Philips unveil CinemaOne home theater system

Philips' new all-in-one DVD Home Theater System packs a range of home entertainment features into a distinctive, compact design. The CinemaOne includes an integrated universal iPod dock, built-in subwoofer and DVD player with HDMI 1080p upscaling in a unit that resembles a compacted, upturned trash can – only a lot more stylish.

The diminutive unit includes various Philips technologies including Cinema Sound – powered by Ambisound – which is designed to deliver dynamic sound from a single unit system by using a mix of array processing, psychoacoustics and precise driver positioning. Philips claims Cinema Sound delivers a sound field that is ‘significantly widened, providing the listener with immersive sound – absolutely clutter-free’. The ‘clutter-free’ credentials of the CinemaOne are further enhanced by the built-in subwoofer, which does away with at least one more cable, while providing a nice fullness to the sound.

Meanwhile Philips’ FullSound technology helps to restore sonic details to compressed music when using the built-in iPod dock. This dock allows playback of movies, music and photos from an iPod as well the ability to control the iPod and browse through its contents on a TV screen using the CinemaOne’s remote.

The 50W unit plays back the standard video formats including MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, DivX and WMV, while supported audio formats include Dolby Digital, DTS, MP3, MPEG2 Multichannel, PCM and WMA. USB and MP3 Link provide support for non-iPod portable devices while the HDMI digital output allows connection to a HDTV with only one cable. All this in a unit that weighs 4.7kg and measures 273mm wide x 172mm high x 273 mm deep.

Philips showed the unit at IFA in Berlin this wee, but at this stage there’s no word on price or a release date so stay tuned to Philips for further details.