According to a poster on AVS forum, Epson is set to announce a new range of home theater projectors just in time for the CEDIA expo.  On top of the food chain is the anamorphic-compatible Epson 9700UB reportedly selling for a retail price “similar” to the 9500UB.  The 8700UB will replace the 8500UB and a 8350 will likely fill the shoes of the current 8100.  No exact specs yet but ETA is said to be first week of October.  We’re big fans of Epson because they offer terrific picture quality for the money and the new lineup if confirmed sounds to up the value quotient even more.

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Show me someone with a Roku box and I’ll show you a satisfied customer.  Fans of Roku have more to cheer about as the company announced price drops on their official forums today.  New pricing is as follows:

Model SD: $59 (was $79) (standard def)

Model HD: $69 (was $99) (720p)

Model XR: $99 (was $129) (1080p, WiFi N 2×2 dual band, USB)

The company also announced the top-of-the-line XR model will receive 1080p  support.   The timing is certainly understandable as many believe Apple is set to announce a $99 iTV streaming set top box on their music event on Wednesday.

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Netflix iPhone App Video from Netflix on Vimeo.

The Netflix app previously an iPad exclusive is now available on the iPhone and iPod touch.  Enjoy!

Amazon has the popular Onkyo TX-SR608 receiver for only $378 with free shipping.  This is our top pick for a midrange receiver featuring THX Select 2 certification and 6, thats right 6 HDMI 1.4 inputs. Throw in 100 watts her channel, Audyssey DSX and 1080p upscaling and you have one helluva deal.

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Perhaps there’s no better proof that Blu-ray has gained mainstream acceptance, than when George Lucas himself blesses the series with the Star Wars trilogy.  Well it’s official folks, the special edition series (not original) will be coming to glorious 1080p and losses audio sometime in 2011.  When asked if the original movies will ever see the light of day on blu, the company stated a full restoration job from scratch would be too expensive.  Oh well beggers can’t be choosers.

It’s back to school time! If you’re looking for a great deal on a laptop this is is.  Dell is offering a beefy i5 Studio 15 laptop with a 15.6″ LED display for only $699 when you checkout with code HKV$VFLSQZ$PLG and ?8CN$RJ?W5TQ0C. You even get free shipping!

• Intel Core i5-450M 2.4GHz
• 6GB DDR3
• 500GB Hard Drive
• 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5470
• 15.6″ LED Display w/ Camera
• WiFi N
• 6-Cell battery
• Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit

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Think rooting your Android device and installing a custom ROM is only for pimple-faced hormone enraged geeks who live in their Mom’s basement?  Think again.   We dug through the tutorials and sampled a few ROMs on our Google Nexus One to see what the fuss is about.  What did we find?  Custom ROM’s can seriously improve the overall experience of your device.  Here’s some of our favorite improvements:

Track ball wake and Notification

Throw an iPhone owner a Nexus One and the first thing they’ll do is press the trackball to wake it up.  Oddly enough Google wants you to hit the top button to wake up the phone (and all Android devices)  which is counter -intuitive in my opinion.  Therefore one of the popular features in custom ROMs is trackball wake which does exactly as it sounds — it wakes up the device when you press the trackball.  Thats’ not all.  You can also customize the notification colors of the trackball itself, for instance set it red for missed calls or blue for SMS.  That way you can easily see whether you’ve missed an important call or email from across the room without waking it up.  Try that with an iPhone.

I feel the need, the need for speed!  Umm or Battery life

Want a free speed bump?  Just about all ROMs allow you to  overclock your CPU to give it a bit more punch.  Nexus One’s can safely be overclocked from 998 to 1100 Mhz, and some can go as high as 1200 with everyday stability. We ran a few tests using popular benchmarking tools including Linpack and Quadrant and found an appreciable difference in speed with minimal downsides to battery life.  Going on a business trip and need the battery to really last?  Do the opposite and underclock the device to make sure you get through the day +  more.

Display Calibration

As a professional HDTV calibrator I love the contrast of the AMOLED display on the Nexus One however the super high color temperature (7900k) always bothered me.  Well thanks to some handy developers those of us with meters and software now have the ability to calibrate the grayscale though a series of Red Green and Blue values on the phone.  You read that correctly.  I calibrated the display on my phone using a meter and software.  How cool is that?! The result?  Incredible.  Images and web pages are much more lifelike and easier on the eyes.

720p Video Recording

High definition video recording was not on the  Nexus One feature list when it debuted 7 months ago, in fact it was unheard of back then.   However that didn’t stop a bunch of developers from including it in their custom ROMs. While it’s not as smooth as the iPhone 4′s 30fps, it gets mighty close at 27fps and looks pretty good to us.  Not bad for a value added feature!

