rAVe HomeAV Edition Volume 4, Issue 22 – November 29, 2007

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Feature Article

The Revival of 3D Movies
By Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor
Insight Media

What helped create the 2.5x delta between the average take of these top two movies was clearly the 3D showings of Beowulf. Only a one-fifth of the 3153 locations were in 3D, but theater owners can charge up to $3 more for the enhanced experience. A full 40% of the Beowulf revenue was earned from 850 3D screenings in both regular theaters equipped with RealD and Dolby 3D technology and Imax screens. Paramount general sales manager Don Harris said "Twenty percent of the screens produced 40 percent of the gross."

Specifically, the 850 3-D screens were in 742 locations including 84 Imax screens, which contributed almost $3.6M, or a whopping $42,619 per screen. "That's 13% of the overall box-office" according to Imax's Greg Foster. And the moviegoers most likely to see this flick – 60% male, with 50% of patrons under age 25.

Our take is that economics is driving the 3D technology into the theaters as the number of moviegoers is dropping. For instance, Media By Numbers said this week's ticket sales were off 3% and the gross from the top 12 films was down almost 30% from the same week last year. Overall, theater attendance is down 8 of the past 9 weeks, according to the group.

These numbers are no surprise as the trend in home theaters continues to grow. High-end systems have been around for years with dedicated rooms, but now large flat panel displays are becoming the norm in most US homes, with full HD leading the charge.

So movie theaters are turning once again to technology that goes beyond the home experience, (remember "CinemaScope," "Vista-Vision," or even "Superrama" and "Glamorama" wide screen experiences?) all created to lure moviegoers back into the theaters. But this is not a bad thing. Today's HD standard may not have included the 16:9 format without the widescreen experience of the 1950's.

But like full-HD bringing the movie theater into the home, the home 3D experience may not be far behind and even perhaps much closer than most expect. Stay tuned.

About Insight Media: Insight Media (www.insightmedia.info) is a leading publishing and consulting firm focused on the display industry. With its core team of world-class display experts, Insight Media tracks the technology, components, products, markets, applications, manufacturing and business aspects of consumer and professional display markets. The company publishes daily and monthly news and analysis as well as in-depth annual technology/market reports. It also hosts industry conferences, provides strategic and tactical consulting services and offers industry education via webinars and on-site seminars.

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Editorial

90,000 Idiots Buy HD-DVD Players in one Weekend!

–And, they bought it at the bellwether of electronics quality, Wal-Mart–

By Gary Kayye

HAHAHAHAHA

I think it's hilarious that Toshiba was able to dump a discontinued HD-DVD player through Wal-Mart. I always thought that $10 a month was the "idiot fee" (you know, at $10 per month or lower, any idiot will subscribe to anything — that idiot fee), but it appears that Wal-Mart was able to jack those $10 dudes into buying a discontinued so-called high definition DVD player capable of displaying a soon-to-be-discontinued technology: HD-DVD.

We all know that Blu-ray is the better of the two technologies and that Toshiba and the rest of the HD-DVD clan has now reached a point of desperation to save their technological platform, but this is the ultimate in shrewd (or, extremely clever).

I'll bet that most of these 90,000 unsuspecting Americans are also watching squished out, wide-screened NTSC video from a myriad of cable boxes all the while thinking it's HD — 'duh, it's gotta be HD if it's wide-screened…

OK, I've said all I can say about this topic, but here's the caveat: Although EXCLUSIVE agreements exist between the major studios and both the Blu-ray and HD-DVD camps, they aren't international. What the heck do I mean? Well, did you know that Sony, certainly Blu-ray's biggest supporter (and co-inventor), is releasing movies that are exclusively on Blu-ray in the USA, but in HD-DVD in all sorts of other countries around the world? As is Universal — probably HD-DVD's biggest fan in the US — although they claim to be completely in the HD-DVD camp. But did you know you can buy their movies in Europe on Blu-ray?!?

That will certainly slow down the eventual triumph of Blu-ray over HD-DVD, but remember, it all comes down to memory and space. Blu-ray is bigger and better for computers than HD-DVD and that's where the money is, eventually.

