Denver

September 15, 2006

Day Two of CEDIA

In a phrase, content overload. After spending the day talking to product managers and sales representatives, I need time to decompress and separate out the informational gold from the marketing hype.

Outside Looking In at the Denver Convention Center

One thing was obvious, 1080p displays are here, with even more models and sizes coming in the next few months. Hopefully for the consumers that have been playing catch-up with the technology for the last few years, we will see a pause in this rush to resolution. Though marketing seems to be this perpetual motion machine that feeds off change and the next best thing. But I think, at least for a couple of years, we can all take a deep breath and try to come to terms with what 1080p has wrought.

Here are some products that caught my eye today.

LG 50" Plasma with built-in HD-DVR

Tearing my gaze away from LG's 71" 1080p plasma display, I spied this 50" plasma (yes, it's only 1366 x 768p) that contains a 160 GB HD-DVR in its chassis, all for an MSRP of $3699. LG is also making a 42" LCD version with an HD-DVR for $2599.

Samsung reduced the depth of their DLP HDTVs in their Slim DLP line. They also were showing an LED backlit LCD based HDTV that was displaying a fabulous image.

Philip's was highlighting their new line of Ambilight HDTVs, like their 37" LCD 37PF9631D/37,(ESP $1800), which feature backlights on the sides of the monitors that aim towards the wall and illuminate around the TV.

I'll report on more tomorrow.

Stay tuned,

Dick De Jong
Editor

Dick@HDTVSolutions.com