High-def Disc-o-mania
The HD-disc format war was in high gear at CES, with partisans from both the Blu-ray and HD DVD camps boasting of victory during 2006. Even so, peace broke out in the form of Warner Home Video's Total High Def Disc, a hybrid format containing both HD DVD and Blu-ray versions of the same movie. The company announced that the first Total Hi Def Disc releases would arrive in the second half of '07. LG, meanwhile, displayed its dual-format Super Multi Blue player (shown here, and reviewed here).
Like most of the press, I was locked out of Toshiba's overstuffed event at CES. But I did get a chance later on to check out its new HD-A20 HD DVD player. Price-wise, the $599 player will sit in the middle of Toshiba's HD DVD lineup when it arrives this spring. It doesn't have an HDMI 1.3 connection, but it will offer 1080p output and built-in decoding of Dolby True HD soundtracks. In other HD DVD hardware news, I was told that a number of Chinese makers plan to release really cheap players during 2007.
Sharp, Samsung, and Sony showed new Blu-ray players at CES. Samsung's second-gen model, the BD-P100 ($799, March), will be outfitted with HDMI 1.3 and Ethernet jacks along with Silicon Optix HQV processing. Details on new players were in shorter supply at the Sony and Sharp booths. Sony showed two prototypes, both tagged with the mysterious code name "Sapphire," and little else. Sharp's player doesn't have a model number yet, but it will cost $1,200 and is scheduled to arrive in stores by summer. — Al Griffin
New Tech vs. No Tech
I'm not just spouting science fiction when I say that flat-screen TVs can and will get even flatter in the future. OLED (organic light-emitting diode), one of the key new technologies nosing its way up into the TV world, made a very decent showing at this year's CES, with an array of prototypes on display in the Sony booth whose screen sizes ranged from a few inches across to 27 inches diagonal. The cardboard-thin profile and rich color of these sets make me hungry to see more examples of OLED in the near future.
I'm probably not the only one who traveled to Vegas hoping to see a preproduction bigscreen SED TV in the Toshiba or Canon booth. Unfortunately, the technology was a no-show — the result, I was told, of some kind of patent dispute that's preventing either company from displaying SED sets in the U.S. Not surprisingly, Toshiba made an announcement immediately after CES that the company would sell its stake in a joint SED manufacturing venture with Canon. So much for SED shaking up the flat-panel TV world!
Sharp showed off a 4,000 x 2,000-pixel LCD (that's four times the resolution of current 1080p TVs) playing full-motion video and a Network Aquos TV that used PLC (Power Line Communication) to send dual high-def video feeds, via a home's electrical wires, to TVs equipped with adapters. The 4K-rez TV was just a display of technological muscle, but the PLC adapters are actual products Sharp plans to introduce sometime this year.
Meanwhile, Pioneer's demo in a nearby booth of its new-gen plasma panel looked utterly fantastic, with the prototype 60-inch TV (shown above) displaying a dynamic contrast ratio that rivaled my now fading memory of the SED sets Toshiba displayed at past shows. The company wasn't giving any model numbers, specs, or prices for its new plasma line — we'll have to wait until late spring/early summer for that information. — Al Griffin
LEDs, Lasers, and Lightning-Fast LCDs
Picture quality isn't the main reason LCD caught up to plasma in the bigscreen flat-panel game, but judging from demos at CES, set-makers are getting serious about elevating its performance. Nearly every LCD company at the show — including Sony, Samsung, LG, Toshiba, Philips, Panasonic, and JVC — demonstrated some kind of tweak. In most cases, the panel's refresh rate is doubled to 120 Hz (the TV's processing performs motion-vector interpolation to fill out the extra frames derived from the incoming 60-Hz video signal) to reduce blur in fast-motion sequences.
But some companies are taking their LCD tweaks even further. JVC's "Clear Motion Drive" demo showed how interpolation in both the horizontal and vertical planes can help reduce motion blur even more. And Samsung demo'd sets that use a technique called "local dimming," which divides the backlight into quadrants and dynamically modulates it according to picture content.
LED-lit TVs made a token appearance at last year's CES, but they were a force to be reckoned with this year. Samsung, for example, plans to follow up its HL-S5679W DLP rear-projection TV with new 50-, 56-, and 61-inch models (the HL-T5076S, HL-T5676S, and HL-T6176S). The company announced no pricing but is shooting for an April ship date.
