The first day of CES and the show is heaving. For those who have not experienced an event on the scale of the Consumer Electronics, it’s like someone dropped a city of high technology in the midst of Las Vegas. With more than 2,500 exhibiting companies and perhaps as many as 150,000 visitors passing through the show, it’s staggering and impossible to cover quickly.
Day one for Cinenow concentrated on the big guys, the ones with the big screens. But there’s big… and BIG. Samsung had the biggest stand at the show, with 2,300 square metres of bewildering display showcasing the latest in new and forthcoming technologies. There were new LCD and plasma TVs on display, at all sizes up to 80 inches, but the experimental developments were attracting the most attention in TV. The LED BLU technology research was successfully showing how motion blue can be almost totally eliminated. Other innovations were a screen with massive dynamic range, a two-sided LCD and more. More down to earth new products included the HT-TXQ120 DVD home theatre system, one of the CES Innovation Award winners this year.
The other big Korean name was also getting a lot of attention. LG has announced that the format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray disc is already over… and LG won. The company announced the first player to support both Blu-ray and HD DVD in one. More will follow… LG also showed off its first 100in ‘Full HD’ 1080p LCD TV, which almost dwarfed the 71in Full HD 1080p Plasma TV and others from the same company. LG also had an attractive 5.1 system, the LHT790, which looks strikingly like the popular LG Chocolate phone.
Plasmas were in full effect over at Panasonic, with new Full HD 1080p models announced up to 103”, 720p plasma up to 50” and more. Panasonic is placing emphasis on its ‘Living in High Definition’, showing a complete interior covering new cameras, camcorders, IP phones as a complete home integration.
But, all the latest plasma screens may be blown away by Pioneer’s bold claims. The company has overhauled its plasma technology to provide picture quality that is considered to outperform both LCD and the new SED technology. Products were initially expected in 2008, for the Beijing Olympic Games, but Pioneer is bullish about launching products by mid-2007. In the meantime, Elite 1080p plasmas abound. Pioneer is also showing off it’s 24fps concept, where images in the disc are played at exactly the same frame rate as seen in the cinema. This has huge advantages for the home cinema enthusiast. It was also showing off its video DVD mixer, with a live DJ set of inspired content.
Sony’s massive stand almost hid away the little display of OLED (organic LED) screens. These tiny, extremely cool prototypes were shown in 11” and 27” screen sizes. OLED’s principle advantages are screen thickness and low power consumption and these prototypes were no exceptions. The larger screen was a mere 11mm thick, while the smaller 11” screen was just 8mm thick. The largest screen was Full HD compatible with a 1920×1080 screen size and both had a mighty 170° viewing angle. Whether Sony can crack the problem of short working life in OLED remains to be seen, but these small, sexy little screens were proving irresistible to journalists and photographers alike. Of course, Sony also had slightly bigger screens on show, too… like the KDL-70XBR3 70” Bravia LCD, a $33,000 device expected to take up mighty amounts of wall space in Spring 2007. The company even had a Vaio PC designed for the living room, the TP1, as well as a internet TV unit.
Philips has a lot to show off, too. The company has celebrated its millionth Ambilight set by producing a diamond-encrusted one-off with DeBeers diamonds. The set comes with its own security guard. Elsewhere, Philips has added the Ambisound bar (a CES Innovation Award winner) to the concept, which brings surround sound to a single unit and a new HDMI wireless in-room transmission system. New screens and more are also on show, but the company is also showing off its smaller devices. It now has a portable media player with its own iPod dock and a swivelling screen and a small hand-held player to compete with the iPod and the Microsoft Zune.
Microsoft itself had a lot to talk about. Naturally the launch of the Vista operating system and Office suite of programs took up much of the story, but IPTV for Xbox 360 and the home server system all packed in the crowds so greatly that it was hard to see the products in play. InFocus was another company exploiting the success of the Microsoft Xbox 360 (and other gaming devices). Its new modular projector system features a 720p DLP chip, but is designed for the home gamer. It can be configured with built in sound, upward-firing mirror for in-ceiling gaming or expansion packs for multiple game console frenzy. Cool!
Finally, for day one, Toshiba were showcasing a trio of new HD DVD players and a whole host of new LCD screens with fine finishes. The big issues are to increase contrast without losing black definition, make the screens less prone to banding and give them an even more elegant look than before. The RealSteel set with its metal surround, certainly does that.