From the Show Floor at IFA 2009
HomeFrom the Show Floor at IFA 2009
Posted September 5, 2009 01:14 PM by Juan Calonge
The IFA fair, held every year in Berlin, Germany, is the biggest electronics exhibition in Europe. As it comes merely a week before CEDIA, it plays a major role premiering the new devices and technologies which the public will soon be able to buy. We have full coverage of the BD side of the show, thanks to our special correspondent Greg.
Probably because of the recession, some major consumer electronics companies such as Denon, Yamaha and Marantz were conspicuously absent from this year's fair. And if your interest is front projectors, the situation was still worse: BenQ, Infocus, Optoma and even Texas Instruments didn't have booths.
Despite these notable absences, the organisation considers this year's exhibition a success, as the show floor had the same area as last year, i.e. 121,000 square meters filled with 1,164 exhibitors.
From the official opening Friday morning, a huge crowd lined to discover the new things for the year. The more awe-inspiring booths were those of Samsung, Sony, LG and Panasonic.
It was there, at Panasonic's stand, where one could view arguably the most convincing demo of what will be the future of 3-D-BD. A 103-inch plasma showed video clips from James Cameron's 'Avatar' and other material, from a prototype 3-D Blu-ray player. Two 1080p images were displayed simultaneously and were viewed with a pair of infrared-controlled glasses. 3-D and its Blu-ray implementation was the theme and main attraction of this IFA '09 exhibition, and it is expected to be a reality in 2010.
If we restrict ourselves to "regular" Blu-ray, the big thing this year was all-in-one systems, usually comprised of one box with a player/amplifier/iPod-dock, and anything from two to five loudspeakers. Soundbars, in turn, contain player, amplifier and loudspeakers in one long box meant to be placed underneath a flatscreen TV. Both kinds of products may not be of interest to us, but it must be understood that they are directed at the more casual users that want to plug their player to the TV and enjoy with minimal hassle. The other highlights of the show are as follows:
Funai
Funai had no official announcement, but three prototypes on display: a new Blu-ray player (model B3-M200), a BD/DVD recorder with a hard disc drive and VCR, and a Blu-ray home theater system.
JVC
JVC had a Blu-ray home theater system on static display, model TH-BD30. It's a Blu-ray player combined with a 2.1 amplifier. Price will be 699 euros.
LG
Apart from the BD370 and BD390 that we already know, LG Electronics had several home cinema systems with Blu-ray, iPod connectivity and wireless speakers, as well as the HR400 network BD player with hard disk recorder. It also displayed a very nice-looking slim-height Blu-ray soundbar.
Onkyo
Onkyo was showing a preproduction unit of Blu-ray flagship player, model BD-SP807. This will be the bigger brother of the recently-announced DV-BD507.
Panasonic
Panasonic was prominently showing its Blu-ray recorders with hard drive, model DMR-BS850, with the extensions EGK (for Germany), EBK (for the UK) and EFK (for France). Unfortunately, it's very unlikely that they will make it across the Atlantic. It also had its portable Blu-ray player DMP-B15EG-K.
Philips
Philips presented at IFA fair two new Blu-ray players: the BDP7500 and the new flagship model BDP9500, both of which will be available in November, with a list price of €299.99 for the BDP7500 and €549.99 for the BDP9500. It also presented two BD systems and two soundbars.
Samsung
No surprise there - our old friends from Samsung, models BD-P1600, BD-P3600 and BD-P4600 were on display. The only new models worth mentioning were the soundbars and all-in-one systems.
Sharp
Sharp had a new Blu-ray player, model BD-HP22, virtually identical to the HP21 other than it had ad even lower power consumption. It also had several home theater systems
Sony
There were two new WiFi-enabled Blu-ray players on display. The model BDP-S560 is already well-known to us. The BDP-S760 is similar in specifications to the American BDP-S1000ES in the US.
Toshiba
Not only did Toshiba announce its first Blu-ray player but it also had a working unit on the floor show. Although the display was labeled with the European model number, the actual player was American through and through, as indicated by its region labeling.
- Our deepest thanks to Greg for his dedication and fine work.
Probably because of the recession, some major consumer electronics companies such as Denon, Yamaha and Marantz were conspicuously absent from this year's fair. And if your interest is front projectors, the situation was still worse: BenQ, Infocus, Optoma and even Texas Instruments didn't have booths.
