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Pioneer's stylish HTIB costs a lot and doesn't include that Blu-ray player in the picture.

Home-theater-in-a-box systems are usually geared toward budget buyers that don't want to deal with the hassle of separate components. Pioneer's new high-style HTIB, the HTS-LX70 takes a decidedly different approach, offering up HTIB simplicity, at a component-level price. Here's a quick rundown of the important specifications:

Key features of the Pioneer HTS-LX70:

• Four multidirectional satellite speakers
• 7.06-inch dual-drive subwoofer
• Three HDMI 1.3 inputs
• Onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio
• Illuminated LCD touch-panel remote
• XM and Sirius ready
• Two optical digital audio inputs
• $1,800 list price, available now

Eagle-eyed enthusiasts will spot a Pioneer Blu-ray player in the image, but it's not included--although for $1,800 we kind of feel like it should be. Another thing you might not catch from the image is how this system actually works. All the amplifiers and inputs are actually in the subwoofer, which could make for a difficult setup if you want to stick the subwoofer in the corner--just imagine all the HDMI cables running from your gear to the subwoofer, and back to your TV. Also note that this is a 4.1 system, so there's no dedicated center channel, which could make dialogue a little harder to hear compared with a standard 5.1 system. There's also separate display unit, but we imagine this will need to be connected to the subwoofer too, which means even more wire clutter.

Stacked up to other high-end HTIB options, the HTS-LX70 is pretty expensive. Onkyo offers the HT-SP908, which features separate components, 7.1 audio and a price tag that's about half as expensive. Of course, you're mostly paying for the style for the HTS-LX70, but $1,800 still feels like a lot. We could put together our own stylish system for less, by pairing Onkyo's upcoming TX-SR606 with Mirage's NANOSAT speakers and a Logitech Harmony 670 remote--and we'd still save about $500. From our initial glance, the HTS-LX70 seems a lot overpriced and a little impractical, but we'll wait until we get our hands on it to make our final judgment.

Panasonic has been tapped to pinch-hit for Pioneer.

The two television makers said Wednesday they had come to an agreement in which Panasonic will produce the panels for Pioneer's plasma televisions.

(Credit: Pioneer)

The news comes a month after reports surfaced that Pioneer was pulling out of the plasma business. When Pioneer confirmed it would be finding someone who could make the panels more inexpensively than it could, there was a sense of dismay and disappointment among fans of its Kuro technology. Pioneer plasma TVs are generally regarded by experts--including CNET Reviews' David Katzmaier--as having the blackest black levels of any TV on the market.

In a joint statement, the two companies said they will build a new type of panel that integrates Pioneer's Kuro technology and Panasonic's NeoPDP, which it currently uses in its Viera TVs. Panasonic will have the panels sporting the new, combined technology ready for Pioneer by the second half of 2009.

Panasonic is the largest producer of plasma TVs, so the panels should be more affordable for Pioneer, which is trying to cut costs. Neither has said how much the panels will cost.

This appears to be a first: Australia-based Pioneer Computers is marketing a notebook based on Intel's "Montevina" Centrino 2 processor and new ATI graphics.

Pioneer DreamBook Style 9008

(Credit: Pioneer Computers Australia)

The mobile Centrino 2 processor isn't due until later this quarter but that's not stopping Pioneer from hawking a notebook based on the next-generation Penryn chip and ATI "Radeon M82" graphics.

The processor specifications for the Pioneer DreamBook Style 9008 speak for themselves: "Intel Core 2 Duo Centrino 2 processors (45nm Penryn CPU, Montevina Platform)."

The Thermal Design Power (TDP or thermal envelope) of the processor is listed as 25 watts. The front-side bus is spec'd at 1066 MHz. The low TDP and faster front-side bus distinguishes it from the current generation of Core 2 Duo mobile Penryn chips, which have higher TDPs and slower front-side buses.

The notebook is also listed with an "Intel Cantiga PM45" north bridge and "ICH9M" south bridge. These two components constitute the chipset.

Another intriguing aspect of the computer is the ATI graphics chip listed as "ATI Radeon M82 256M GDDR ll VGA Card PCI-E." This is otherwise known as an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 series chip.

The notebook is also listed as offering a 2.5-inch 320GB hard disk drive and a solid state drive option.

Intel will roll out its first wave of mainstream Centrino 2 mobile processors by June then follow this up in September with additional chips including the first quad-core mobile processor.

