Gizmodo: Best Of 2007 – Part II December 18, 2007

Read more Blu-ray , Entertainment , Gadgets , Gizmodo UK , HD , HD DVD , HDTV

Philips Aurea

Philips shook things up the HDTV market last year with the launch of its AmbiLight TVs.

The TVs sport side lighting and full-surround lighting that changes colour with the colours on screen, to draw you into the ‘viewing experience’. It really does work and with the lights out, the AmbiLight TVs really are something different. Stunning sales have reflected it too. In August though, Philips took the idea to a whole new level with its Aurea TV.

The Aurea is fully LED backlit too but instead of just shining light on the back wall, the light glows through the TV’s surrounding case to create a dynamic frame. The video above says it all really.

Not cheap at £3,000 for a 42in set but maybe if they threw in a date with Aurea poster girl - Eva Herzigova – we might make an exception.-Martin Lynch

LG BH-100: The First Blu-ray/HD DVD Player

The logical solution to a dual format disc war is to create a dual format player, which is what LG did at the start of the year.

Showing it off at the CES 2007 show in Las Vegas in January, it was certainly one of the show’s top attractions. It wasn’t perfect though. Yes, it could play both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs but it couldn’t deal with the interactive content on HD DVD discs. Not the greatest weakness though since it was the first standalone player to offer a one-player solution to the silly format war.

It came to the UK in April and that’s when we noted a second problem: the £1,000 price tag. Early in 2008 Samsung will be launching its first dual format player, the BD-UP5000, while LG will follow with the BH-200, a more reasonably priced successor to the BH-100.

Both will cost around £450-£500.-Martin Lynch

Surround Sound Bars

Apparently, not everyone likes five speakers hanging on their chic living room walls, with cables and wires snaking around the floor. Mad, I know.

Still, 2007 was the year of the surround bar – a one speaker surround sound system that promises brilliant surround sound neatly and without the fuss.

Yamaha started all of this with the YSP Series of surround bars back in September 2006 and updated its line up with three new models a few months back. However, it’s no longer alone in the space. Audio specialist Polk hopped aboard the pseudo-surround bandwagon with the SurroundBar50 while Philips weighed in with its first offering, the Ambisound HTS8100 SoundBar. AV heavyweight Denon got in on the act with its DHT-FS3 X-SPACE.

They may be simpler than 5-speaker systems but they all share one thing in common: price. Expect to pay £500 to £1,200 for the luxury of tidiness.

HD Camcorders

This year saw the true arrival of HD-capable camcorders. And not just 720p - 1080i models either, but the real deal: 1080p Full HD. OK, no one really wants to see the hairy mole on Granny’s nose in that much detail, but in a few years time you won’t be able to buy anything but some form of HD camcorder.

Toshiba recently introduced one of the nicer examples, in Japan first of course, with its Gigashot A100 Full HD camcorders. Available in two models, they sport very useful 100GB and 40GB HDDs inside. JVC has a Full HD model, the GZ-HD7, but also launched a smaller HD version called the GZ-HD3 with a handy 60GB drive.

Sony launched the very small and slick looking Handycam HDR-CX6EK but it’s somewhat let down by using Sony’s own Memory Stick technology which tops out at 8GB. An even lighter HD contender arrived in the form of Sanyo’s different looking Xacti HD2. Expect to see a lot more of these in 2008 and with less frightening prices too.-Martin Lynch

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