Another CEDIA come and gone. It was my fifteenth, and in many ways, the best yet. Like Fred, I'm very sad we won't be in Denver after this—he's right, that city is perfect for a convention. And from what I've heard, Atlanta ain't.

Fred's wrap-up—and, indeed, each of his blogs—is a gem of great writing, but he didn't explain the photo he posted with it. That scary-looking girl is one of the characters from the performance presented in SpeakerCraft's booth throughout the show—she was one of the zombie tap dancers captured by the evil flying monkey men.

Since Fred saw fit to post that pic, I thought it only fair to post a photo I took of two other characters from the show—the voodoo king and queen who got the whole story started. As I mentioned in my blog about it, the performance by Lucent Dossier was sort of like Cirque du Soleil, but much darker and sexier. I loved it!

Ahem, where was I? Oh yeah, CEDIA. There were some definite trends on the video side of things. Perhaps the most obvious was 2.35:1 super-widescreen projection—it seemed like virtually all projector companies are now offering this option. Most used an anamorphic lens affixed to the front of the projector, which stretches the image horizontally, along with electronic processing to stretch the image vertically. But a few, such as Panasonic's PT-AE3000, did it by zooming the primary lens so a 2.35 letterboxed image filled a 2.35 screen. This does not use the entire resolution of the imager, but it avoids any possibility of processing artifacts.

Another strong trend was the use of LEDs as a light source. This was most evident in LCD flat panels from Sony, Sharp, Samsung, and others, in which the LEDs behind the LCD panel can be independently dimmed in different areas of the image to enhance contrast and deepen blacks. Dolby has gotten into this game as well with its HDR (High Dynamic Range) system, which it licenses to manufacturers such as SIM2.

Also of great interest was the appearance of DLP front projectors that use LEDs as their light source. I saw two in action—one from Taiwanese manufacturer Chi Lin Technology and the other from Digital Projection. Both were in the early-prototype stage, and they were spec'd to output a mere 500 or 600 lumens, but the colors were spectacular, and there's no need to replace an expensive lamp every year or two. Look for such projectors some time next year.

Displays capable of 3D images (as long as you're wearing suitable glasses) made a strong showing as well. In addition to rear-pros from Mitsubishi and Samsung, several front projectors were breaking out of flatland, and Texas Instruments touted this capability at an after-hours bash where they presented Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D. Perhaps the most important product announcement in this regard was Da-Lite's 3D Virtual Grey projection screen designed specifically for 3D, which I blogged about earlier in this report.

One clear trend was the increasing quality of inexpensive projectors, such as those from Epson, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, and Sony. In addition, some high-end manufacturers such as SIM2 and projectiondesign introduced new models that are well below the cost of their other offerings, though still a lot more than the least-expensive models on the floor.

Among the demos I saw, the best images were produced by the JVC DLA-SH4KNLG projector (4096x2400) displaying native 4K content—its clarity and detail were jaw-dropping. Designed mostly for the professional market (flight simulators, medical imaging, that sort of thing), it can also be installed in a home theater for only $80,000, which is a bargain compared with the new Meridian projector based on the same chassis, which will set you back $185,000. Meridian's demo was limited to upconverting 1080p to 4K, which didn't show off the projector's full capabilities.

Back in the land of more reasonable prices, the best demo of a 1080p projector was a split decision. I was particularly impressed with the Samsung SP-A800B ($10,000) being demonstrated by Joe Kane on the new Da-Lite Affinity screen, which brought out more detail and contrast than even Joe thought the projector could do. Also impressive was projectiondesign's dual-lamp Optix ($26,000) and Sony's VPL-VW70 ($8000). At the less-expensive end of things, I loved the look of the Epson PowerLite Pro Cinema 7500 UB ($5000), SIM2 D60 ($5000), Mitsubishi HC7000 ($4000), and Sony VPL-HW10 ($3500).

In terms of LCD flat panels, the LED-backlit models from Sony, Sharp, and Samsung looked amazing, with inky blacks and stunning colors, even on the brightly lit show floor. The Sony and Sharp models use red, green, and blue LEDs, while the Samsung uses white, but all offer local dimming, which results in a fantastic contrast ratio. Yes, it really works.

So there you have it—another CEDIA enters the history books. Most exhibitors I spoke with were certain that attendance was down due to the recession, and CEDIA's final figures confirmed it—25,000 attendees this year compared with 29,000 in 2007, a decrease of 14%. Still, the show was a big success for anyone interested in home theater, with lots of new products that are sure to keep us busy until next year's Expo.

