Cowon P5 Specifications
Display: 5″ Wide Touch Haptic TFT LCD
Pixel Format: 800×480
Contrast Ratio: 450:1
Brightness: 420 cd/m2
CPU: 700MHz RMI Alchemy AU1250
HDD: 60GB or 80GB 1.8″ (FAT32 File System), 76Mbps Write, 64Mbps Read
Memory: 256MB mDOC-H3, 128MB DDR2 SDRAM
Connectivity: USB, USB Host, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR and A2DP and AVRCP, Component, S-Video, Composite, WiFi (via USB dongle)
Tuner: T-DMB, FM Radio
Speakers: Stereo
OS: Windows CE 5.0
Video Support: Max 720 x 480 @ 30fps, AVI, ASF, WMV, MPG, OGM, DivX, Xvid, MPEG4, WMV9
Audio Support: MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG2.5, MP3, WMA, AC3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, WAV, MusePack, WavPack
Image Support: JPG, BMP, PNG, RAW up to 2560 x 1920
Battery: Lithium Polymer, 9 hours (video), 14 hours (audio), 8 hours (DMB), 300 hours (standby), 5.5 hours to charge
Colors: Black, Red, Platinum
Dimensions: 138.8 x 88.5 x 20.0mm
Weight: 380g
Availability: July 29, 2008 in South Korea
Cowon: This little portable multimedia player (PMP) from Cowon is quite sexy. The P5, like the name suggests, has a 5-inch wide TFT LCD with touch and haptic capability. The LCD sports a pixel format of 800×480 and can playback a variety of video formats including AVI, ASF, MPEG4 and others. Gallery after the jump.
Of course, it being a PMP, playback of audio and images files are supported. The P5 can also connect to T-DMB broadcasts for live TV on-the-go as well as FM radio. It can also voice record. The T5 comes in three colors: red, platinum and black. All three colors are based on a brushed aluminum design, which makes it ultra modern looking. The only thing about the P5 that makes it less than perfect is the use of an external USB dongle for WiFi connectivity. The P5 is still quite the sexy PMP in my book.
Sony KDL-40E4000 Specifications
Display: 40″ 10-bit TFT LCD with WCG-CCFL
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Pixel Format: 1920 x 1080
Contrast: 33,000:1 (dynamic)
Color Gamut: x.v.Color
Viewing Angle: 178/178
Video Processing: BRAVIA Engine 2
Tuner: ATSC and NTSC Built-In
Connectivity: HDMI (3, 1080/24p support), VGA, SCART (2)
Dimensions:
100.6 x 69.5 x 28.3cm (with stand)
100.6 x 64.5 x 11.4cm (without stand)
Power Consumption: 176W (operational), 0.19W (standby)
Sony UK: The Sony KDL-40E4000 is a 40-inch LCD TV that looks more like a picture frame. You can imagine the 40″ LCD TV as a huge digital photo frame. And that’s exactly how Sony would like you to think when the TV is on standby. The picture frame design looks very nice. To make sure the picture looks as good as possible, the KDL-40E4000 LCD TV incorporates some of the latest advancements including a x.v.Color gamut that improves color fidelity as well as good viewing angles (178/178). The x.v.Color is enabled by the use of a wide color gamut CCFL (WCG-CCFL). The video processing isn’t he very best, but the BRAVIA Engine 2 is an improvement over the previous versions and should be able to provide very good results when using the TV as a TV.
Samsung LN46A650 Specifications
Display: 46″ Wide TFT LCD
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Pixel Format: 1920 x 1080
Contrast Ratio: 50,000:1 (Dynamic)
Viewing Angle: 178/178
Response Time: 4ms
Frequency: 120Hz (Auto Motion Plus)
Video Processing: DNIe
Connectivity: HDMI (4), Composite, VGA, S-Video, Component (2)
Other: Energy Star
Dimensions: 44.5 x 30.5 x 11.0″ (With Stand), 44.5 x 28.1 x 3.7″ (Without Stand)
Weight: 58.6lbs (With Stand), 49.2lbs (Without Stand)
Price: $2299.99
Samsung: The Samsung LN46A650 is a 46″ 1080p LCD TV sporting the company’s Touch of Color design theme that infuses a bit of color (in this case, red) into the casing. The dynamic contrast ratio of 50,000:1 should provide really great images while watching motion picture. And the motion picture should have little to no motion blur thanks to motion blur busting 120Hz frequencies combined with a relatively fast response time of 4ms.
Samsung’s Auto Motion Plus 120Hz technology incorporates motion interpolation, which inserts an extra frame by calculating an extra frame based on the previous and next frames to generate an ultra-smooth picture. The only thing missing is a LED backlight, but for $2299.99, Samsung’s LN46A650 can be considered quite a bargain for all the features you get.
Update 2008.12.10 11:32AM PST: LCD TV prices have come down quite a bit in the last couple of months. The LN46A650 can now be had for just $1554.12 at Amazon.com. Customer reviews, there are 486 of them, are very positive with 428 giving the LN46A650 5 out of 5 stars. If you are very sensitive to glare, make sure lighting is optimally placed (or turned off). The combination of 120Hz, 1080p capability, fast response times, great viewing angle and contrast ratio should yield some very impressive pictures!
Sanyo XACTI DMX-HD800 Specifications
Display: 2.7″
Image Sensor: 8MP 1/2.5″ CMOS
Zoom: 5x Optical
External Storage: SD, SDHC
Video Support: AVC (H.264)
Colors: Gold, Pink, Black
Availability: August 22, 2008 in Japan
Price: JPY50,000 (about US$463)
Impress → Akihabara News → Engadget: Sanyo announced its XACTI DMX-HD800 digital camcorder, an improved model from the vastly popular DMX-HD700 that was introduced in September 2007. In about 10 months, Sanyo was able to improve the 720p digital camcorder quite a bit. The improvement comes mostly in video quality, according to Akihabara News, thanks to Sanyo’s 3DDNR three dimensional noise filter. The HDMX-HD800 records 1280×720 videos in AVC (H.264) format.
The DMX-HD800 can also take 8MP still images, which is quite a bit. Normally, a device like the HD800 that tries to do both video and still images can result in one suffering in quality. It seems the HD800 has the video part down solid. I hope the still images are of high quality as well. If so, that would mean a single device for recording video and taking pictures. That would be nice.
For the majority of consumers the HD800′s 720p format should be plenty, especially if you have a LCD TV that has a pixel format of 1366×768. However, the trend seems to be toward 1080p for LCD TVs and video content (e.g. Blu-ray). If you want to use every pixel of your newly bought 1080p LCD TV, you’ll need to save up quite a bit more for a 1080p capable digital camcorder that can record in 1920 x 1080. But if you’re not in the 1080p crowd and want the best 720p camcorder, Sanyo’s DMX-HD800 will definitely require a thorough look.
Micro Newswire: Rogers, the Canadian carrier that will be offering Apple’s iPhone 3G, has launched a promotional offer of 6GB for $30 per month for the data portion of the iPhone 3G. Engadget says that it is “not quite unlimited data, but close enough”. But we need to realize that AT&T’s definition of unlimited data is not quite unlimited.
As far as I know, AT&T (and others) have its own definition of unlimited: 5GB per month. So Rogers is upping the game. But here’s the catch: Canadians will require a THREE year contract and do it before August 31. There will be a July 11 launch at 8am at six Rogers Plus stores in major Canadian cities. And get this: you folks get free breakfast too. Before this change of heart, Rogers was charging an arm and a leg.