Polk Audio is always known for bringing excellent products to the Consumer Electronics Show to show off. It has a new two-piece surround sound system set to unveil known as the Polk Audio SurroundBar 360 DVD Theater. It is priced at around $1,200.

The Polk Audio SurroundBar 360 DVD Theater has a “multichannel loudspeaker (44 1/2″ W x 4 7/8″ D x 4 1/8″ H) and a separate, compact electronics console (16 1/2″ W x 11 1/2″ D x 3 3/16″ H) that contains an integrated DVD/CD player, SDA signal-processing amplifier, AM/FM radio, and a host of digital, analog, USB, and video inputs.” That’s right from the horse’s mouth folks - all of that in a tight little design which will make you drool over its very cool looking gloss black enclosure.

If you’re getting frustrated with the limited feature set of your current set-top box from your cable company, Motorola is showcasing the next generation of set top boxes for the cable industry this year at the CES 2008, bringing their first MPEG-4 box for interactive in-home television programming. The new DCX series set-top boxes support high-def video content, surround sound and can act as a hub to share media between it and other compatible devices in the home.

One of the biggest complaints we’ve heard about DVRs from cable providers is the inability to easily share recorded content to anywhere else other than the DVR itself. The new DCX series boxes allow users to not only share the content with other devices so you can watch it in another room, but it also lets the owners add their own media to the device and share it as well.

At some point you should probably upgrade that ratty old home media room recliner you have to something a little more sleek, modern and comfortable. Salamander Designs is showcasing one such new piece of furniture at CES - the Olivia.

The Olivia, which did not have pricing information available, can be customized in a variety of ways, according to its maker. It sports a seating surface measuring 23.5 inches wide and needs just three inches of clearance behind it to recline. It features both a standard manual recline mechanism, and a powered mechanism controlled by a switch in the arm. A hidden footrest automatically extends as the seat reclines.

Lyngdorf Audio is showcasing at the Consumer Electronics Show two new home theater components for those looking for more edgy gear. This items are the TDA-2300 digital integrated amplifier and D-1 home theater processor.

The Lyngdorf D-1 is a home theater processor which will price at around $17,000. This high end home theater component is a multi-channel unit which is all digital, meaning there are no analog to digital or D/A conversion processes which occur. Its maker says this provides for “an unbroken digital signal path of the very highest quality all the way from the source to the speaker terminals.” It also includes a room correction system to help remove “any room-related distortion and coloration of the sound.”

A company by the name of Ziova has unveiled what it is calling a new high definition network media player which can sport an internal hard drive. The ClearStream CS615 is expected to price at around $330.

The ClearStream CS615 from Ziova is powered by the Sigma Designs 8634 chipset. It is a home networked media player which brings your media files to your home theater system. You can get entertainment via the 10/100 Ethernet wired networking, an internal hard drive and a USB 2.0 hard drive connection. Video output options include HDMI and component video.

How many times have you cursed HDTV manufacturers while trying to install HDMI cables into those hard to reach HDMI ports on the back? Cables to Go thinks it may have an answer to this home theater issue by unveiling a line of rotating HDMI and DVI adapters. These adapters all price at around $13.

The Cables to Go HDMI and DVI 360-Degree Rotating Connectors are designed to enable 360 degree rotation and 90 degree bending so one can more easily connect HDMI and DVI cables to sources. Each one sports a center ball joint design and appropriate connectivity ports in its body shape.

Escient, a developer of networked media products, is planning to ship early next year a new line of media management devices which will let one “play and import all their movies, videos, music, and photos using the front-panel drive and home network.” This new Vision line of products is set to price between $2,000 and $8,000.

The Escient Vision line consists of seven products, including two versions of an all-in-one server/player, Models VS-100 and VS-200, as well as the VC-1 networked audio/video zone player and the large-capacity VX-600 media server. All of these devices will sport a new high definition user interface and also allow one to access streaming music through Rhapsody.

