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RCA Brings Audio To Scenium Brand

New York – In addition to Thomson’s all-widescreen HDTV lineups, its mid-to-hi-fi RCA Scenium brand also introduced a number of audio products at its recent line show here.

New home audio products included – a home theater system, a standalone receiver and a speaker package, all of which will be available in September.

The RTD101 DVD/CD Home Theatre System ($399) offers a silver, compact design with an integrated progressive scan DVD player and 450-watt receiver. The DVD player accepts CD-R/W and MP3 CDs, while the receiver decodes Dolby Digital and DTS sound tracks and adds Dolby ProLogic II processing for two-channel sources. Speakers include five satellites and a powered subwoofer.

The stand-alone RCA Scenium A/V receiver (model RT2660R, $299) has 550 total watts and decodes Dolby Digital, DTS and adds Pro Logic II processing.

The SP2660 ($699) speaker package offers five pillow-shaped satellites and a powered subwoofer.

In portable audio, RCA announced two new Lyra MP3 models that incorporate hard-disk recording drives.

Other personal music players include four MP3 CD players, and three pocket-size players.

The Lyra jukeboxes offer two storage sizes – the 10GB ($249, now) and the 20GB RD2820 ($299, August) – and will store MP3 music files as well as data files. Thomson said the jukeboxes are ‘MP3Pro-ready,’ meaning they can be upgraded to play the new capacity-efficient music storage format after a future software download.

When available, the MP3Pro codec will enable the RD2820 Lyra jukebox to store 600 hours of high quality digital music. It will carry approximately 300 hours of standard MP3 files at a time. The unit weighs 11 ounces and is compatible with Windows 98SE, Millennium Edition (ME), XP and Mac OS X.

Files are transferred between the device and a computer via a USB connection. RCA includes MusicMatch software, and a behind-the-ear X-Phone stereo headset.

Users can create playlists on the Lyra jukeboxes without using a PC. Additionally, seven sorting options are available to organize lists by such categories as artist, title, album etc., all viewable on an eight-line backlit LCD screen.

New MP3 CD products include two personal CD players (with X-Phones), a shelf system and a boombox.

Thomson’s SmartTrax track navigation system, which enables quick access to specific titles or playlists, will be included in RP2458 Lyra CD player (fall) and the RCD128 boombox (shipping now), each is priced at $99. The system relies on computer-generated ID tags that will be readable as onscreen data.

Other Lyra CD models include the RP2450 personal CD player with MP3 and Windows Media support ($79, August); and the RS2605 ($149, now).

The shelf system offers 100-watts of total system power and includes a five-disc CD player with MP3 support, and Kevlar speakers.

Thomson is offering three Lyra personal digital players in its third-generation Lyra MP3 lineup. All are MP3 and Windows Media compatible and are slated to ship in September. All add MMC/SD flash memory card slots, and X-Phone headsets. The Lyra RD1080 ($129, July) is MP3Pro-ready and includes a digital FM tuner and 128MB of internal memory. The RD1020 ($99) and 128MB RD1070 ($129) each carry 64MB of internal memory. Both are slated for September shipments.

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