The Pioneer notebook was first sighted by Australian PC Authority.

Crave's Mike Yamamoto contributed to this report.

Pioneer plans to let someone else make its plasma TV panels, according to several reports.

Reuters reported Tuesday that the company will cease production of its own plasma panels because that portion of its business continues to lose money. The company will still sell plasma sets, but plans to get its plasma panels from Matsushita, parent company of Panasonic, the Nikkei business daily reported. Panasonic is the biggest plasma TV vendor in the world, shipping nearly 40 percent of all plasma displays, while Pioneer ranks fifth, shipping just over 6 percent of plasmas worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to DisplaySearch.

(Credit: Pioneer)

So far, Pioneer isn't confirming or denying the reports ("Our headquarters are planning to publicly discuss our TV strategy at the end of this week, so we'll have no information until then," said a spokesperson), but it doesn't look good.

As CNET colleague and resident TV expert David Katzmaier put it, this news amounts to "a black day for black levels."

Pioneer has been repositioning its plasma business over the last few years as a premium brand, most recently pushing its "Kuro" technology, which emphasizes deep black levels and contrast, at CES 2007 and 2008. CNET Reviews ranked the 50-inch plasma from Pioneer as "the best it's ever tested" last year.

Though it appears Pioneer will continue to sell plasmas sets, if it's not making the panels, it seems unlikely that it will prolong the life of its Kuro technology. Pioneer is, however, already planning to buy liquid crystal display panels from Sharp in order to start selling LCD TVs. LCD sets have quickly become the fastest-growing TV technology, displacing traditional cathode-ray tube sets, as well as rear-projection and plasma.

Ever wonder how we got along without cell phones, BlackBerrys, notebook computers, and fax machines? How did we manage to have fun without video games, MP3 players, and DVRs?

Come to think of it, how did we ever survive without the Internet?

I don't know how, but we did. And you know what? I don't remember ever thinking I was missing something. I played records, wrote letters, used the phone book, and shopped at stores.

As for work, well, the business of designing chips was a bit archaic back then. Still, at Texas Instruments we did manage to get our designs done and out the door. In fact, TI's venerable TMS320 Digital Signal Processor--the chip inside most of the world's cell phones--was invented back then in the early '80s. How about that? ... Read more

LAS VEGAS--Pioneer's latest plasma prototype: you could even say it glows.

The high-end audio and video company is showing off two new Kuro concept TVs at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that push the barriers of thin and light, the company says. The Extreme Contrast TV gets to absolute black, says Pioneer. No light leaks out from the back of the TV.

That's because there is no backlight. Chemicals embedded in the panel emit the light to illuminate the images. Thus, when there is no signal, no light gets generated and absolute black, created by a complete absence of light, occurs. ("Kuro" in Japanese, by the way means "deep, penetrating black." I love the idea that there's a name for the concept.)

Sony's OLED (organic light-emitting diode) TVs work in the same way but the two technologies are different. Pioneer's is based around plasma technology. Sony's OLED TV is already out, but it's expensive. Pioneer's may come out in a few years and will no doubt cost a lot. While Extreme Contrast will improve plasma performance, it's a wait-and-see to as to whether it can help boost the format.

Pioneer's thin Kuro TV measures less than an inch thick.

(Credit: Michael Kanellos )

The demonstration was pretty impressive. When the lights go out in the room, any tone difference between the TV panel and the bezel disappear. As a result, images on the TV almost seem 3D. The two giant goldfish in one segment of the demo? It looked like they were floating on air. I thought they were going to rip my throat out.

The company also showed off a Kuro concept with a 9 millimeter-thick panel. The whole TV measures less than an inch thick. It also weighs 41 pounds, although it has a 50-inch diagonal screen.

Pioneer launched the Kuro program last year at CES. The concepts shown off last year actually made it to market later in 2007.

A new TV download service is trying to one-up iTunes.

Though it has far less content than Apple's service, SyncTV offers themed channels of TV content available for subscription or purchase over the Web. Each channel will run about $2 each per month, and currently there are four subscription channels available.

In most cases, if you subscribe to a channel, you also get access to every episode of the shows on that channel, SyncTV CEO John Gildred says. So far, the biggest content name that has signed on is Showtime. That's not the most compelling for the average viewer, but Gildred promises more "major broadcasters" will sign on later.