Sony, meanwhile, showed its new LED-backlit LCD, the 70-inch Bravia KDL-70XBR3. This $33,000 model (shown above) has a host of high-tech enhancements, including HDMI 1.3 inputs and the ability to display images in xvYCC — or "Deep Color" — color space. On the science-project front, Sony showed a prototype 55-inch SXRD RPTV with a laser-driven light engine. No word on when we'll be seeing this tech in real TVs, but with its 10-inch deep cabinet, the model on display outslimmed even JVC's skinny new HD-DiLA rear-projection sets. — Al Griffin
No-Escape TV
Clearly, the reason you go to the beach is to watch satellite TV. Since your line of sight to a position over the equator is unlikely to be obstructed there, your biggest problem will be deflecting glare from the 17-inch LCD TV built into DirecTV's new Sat-Go, a 25-pound attaché case that packs the TV, receiver, dish antenna, and a laptop-style battery that's said to be good for hours, but not necessarily until the tide comes in. A cigarette-lighter adapter lets you power the system from your parked SUV. Sat-Go is expected this summer for between $1,000 and $1,300 plus a DirecTV subscription. Don't forget the cooler. — Michael Antonoff
iPod Unleashed
Like a myriad of meteorites smashing into a planet, the iPod has completely changed the A/V landscape forever. And what would CES be without a ton of new peripherals to make life even more Pod-tastic? The common denominator among the coolest accessories was getting the Pod off your hip and out of your pocket, enabling you to enjoy its content in bigger and better ways.
One of the boldest Pod-nerships was ViewSonic's PJ258D DLP projector ($999, spring — shown above), which features an integrated iPod dock that takes your Pod's video files to the big leagues. Photos and video files can be projected to life-size proportions in 1,024 x 768 resolution.
Altec Lansing does iPod video on a slightly smaller scale with its iMV712 ($349, late spring). Video and photos are displayed on an 8.5-inch, widescreen LCD, and audio is surprisingly rich from the small speakers and 4-inch side-firing woofers. Disappointingly, the LCD screen doesn't display the Pod's music menus or cover art, so you can't have everything.
Escient's FP-1 music manager ($599 — below) brings that company's terrific onscreen interface to the iPod. Once a Pod is placed in the dock, the FP-1 automatically indexes all the music and retrieves cover art from the Net. The FP-1 also lets you navigate your music from any Web-enabled device. If you already own an Escient FireBall music server, the FP-1 seamlessly integrates your Pod's music with the rest of your collection and acts as another zone player for your system.
While there were a number of systems that let you place your Pod where you want and still keep in touch with your tunes wirelessly, one of the coolest was Silex's wiDock ($149, available now), which lets you sync wirelessly with iTunes via 802.11g. This ensures your Pod is always loaded with your latest tunes, podcasts, and videos.
Finally, for the audiophile who has everything and an iPod, MSB unveiled the iLink ($1,995), the world's first iPod dock that delivers a true digital-audio bitstream from the Pod. (All other docks use only the Pod's analog output.) The iLink is said to radically improve sound quality by using an ultraprecise clock to reduce jitter, but it requires a warranty-voiding modification to the Pod. (MSB offers a 1-year replacement warranty that covers upgraded Pods.) As a bonus, the iLink comes with an RF transmitter that enables the Pod to transmit that perfect string of 0s and 1s wirelessly to the dock from across the room. — John Sciacca
Fast-forward for DVRs
The digital video recorder was in ascendance at CES. Dish Network announced the ViP622 ($499 — shown above), the satellite industry's first high-def DVR to be offered with no upfront cost to new subscribers. A program plan including non-premium HD channels is $50 a month for 18 months. Features include a 30-second quick-skip button and a 500-GB hard drive — but about half that capacity is reserved for Dish's version of video-on-demand, where movies are pushed into your home ready to be ordered and viewed. That leaves room for about 30 hours of high-def programs recorded at your discretion.
Meanwhile, the security features for new CableCARD-compatible Media Center Edition (MCE) PCs that Microsoft built into Windows Vista allowed high-end MCE manufacturer Niveus to unveil its Digital Cable Receiver (below). (The stackable component is available now as a $1,000 option with new systems, or as a more expensive upgrade for owners of certain Niveus Windows XP models who return their PCs for hardware modifications.) What makes this type of DVR so compelling is its seemingly limitless storage and retrieval capability. That means being able to keep every episode of Lost in high-def or, for that matter, every movie you've ever recorded from cable.
While high-definition recordings (up to two at a time) are saved on the computer's internal drive, they can also be archived to a network server — including the HP MediaSmart Server (price to be determined, summer) that Bill Gates unveiled during his CES keynote address. With terabytes at your disposal instead of gigabytes, the HP server means you'll no longer be forced to purge when you have the urge to record. You'll be able to play all those archived shows from the server as long as they're played through the PC on which they were originally recorded.
DVR manufacturers in general hope to take advantage of the FCC's July 1 deadline that requires almost all cable operators to separate tuning and security in their set-top receiver boxes. Boxes delivered, for example, by set-top manufacturer Scientific-Atlanta to operators like Time Warner Cable (who then lease them to viewers) will include a multistream CableCARD (M-Card) slot and a card that, unlike first-generation cards, can tune two channels at once for either recording or viewing.
