talking real "Huh? What happened there???" stuff.

I'd read about The Chord Company's new HDMI Active Silver Plus cable, and seen some online comments from another reviewer I trust and respect, but who's not exactly known for getting too excited about things AV.

I'd also noted with interest the knee-jerk reaction of one of our forum posters to our original news story: "20m-£450  0.75m£95 what a rip off no respect for the customer i will go else where".

So I gave the new cable a whirl.

And all I can say to bluerobbo22 is "Don't knock it if you haven't tried it."

The cables had sat in their box since they arrived early last week, as I'd been chained to the office desk all week covering various staff holidays. It was only yesterday, when even watching the cricket through my fingers became too much to bear, that I hauled out the system and started swapping.

Out with the cable from receiver to TV, the one from Sky+ HD box to the receiver, and the one connecting the Blu-ray Disc player; and in their place one 1.5m run of Chord Active HDMI, and two 3m lengths.

Plugged up, black end to the source, filter network bumps teased through narrow gaps behind the system, and then I sat back to have a look and a listen.

Amazing! Everything on the Sky HD channels looked sharper, brighter, better defined. Colours were less garish - and we're talking on a calibrated TV here - and even the text of the on-screen graphics was crisper, and easier to take in at a glance.

And the sound gains were, if anything, even greater. Whether with music from SACD, carried in DSD to the receiver – yes, I tried it with the Oppo as well as the BD machine - or movie soundtracks, the overall effect is of less clutter in the sound, greater intelligibility, and simply more precision.

The science bit
So how's it done? The secret, Chord says, is the use of "a high frequency filter on all lengths. [This] reduces the intra/inter channel skew between the four pairs of TDMS signals."

Now given that the transmission minimised differential signaling used in HDMI cables is already using that differential signaling to reduce EMI, and a twisted pair configuration to reduce noise, you may not think the filter network has much to do.

But clearly it works, and with obvious results. I spent the next hour switching cables back and forth, including swapping the Active for the otherwise similar standard Silver Plus, while my wife tapped her toes, looked at her watch and made "We need to go shopping" noises – but even she was soon commenting on the visual and audible gains.

And not just on BD discs: we were amazed how much more the new cables made of the stunningly shot Rick Stein's Far Eastern Odyssey, which we have stacked up on the Sky Planner at the moment, and found ourselves watching several Discovery documentaries, just relishing the picture quality.

And, as regular readers will know, we were doing all this on a Fujitsu 50in display that's virtually an antique, at least in the accelerated timescale of TV product cycles.

Now, if only Chord could have done something to pep up the England performance before the Aussies gave us a total drubbing up in Leeds...

There is just something about the London Docklands on a Sunday – silent, weird, half-finished. One is tempted to shout Is there anybody out there at rows of luxury apartments that give off the atmosphere of mausoleums. It's like a futurist ghost town, straight out of the pages of a J.G. Ballard novel.
 
You can see why this area has found itself a favourite of movie location scouts, regularly turning up in all its desolate glory to provide pre- or post-apocalyptic backdrops to movies such as 28 Days later and Dirty Pretty Things.
    
So, what was I doing there, early on a Sunday, wafting around the light railway with an air of confused apprehension and just the barest smidgeon of an evil hangover? Why, oh lord. Why?

I was headed for a hotel next to the Excel Centre, where I was to be trained (or brained, I wasn’t sure which) into learning the ways of THX. I felt like a B-Movie Kung Fu student being initiated into an occult world of secret powers and elaborate beards. At the end of this momentous day, I would be a THX-Certified Professional. Or so I thought.

Origins of THX
THX is an interesting company. It doesn’t make hardware at all – the best way to describe THX is as an evolving set of standards for the complex business of creating and installing cinema systems. The company was founded by George Lucas and Tomlinson Holman in 1983. The name came from Lucas’s first movie, a dystopian sci-fi fantasy called THX1138. There's another story that circulates, that it was named after 'Tomlinson Holman eXperiment'. But apparently the origin of this story is a combination of coincidence and downright untruth.

THX offered a set of guidelines for cinema sound systems, during the period in which Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS soundtracks began to proliferate. It was instrumental in developing standards for amplification power, speaker placement and configuration, and much else besides. If you go out and buy a home cinema system, its precise form is in part the result of the influence wielded by THX over the past 26 years.

The company created the first extended surround format – Surround EX – in 1999. Many amp manufacturers adapt their designs to meet the standards demanded by the company, and send them to be THX-certified. Certification only happens after many hours of extensive testing.

Optimisation, re-equalisation, and timbre matching
Now, when it comes to improving a TV’s picture using the ‘THX Optimiser’ disc, there’s not a great deal anyone could teach me. If I had a tenner for every time I’ve… etc. Been there, done that, waiting eagerly for my Blu-ray version as soon as they get around to sending me one.

But a lot of the stuff we covered on this dour docklands day was of genuine interest. Along with my fellow learners (installers, mostly) I was instructed in such arcane arts as THX-re-equalisation, timbre matching, and the ‘adaptive correlation’ that helps a system to create a suitably diffusive soundfield.

 

THX training: the words on-screen are a description, not advice on how to talk to your system

 Trainer John Dahl was entertaining and knowledgeable, and appropriately full of interesting and mildly controversial claims like this: “Over 2kHz, sound is mostly determined by the speakers; below 200Hz it’s mostly the room; between 200Hz and 2kHz it’s a mixture of everything.”

 

THX trainer John Dahl

Then there was some fascinating stuff about speaker placement and room boundaries, not to mention a lengthy explanation of the various forms of THX certification (ultra2, Select2 etc), and the day was over before you could say ‘why aren’t I in the garden with a glass of wine?’

That was that. I was now a THX-Certified Professional. My mother would be so proud.

Except I wasn’t, actually – not yet. Like a trainee Jedi with a bit of a temper, I would have to pass a solemn test before receiving my officially sanctioned new status. Cripes.

So, a couple of days ago, with just a mild flutter of nerves, I took the THX exam. 86.75-per-cent, since you ask.

And that, friends, is how I became a THX-Certified Professional. It was worth the effort, I’d say. And almost worth going to the docklands for. But from now on I’m back to spending my Sundays in the garden with a glass of wine.

 

The morning inbox usually contains all kids of strange press releases, more often than not as the result of handing out business cards at, or simply registering for, overseas shows.

Just this morning I have been offered unbeatable prices on plastic mouldings, two or three companies willing to make cables for me to sell under my own brand, and everything from bulk buys of iPod docks to speaker drive units made to order.

And then there was the Bed Theater press release – and although this is a product currently aimed at the US market, I felt I had to share it with you.

Invented by Michael Darling, whose other products include a 'Flying Seat' you can fit to the front of your speedboat for fishing, the Bed Theater is a swivelling boom on which you can mount a flatscreen of up to 19in.

Having done that, the company suggests, you now have a viable alternative to having a much larger screen at the foot of the bed, or on the wall across the room.

Or if you want to work, there's an optional add-on tray for your computer keyboard.

As the diagrams and pictures show, you can swing the TV so it's always in the right place as you roll over in bed, and the whole thing folds flat to the wall when not in use.

The price (at least in the States)? $99, plus $30 shipping – and as the company says, "Using more than one arm, with headphones two people can watch different TV programs in the same bed."

This one's definitely at the 'and Vision' end of things, but have been playing for the past few months with a little box I spotted at last year's Hong Kong Electronics Fair, and meaning to write some hands-on impressions for ages.

It's a simple add-on for your home cinema system, and at just over £40 delivered it won't break the bank, but it is a whole load of fun, especially if you take a lot of pictures on digital cameras, cameraphones or whatever.

And with the holiday season upon us, the HD-0310 1080p Digital Photo Viewer from Hong Kong company Hi-Den Vision could be just the thing when you get back and want to relive your travels in the comfort of your own home.

Simply, this box will play just about any camera memory card through your TV, upscaling the pictures to 1080p resolution, and allow a range of transition effects to give slideshows, or even looping sequences.

It'll also play audio or video from such storage, or USB pen-drives or even hard discs, and has both analogue and optical digital audio outputs alongside the HDMI and component/composite video sockets.

You can even loop one of your HDMI sources through it – handy should you be running out of inputs on your TV or AV receiver.

Yes, I know that some TVs now offer similar facilities, and the concept of the flatscreen as art display is being pushed hard by some manufacturers, who visualise you having a Balinese sunset on display any time you're not watching the TV. And there are Blu-ray Disc and DVD players able to accept memory cards, not to mention the fact you could hook up your computer to the TV and 'stream' slideshows.

