While the perception has long been that "less is less" in home entertainment, many manufacturers have in recent years taken a stand against waste while still delivering consumers what they want at home. That was a major motivation behind the EcoFocus event in New York City, where some of the biggest names in Consumer Electronics joined forces with a variety of other companies to spread the word about their environmentally-friendly "green" initiatives. Whether reducing their carbon footprint during production or power consumption in day-to-day use, or encouraging smart recycling trends, all participants brought a contagious, upbeat message.
Perhaps the single most impressive demonstration was the Mitsubishi LaserVue 65-inch HDTV, connected to a special meter which displayed actual wattage used at any given second. It was a lot of video for only 100 watts, whereas competing models might have used 300, 400, even 500 watts not long ago. Over at the Sony table, the preeminent brand detailed the ECO-design of their BRAVIA V-Series 4100 LCD HDTV and BDP-S350 Blu-ray disc player, both of which represent the culmination of design and manufacturing practices which eliminate harmful materials, increase energy efficiency as well as the level of recycling as part of the "closed-loop lifecycle" of their products. In fact, the push to recycle was all over the place. One neat solution we saw: Prepaid mailers (from Samsung) to drop in and send old cellphones to be reborn.
Monster showed off two brand-new home theater PowerCenter products, to expand their Monster GreenPower line. The technology automatically eliminates “Vampire Load” energy waste in connected systems: The primary display device plugs into the main Green Power Control Outlet, which in turn controls three other outlets for connection of a disc player, A/V receiver, etc. When the TV is switched off, the other GreenPower outlets turn off too (what would be the point of leaving them powered up with no display?), and then back on again, in synch with the TV. The HDP 850G Digital PowerCenter with GreenPower ($99.95) combines advanced surge protection with Monster GreenPower control and their HD Clean Power Stage 1 filtering, while the step-up HDP 900G ($129.95) adds surge-protected coaxial, network and phone connections, handy for multimedia systems that include cable/phone/internet hookups.
More Information:
