There's some new technology from JVC called "Slim HD-ILA Optical Engine" that allows rear-projection TVs to have a drastically reduced thickness, to the point that they can be mounted on a wall. The new engine has allowed JVC to reduce the thickness of its 56" rear-projection TV from 47cm to about 27cm.

The new technology is pretty heavy on technical details, but basically, the use of a concave mirror allows the light coming from the projector to be more focused than when using a convex mirror. This in turn means the projector can be closer to the mirror, allowing for a smaller body size.

More details are in JVC's English press release. A picture of a potential model appears below.

Evergreen is releasing the "Edifier E1100" speakers today, which remind me like the heads of one of the creatures in Aliens. Anyway, these 2.1ch speakers are made by Edifier, have a maximum output of 4.5W apiece, and look pretty cool.



Inspired by:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20060914/everg.htm

Product Information:
http://donya.jp/everg/7.1/4547479506191/

JVC has some new technology called "Near Speaker Surround" that creates surround sound using a single 2ch speaker unit. The speaker unit is placed close to the listener. Incoming multichannel signals are processed to be converted to binaural signals. Binaural signals are typically listened to using headphones, since they get the maximum channel separation -- use standard speakers and you will experience what is known as "crosstalk," where signals that are intended for just one ear also reach the other ear. However, with JVC's new "Transaural Processing" technology, crosstalk is cancelled, enabling listeners to achieve a headphone-like experience using a standard 2ch speaker setup. Because near-field involves placing the speaker nearby and requires only a single speaker unit, sound leakage can be reduced by as much as 56% versus standard multi-speaker setups.

Just as a side note, for those that doubt 2ch stereo's ability to provide true surround sound, put on a pair of headphones and listen to this.



Inspired by:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20060912/victor2.htm

Press Release:
http://www.victor.co.jp/press/2006/near_speaker.html

Sony held the "Dealer Convention 2006" on the 13th, and Impress Watch was of course on hand to see what they had available. The company demonstrated several of their Blu-ray products, including a hybrid recorder with both hard drive and Blu-ray drive, as well as new Sugo Roku recorders, new LocationFree products, and new cameras and projectors. (pictures in this article).

Also shown by the company were several new audio products including several new models of headphones. Perhaps more interesting was the "HWS-NEW" Bluetooth unit that can act as both a transmitter and a receiver. They also showed a few models of headphones that could be used wirelessly, an a transmitter called the "TMR-NEW." Finally, they showed the "SRS-NEW" 2ch Bluetooth speakers. Pictures of all the above products are available here.

Sanrio Corporation announced they'd be releasing the the "Hello Kitty Apple Shaped LCD Color TV" via their online shop on September 27th. It's going for 84,000 yen.

The TV is a 9.6" LCD with resolution of 800 x 600. The apple opens to reveal the screen and two 3W speakers. It has an integrated analog tuner, and AV input.



Inspired by:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20060904/sanrio.htm

Press Release:
http://www.sanrio.co.jp/bus_info/news/h18/180904.html

Evergreen's latest "almost-portable" DVD player is the 5,980 yen "EG-D2340X." It supports all of your standard CD and DVD media types, but can also handle the playback of multimedia files like DivX, MPEG-1/2, JPEG, MP3, and WMA. It also has an integrated NTSC/PAL converter, so Europeans/South Americans may also take interest in this one.



Inspired by:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20060824/everg1.htm

Product information:
http://donya.jp/everg/7.1/4547479504524/

Onkyo's new "MP-1000J" is a media player casing for 2.5" hard drives set to be released o­n September 1st. It's going to be around 14,800 yen from o­nkyo. Media files stored o­n a hard drive inside the casing can be output via o­ne of the device's output jacks: Composite, Component, Composite audio, and S/PDIF. It features a USB port for connection to your PC.

Supported file types (and extensions) are MPEG-1, 2, 4, DivX, XviD (avi/mpg/mpeg/m2v/dat/ifo/vob), MP3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, WAV (mp3/wma/ogg/wav) and JPEG (jpg).

Inspired by:
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2006/0821/onkyo.htm

Press Release:
http://www2.jp.onkyo.com/what/news.nsf/view/mp1000j_0901

Kenwood has a new desktop audio system intended to be connected for portable audio players. "Hi-Fi" sounds familiar, but oh well.

Pioneer has a new model of their "Sugureco" video recorders o­n the horizon. It's loaded with an 800GB hard drive and DVD burner.

Here's a new 7" widescreen DVD player from Hitachi with a few added bonuses like an FM radio, TV tuner, and alarm function.