The Blu-ray Disc is finally beginning to expand to its potential. Sony unveiled its latest Blu-ray player in New York last week and the downsized BDP-S350 packs all the requisite features of a 2008-age player: BD-Live compatibility, lossless Dolby and dts decoding, an Ethernet port, USB port, and green packaging. Amid all the bells and whistles, consumers’ favorite feature is likely to be the under-6-second bootup time from load to menu.

Holding up the downsized player next to its BDP-S300 brother, Chris Fawcett, vice president of marketing for Sony’s home-video division, told journalists the new $400 player is 55 percent smaller than its predecessor. A smaller component translates to less packing material and reduced shipping weight. That, combined with all-paper packaging and Earth-friendly dyes in the manual (made from recycled paper), brings down the carbon footprint of the new player to 43 percent of the older Sony model. The new design isn’t just a token gesture for the green movement. Sony says the BDP-S350 sets the tone for future designs—excluding beefy models in the ES series. more>>

A friend of mine is mulling an HDTV purchase, and he’s got that common tech-guy gut instinct of wanting to buy the most impressive equipment on the market—within financial reason. For this purchase (which he appropriately deems the centerpiece of a new home-entertainment system), he wants to devote a good chunk of his budget and get the “very best.” So, naturally, he’s got his sights fixed on 1080p. When he told me of these high-resolution intentions, I thought of his viewing habits and his viewing area, and I said, “Hold on, buddy.”

It goes without saying that 1080p is wonderful—in theory. If you’ve seen a demo of a 1080p HDTV displaying a true HD source, you know what I’m talking about. Detail is more precise than anything you’ve ever seen (even in nature), color and black levels are vivid and rock-steady, and you just stand there willing to murder your mother in order to implement that technology in your home. However, 1080p in practice is a very different beast. In truth, considering the majority of HD sources available today and into the foreseeable future—the resolution of which falls overwhelmingly in the 720p/1080i arena—most people fail to distinguish a quality difference between 1080p TVs and their lower-resolution (but still HD) brethren. more>>

Wisdom Audio, the leader in planar magnetic technologies, is proud to announce that it will feature its new Sage Series high-end architectural and freestanding loudspeaker systems at the 2008 CEDIA Expo, held in Denver from Sept. 4-7 at the Colorado Convention Center, booth SR-16.

Scheduled to ship prior to the 2008 CEDIA Expo, Wisdom Audio will bring to market four speaker configurations, ranging from 20in. to 75in. tall, each available as an in-wall, on-wall, or freestanding solution. Multiple center channels, an in-wall subwoofer, integrated Audyssey Laboratories room-correction software, and dedicated electronics round out the new product offerings. more>>