Digeo, which has already been deploying its Moxi Media Center set-top boxes through some cable operators in a few cities, used CES to show prototypes of two models it plans to sell nationally beginning in the second half of this year. Both integrate M-Card. No pricing was announced. — Michael Antonoff
Plasma Punches Back
LCD has finally caught up with plasma in the flat-panel wars, but the wide range of plasmas making their debut at CES — many of which provide full 1080p resolution — is a testament to the category's ongoing strength. Panasonic rolled out its 58-inch TH-58PZ700U (above) and 50-inch TH-50PZ700U 1080p models, lining them up in an imposing row alongside its current 65- and 103-inch panels. No prices were given, but Panasonic plans to ship both sets this summer. The company also displayed a 42-inch prototype 1080p model — the smallest plasma yet to offer that level of resolution. In other 1080p plasma news, Philips displayed its 63PFP7422D, an Ambilight-less model with a 63-inch screen that it plans to sell for $5,500. Another affordable 1080p plasma option is Samsung's 50-inch HP-T5084, which goes on sale in May for about $4,000. Come September, the company plans to follow it up with a 58-inch model, the HP-T5884 ($5,199). — Al Griffin
Shine On
To celebrate manufacturing its one millionth Ambilight TV, Philips came up with a one-off version of its 42-inch LCD set rimmed with 2,250 diamonds. The set's backlighting showed off the jewels to great effect, and vice versa. But you can put away your charge card. Philips has no immediate plans to sell its "priceless" TV. — Kevin James
Wall-hugging RPTVs
Large, boxy rear-projection TVs have traditionally been an easy sell here in the land of McMansions and basement rec rooms. But to judge from the anemically thin RPTVs on display at CES, set-makers have become desperate to shed bulk from the TVs — a predictable development given the fast-closing price gap between bigscreen flat-panel and projection models. Two good examples of the trend toward RPTV anorexia were JVC's 58-inch HD-58S998 (above — $3,300) and 65-inch HD-65S998 ($4,200, March). The cabinets for both 1080p-rez HD-DiLA models were about 11 inches deep — about the same as a stand-mounted LCD or plasma TV. And their perfectly level backsides enable them to fit snugly against a wall, where they can better pass themselves off as flat-panel sets. — Al Griffin
The Really Big Picture
Sharp might have clinched the honors for biggest LCD TV screen (along with the attention of camera crews from media outlets such as CNN) with its 108-inch model. (No price or model number was given for the gargantuan panel, but expect it to exceed your budget if and when it makes it into production.) The award for biggest TV at CES, though, actually goes to Optoma. The newest addition to the company's BigVizion line of DLP rear-projection displays features a 120-inch diagonal screen — I actually had to back up into a neighboring manufacturer's booth to get a full glimpse of its 1080p-rez picture. Aimed at the custom-install market, the newest BigVizion uses a 40-inch-deep modular in-wall cabinet and is scheduled to ship in the second half of 2007 for $50,000. — Al Griffin
Barbarians at the High-def Gates
Almost all the TVs at CES were high-def, but since wacky viral videos are now the rage, manufacturers stooped to prove they can also show low-def content by connecting to anything that moves on the Internet. We saw a slew of announcements intended to let people watch pixel-challenged videos, better suited for a small corner of a computer screen, on their 50-inch displays.
To demonstrate its Bravia Internet Video Link (to be available initially for its Bravia S-series LCD HDTVs), Sony showed a visually muddy and fingers-in-your-ears home-video clip streamed from Grouper of a young woman sneezing uncontrollably in a field. The optional module (price to be determined, summer) attaches to the rear of Sony's sets so you can use the TV remote to pull free Internet video content from Sony's partners AOL, Yahoo, Sony Pictures, Sony BMG Music, and Grouper. Some of the content is high-def, though you wouldn't know it from Sneezy. The book-shaped module connects to your home network through an Ethernet port (Wi-Fi isn't built in) and includes a pass-through HDMI output to the TV.
Netgear introduced a wired and wireless (802.11n) media receiver that lets you stream YouTube videos directly to your set. When it ships early this year, the Digital Entertainer HD ($349) will be one of the first receivers with HDMI for streaming high-def movies at up to 1080p.
Not to be outdone, Sling Media, the company that stunned CES 2 years ago by letting you watch your TV from a computer anywhere in the world, debuted SlingCatcher (about $200, summer), which lets you watch streamed or stored video from your PC on a TV anywhere.
As CES was unfolding in Las Vegas, Steve Jobs stood on a stage in San Francisco and took the wraps off Apple's long-rumored set-top receiver, Apple TV ($299). The box streams movies and other media from a Mac or PC using a high-speed AirPort 802.11n wireless network. It includes a 40-GB hard drive for storing content locally, and has both HDMI and component-video connections for your TV and an optical digital audio connection for your receiver.