AV Toolbox has introduced to the market a video scaler designed to take both analog and digital video signals and convert them to 1080p. The new AVT-3900 is priced at $635.

The AV Toolbox AVT-3900, currently being distributed in the UK, has specific video inputs which accept “HDMI, DVI (via DVI to HDMI cable), PC generated RGB (up to WUXGA), HD component (YPbPr/YCbCr, 480i up to 1080p), S-video and composite video.” All of these signals are processed via the AVT-3900’s internal scaling engine and the device outputs 1080p with supports for HDMI version 1.2.

Pass Laboratories, an audio equipment specialty company, announced a new integrated amplifier for high end home audio systems. The Pass Labs INT-150 is priced at around $6,500.

The Pass Labs INT-150 is the company’s first integrated amplifier. It is rated at 150 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 300 watts into 4 ohms. It is equipped with a special circuit which reportedly will improve performance by lowering distortion and noise processed by the amplifier. Input, output and AC connectors are on the rear of the device.

Not all home theater systems, especially older ones, have video upscaling as a feature in either the DVD player or A/V receiver. For those people Gefen has announced its new Home Theater Scaler Plus, priced at around $500.

The Gefen Home Theater Scaler Plus scales video signals to high resolutions ranging from 480i to 1080p, converting analog signals to digital. It comes equipped with with inputs for component video with left/right audio, composite/s-video with left/right audio, and two HDMI inputs each with digital TOSlink and S/PDIF audio. There’s also HDMI output and the video scaler is HDCP compliant.

SIM2, a developer of home theater products, is out with a stylish new home media projector which hopefully will match features with its high price. The SIM2 C3X 1080 is awaiting your credit card to be charged for around $32,000.

The SIM2 C3X 1080 is a small 3 chip projector using Texas Instrument’s latest DarkChip 4 chip (you home theater geeks know what this means so I’ll move on). It delivers self-described “benchmark quality” 1080p video display and makes use of special all-glass optics in the company’s proprietary light engine.

APC is not just about doing back up power solutions for your home or small business network. It also has products in other power related categories such as A/V gear. One of its newest offerings is the APC H15 Power Conditioner, priced at around $450. APC has also released a less expensive model, the H10, at around $350.

The APC H15 Power Conditioner is designed to provide what APC says is full power conditioning, including surge protection, noise filtering, and automatic voltage regulation (AVR). Both the H15 and the H10 have 12 filtered, surge protection outlets, with six of these outlets offering noise filtering for digital devices. The power conditioners also offer two analog, two video, and two high-current filtered outlets for amplifiers, subwoofers and the like.

The next logical step once you have a home theater room is to find a way to make it truly unique. Some people do that by having it look like the interior of a real movie theater while others are more interested in turning it into a luxury den. But one home owner in Palm Beach County, FL took their love of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” to its fullest and transformed their home theater into the bridge of the USS Enterprise-D. Geeky? Yes. Something that you are envious of? That too.

The entire Star Trek rec …

Word on A/V Street this week is Marantz, a developer of audio-video gear, is out with a new and highly desired A/V receiver. The Marantz SR8002 is priced at around $2,100.

The Marantz SR8002 is a 7.1-channel receiver loaded to the gills with features. Take a look at this laundry list of its most pronounced ones: HDMI 1.3 repeating capability, HD Radio, THX Select2 processing, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, and dts HD Master Audio as well as MultEQ room correction and calibration technology from Audyssey Laboratories. You also get multi-room signal distribution.

Onkyo recently announced a new home theater in a box system which is in tune with the HDMI v1.3a standard. The Onkyo HT-SP908 is priced at around $1,100.

The Onkyo HT-SP908 7.1-channel audio system comes with the company’s TX-SR605 A/V receiver. This receiver has two HDMI v1.3a inputs and one output which are “fully compatible with 1080p video, including DeepColor technology.” The receiver also supports the latest high audio codecs as well as being XM and Sirius satellite radio ready. Basic iPod control and audio playback is offered to the A/V receiver via an included S-A1X Remote Interactive (RI) control dock.