BTW, I echo Fred's invitation to let us know how we did with our show coverage. What did we do right? What could be improved? Your feedback will help us deliver the information you want even better in the future, so don't be shy. You can post a comment here or e-mail me at scott.wilkinson@sourceinterlink.com.

CEDIA 2008 was a microcosm of Denver itself. Nearly limitless with possibilities and expertly laid out, the show was a smash!

Only Scott and I were covering the show for UAV, so the division of labor was pretty easy. Scott would do video, I would do audio, and we would split coverage of the high-def players. Scott said he would cover the Blu-ray players, and I could have all the HD DVD players I could handle.

All the big AVR manufacturers were pumping out in-processor Dolby TrueHD and dts-HD MA decoding. Even Panasonic's SA-BX500 receiver ($799) will feature these, not just higher-end units like the Yamaha RX-Z7 (which, at $2,700 is going to be hard to beat I think).

More trends—Sirius and XM satellite-radio readiness. No longer reserved for the flagships, they were filtering down to midrange receivers. Ditto with Internet radio, which, to me, is even more significant because it's free and limitless (there's that word again!)

Speakers were everywhere, too, but guess what—either they were powered off and you couldn't hear them, or they were powered up and you didn't want to. That's right, a convention center is not the ideal place for critical listening. You can build a perfectly black room for showing video, and there were plenty of good video demos going on (or so I heard, humph). And you bet they had impressively loud audio too. But you needed a boisterous soundtrack to cut through the sound of the 80dB fans used to vent heat away from the carbon units piled into theater seats. Loud, fun, but critical listening? Nope, not here.

Down the street at the Denver Athletic Club, the T.H.E. show offered two demonstration rooms not plagued with noise gremlins. I ran over there late Saturday to hear Magnepan's demonstration of its motorized hinged speaker serving as surrounds and a split center, its large 3.6 serving the front-channel stereo pair, a subwoofer or three, and Ayre electronics. Of course, it sounded great. They're Magnepans, after all.

The other room at the DAC (he he) was Martin Logan's presentation of its CLX speaker. Ditto on the great sound, quite familiar to me, a long time M-L fan. If I was going 2-channel only, I'd rob a bank to get these babies in my listening room. After asking Dennis C. if his musical selection was to be viewed as punishment for infractions as yet unidentified, he relented and let me put on Bill Evans' Live at the Village Vanguard and Elton John's Madman Across the Water. At an order of magnitude more in cost than the Magnepans in the room down the hall, I'd give the M-Ls the nod as best sound I heard at the show.

Separates are still the orphan child of the home-theater market. Marantz, for instance, has one pre/pro. Done. Ditto Integra. You have to go to Sonic Frontiers and Anthem to get a little variety. Today when you say separates, the world thinks media servers. I couldn't get to any of those, not with the little time we had and the embarrassingly rich offerings found at every turn.

How was our show coverage? What should we doing differently? Let us know!

Pioneer debuted another high-end Blu-ray player at the show, shown here in a cool 3D "exploded view" that highlights the player's isolated circuit boards. It's BD-Live with a whopping 4GB of onboard memory and two HDMI outputs. A Pioneer-developed video chip processes 8-bit video with 16-bit resolution, and a Marvell Qdeo handles the scaling. The BDP-09FD should be available in December for $2000. Also at the show were the Elite BDP-05FD ($800, shipping now) and the Pioneer-brand BDP-51FD ($600, shipping now), both Profile 1.1 with the same Pioneer processor (12-bit instead of 16). Power-up and load times are said to be much faster than previous generations.

Video guru Joe Kane was demonstrating the Samsung SP-A800B projector that he helped design (review forthcoming), but it wasn't on a Stewart screen as usual. Instead, he was using a new screen material he developed with Da-Lite. Dubbed JKP Affinity (JKP = Joe Kane Productions), the new material is exceedingly flat with no diffusing granules as on many types of projection screens. This is said to improve flat-field uniformity and depth of modulation by reducing light scatter, leading to greater detail and contrast because adjacent areas of the image don't interfere with each other. The current material has a gain of 0.9 and should be available in a few weeks. The demo was impressive indeed, with exceptional detail and uniformity; can't wait to shine my light on one.

High-end Blu-ray players made quite a showing at CEDIA, including the BDP-S5000ES from Sony, shown here from the front and back. It's BD-Live, and it even comes with a 1GB USB memory module to enable that functionality. The player decodes all the advanced audio codecs and offers a 7.1-channel analog output. It should start shipping in November for around $2000.

