Marantz America will use CEDIA Expo to unveil a revamped four-model DVD player line, three plasma monitors and a DLP-based front projector.
Kevin Zarow, Marantz America, marketing and product development director, said the new product lines have been re-engineered to accommodate suggestions of custom installers, which are key in the company’s selective distribution strategy.
The new plasma monitors, which are slated to ship in September, lack any form of built-in tuning (NTSC or ATSC), enabling Marantz to bypass mandatory compliance with the Federal Communications Commission’s DTV tuner mandate, Zarow said. All three panels offer “more flexibility in placement, features and convenience” to accommodate custom installers.
The line includes a pair of high-definition panels in the 42W PD4250 ($8,999 suggested retail) and 50W-inch PD5050 ($10,999 suggested retail) screen sizes and a single EDTV-level model in the 42W-inch PD4230 ($5,999 suggested retail). All three models feature a newly designed black bezel and include high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) connectivity.
The panels also offer new easier-to-navigate onscreen displays, and redesigned remote controls featuring discrete input selection.
Marantz’ latest DLP projector model VP-12S4 ($13,499 suggested retail) uses a single-HD2+ chip, and is slated to ship by the end of the year. It offers three lenses — a short-throw lens, which was previously the company’s standard lens; a medium-throw lens, which is the new standard lens; and a long-throw lens. Lens-shift was also increased, enabling the projector to be mounted one full screen height above the screen. This is said to be ideal for mounting in rooms with 12-foot ceiling heights.
Also new in the VP-12S4 is a video processing circuit, based in part on technology developed by Gennum, which is capable of 10-bit throughput and 1,080i motion-adaptive de-interlacing. Inputs include dual HDMI jacks.
The VP-12S4 joins Marantz’ recently introduced VP-10S1 3-chip DLP projector.
Marantz will also introduce four new single-disc DVD players, including a reference-quality flagship model, DV9500, with 14-bit, 214 MHz video processing and full scaling on HDMI up to the 720p or 1,080i formats. The unit, which will ship in September at a $2,000 suggested retail, offers universal (DVD-Audio and SACD) multi-channel music playback, including the first-use of Dolby Headphone in a DVD-Audio player. It uses six discrete audio circuits for DVD-A or SACD playback, and includes full bass management with delay for individual channels.