But there are few solutions this inexpensive, or as flexible or simple to use, and as an add-on for slightly older systems this is a simple way of getting more use out of your TV, by turning it into the modern equivalent of those slide shows our parents used to subject us to decades ago.

I remember all the kerfuffle of setting up a screen on its tripod, checking all the slides were the right way up and the right way round, and the pictures popping in and out of focus with the heat of the lamp in the little projector, which was called a Pixie or an Elf or a Gnome or something.

Oh, and the cursing from the old man when he fumbled loading the push-pull slide carrier and a yellow Kodachrome slide box went tumbling, scattering pictures in the darkness.

But above all I remember the impact of seeing the holiday pictures blown up huge, with every detail readily apparent – something you just don't get when you look at your snaps on a laptop or an 8in digital photo-frame.

Having spent some of the weekend just gone sorting through some pictures – old and new – and viewing them on the 50in screen at home, the memories came flooding back, not least because my sister's been converting the old family slides into digital files over the past few months.

And that alone was worth the price of the little Hi-Den Vision box... 

On 20th June, Panasonic will release the first ever Blu-ray recorder in this country, offering the ability to record to HDD or archive on 50GB Blu-ray discs.

We're the first to get our hands on a full production sample, and we'll be publishing our verdict as the lead First Test in the July issue of What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision, on sale from June 3rd.

In the meantime, we thought we'd bring you our initial thoughts on the product.

The Panasonic DMR BS850 is a massive achievement. In a box no bigger than a standard Blu-ray player, it hides a Blu-ray recorder, a 250GB or 500GB hard drive and a Freesat HD receiver.

Panasonic is pitching it as the single box you need under your TV – and, as a concept, it's hard to argue with the logic. The 500GB and 250GB (DMR BS 750) models will cost £999 and £899 respectively, with a 250GB DVD version (DMR XS350) available for £699.

Twin Freesat tuners as standard
The DVD version will not record HD footage direct to DVD (just the HDD), though all models come with twin Freesat tuners and feature Viera Cast, allowing access to internet sites such as YouTube and photo-sharing site Picasa.

The hard disk drive on all models can store music and photo content too, and, as internet connection is offered as standard, it's certainly the most convincing stab at genuine home cinema convergence we've seen.

Both the DMR BS850 and BS750 are Profile 2.0 players and all models come with a Gracenote database of 350,000 albums and song titles, which can be updated online via the ethernet connection.

The EPG automatically tells you when a programme is in HD as well as standard-def. All HD shows will record to the hard disk, though some content may only be able to be copied once (and, rarely, never) to Blu-ray.

Recording of HDTV and  5.1 audio
Direct bitstream recording of HD programmes means everything is uncompressed. You'll also get 5.1 audio on the high quality 'DR' recording setting if the original broadcast supports it. The DMR BS850 has upgraded audio connections, which include an enhanced DAC and gold plated terminals.

There are five recording modes, with the DR mode offering 77 hours of content on a 500GB HDD and the lowest HL setting offers 240 hours on a 500GB HDD.

Of course, 25GB and 50GB Blu-ray discs are available too –  a three pack of 25GB rewritable BD discs will cost £30. Amazingly, Panasonic also promises 100GB BD discs next year.

As well as ethernet, there's a USB socket for MP3 players and an SD card slot for photo, music and home movie content. Regular movie content such as DivX files can be played via the USB socket.

An optical socket is also featured and the two Blu-ray models can both decode Dolby True HD, DD Plus and DTS HD Master Audio. We have an exclusive UK review next issue, on sale 3rd June.

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As you may already have read in our news story, we've just had an exclusive briefing on all Yamaha's new 2009 models, including its entire multichannel receiver range, new hi-fi systems, speakers and iPod docks.

Just to recap, here are the key highlights of the five new multichannel receivers (with pictures), priced from £250 to around £800.

 

Yamaha RX-V365: £250, available May

5.1, 100W/channel, 1080p-compatible HDMI (two in/one out), YPAO sound optimisation, compressed music enhancer, Cinema DSP with eight programmes, Silent Cinema mode, sold with NS-P280 speaker package.

 

Yamaha RX-V465: £350, available May

5.1, 105W/channel, HD audio decoding, 1080p-compatible HDMI (four in/one out), YPAO sound optimisation, new Scene functionality, 17 Cinema DSP modes.

