D-Box Introduces Pair of New Motion Chairs

D-Box, the company that has pioneered and championed the movable chair concept, has introduced two new chairs at CES.

The new Premiere Series are sized and styled to fit in non-theater rooms and are very affordable.

Anyone who experienced D-Box's GP-200 three axis of motion chair at CEDIA was amazed at how realistic it made racing and flight games.

But at $20,000, it's difficult for installers to recommend it to all but their most dedicated racing and flight simulator loving clients.

D-Box Motion Code was aware of these limitations and has partnered with Johnson Controls to produce two new chairs that aesthetically blend with a media/family room, utilize two axes of motion and will retail at or around $3500.

New Chair Features Traditional Design

The first chair looks like a traditional wide armed easy chair and will be available in a variety of colors to match the carpet or interior color scheme of the room it is placed in.

It looks so much like an traditional armchair that people will not be able to tell that it has motion capabilities as all the actuator motors and power supplies remain hidden in the base.

This more traditional chair really adds to the immersion of a first-person shooter. In the demonstration piece, "Resistance: Fall of Man" for the PlayStation 3, I felt each jolt of my weapon as well as shots from the alien foes that hit me.

On the next demo, driving game "Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights Review," I really felt the vibration of the wheels on the car as it slid through turns and slammed in walls, as well as the leaning to each side when the car took turns.

D-Box Motion Code president, Claude McMaster, says that because the chair blends into a family room, it will enable movie watching to be enhanced without having to do anything special.

Gaming Chair Connects Controllers

The second of the two chairs is targeted and designed for the more serious gamer who wants to use his peripherals, like driving/flying pedals and steering wheels/joysticks, but also wants to be able to remove those pieces quickly and easily.

When the accessories are removed, the chair looks then looks like a very contemporary/modern chair with arms.

The pedals, steering/joystick shelf and the steel tubing that hold it all are designed to be not only removable but are just as fast and easy to set back up.

I played a PC version of the improved "R-Factor" racing game and was amazed at how I could feel the car shake and vibrate around turns, as well as how much the chair made every slow to fast acceleration push me back in with realistic G-force pressure.

What I was more surprised at was how much closer this two-axis chair was to the GP Pro 200. The GP Pro 200's third axis of motion and ability to create directional motion force puts it in league of its own, but this contemporary Premiere chair was darn well close. At $3500, it's also an incredible bargain.

These Premiere chairs will be available in the next twelve months and console game support may also be ready as well.

Support for Two More Blu-ray Discs

D-Box Motion Code also announced two new Blu-ray titles with their motion code technology embedded on the discs, "Independence Day" and "I, Robot" from 20th Century Fox.

They'll join the previously released Fox Blu-Ray titles "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" and "Live Free and Die Hard."