Despite these notable absences, the organisation considers this year's exhibition a success, as the show floor had the same area as last year, i.e. 121,000 square meters filled with 1,164 exhibitors.
From the official opening Friday morning, a huge crowd lined to discover the new things for the year. The more awe-inspiring booths were those of Samsung, Sony, LG and Panasonic.
It was there, at Panasonic's stand, where one could view arguably the most convincing demo of what will be the future of 3-D-BD. A 103-inch plasma showed video clips from James Cameron's 'Avatar' and other material, from a prototype 3-D Blu-ray player. Two 1080p images were displayed simultaneously and were viewed with a pair of infrared-controlled glasses. 3-D and its Blu-ray implementation was the theme and main attraction of this IFA '09 exhibition, and it is expected to be a reality in 2010.
If we restrict ourselves to "regular" Blu-ray, the big thing this year was all-in-one systems, usually comprised of one box with a player/amplifier/iPod-dock, and anything from two to five loudspeakers. Soundbars, in turn, contain player, amplifier and loudspeakers in one long box meant to be placed underneath a flatscreen TV. Both kinds of products may not be of interest to us, but it must be understood that they are directed at the more casual users that want to plug their player to the TV and enjoy with minimal hassle. The other highlights of the show are as follows:
Funai
Funai had no official announcement, but three prototypes on display: a new Blu-ray player (model B3-M200), a BD/DVD recorder with a hard disc drive and VCR, and a Blu-ray home theater system.
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| Prototype home theater system |
Prototype BD/DVD recorder/VCR |
Prototype player B3-M200 |
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JVC
JVC had a Blu-ray home theater system on static display, model TH-BD30. It's a Blu-ray player combined with a 2.1 amplifier. Price will be 699 euros.
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| Blu-ray home theater system TH-BD30 | |
LG
Apart from the BD370 and BD390 that we already know, LG Electronics had several home cinema systems with Blu-ray, iPod connectivity and wireless speakers, as well as the HR400 network BD player with hard disk recorder. It also displayed a very nice-looking slim-height Blu-ray soundbar.
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| Home cinema system description | HB994PK |
HB954TBW |
HB954PB |
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HLB54S |
BD370 | BD390 |
HR400 |
Onkyo
Onkyo was showing a preproduction unit of Blu-ray flagship player, model BD-SP807. This will be the bigger brother of the recently-announced DV-BD507.
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| Various images of the Onkyo BD-SP807 | |||
Panasonic
Panasonic was prominently showing its Blu-ray recorders with hard drive, model DMR-BS850, with the extensions EGK (for Germany), EBK (for the UK) and EFK (for France). Unfortunately, it's very unlikely that they will make it across the Atlantic. It also had its portable Blu-ray player DMP-B15EG-K.
|
|
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| The three incarnations of the DMR-BS850 | Portable Blu-ray player DMP-B15EGK | ||
Philips
Philips presented at IFA fair two new Blu-ray players: the BDP7500 and the new flagship model BDP9500, both of which will be available in November, with a list price of €299.99 for the BDP7500 and €549.99 for the BDP9500. It also presented two BD systems and two soundbars.
|
|
|
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| BDP9500 | BDP7500 in blue and red | HTS7200 home theater system | |
Samsung
No surprise there - our old friends from Samsung, models BD-P1600, BD-P3600 and BD-P4600 were on display. The only new models worth mentioning were the soundbars and all-in-one systems.
|
|
|
|
| HT-BD8200 soundbar | HT-BD1250 BD system | HT-BD1255 BD system | |
Sharp
Sharp had a new Blu-ray player, model BD-HP22, virtually identical to the HP21 other than it had ad even lower power consumption. It also had several home theater systems
|
|
| HDTV40H home theater system | |
Sony
There were two new WiFi-enabled Blu-ray players on display. The model BDP-S560 is already well-known to us. The BDP-S760 is similar in specifications to the American BDP-S1000ES in the US.
|
| Sony BDP-S760 |
Toshiba
Not only did Toshiba announce its first Blu-ray player but it also had a working unit on the floor show. Although the display was labeled with the European model number, the actual player was American through and through, as indicated by its region labeling.
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| Toshiba BDX2000 | |
- Our deepest thanks to Greg for his dedication and fine work.