SyncTV started as a project inside Pioneer, but was spun off as its own company in August. The most interesting feature is the ability to play the DVD-quality content on up to five devices in the home, and up to 10 different portable devices. The portable devices aren't available yet, because the SyncTV technology has not been developed for them. That's where SyncTV partners come in.

SyncTV uses an open-source DRM system called Marlin that will allow consumer electronics manufacturers to include the service in future devices. Gildred said that third-party devices will start to roll out in the first half of 2008. Beginning Monday, the service will open up in private beta only, and will work on Windows or Mac machines. Eventually it will work with PCs running Linux as well. You can apply to be a beta tester at the SyncTV Web site.

CHIBA, Japan--Here's something that will surely drive up your insurance costs.

At Ceatec Japan 2007, the country's big high-tech trade show, Pioneer is showing off a car navigation system with virtual 3D pop-ups designed to help you drive. You want to find a parking spot? You touch the middle screen on the three-screen navigation/control system and a hologram-like 3D image of a parking symbol comes up. You then touch the floating blue "P" and swipe it to a screen on the left--which shows a map of your current position on the globe and your direction of travel--with a flick of the finger. The map suddenly updates to show you all the parking spots in the area and their location.

The 3D-imaging features of Pioneer's in-car navigation system are entertaining--but perhaps a bit too distracting.

(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET News.com)

It was a lot of fun to use, and you could see it being very handy in finding parking spots or gas stations. But in a moving car it seems like an accident waiting to happen. You feel compelled to stare at the 3D image, all the way until you hit the pole. I watched several people doing the demo and they all stared at the floating 3D image.

On the bright side, Pioneer did have a much cooler navigation prototype that can seek out images. Let's say you ask for directions to a Carpeteria store. On one screen of the two-screen navigation system, you have a standard map plotting your location and direction. On the other screen, you have a feed of images of what's ahead on the road: stores, intersections, gas stations, etc. When the name of your destination shows up on a road sign on the traffic feed, it puts a yellow box around it, thus giving you a visual warning that you're almost there.

Even if you see it only on your peripheral vision, the yellow signal is unmistakable. If you happen to be touring Las Vegas and there are a lot of signs that read "Only a few more blocks to the Golden Nugget," you will get a lot of false positives, but in most situations it would probably work pretty well. It's still in development.

Pioneer's new plasma TVs boast the technology's best-ever black levels

(Credit: Pioneer)

Gizmodo's got the early scoop on the new Pioneer plasmas. Early prototypes of these eighth-generation panels turned heads when they were originally on display at January's Consumer Electronics Show, and the company has finally supplied the pricing and availability details for the entire line:

Pioneer PDP-4280HD (42-inch, $2,700, June)
Pioneer PDP-5080HD (50-inch, $3,500, June)
Pioneer Elite PRO-950HD (42-inch, $3,200, July)
Pioneer Elite PRO-1150HD (50-inch, $4,500, July)

1080p models:
Pioneer PDP-5010FD (50-inch, $5,000, September)
Pioneer PDP-6010FD (60-inch, $6,500, September)
Pioneer Elite PRO-110FD (50-inch, $6,000, September)
Pioneer Elite PRO-150FD (60-inch, $7,500, September)

The big selling point that Pioneer is talking up on these models is the contrast ratio, which is said to be as high as 20,000:1 on some models. With flat-panel LCDs offering larger screen sizes, lower prices, and ever-better black levels (check out the Samsung LN-T4665F, for example), these new Pioneers are looking to raise the bar for plasma yet again. Senior Editor David Katzmaier--who's not easily impressed--suggested that the CES technology demons of the new plasma technology "evinced some of the deepest blacks" he'd seen yet in a flat-panel TV. And there's no denying that Pioneer has an impressive pedigree when it comes to plasma technology--its recent PRO-FHD1 and PDP-5070HD models are two of the three top-rated HDTVs on CNET Reviews. In other words, if you're a critical viewer who's in the market for a flat-panel TV, it's worth waiting a few weeks to see if the shipping versions of the new Pioneers deliver. (CNET will have full hands-on reviews as soon as samples are available.)

Read pricing and details of Pioneer's new plasmas (Gizmodo).

Additional resources:

• Read the CNET review: Pioneer PDP-5070HD
• Read the CNET review: Pioneer PRO-FHD1
• CNET editors' top TVs
• HDTV World