Big TVs, super sounds and comfy seats

Everything and more at the Home Entertainment Show

BodySound

This chair has speakers built into the cushions for a real seat-of-the-pants experience.

Gary Krakow

Columnist

• E-mail

REVIEW

By Gary Krakow

Columnist

msnbc.com

updated 1:25 p.m. ET June 23, 2005

This year’s Home Entertainment Show at the New York Hilton is chock-full of big-screen TVs, and everything for your home theater from projectors and screens to some really super seating choices, speakers, vinyl LPs and even some items that fit in your pocket.

In the TV department there are flat-screen plasmas, LCDs, DLPs, plus one-chip and 3-chip projectors, most of which can be found in one room. Samsung has some very impressive HDTVs on display, including their 61-inch, Digital Light Processing HL-R6167W model.

Digital television doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing as high-definition television, and the people at RCA were eagerly explaining the difference.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

They were showing off their 27-inch 27V514T standard-definition digital TV set. It has a 4:3 ratio 27-inch picture tube. It looks a lot like TVs you’ve watched over the years, but the big difference was that this set has a digital tuner.

Image: RCA's 27-inch digital TV
RCA
RCA's 27-inch digital TV.

The same TV set with an analog tuner was placed right next to it. Both were fed by the same indoor antenna buried behind the display set-up. Both were tuned to the same over-the-air TV station – one picking up the analog signal the other locked into the digital.

The difference was mind boggling. The analog set’s picture was plagued by ghosts, snow and noise. The digital set was pretty great. RCA calls it DVD quality.

I’ll have a lot more to say about this TV, but the most important thing you should know is that the suggested retail price will be under $300. For those who want the benefits of receiving cable-quality digital video with an antenna – sometimes you might even be able to use ‘rabbit-ears’ — this TV is the first of what might be a flood of terrific affordable sets.

In the home theater displays areas I saw a lot of great looking set-ups, but what caught my eye was the chair from BodySound Technologies. It’s simply called their theater chair. Their pamphlet describes it as “the fusion of hearing and feeling resonating throughout your body.”

I’ll describe it as a seat-of-the-pants experience. One channel is aimed at your back, another at your posterior. It attaches to your home theater system via cables or a wireless module. Thrills don’t come cheaply, though. The BodySound chair sells for $2,750. And by the way, the seat is actually comfortable even without the special effects.

CONTINUED : Big sounds from small systems

1 | 2 | Next >