What's hot for your home this year? High def, for starters.

According to the Consumer Electronic Association (CEA), the average home has at least 25 electronic devices in it. Based on what's in store for 2006, we bet many homeowners will be packing even more gear into their abodes. The big news for 2006 is clearer pictures from bigger screens, high def all around the house, better storage options for your growing bank of media, lighting control systems that need no special wiring and elegant furnishings designed to make your equipment completely disappear from sight. Who wouldn't want all of that for his or her house?

Seeing More Clearly

Big-screen TVs have helped turn bedrooms, dens and basements across the nation into engaging, entertaining home theaters. Until recently, the best way to view these big sets was to push your seat way back. That's no problem in large rooms, but in small spaces, viewers had no choice but to snuggle up to the screen. And the closer they got, the worse the picture became. Sure, the image wasn't completely hideous, but the lines that the TV created to form a picture (called resolution) could certainly be picked out by those with sharp eyesight.

A new generation of big-screen TVs effectively erases the visible lines by upping the resolution from the old standard of 720p to 1080p, which is the pinnacle of high-definition playback. Nearly all major TV manufacturers will be offering some type of 1080p TV, including microdisplays, flat-panel plasmas and LCD TVs. The microdisplay category is poised to give flat panels a run for their money this year. The DLP (digital light processing), 3LCD (three-chip liquid crystal display), LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon), HD-ILA (JVC's three-chip version of LCoS) and SXRD (Sony's three-chip Silicon X-tal [Crystal] Reflective Display) TVs in this category may not be as skinny as flat panels, but they're still very attractive and are usually much less expensive.

Expect the first wave of 1080p products to be very big. Sharp, for example, offers a 65-inch flat-panel LCD AQUOS TV for $20,999. A slightly larger 71-inch microdisplay (based on LCoS technology) will be available from LG for $8,499. Mitsubishi's 1080p DLP offerings come in two sizes: 62-inch and 73-inch, each with a built-in hard drive for recording and playing back high-definition programming. Plus, two built-in HDTV tuners let you record one high-def program while watching another channel. The 62-inch set retails for $5,799; the 73-incher goes for $7,299. Other biggies: Hitachi's hi-def 60-inch rear-projection LCD TV for $3,599 and Samsung's 80-inch high-def plasma, available by special order of more than $150,000.

Hollywood Squares

Anything recorded in high definition will look absolutely flawless on a 1080p HDTV. Unfortunately, about the only high-def content available today comes from satellite and cable TV providers. But we may soon have other options. Consumer electronic manufacturers are eager to release optical high-definition discs to the public, and Toshiba, Sony and others have developed high-definition DVD players in anticipation of the release of the new high-definition discs. The holdup, it seems, is Hollywood. It wants to be darn sure that the content on those discs is protected from piracy. "Studios want people to be able to distribute the content around their house but not copy it and give it away to friends," explains Patrick Fitzgerald, executive vice president of sales, distribution and trade marketing for Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Digital rights management issues are still being ironed out, but based on comments from key executives at Twentieth Century Fox, Buena Vista and Sony Pictures, 2006 could be the year that we can finally purchase our favorite blockbuster movies in high definition. Of course, we're not making any promises; just keep your eyes peeled for either Blu-ray or HD-DVD discs (two competing technologies. See High-Def Developments on page 71 for more details). And you'll see plenty more than just movies on those discs. Because the high-definition discs have so much storage capacity, "the possibilities are endless," says Fitzgerald. More robust trailers, video games that relate to the movie, interaction with the actors and ties to relevant web sites are all feasible. "High-definition discs will take home entertainment to a new level," adds Peter Staddon, executive vice president of marketing for Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. While we wait for the high-def discs and players to hit the store shelves, we may be able to test the waters on Sony's PlayStation 3 game console, due out this spring. It will likely be the first player available with Blu-ray capability.

A House Full of HD

It's one thing to be able to watch high-definition programs on your favorite big-screen TV. It's quite another to have that content available on every TV in the house. Thanks to a new system developed by UStec, you'll be able to distribute the high-definition movie in your family room to the TV in the kitchen, for example. And while you're at it, your kids can call up the digital photos that you've got stored on a media server in the basement to view on their bedroom TVs. No matter where the content resides, you can get at it quickly and easily, with no degradation in quality. The real beauty of the tecStream distribution system is that all this information travels simultaneously over the same Category 5 (Ethernet) cabling that's used to network computers, and a single remote can control every device on the network. So as long as your house has been wired with Category 5 cabling, you're well on your way to having HD all over. Your TVs and other A/V equipment can join the network by plugging into small set top "clients."

On-Q/Legrand is one company that's making it simpler to get your house wired for whole-house entertainment. Its Home Entertainment Connection Center (HEEC) lets you plug every device in your entertainment cabinet into one recessed wall outlet. This outlet is wired to a central hub that distributes the music and video to speakers and TVs throughout the house.

Of course, tecStream and the HEEC aren't your only entertainment networking options. Kaleidescape, Digital Deck, iMuse and Inteset each offer a system that can distribute high-definition video to multiple set-top clients over Category 5 cabling. The difference is that their systems require content be stored on the hard drive of a centralized media server. In order to comfortably hold every bit of media you own, including CDs, DVDs, digital photographs and in some cases podcasts and video games, most of these new-generation whole-house media servers boast several terabytes of storage space and can distribute multiple audio and video feeds simultaneously to different areas of the house. A cluster of multiple Kaleidescape Servers can store thousands of movies or tens of thousands of CD albums and zip them off to any number of zones or rooms. Then there's the iMuse media server. It offers 14 terabytes of space to store more than 1,700 full-length, full-quality DVDs from your personal library, and can pump the video into as many as 32 zones. And here's more good news: The prices of these mega media servers are falling. For example, Digital Deck's MX-1000, which can serve three rooms, sells for less than $4,000. And if all you care about is being able to categorize and push music throughout your house, Escient has hit below the $1,000 mark with its FireBall SE-80 digital music server.

Oh, and be sure whatever home entertainment receiver, server or processor you buy has an input for an iPod. Nearly every manufacturer is offering some kind of iPod adapter, enabling the popular portable music player to join your entertainment network, whatever type of network it may be.

Wireless Lighting

Category 5 cabling is now also being touted as a medium for controlling light switches. If your home is already wired with Category 5 wire (many newer homes are), all you need to do is replace the toggle-style switches with smart switches. Colorado vNet hopes the prevalence of Category 5 cabling will leverage its premier home automation system. In addition to being simple (and therefore affordable) to install, the Colorado vNet Home Automation System comes with a cleverly designed keypad. You can slip your own graphics (photos, card stock, a copy of the Mona Lisa) underneath the clear plastic Decora-style faceplate (readily available at home improvement stores) to complement your decor. The graphics-on-the-fly approach is a complete departure from the fancy custom engraving found on traditional keypads, but using your own imagination and materials is bound to be much less expensive and time consuming then sending your keypad out to be custom labeled. Plus, the color and labeling of Colorado vNet's keypad can be easily modified should you paint the walls a different color or change the arrangement of the lights.

So what about all those homes that don't have Category 5 cabling? A system that communicates over radio frequency airwaves or a home's electrical wiring is a great alternative. New technologies, such as Z-wave, Zigbee and UPB (Universal Powerline Bus), have dramatically improved the reliability, range and interoperability of wireless products, spawning the development of a number of new wireless lighting control systems. The StarLite system from CentraLite, the infiNet network from Crestron and the HomeSettings Pro from Intermatic are a few of the newest offerings. They join established wireless systems from Lutron, LiteTouch, Vantage, Lightolier and Leviton, offering homeowners more lighting control options than ever before.

A Place for Everything

More control, more media, more choices. It all boils down to having more products in the home. But don't worry: No matter how many new components you acquire this year, they needn't impede on the interior design of your home. Audio/video cabinetry looks and functions better than ever. You'll find more traditional styles, as furniture makers are leaning toward rich woods and warm colors instead of glass and metal for their cabinets. What's more, furniture makers are implementing clever mechanisms so that the technology disappears completely from view. Hooker, for example, will include concealment hardware from Reversica into a revolutionary rotating cabinet. As easily as opening a door, the cabinet twists completely around, hiding a plasma or LCD TV and revealing shelves for whatever you wish to display. If you can't wait for the Hooker unit, you can always hire a cabinetmaker to install the Reversica into a custom-made piece.

Mirrors have become another popular way to hide TVs. A number of manufacturers have developed special glass that functions as a mirror and a TV screen. The concept is rather simple. When the TV (placed behind the mirror) is on, the picture projects through the glass. When the TV is off, the glass becomes a mirror. Media Décor and Aristos Art sell their special mirrors as a custom framed piece to fit over a TV, while Séura's Television Mirror comes with a TV preinstalled.

And let's not forget about speakers. No matter how much you love them, you may not want them hanging around in your living room. Manufacturers have become more decor minded this year, developing speakers in a variety of shapes, sizes, designs and placement options so they can be easily hidden or look fine out in the open. Artison, for example, offers speakers that can be custom-sized to match the height of the screen. The speakers (one for the left of the screen and one for the right) mount vertically rather than horizontally. For those of you who'd rather put your speakers away, Sound Advance, Induction Dynamics and Stealth Acoustics have developed systems that allow you to install your speakers completely inside the wall. You can paint or wallpaper to your heart's content without affecting the sound.

Ready for Prime Time?

In the past, whenever something new hit the electronic marketplace, it was usually so expensive that few people could afford it. That's not the case this year, however. From 1080p TVs to systems that network your audio and video gear, the trendy products of 2006 are all fairly affordable. Mind you, the prices will surely decline further, but at least you don't have to pawn your cherished heirlooms to enjoy the best that today's technology has to offer.

Related:
Home Electronics 2006: The Race for Space in Your Living Room
Home Electronics 2006: High-Def Developments
Home Electronics 2006: The iPod

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