WIFI Bug… fixed!

Another annoyance with the Nexus One is how it handles WIFI connections with certain access points.  In fact there’s a huge thread on Google’s support forums from people complaining about dropouts after a period of time.   Google never fixed the problem however custom ROMs include an updated Broadcom driver that fixes the issue.   Chalk another one up for the little guys.

Improved Media Player

Androids stock music player is nothing to write home about.  At least now it’s been improved tremendously thanks to t he wizards at Cyanogen who made it look prettier, improved the widgets and allows track skipping by holding down the volume buttons on the side.  If you’ve ever used a Blackberry you know how convenient this feature is especially when you’re hammering away on a treadmill.

There are countless other tweaks including FLAC audio support and UI enhancements that were not covered in this article.  Because Android is a relatively new open source operating system we’ve only scratched the surface of whats possible down the road.  Thanks to a handful of bright (and bored developers) who work solely on donations, they’ve made my Nexus One experience far and away better than stock.

Blockbusters financial woes are well documented with many analysts predicting  the 6500 store Dallas based company will run out of cash sometime in 2011.  That’s not stopping them from going out without a fight.  Total Access subscribers can now add video game rentals to their queue’s, and just like movies you can keep them as long as you’d like with no late fees.  Whether or not it’s enough to sway Netflix subscribers (and their streaming)  is unknown but gamers are definitely salivating at the mouth.

Via Blockbuster

Maybe the rumors are true.  Engadget is reporting that Apple is set to announce a $99 set top box that would allow for 720 streaming of content over the web.  Considering the Cupertino company has been hard at work building a full on data center this [still-unconfirmed] rumor could bear some weight.  The question remains – what kind of content is available and will it be enough to kick your Hulu or Netflix habit?  Only time will tell.

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Ask  the average Joe what he considers to be “high end” audio and you’re certain to get a different answer from an audiophile.  Pioneer’s new G-Clef is designed to bridge the gap between the big box stuff, and the gear you’ll find on the cover of Stereophile magazine.  It starts with a pair of integrated amplifiers the SX-A6MK2 ($700) and SX-A9MK2 ($1,600), feature a 24 bit Burr Brown and Wolfson DAC’s and along with a pair of CD/SACD players, the PD-D9MK2-K ($1,500) and PD-D6MK2-K ($700) that feature vibration free transports and cases.

While this new gear looks impressive, we’re curious as to why Pioneer won’t add SACD/DVD-A playback to it’s already high-end BDP-09FD blu-ray player and call it day as I’m a big fan of consolidating devices to save precious shelf space in my rack.

New Pioneer Elite G-Clef Components Are Pure High Fidelity

High-Design CD Players and Amplifiers Provide Music Lovers with AIR Studios-Certified Experience

LONG BEACH, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. today announced new G-Clef components including luxury CD players and amplifiers that bring a professional-grade listening experience into the home or office. The high-style Elite G-Clef line includes two stereo amplifiers, SX-A6MK2 and SX-A9MK2, and two CD players, PD-D6MK2 and PD-D9MK2, all engineered with the purest approach to audio component design. All models are offered at affordable price points, for audio enthusiasts looking for high-end sound without the extravagant cost often found in prestigious audiophile gear.

“The new components were born out of partnership between Pioneer and AIR Studios sound engineers working hand in hand to produce the highest quality sound possible”
Each of the models is fine-tuned and certified by internationally-respected AIR Studio’s sound engineers to ensure the most accurate recreation of the original recording possible. To earn that certification, Pioneer hand-selected state of the art internal components that accurately deliver signals to create a dynamic two-channel hi-fi experience. The new, more efficient power supply circuitry is highly responsive to demanding musical content and is designed for superior heat resistance to guarantee a warm, analog-like sound.

It all began with a passion for music that Pioneer founder Nozomu Matsumoto hoped to share with the world. He started Pioneer in 1938 as a specialty speaker company, building products out of his garage. Today, Pioneer’s Home Entertainment and Business Solutions Group continues Matsumoto’s enthusiasm, developing award-winning audio and video home theater products including A/V receivers, Blu-ray Disc® and DVD players, and speakers. Long-standing partnerships and collaborations with the creative community have provided Pioneer unique insight in its quest to capture the purity of a movie or musical artist’s original vision into its broad range of home entertainment products. The company’s brands include Pioneer® and Elite®. More details can be found at www.pioneerelectronics.com.