If you wander around any major AVS site, more often then not you will see Denon's name thrown around. Not only do they do the higher to mid range stuff very well, they have a great practice of technology creep into their lower models. Secrets has taken a quick look at the 3930CI from Denon and ran it through the standard suite of DVD benchmark tests. They seem pretty impressed by what it has to offer.

From the article:

I didn’t find much, if any, difference between the scaling of the ABT chip in the 5910 and the scaling in the 3930CI. Both are excellent, with a small edge going to the 3930 using a luma burst test pattern. The 3930 showed a bit less ringing in the upper frequency range. De-interlacing performance was the same, i.e., superb. The HQV chip passes all of our tests without the slightest problem and represents one of the best de-interlacing solutions on the market today. I even tested this player with the AVIA vertical test pattern that has been causing problems for this chipset in some projector designs. Like my DVD-5910, the 3930CI has no issues at all with motion in the vertical direction and kept the cadence locked at all times.

CNET has the Sony KDS-R60XBR2 strapped to the ole test bench today. Does the higher price XBR justify its premium over its little brother? Its hard to say but the XBR does have CableCard support, brighter bulb, extra HDMI input and more advanced picture controls. My feeling is that most people wouldn't notice the difference unless both TVs were side by side and they were comparing brightness. 

From the article:

The picture quality of the Sony KDS-R60XBR2 is among the best we've seen in a rear-projection HDTV, although we're not scoring it any higher than that of the KDS-60A2000 or last year's KDS-R60XBR1 (which has been re-rated to reflect this review). The XBR2 exhibited excellent black-level performance, superb grayscale and color decoding accuracy, and very good uniformity across the screen. Nothing's perfect however, and the Sony did fall short on primary color accuracy and some video processing issues, namely 2:3 pulldown. 

With a street price of $2k the AX100U lies somewhere between the ultra budget projectors and the higher end price tags. However, its feature set makes it obvious that you getting a great deal. With the Dynamic Iris, you can expect a 6,000:1 contrast ration and a brightness of 13.0 to 60.4 fr-lamberts depending on the mode you use. This model also carries support for stretching 2.35:1 movies with 720p or 1080i resolutions.

From the article:

Of all of the projectors I have owned or seen, the PT-AX100U is the one that I would be most comfortable recommending to first time projector owners. There are multiple reasons for this, including its price point, but largely the flexibility that Panasonic has designed into this particular model. From the vertical and horizontal lens shift and large throw range that allow it to work in many environments, to the ability to go bright when needed, while also providing a good color balanced mode with good contrast ratio for dark room viewing, this is just a really good unit. When I get a call from a friend of a friend or a relative telling me that they are thinking about getting a front projector and asking me for a recommendation, I expect the PT-AX100U to be the first projector to come to mind for a while, even if I do end up recommending something else after finding out their budget and other factors. 

High-Def Digest has a couple of reviews up of HD DVDs.  First up is their review of The Wild which is Disney's first H.264 encoded movie.

From the article:

'The Wild' comes to Blu-ray in a 1.85:1 widescreen, 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 video transfer, and the results are rather lovely. This certainly is one of the best-looking animated films I've seen yet on either next-gen format, and in any case it is certainly superior to Disney's 'Dinosaur.'

The second review is of Superman, the 1978 movie. According to the reviewer, they did a fantastic job on the source transfer proving that even old movies can look good in HD.

From the article:

As photographed by Oscar-winner Geoffrey Unsworth, 'Superman: The Movie' is a big, bold, bright and the perfect realization of comic book movie style. But for years, Unsworth's work suffered from washed-out, murky video transfers, with nearly half of the expansive 2.40:1 frame cropped and the film's many effects shots riddled with dirt and grime. Not anymore. The restored 'Superman: The Movie' simply soars. Meticulously rehabbed, the Man of Steel's tights are now the proper shade of blue, a big red "S" blazing across his chest. This is still one of my favorite remasters of recent years, if only because it is such a quantum leap over how crappy the film looked so many years prior.

LG, a 2006 mover and shaker, has introduced their PC Blu-ray drive to the market. The cost is up there, 499 GPB to be exact. Being an early adopter is painful, and this case even more so because the burner can not burn dual layer BR media :(.

From the article:

The GBW H10N boasts the fastest currently available Blu-ray write speed of 4X, as well as writing to existing DVD formats at speeds of up to 12x. The full line up is as follows:

Write speed: BD-R 4x, BD-RE 2x, DVD-R 12x (SL/DL), CD-R (DL 6x), DVD-RW 6x, DVD-RAM 3-5x, DVD+R 12x, DVD+R DL 12x, DVD+RW 8x, CD-R 8x, CD-RW 10x DVD-R.

Read Speed: BD-R 4x, BD-RE 2x, DVD-R 10x, CVD-R DL 6x, DVD-RW 10x, DVD-RAM 3x-5x, DVD+R 10x, DVD+R DL 10x, DVD+RW 10x, CD-R 40x, CD-RW 40x.

Sadly, as you may have spotted from these figures (and the reason I gave you the full breakdown) LG has no quoted speeds for dual layer Blu-ray media because it cannot burn to this format. Little can.

Via EngadgetHD, MHD is going to premiere a new concert in HD for the rest of 2006. 5 or 6 concerts is not a huge number but any HD content is in the right direct. Personally I am looking forward to concerts being released on one of the next gen DVD formats.

From the article:

MHD's concert premieres include: * CMT Giants: Reba McEntire, premiering Saturday, November 18 at 8pm ET/PT on CMT and simulcast on MHD * The 2006 MTV European Music Awards, premiering Saturday, November 25 at 9pm ET/PT * CMT Crossroads: Lindsey Buckingham and Little Big Town, premiering Saturday, December 2 at 9pm ET/PT on CMT and simulcast on MHD * Life & Rhymes: Snoop Dogg, premiering Saturday, December 9 at 9pm ET/PT * Summer Fest: Lynyrd Skynyrd, premiering December 16 at 9pm ET/PT * Isle of Wight Festival: Snow Patrol and Jet, premiering December 23 at 9pm ET/PT.