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-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from CNET Asia. --------------------------------------------------------------
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Panasonic home cinemas receive wireless and Blu-ray makeover
By Philip Wong, CNET Asia
01/06/2009 URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/home_av/others/0,39037627,62054532,00.htm SINGAPORE--The scene is set for an audio-visual showdown at the annual Panasonic product launch held in the Republic. Besides officially launching its renowned Viera HDTVs for the island-state, the Japanese company is also refreshing its lifestyle home cinema offerings. The 2009 lineup comprises DVD and Blu-ray home-theater-in-a-box (HITB) kits, as well as those announced during January's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Here're the highlights of Panasonic's newly launched products. Home-theater-in-a-boxCompared with their predecessors, these new HTIB entries gone further with the whole bamboo cone driver and Kelton subwoofer treatment. Bamboo is said to have cleaner sounds and crisp vocal properties, while the latter is designed to deliver taut and deep bass. It's worth noting that these natural material-based drivers are now being deployed in both center and front speakers, too. Common features found throughout the range include an efficient digital amplifier (amp), 1080p DVD upscaling via HDMI output, and USB multimedia playback.For high-definition punters, Panasonic's second shot at a Blu-ray system comes in the form of its SC-BT205. This packs the company's PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus chip for video enhancement and handles all the niceties that come with this next-gen DVD format. These include onboard Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD decoding to playback studio-quality surround sound and BD-Live (available only with USB thumbdrive installed) for downloading bonus content from the Web via an Ethernet port. To further harness the Internet connection, the onboard VieraCast function enables YouTube videos and Picasa photo-streaming services to be displayed on the TV screen. On the DVD end is the SC-PT875 which ranks highest for power, thanks to a beefy 1,250W amp. It also comes standard with a wireless transmitter/receiver kit for the rear speakers, which are optional for the SC-BT205, SC-PT870 and SCT-PT570. Other value-added touches are the SC-PT875's built-in iPod dock and onscreen navigation menu, allowing playback of the media compilation in your Apple player using its bundled remote. Connectivity-wise, the DVD receiver offers optical digital audio and analog stereo inputs for hooking up settop boxes and consoles to provide multichannel effects. In addition, the surround sound setup is taken care of by an onboard automatic calibration system using a feedback microphone. Key specifications at a glance
Virtual surround speakersA perfect companion for its 25mm-thin Z-series plasma TV, the SC-ZT1 which comes equipped with a pair of 2.4GHz wireless pole speakers measuring a mere 24mm wide. For fuller-bodied sound, each of these boomboxes has a subwoofer and 80W amplifier integrated in the base. However, a separate power cord is required for each unit. According to Panasonic, the set can reproduce a virtual 7.1-channel sound field using proprietary 3D audio technology. However, another set of speakers can be added to further enhance surround sound steering.As the SC-ZT1 lacks disc playback capability, you'll need to set it up with a DVD or Blu-ray player. This is catered for by two HDMI inputs and a corresponding output for an HDTV. The ports support high-resolution Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD soundtracks, but these have to be decoded by a disc player and relayed in multichannel linear PCM (LPCM) format. In addition, you'll get four more audio-only inputs: Dual digital optical compatible with legacy Dolby Digital and DTS, plus two analog equivalents for stereo sound for your external decks. Key specifications at a glance
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