Oh, another caveat: Downloads. If this battle rages on and on and on and on, by the time Blu-ray's declared the winner, Apple and iTunes may trump them all with their new HD movie rental service, to be launched in early 2008.

So, maybe we're all wrong afterall…

 

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New LCD TV Line From Envision Features ATSC, QAM Tuners

The Envision L42W761 ($999) is the 42-inch model and is specified at 1200:1 contrast ratio. It has two HDMI inputs. The Envision L26W761 and L32W761 ($479 and $649) are the 26- and 32-inch models specified at 800:1 and 1500:1 contrast ratio, respectively.

These are shipping to retail stores now.

For more information, go to http://www.envisiondisplay.com/main.asp

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LG Shows Plasmas With 30,000:1 Contrast Ratio

The panels will be available in the fourth quarter 32-, 42- and 50-inch HD models as well as 50- and 60-inch full HD models. But it looks like they'll only be available to PAL markets in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, for now.

For more information, go to http://www.lge.com

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New Chief Lift Hides Super Large TVs in the Ceiling

The user raises and lowers the TV with the press of a button. It has smooth screen movement with customizable stops, and it travels a fast two inches per second. The lift provides up to 40 inches (101.6 cm) of travel with a stored height of only 31 inches (787 mm). It uses Chief's Auto Drive gliding system to keep the movement quiet, and of course it includes a cable management system.

For more information, go to http://www.chiefmfg.com/default.aspx

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Key Digital's New Auto HDMI Switcher Switches Between Two HDMI/DVId Sources

For more information, go to http://www.keydigital.com/

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HDMI Signals Travel up to 164 Feet Over Cat5 Using Tributaries

MSRP is $600.

For more information, go to http://www.tributariescable.com/

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ReQuest Now Delivering Music up to 32 Zones

iQ.IMS's 32-zone performance is achieved using a USB-to-serial hub called iQ.SCK4. This lets the iQ.IMS server to communicate with up to four Intelligent Multichannel Amplifiers, to total 64 channels for 32 discrete rooms or zones. Once connected, the iQ.IMS server automatically discovers the additional IMA amplifiers, then adds them to the "Rooms" section of the Web-server configuration tool. In that tool, they can be assigned and routed.

The iQ.IMS distributes as many as six stereo music sources — four CD-based streams from the internal hard-disk library, and two originating from AMFM/Satellite radio via compatible outboard tuners, which currently include models from Polk, Nuvo, Sherbourne Technologies, and Antex. The iQ system also offers two additional streams of Internet radio, for a total of eight independent sources.

The new ReQuest iQ.SCK4 32-zone ability is available now with MSRP of $250. The 16-zone version has MSRP of $150.

For more information, go to http://www.request.com/products/default.asp

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Three New AV Receivers From NAD

These receivers route incoming HDMI signals in their original resolution, up to 1080p, and accept digital-audio via HDMI. NAD says their technology approach avoids the multiple video scaling/processing stages that can actually degrade video performance.

All three receivers incorporate Audyssey Auto Set-Up, which balances and adjusts a multi-channel speaker system using a small, calibrated microphone (included). Audyssey automatically detects speakers, chooses ideal crossovers, verifies speaker phase and adjusts levels and delays. The T 775 and T 785 receivers further add NAD's enhanced Audyssey MultEQ XT Room Correction, which uses proprietary time-domain digital signal processing to reduce the impact of room acoustics. It can also deliver a "family sized" sweet spot.

NAD's new T 765, T 775 and T 785 AV Receivers are available now with MSRPs of $1,999, $2,499 and $2,999.

For more information, go to http://nadelectronics.com/index

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NME Reports Sale of 10,000 HD VMD Multilayer Players to Central Europe

HD VMD (Versatile Multilayer Disc) is NME's proprietary high definition disc format based on red laser technology. HD VMD prices and costs are very close to DVDs, and HD VMD is a full HD format with 1920 x 1080i/p resolution, up to 40 Mbps bit rate playback, and DVD up-scaling so users can watch their existing DVD collection on these players.

For more information, go to http://www.nmeinc.com/

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