Control over HDMI has been part of the standards since the very start.
In fact in the first documentation there is a complete protocol set.
However it is up to the individual mfgr. to turn these features on.
it is important to note the the HDMI standard is really a set of features that CAN be available for a product, there is actually very little that is mandatory.
In the coming year you will see products that are HDMI/Serial and HDMI/IR (hopefully from me first).
While there is much hoopla about 1.3 there is not much need for it.
1.2 will support ANYTHING that is currently (and for the not so near future) available (note: HD Audio can be supported on 1.2).
HDMI range is getting better, because of restorers and better cable construction (thurs @ CES I connected our 45m and our 30m cables together into our restorer and it worked great).
We will be seeing a lot more cheap china stuff in the next few months, every day of the show some far east cable company came by to sell me there repeater and/or switcher.
All were much cheaper than my basic materials cost (FOB Hong Kong) none were certified (too expensive, we no do).
While I am sure that these will be sold thru some of the reputable cable companies we (Ethereal) will not touch them (my sour grapes for the day).
There will be more news in the next week as I get it all together from the show.

Also: Thanks to all who stoped by to say hello.

to sell me "their" repeater... if you care

brent, do you know anyone implementing hdmi CEC besides panasonic?
thx

Thank You "AI" (took me a minute to figure out what you were saying).
Julie; I will look into it this week.

I guess no one went to the Pioneer demo of the 8th gen panels then huh?

I am amazed you are the only one commenting on this. I was one of the lucky ones to see it and it was such a leap in picture quality over traditional plasmas.

The best black shadow detail I have ever seen in any digital display device. The image was three dimensional & popped off the screen. Letterboxed bars were deep black so much in the fact you could not see the bars when there was a dark scene. It was very CRT like but with resolution only a 1080P image could provide. Colors were breathtaking deep & intense.

Screen surface was redone not nearly as reflective very little glare. Looked great even in ambient light. Contrast was still excellent when there was light in the room.

Pioneer told me that contrast was better than 20,000 to 1. Actually their buzz phrase was that is unmeasurable. Pricing to be close to existing plasma pricing now. Will not be an elite only product. Available this summer by 2Q

Pioneer really blew it by how they presented it. Special presentation room only would seat 30 people at a time. Demo time 15 minutes 5 minutes between presentatiions so only 90 people an hour or less than 750 a day.

When I first went by the booth there were hundreds of people in line. Can you imagine standing in line for hours to see this one presentation when we can barely cover the show in the time alloted. The truly sad thing is out of all the people in line how many actually sold plasma televisions.

I came to the demo the last day of the show 1 hour before closing. The room was half full mostly with some press & Pioneer engineers.

To sum it up I left the demo speechless & a little numb. This technology is not just a little improvement it is a major leap in digital display technologies. I am already hesitant to provide my clients higher end traditional plasma technologies when this is coming down the pike.

Yes its that good.

Do you have any links to pics and specs and price points?

Thanks.

Greg

Sorry Greg I do not.

All that was given was a demo not lit no specs.

The rep did say contrast ratio was better than 20,000:1

Regards,

Peter

There are some pics that someone attending the demo took. There's a bunch of bickering and speculation in this thread as well. Pretty much a waste of time to read. We'll just have to wait until they're released to see if they really live up to what they are saying. BTW, that is the 6070 they are comparing it to in this pic.

[Link: avsforum.com].

So is this all of the Pio 8th gen panels? i.e., commercial _and_ residential ... i guess model numbers PDP-508cmx and 5080HD?

They haven't released model numbers yet, or which size or line of panels will get this improvement.

Any release dates for the russound vm1

I'm writing an article about this technology for my column, and I was wondering if I could quote you? If yes, please give me your full name and affiliation. All I have is Peter @ Defined AV.

Thanks,

Dawn

Dawn,

I emailed you my contact info & left a message on your voicemail.

Regards,

Peter
Definedav