 

Yamaha RX-V565: £450, available May

7.1, 90W/channel, HD audio decoding, HDMI (four in/one out), 1080p video upscaling, YPAO sound optimisation, Scene functionality, on-screen display, 17 DSP modes with adaptive DSP level, Silent Cinema and Virtual Cinema modes.

 

Yamaha RX-V765: £tbc, available July

7.1, 95W/channel, HD audio decoding with high-quality discrete amplification circuitry, HDMI (four in/one out), 1080p video upscaling, Pure Direct mode, YPAO sound optimisation, multizone operation, Cinema DSP 3D.

 

Yamaha RX-V1065: £tbc, available July

7.1, 105W/channel, HD audio decoding, HDMI (four in/one out), 1080p video upscaling, new GUI, YPAO sound optimisation, iPod compatibility, Bluetooth A2DP, lip-sync adjustment, Cinema DSP 3D.

Further up the multichannel receiver range, the RX-V1900 (£1000) and RX-V3900 (£1500) continue as before, as do the flagship DSP-Z7 (£1960) and DSP-Z11 (£4900) multichannel amps.

Those models won't be replaced until 2010. And there'll be no new Blu-ray player to replace the BD-S2900 (£685) until later this year.

Other highlights of Yamaha's 2009 range include a new home cinema soundbar, the £399 YAS-71 due in May, and two new TV stands with built-in surround sound, the YRS-1000 (£899) and YRS-2000 (£999) due out in May and June respectively.

Yamaha YAS-71: £399, available May

Home cinema soundbar with subwoofer, four surround modes, Air Surround Xtreme technology, 70W x 2 + 70W subwoofer, Dolby Digital, DTS and Dolby Pro-Logic II, iPod and Bluetooth compatibility, FM tuner, compressed music enhancer, available in gloss black.

Yamaha YRS-1000: £899, available May

TV stand with built-in digital amplifier, 16 beam speakers, 62W + 50W subwoofer, 1080p-compatible HDMI (two in/one out), 1080p/24Hz processing, IntelliBeam auto set-up, compatible with Panasonic Viera Link. Measures (WHD) 116 x 50 x41.5cm.

 

Yamaha YRS-2000: £999, available June

As YRS-1000, but large enough for 60in TVs, IntelliBeam auto calibration, direct start function from remote control. Measures (WHD) 160 x 50 x 42cm.

That covers the home cinema range, now for the new hi-fi products which include mini and micro systems, iPod docks and speakers.

Yamaha M-330 micro system: £299, available May

20W x 2 RMS, iPod dock, USB port, CD player with CD text, 30-station FM/DAB radio (band III), two-way bass reflex speakers included.

 

Yamaha MCS-1330 mini system: £999, available June

Mini component system comprising CD player, stereo receiver and speakers. iPod dock, FM tuner, 60W x 2, USB port, aluminium front panel, Burr Brown DSD791 DAC, pure direct mode, gold-plated speaker terminals.

 

Yamaha PDX-30 iPod dock: £129, available May

Portable iPod dock available in black, blue, grey and pink, 15W x 2, twin 8cm speakers.

Yamaha PDX-50 iPod dock: £199, available May

Includes Yamaha's AirWired technology to send uncompressed, linear PCM audio directly from your iPod or iPhone to the dock. Allows auto power on and selection of tracks/volume via the iPod. Comes with a separate charging cradle.

Yamaha TSX-120 desktop system: £299, available May

Desktop iPod docking system with FM/DAB radio, 30 presets, dual alarm, sleep and snooze modes, real-wood top panel, four DSP modes, 15W x 2, available in black and white.

 

Yamaha TSX-130 desktop system: £349, available May

Same as TSX-120 but with addition of USB port and CD player.

 

Yamaha NS-700 speakers: £300-£1000, available June

NS-B700 two-way surround speaker £400 (above)

NS-F700 three-way floorstanding speaker £1000

NS-C700 two-way centre speaker £300

NS-SW700 300W subwoofer £500

Yamaha Soavo-1 piano black speaker: £3000, available June

Latest, upgraded version of Yamaha's flagship floorstanding speaker with advanced PMD diaphragm woofers and midrange drivers, edge-wound ribbon wire voice coil, neodymium midrange and tweeter magnets, diecast aluminium tweeter plate.