The Meizu M6 miniPlayer is a newcomer to the US MP3 player market. This thin flash player comes in 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB sizes to match the other players in its class: the Nano, Z5, e200, clix, and other slim high capacity flash players. This player has most of the bases covers in terms of audio codecs, including MP3, WMA, OGG, and WMA. On the video side, the miniPlayer uses XviD convertible with off the shelf software. This player has a solid set of fairly standard features with surprisingly great sound that has a killer low end. The player however, is not without faults. For the entire low down, read on…

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Blu-ray players are still in their infancy, and there has been little to differentiate the initial round of releases. There are a couple minor feature differences here and there, but for the most part they're all pretty similar. The Pioneer BDP-HD1 ($1,500 MSRP) is one of the first Blu-ray players to break out of the mold, adding network media-playing capabilities to the standard Blu-ray features. It has the ability to output Blu-ray at 24 frames per second, the frame rate at which almost all films are made. There are only a few displays that can accept this format, and it's supposed to offer improved picture quality, but during our testing we found this highly anticipated feature wasn't the holy grail some videophiles were hoping for.

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Sanyo LCD projectors : Sanyo, one of the world's largest manufacturers of projectors is "In Tune with Networking" this week at InfoComm when they announce the high-luminance PLC-XF47 and PLC-XP100L LCD Projectors, which will offer Sanyo's exclusive PJ-NET Organizer Plus C for monitoring projector functions remotely. Projectors are commonly used for traditional and general activities such as business or educational presentations and seminars. However, applications for projectors continue to diversify, primarily due to the optimization of high luminance, high resolution, and projector miniaturization. Sanyo answerers the demand with two new high luminance projectors equipped with redesigned optical engines and networking features.

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HDTV research report : The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) predicts 16 million high-definition televisions (HDTV) will sell in 2007 bringing the total number of HDTVs sold in the US to 52.5 million. Thirty percent of US households now have an HDTV, likely rising to 36 percent by the end of this year. Among these HDTV households, almost a third own more than one high-definition set, proving the booming nature of this market. A new CEA study, HDTV: You Have the Set, But Do You Have the Content?, found that 44 percent of HDTV owners receive HD programming. The main reasons consumers stated for not receiving the programming was that it was too expensive or they were not interested.

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We’re often struck by how few American brands manage to make their mark in the UK’s AV scene. The dominance of European and far Eastern brands is almost total, which inevitably raises questions of whether perhaps US brands just don’t understand the quirks of the UK market as well as they might. So here’s hoping the first UK product from American outfit Planar, the PD7010 entry-level DLP projector, puts such questions to bed in no uncertain terms.


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