The company soon to be known as JVC Kenwood Holdings is kicking off its six month long summer road trip this month to show its wares to the masses. There are 30 pushpins on the "JVC Hi-Def Experience" map, spread across 19 states. That's a lot of ground to cover, so there are two teams -- one for the East and another for the West. The stops will coincide with local events, such as NASCAR races, fairs and festivals. This looks to be a JVC-only event -- Kenwood car stereos which seem like a natural fit for NASCAR events aren't featured. Check out the event web site and see where to go to get some quality time with Everio camcorders, P-series LCDs (with iPod docks and no longer available in Japan), or the Pioneer Kuro doppelganger HD100 projectors. If you catch it, share the details in the comments below!

[Via TWICE]

Flat panel manufacturer's disgusting obsession with being thin is coming to a high-end location near you, thanks to Hitachi's "Thin is in Motion" campaign. Focused on its 1.5-inch thick ultra-thin family of LCDs, the company is sending four trucks around the country equipped with 32- and 37-inch display models on rotating pedestals (because who doesn't watch their HDTV from the back or side angle?) to show off how thin they are. We wouldn't advise showing these to impressionable "fat" panels, for fear of psychological damage.

Just in case you thought Disney's support of the Blu-ray format might be slipping, the company is taking its show on the road with an 18-city mall tour to promote the format. Disney's Magical Blu-ray tour, sponsored by fellow Blu-ray backers and experienced mall-tourers Panasonic, starts August 17th and aims to educate customers about the format with interactive demos of Blu-ray movies and hourly presentations on Blu-ray tech. While consumer confusion over high definition in general and the format war specifically is definitely a problem, we have a feeling that "education" will go a lot more smoothly once hardware prices drop a bit more. Check the link for dates the tour is coming near you, no word on if the HD DVD tour plans to crash any stops.

With the big holiday selling season coming up, Panasonic is hitting the road to "educate" consumers on the benefits of its plasma TVs. Featured most prominently in this roadshow is the famed 103-inch 1080p plasma, but more affordable 37-, 42-, 50- and 58-inch 720p models will make an appearance as well. The current 65-inch 1080p plasma will also be on show, but still no word on when the U.S. will see the new 1080p PZ600U series that would go so well with that new DMP-BD10. Between this and its Plasma Concierge program, Panasonic is doing a lot to capitalize on alleviate buyer confusion about HDTVs, if you live near Tyson's Corner Center Mall in Washington D.C. stop by and have a look today. Good luck at getting a pic of yourself next to that 103-incher in the Flickr pool before Mark Cuban.

The HD DVD tour isn't spending all its time in New York hanging out at the Today Show's new HD studios, its pulled up to Digital Life 2006 at the Javits Center. In a press release issued by the North American HD DVD Promotional Group there were also new details about the upcoming December 5th release of Miami Vice on HD DVD; like Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift and Accepted, it will include U-control special features. Viewers can check out specs on cars and boats featured in the movie, track car chases through Miami streets via GPS, or look at production photos and cast details while the movie continues to play. Firing off more shots in the format war, the group also announced statistics from AC Nielsen showing HD DVD owners have already purchased an average of 8.4 titles each, and Nielsen Videoscan numbers indicating HD DVD outsold "competing formats" -- we're pretty sure they don't mean VMD -- by nearly 3:1 in August. The best defense is a good offense, and the HD DVD camp is taking the big Blu-ray holiday push head-on, showcasing not just new movies but also new hardware like the Xbox 360 HD DVD player and upcoming Toshiba HD-XA2.

HD DVD's promotional bandwagon is going to take to the road after Cedia '06. The format is going to tour the country courteous of a tricked out semi loaded with more TVs and HD DVD players then the guys at Pimp My Ride could handle. You have to check out the pics of this mobile entertainment, lets be honest here, sales floor. There is a theater, laptop stations, plasma TVs, and they are all in the same place. It's almost like going to a Circuit City or Best Buy, but tent sale style. Of course there isn't anything a person can pick up and buy at this event, but the exhibitors are trying to sell you something: the HD DVD format. According to the informational page, the tour is going to travel to over a dozen cities from coast-to-coast, but the tour map only shows seven cities, so lets assume they haven't updated the map just yet. Oh, and just a warning, turn down your speakers before you click the read link.

JVC has hit the road and coming to a major city near you. This years "The JVC Perfect Experience Road Tour" is bringing you new HD-ILA HDTVs and Everio, their hard disk drive camcorders. They have two decked out tour buses, one for each side of the country, and they are going to run for 90 days. The tour is going to visit retail locations in 34 states to train employees and educate customers. Because of the amount of area they are going to cover, the buses are going to stop at three or four stores during the weekdays to train the employees, but on the weekends, the tents go up and the fun starts for the average Joe. The tour starts in Tampa, FL on June 23rd.