Everyone loves to talk about how 1080p at 24 frames per second is the holy grail of the ultimate HD movie experience. But the truth is that even if you are watching a Blu-ray movie via HDMI with the latest player set to 24p, there's a good chance it's all for naught because your HDTV is just converting the signal to another frame rate. But not all TVs do this, some can actually do it right and instead of using 2:3 pulldown it can do something like a 3:3 conversion and display the signal at 72hz -- for example. The problem of course is how can you tell which TVs do it right and which do it wrong? Well, thankfully a resourceful member of the AVS Forum -- with some help of other members -- has comprised a list to save you the hassle. So if you're in the market for a new HDTV and you just have to watch your movies at the native frame rate, then head on over and pick one from the list of front projectors, rear projectors, LCDs, or plasmas.

With a name like BlackWing, it's gotta be good, right? At least that looks to be the case with Cineversum's latest trio of BlackWing Three projectors, as these bad boys sport a design eerily reminiscent of something straight out of the Star Wars galaxy and a specs sheet that impressed even Yoda would be. The entire trio gets blessed with a 30,000:1 contrast ratio, 1,920 x 1,080 Full HD resolution, two HDMI 1.3 inputs, Color-Select filters for wider color reproduction and a motorized zoom / focus. As for the Pro model, you can expect everything you see above coupled with an optional SD-SDI input and 12V triggers board, professional color management tools and VGA compatibility. Finally, the Ultimate ups the ante a touch further with two more HDMI 1.3 sockets, Mosquito Noise Reduction technology and Theater Mode for 2.35:1 anamorphic setups. 'Tis a shame these start at £8,199 ($15,955), isn't it?

[Via AboutProjectors]

Considering that Panasonic was showing off its newest Blu-ray recorders at CEATEC, we're not too shocked to hear that Toshiba was touting a trio of its own for the HD DVD camp. All three units sport the ability to "transcode in real-time an off-the-air MPEG2 high-definition signal into the more efficient MPEG4 AVC compression system," and while we're not sure how capacious they'll be, it was noted that these devices would include an internal hard drive to compliment the HD DVD writer. The flagship RD-X7 features 1080p24 output, while the RD-A101 / RD-A201 "didn't appear to offer this output based on available information from Toshiba." Per usual, we're still playing the wait-and-see game when it comes to pricing and release dates.

It's one buzz word after another in the world of HD and the latest is 24p, but what's the big deal? How can less frames per second be better? Like most things that don't make sense, the reason isn't a good one. Without going into much detail, the reason is because movies have been shot at 24 fps for years and to watch a movie at any other frame rate means there's some funny business going on. The problem is that most TVs can't display video at this rate, so even if your player can, you're probably still watching it at 60hz. Then to top it off, if you don't see any judder now, then why worry about it in the first place? Either way, if you want to try to understand the entire mess, follow the read link over to HighDefDigest and read there comprehensive write-up on What's the Big Deal About 1080p24?

Looks like those whispers we heard about Sharp's forthcoming announcement of (yet another) Blu-ray player were true, as the firm has chosen CEDIA as the locale to introduce the US market to its slim-profile AQUOS BD player." The BD-HP20U will be the first product "outside of the Sharp LCD suite to carry the AQUOS name," and will feature HDMI 1.3, 1080p24 support, AQUOS LINK, component outputs, compatibility with the lossless audio formats, and 1080p upscaling of vanilla DVDs. According to Sharp, the unit itself will boast a "piano black finish with one of the slimmest designs in the industry," and if all goes as planned, we should actually see this one hit shelves later this month for $549.99.

Not wanting to be outdone by all those other guys loosing LCDs at IFA, Sharp has stepped up and unveiled two new lineups of AQUOS sets in Berlin. The XL2E series, which includes models 42-, 46-, and 52-inches in size, will all offer up 100Hz technology, be Full HD ready, and will even support 24p. Moreover, the trio will tout a 10,000:1 contrast ratio, a built-in DVB-T tuner (and an analog one, too), VGA input, integrated speakers, and three HDMI connectors to boot. As for the X20E series, you'll find 32-, 37-, 42-, 46-, and 52-inch flavors, all of which support 1080p24, feature three HDCP-compliant HDMI ports, and "a slot for CI cards to receive pay TV." The new AQUOS members are slated to land in Europe sometime before the year's end, but pricing details look to still be up in the air.

