Today’s Cool Hardware

Sonos Digital Music System.  Here is a great solution for folks who have an iPod (or other portable MP3 player), and have therefore burned all their favorite music to a computer hard drive in order to load it to their iPod, but would also like to enjoy that music library through their existing home theater or audio system.  The Sonos system directly accesses your computer’s hard drive via a network connection and allows you to play all your digital music files through any stereo system or home theater.  And because the Sonos is multi-zone capable, you can enjoy that music anywhere in your house  The Sonos system is that rare bird:  a high-tech cutting edge product that isn’t quirky or fussy to operate.  The slick 2 –way remote control displays album track and artist info, plus cover art.  It allows you to create your own playlists to suit every mood or situation, or just listen to your favorite Internet radio station.  Very cool, operates just as described, and setup is (reasonably) straightforward.  You can do it yourself or have your favorite pros (like us!) come out and set it up for you.  The $999 ZP80 Bundle includes the capacity for 2 music zones.

Today’s Cool Software The NBA Playoffs on ESPN-HD.  Of all the sports you can watch in high definition, I think my favorite is basketball.  Yes, the NFL is spectacular in high-def, but watching basketball in high definition is a qualitatively different experience than watching it on a regular TV.  The sheer athleticism of the players is astounding to experience, and high definition brings it to you with an immediacy that is comparable to sitting courtside in the arena.  And this year’s playoffs are particularly entertaining, with the running Suns playing the excellent Mavericks, and the old-school Heat playing the rough-and-tumble Pistons.  The NBA is certainly “back,” in my book, and even better in HD.

Pioneer Debuts Exciting New Technologies at their Dealer ShowOur VP Merchandising, Dave Glassman, and I always look forward to seeing what Pioneer has “up their sleeve” in the coming year, so we were eagerly anticipating this year’s dealer show in Anaheim.  After all, Pioneer has been a wonderful partner to MyerEmco, and their Elite-branded plasma flat panel displays and DVD players are widely thought to be the finest on the planet. Pioneer debuted their 7th generation of plasma displays at this event and though the changes are evolutionary, the bar definitely continues to be raised.  The panels looked outstanding at this event, brighter yet with improved black levels, and beautiful, truer and more vivid colors.  And connectivity has improved greatly, with better options and no need to for a separate media box.Pioneer also debuted the industry’s first 1080p plasma display (see my explanation of 1080p in my last blog entry).  To my eye, it actually unseats the Sony 46” Qualia LCD panel as the finest HDTV display I have ever experienced.  I can’t wait to see the production model, which I will certainly review in a future blog entry.  At $10,000, it needs to be the best!!

The Pioneer Blu-Ray high definition DVD player will ship in September at a retail of $1499.  We experienced Blu-Ray just a couple of days after experiencing the rival HD-DVD format at the Toshiba event earlier that same week (yes, we traveled a lot this month!).  I can tell you that my initial belief that the Blu-Ray format is superior was reinforced at this event.  The 1080p Pioneer Blu-Ray player outputting into a 1080p Pioneer plasma display was an absolutely astonishingly good picture.  But HD-DVD is excellent as well, and it’s here now and only $500.  It looks like Samsung (June) and Sony (August) will be the first to market with this exciting new technology, and you can bet they will be in our stores.

These are exciting times in the world of HDTV…

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