One of the big themes are CEDIA this year was 3D, and Da-Lite was in the thick of it with a new screen material called 3D Virtual Grey (though I would have used the American spelling "Gray"). Designed for 3D applications, the material is said to retain 99% of the incident light's polarization, which is the key to achieving a good 3D effect using polarized light and passive glasses. The demo looked quite good, smoother than most I've seen, which could be due in part to the fact that the real-life material was shot stereoscopically with two cameras and the CGI was created specifically for 3D.

Fred already posted a photo of SpeakerCraft's Pod City booth, but he didn't tell you about the amazing performance presented therein thrice daily. Resembling Cirque du Soleil, this LA-based troupe is called Lucent Dossier, and the story they told was one of dark dreams, zombie tap-dancing gone awry, and evil flying monkey men seduced by a beautiful belly dancer. You really had to be there…

Microsoft announced the winner of its Ultimate Install Contest in a corporate suite at Coors Field before the Colorado Rockies took on the Houston Astros—and lost. The Jumbotron's depressing announcement only added to the crowd's growing disappointment.

For the second year, Microsoft held a contest to find the best custom installation based on Windows Media Center technology. This year, the winner was cyberManor for its extensive whole-house installation in Silicon Valley. Pictured (L to R) are Microsoft's Kevin Collins, Cybermanor's Gordon van Zuiden, and Microsoft's Todd Rutherford.

I first saw Hitachi's 1.5 line of LCD TVs—so called because they are 1.5 inches think—at CES last January. New at CEDIA is the 47-inch version, which will list for $3700 when it ships in October.

Runco wasn't the only brand with a new in-wall rear-pro. Digital Projection was showing its Titan RP97, which mounts a Titan 1080p-500 projector behind a 97-inch-diagonal "optical black screen" with 0.85 gain that completely rejects ambient light. Touting this system as an alternative to large-screen plasmas (think Panasonic's 103-inch monster), it's fully self-contained and supports its own weight so the wall doesn't have to. You'll shell out $100,000 for it, but the Panasonic 103 is even more than that, making the Titan RP97 a bargain.

I almost missed the non-working prototype of Oppo's long-awaited BDP-83 Blu-ray player in one corner of the DVDO booth. Not much was revealed except that it will be BD-Live and have 7.1-channel analog outputs. Oh yeah, it will also have the DVDO VRS processing onboard thanks to a new chip, the ABT2010, which is also used in the new Edge processor.

If you can't afford the $3500 DVDO VP50 Pro video processor from Anchor Bay Technologies, here's some great news: a new processor called the Edge that incorporates the power of the VP50 Pro in a svelte package costing only $800. It's less customizable and has no grayscale or color-point control, but it does provide outstanding noise reduction and deinterlacing as well as basic picture controls for each input, of which there are 6 HDMIs.

Both the Auditor M and the Cremona M are part of the Cremona series characterized by their grill cloth which consists of fabric like strings. $5,500-$6,000 for the Center and $5,895/pr for the Auditor M.

A small two-way meant for on wall placement. $5,895/pr. Available in natural maple (shown) or graphite.

Feast your eyes on the redesigned cabinetry of the Aerial 7C. Curvy lines are definitely in.

Michael Kelly stands next to his updated 20T speaker. German manufactured speaker material includes carbon fiber. The cast ribbon guide is a custom piece as well.

It's for real! More details further down (way way way further down) in the show report.

Hidden in a hotel suite near the convention center, Taiwanese company Chi Lin Technology showed an early prototype of what the company claims to be the world's first LED-illuminated DLP front projector (though I doubt it will be the first to market; Optoma and Digital Projection are working on similar products). Based on the 0.95" DarkChip3 DMD, the illumination source is the PhlatLite LED module from Luminus. This puppy draws up to 3 amps of current to achieve a final peak light output of 600 lumens, requiring liquid cooling to prevent meltdown. It's worth it if the claimed contrast ratio of 100,000:1 can actually be reached. The unit I saw was an early prototype; the product is slated for sale in the third quarter of 2009.

The front panel LCD screen is an integral part of the new SSP220. It looks great, as does the rear panel connection which feature both single-ended and balanced outputs. Video processing includes converting component to HDMI up to 1080p. It's good to see some high end companies like Halcro getting into the home theater game, even if the SSP220 is $12,000!