2005 Year in Review

HomeTheaterFocus.com's 2005 Year in Review

Every year is a busy year in Home Theater. This is the Home Theater Focus 2005 year in review where well look at the top happenings in the world of Home Theater, and the media and technologies that made it happen.

Its a wireless, wireless, wireless world. This year saw a wild proliferation of everything wireless. In fact, 2005 can be seen as the year that wireless became a standard feature. Sure weve had wireless routers communicating with our wireless LAN cards for years, but this year marked an important step in consumer electronics when everything seemed to pop up with Bluetooth, WiFi, 802.11b or g compatibility. In the home theater world, wifi was extended to important offerings by Cambridge Audio in their wireless Azur 640 Home Music Server and wireless Home Theater PCs using Windows Media Center. We also saw a lot of devices that might not be wireless yet, but still wanted to play with your PCs; IP addresses were added to places we didnt think wed see them. Speakers that communicate with your PC network via USB were offered by Polk. Maybe Polk is trying to get the angle on a market before it emerges; surely someone has use for them.

TiVos Out/TiVos In. DirecTV drops TiVo then Comcast picks up TiVo. 2005 was a successful albeit turbulent year for TiVo: their customer base is still the largest of any dedicated PVR service provider, but would seem to be taking a hit from the many built in PVRs from the local cable or satellite provider. TiVo got dropped by DirecTV which hurt its bottom line but no sooner did Comcast stride in on the white stallion and pick them up.

Digital Movies. A trio of movies were released in 2005 that used 100% digital technologies. They were all released and made at just about the same time. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Immortel (ad vitam) and Sin City were all shot on digital cameras and used 100% blue screen sets, meaning the actors had to act in front of solid colored backdrops and have their environments added digitally later. These processes have been used before but never together for an entire feature film, proving that the way they make movies is moving closer to the way we watch them at home. Oscar winning director Steven Soderberg even lends his credible talents to some independent and entirely digital enterprises.

Star Wars. Wrapping up the story with Revenge of the Sith which arrived in theaters in May, the final chapter was then released to DVD the following November, 2005. May the force be with you.

HDMI wins. Was there any doubt that HDMI would come out on top by the end of this year, as the digital HDMI compliant connection standard? Didnt think so. Look for new high bandwidth HDMI compliant interactive two way connection standards in coming years; it might be called DisplayPort.

Monster sinks to new lows. In 2005, retailers like Best Buy in the US and Canadas Future Shop work in cahoots with Monster to perpetrate stunning acts of brazen contempt for their customers that got simply out of control. Frivolous lawsuits and shady sales and promotional practices cause a massive backlash against Monster, the audio/video cable and peripheral manufacturer. Clearly Monster has worn out its welcome.

Gaming. This is the year of the next generation gaming consoles. Both Sony and Microsoft introduced their new consoles at the CES in 2005 but only Microsoft would actually release theirs.

Price lows. DVD recorders reached new lows in 2005, hitting under $200. Can they get any lower? Sub $2000 LCD panels in the 35 range hit stores in Q4 2005 as well as sub $3000 plasma of the same size. As both Plasma and LCD get larger its no longer uncommon to see 40 LCD and amazingly huge 50 plasma. Pioneer has a 61 monster sized plasma in mass production available for under $10,000.

iPod. iPods third gen is its biggest yet and hit stores in 2005 along with their new Nano that features a video screen. Experts predict the Nano shows shades of iPod video to come. These days Home Theater everything is iPod compatible. Receivers that come with iPod docks are now commonplace from most mainstream manufacturers. There are even far reaching products that will incorporate iPod into your home, wiring a docking station for your little mp3 player that is wired through your house. We know the iPod is a cool little device but thats a little overboard.

HDMI upscaling DVD players. Upscaling DVD players hit the market with a vengeance looking to service all those new HDTVs that have hit the mainstream market. Hey, if you just bought a new HDTV why not spend even more money on a new DVD player? Well, hang on to your cash. Unless you really need a new DVD player and plan on buying a less expensive player (a few steps up from those $30 Wall-Mart jobs) then you probably dont need an upscaling DVD player. Your TV or DVD players built in de-interlacing is probably sufficient.

1080P. The holy grail of video resolutions for home theater arrives in late 2005; the first HDTVs capable of 1080P/60 hit stores. However, it might be a bit early to celebrate yet. The standard isnt yet recognized by the ATSC, and the support technologies that do little but important jobs like say bring the 1080P/60 video signal into the TV so you can watch it in the first place, arent quite up to speed with the capabilities of the video processing some TVs are capable of.

Its WAR! Another industry format war erupts over the next generation optical storage medium between HD DVD and Blu-Ray. Two camps vie for influence, but only one huge market exists worth literally billions of dollars of prize money to the winner. But perhaps theyll both be shot down before they get started, as Hitachi moves forward on Holographic Storage.