[Via Pocket-Lint]

Just months after upping its line of Bordeaux PAVV LCDs to 17,000:1 in the contrast ratio department, Samsung is outdoing itself once more with the supposedly-titled LN40 (40-inch) and 46F81BD (46-inch). Aside from all that contrast, the sets also boast a sexy black frame, 120Hz Auto Motion Plus technology, 1080p24 support, integrated speakers, HDMI inputs, and System Link, which reportedly enables the display to connect to the internet. No details surrounding price or availability at the moment, but click on through for a few more showcase shots.

[Via AkihabaraNews]

The PlayStation 3's latest firmware update is out in Japan, adding an option to force 1080p/24 Blu-ray/DVD playback to the console, among other features. Continuing the steady flow of updates for the PS3, v1.90 also adds playback for AVCHD files from Memory Stick or digital camera, upscaling for audio CD output over HDMI or optical output, the ability to change XMB wallpaper, adjust video output settings for PSOne and PS2 game while in game and an "eject disc" option on the XMB. The official PlayStation Blog says the update is "coming soon" to the U.S. so keep that 24fps-compatible HDTV ready for judder-free movie playback.

Update: Added in this update is the ability to "force" 24fps output, which should fix compatibility issues with certain displays. (Thanks Mp3)

Read - PlayStation.Blog
Read - Impress

What better way to start the day than with a pair of big-azz 120Hz LCD televisions with integrated HD recorders? Meet the new 52- and 46-inch REGZA H3300 sets for Japan. Each features a bevy of tuners and 300GB slot loading disk with a hunger for more via eSATA expansion. With support for 1080p (60p/24p) frame rates over 2x HDMI, Tosh's 120Hz panels will surely make the most of your native 24fps programming (read: Blu-ray or HD DVD films) without any messy frame doubling or interpolation (24 x 5 = 120, after all). But it's your world, and we're just a squirrel trying to get a nut, so the ¥620,000 (about $5,099) for the 52H3300 or ¥520,000 (about $4,276) for the 46H3300 makes us want to move our butt. Everybody dance now! Um, sorry for that.

[Via Impress]

Sony has finally officially announced its first standalone Blu-ray player for the European market. Just like the PlayStation 3, a several month delay on the hardware has resulted in a few hardware revisions, however instead of limited backwards compatibility, the new BDP-S1E adds HDMI 1.3 and x.v. Colour support -- for AVC-HD-encoded discs -- to the package. Along with 1080p/24 output from the earlier model, this should make it an excellent player for aficionados demanding that "film-like" experience when paired with any of the new BRAVIAs hitting the market soon. With the BDP-S1E due this summer, no word on a price, or if Europe will ever see the BDP-S300 that should be launching in the U.S. around that time, but since its not a continent of "cheap people", we're sure they'll be able to deal with it.


[Via Crave]

Unfortunately they were only given a passing mention during Sony's CES press conference earlier, but a quick look at the fact sheet revealed a few additional details about these two second generation Blu-ray players with launch and price TBA. Named Sapphire 1 and 2, we don't know what makes them different from each other, but the only features listed are 1080p24 output, and support for x.v.Color, Sony's term for the xvYCC expanded color space. Of course, we're most interested in seeing if they can load a Blu-ray movie as fast as the PlayStation 3, but that remains to be seen. Impress Watch got a look at the two players, but it will likely be a while before we find out more about what the followups to Sony's BDP-S1 will be capable of.

[Via Impress]

LG is already bringing 1080p content and a hybrid Blu-ray / HD DVD drive to CES, and it just wouldn't make sense not to have brand new displays too, so the company plans to unveil a slew of new plasmas next week. The literally biggest news, however, is that the company's 71-inch 1080p plasma HDTV that started shipping early last year, will drop its MSRP from $70,000 to a mere $14,999.95 (we can assume losing the 24 carat gold paint helped drop prices a little). Since not everyone can take out a wall to fit their new plasma TV, LG is prepping many smaller models for next week's show. Each and every one is capable of "full HD", ready to accept and 24, 30 or 60 frame rate 1080p source you throw at them. The 42- and 52-inch PC5D series represent the "vanilla" HDTVs, including Clear Filter Pro technology to reduce reflection, Extreme Contour Compensation to improve color transitions and LG Simple Link connectivity to control compatible HDMI-CEC devices. The PY3D line comes in 50- and 60-inch sizes, featuring three HDMI inputs and USB Media Host capability to playback music and photos (but not video) from connected devices. The PB4D series builds on those features by adding 160GB HD DVRs integrated into 42-, 50- and 60-inch plasmas with LG's "time machine" time shifting technology, and a newly added ability to record video at 480p from any external source via the component jacks. Last but not least of course is the 71-inch 71PY1M, with the most important feature of being bigger than your neighbor's plasma (unless you live next door to Mark Cuban). Whether you're looking for a simple 1080p plasma, media hub, DVR or just a massive HDTV at a "low" price, it appears LG will have a plasma for everyone at CES 2007.

While Toshiba's latest HD DVD player, the HD-XA2, should finally be shipping today, Silicon Optix has dropped more details on its Reon-VX chip that enables 1080p output. As mentioned previously, instead of outputting 1080i, the HQV chip deinterlaces the 1080i signal within the player itself using per-pixel motion-adaptive deinterlacing to ensure that what gets to the screen is free of jaggies and artifacting. A digital 1080i signal to a 1080p display should be able to be deinterlaced within the TV with no loss of picture quality, but since not all TVs are capable of the task without losing some visual information in the process, this solution should provide the highest, most consistent picture quality available. This same deinterlacing technology -- combined with the enhanced 297MHz video DAC and additional picture quality settings -- is used to enhance SD material, such as SD extras and regular DVDs. All this sounds great in theory, but we have to get the actual hardware in our hands to see if it stands up to the 1080p24 capable Sony BDP-S1 and Pioneer BDP-HD1.

Toshiba has launched its first second generation HD DVD player, the HD-A2, but the more fully featured HD-XA2 will not see daylight until 2007. We had expected to see the player this year, but a dealer's post on AVS Forum indicates the first shipment isn't expected to hit until January 3rd due to production delays. AV Watch confirms the player has been pushed back to January in Japan as well, while the rest of the world should still see this hardware later on in the year. DTV Tivo Dealer on AVS Forum also noted that while 1080p/24 playback -- currently only an option in a couple of Blu-ray players -- won't make launch, he is "100% sure" a future firmware upgrade within a few months will add it as an option. That puts the $999 HD-XA2 on the long list of next gen players with future firmware updates on the way, but we'd settle for it actually being available in the first place.

Read - AVS Forum
Read - AV Watch

The Sony BDP-S1 Blu-ray player is finally available to the masses, but how does it stack up against other players on the market, or even Sony's own PlayStation 3? HDGuru has put up a review of the unit after testing it out on a Panasonic TH-50PX600 plasma. One major complaint are the loading times, with it taking well over a minute from power on to actually playing a movie, as well as some lag on commands via the remote. Still, that $999.95 does buy the first player capable of 1080p/24 output and didn't display the annoying visual problems encountered by the earlier Samsung BD-P1000. The pack-in copy of The Fifth Element still looks as bad as ever but other Blu-ray releases show the potential of the format. Just like the PS3, it's BYOC for HDMI and component connections, that a high definition player doesn't include a way for it to connect to an HDTV is still just silly. CD playback is also not a part of the package, but future firmware updates will add Blu-ray Java and BD-R/BD-RE compatibility. Without features like HDMI 1.3 and BD-Live support, it's tough to see this as a good buy right now but we'll see if the picture quality is worth it to some.

[Via HDBlog.net]