If you have been shopping for some new gear for your home theater this is the week to be in the market. The CEDIA Expo is going on this week which means just about everyone capable of making home theater gear is pulling out their new wares.

Harmon Kardon has announced a new AV receiver that uses the latest components for good sound. The device is called the AVR 7550HD and features a TI Aureus DA710 audio digital-signal processor. The receiver has HDMI 1.3a with deep color capability and support pass through of 1080p signals.

Harman Kardon has been around for a long time. Most of use will recognize the name from the speakers the firm has produced for computers and home theater for years. The company also makes car stereo speakers and other products as well.

Harman Kardon has announced that it will be releasing its first Blu-ray player this month. The device is called the BDP 1 and will sell for $499. For that amount of loot, you get the same basic features you expect in a new Blu-ray player including HDMI 1.3a out, RJ-45 connectivity, and support for BD-Live and BonusView.

If you have dropped big bucks on your big screen 1080p HDTV and Blu-ray player but are still rocking with the plain vanilla 5.1 surround sound you are missing half the coolness of many Blu-ray movies—the HD sound. Sure Dolby Digital 5.1 sounds pretty good, but wouldn’t you rather get the Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio goodness form your Blu-ray titles?

To do that odds are you are going to need a new AV receiver and Harman Kardon announced a nice one recently called the AVR 354. The 354 features decoding for both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master audio and an on screen graphical menu and a new iPod dock called The Bridge II. The iPod dock allows docking of the iPhone and most other iPods and shows the iPod video, images and menu screens on your TV.

Harman Kardon today unveiled for European markets the Cinespecial 29, a two component home theatre system. It’s priced at €1,299 and should be available in October.

The Cinespecial 29 consists of the Harman Kardon DVD 29 DVD player and the AVR 350 A/V receiver in a new industrial design. The DVD 29 can play DVD Audio, supports HDMI and can upscale to 1080i. The AVR 350 has two HDMI 1.2a inputs, an automatic calibration system and offers expanded iPod integration.

Harman/Kardan, a relatively new player in the GPS market, has released a second navigation device offering a very competitive and affordable navigation system for those considering their first GPS.

In March we reported on the nuvi 200 as a very price conscious option for an in-car GPS system at $399 but the Harman/Kardan GPS-300 is beating that price by a full $100. The GPS-300 is basically the same model as the GPS-500 except they dropped the support for MPEG-4 video and in turn can house a smaller processor with a smaller cost.

The GPS-300 Guide+Play does feature a 4-inch touchscreen with 2GB of internal memory for maps and music files along with an SD card slot that supports up to an addition 4GB of memory. It comes with turn-by-turn voice directions, multiple routes for speed, distance or to avoid toll roads, route …

Harmon Kardon, the company known for audio excellence, has released its updated version of its popular Drive+Play device. Drive+Play 2 provides a nice interface for devices like an iPod or satellite radio. The Drive+Play mimics an iPod down to the interface and button. The remote is a 2.4GHz wireless knob that resembles an iPods scroll wheel.

The 3.5 inch display, which mounts on your dash with either glue or screws (yikes), is meant to resemble an iPod screen. The screen supports regular and large font (for those older drivers). The screen is colored unlike the original which had a gray scale screen.

The “brain” of the system can be wired directly to a car stereo system for a permanent installation. If the user isn’t so sure about permanently grafting the device to their car, they …