For TV viewers who know nothing about home networks but would still rather watch video from their computers on their TVs, SanDisk offered a sneakernet solution. Use the USBTV flash drive (price to be determined, April) to copy videos or other content from your computer, then walk it over to its mate, a cradle containing a multimedia processor that plugs into the TV's S-video input. It comes with a small remote and is expected to be available in 2- and 4-GB versions. — Michael Antonoff
HDMI 1.3 Updates
Just when you thought your system was up-to-date because you got a receiver that switched component video, HDMI was unleashed. And, as if a new connector weren't enough, HDMI is an evolving standard that steadily progressed from versions 1.1 and 1.2 to 1.3. (For more on the new standard, see The Missing Link.)
The first component to feature HDMI 1.3 was Sony's Blu-ray-capable PlayStation 3, followed by Toshiba's second-gen HD DVD player, the HD-XA2. But to experience everything HDMI 1.3 has to offer, every link of the audio and video chain has to be up to the new 1.3 specification. And it takes more than a simple firmware or software upgrade to make your 1.1 or 1.2 components compatible with the new standard. You need new hardware and silicon, and so far no manufacturers are offering 1.3 as an upgrade option.
While at CES, I polled TV and receiver companies about when HDMI 1.3-equipped gear will likely be hitting store shelves. Sadly, the news isn't too reassuring for anyone who plans to buy a TV or A/V receiver in the near future. While all new gear will eventually have 1.3, most manufacturers won't be including it anytime soon. More surprisingly, most companies were tight-lipped about their plans for adding it.
On the audio front, Denon had the most exciting news, saying that every receiver in its new line (due in the spring) will have HDMI 1.3 — even the lowest-price models. Sherwood Newcastle also showed two models outfitted with 1.3, the R-972 ($1,499) and the R-872 ($999), both to be available around August. — John Sciacca
A number of video manufacturers at CES announced they'd be incorporating HDMI 1.3 jacks into new gear during '07. But 1.3 on a TV won't mean squat unless it can also display an expanded "xvYCC" color gamut — a feature HDMI's creator Silicon Image calls "Deep Color," and that each company using it seems to have a unique name for. This new standard allows TVs to display pictures with a color range 1.8 times greater than that of current HDTVs.
Sony dipped into Deep Color at CES with its 70-inch Bravia KDL-70XBR3 LCD model and the quartet of HD camcorders it introduced at the show. But unless a few xvYCC-encoded PS3 games come out soon, this means footage shot with one of Sony's new HD cams will be the first real Deep Color video you'll get to see on a Deep Color TV.
Elsewhere, Samsung and Toshiba showed HDTVs with HDMI 1.3 connections and the ability to display an expanded color range. The feature will appear in a flock of LCD, DLP, and plasma models from Samsung, while Toshiba plans to include it in its high-end Cinema Series LCD line. Pioneer also said that its new line of plasmas will support Deep Color. Mitsubishi, too, was rumored to be showing rear-pro DLP TVs with the feature at a hotel somewhere far away from the convention center, but long cab lines kept me from viewing them. — Al Griffin
Retro Activity
Stop the presses! Two-channel audio just phoned in to say: "Don't bury me, 'cause I'm not dead yet." JBL displayed awesome stereo flagship speakers, the Everest DD6600s (spring — shown above). These massive, gorgeous, retro horn-loaded units are priced at a mere $30,000. Each. (Hello, Tokyo ...) The Everest boasts dual 15-inch woofers, hand-formed woodwork, and treble response past 50 kHz, which should make Nipper happy (oops — wrong company). Snell Acoustics' storied Type A series got a new scion, the A7 ($35,000 a pair, late spring), that's equally, if more subtly, cool-looking — its enclosure forms a continuously tapered ellipsoidal column said to maintain constant cross-section without parallel sides. Down nearer the rational end of the price scale we found Definitive Technology's ultra-slim Mythos ST power towers ($3,598 a pair — left), which sounded quite lovely in two-channel demos. The STs use a new "racetrack" (ovoid) bass driver with matching dual passive radiators to get impressive results from a tower less than 7 inches wide. (Yeah, there's a matching ST center and surrounds for those weak-principled sybarites who insist on surround sound.) — Daniel Kumin
Flat and Phat at CES
As if beset by some weird techno-bipolar disorder, CES audio products competed to see which was flattest, and which was phattest. In particular, it seemed like electronics had to be as thin as the TVs they accompanied, while subwoofers had to be huge.
The Philips Ambisound HTS-8100 entertainment system ($999 — shown above) packs all the audio bits (except the sub) into one long module that's wall-mounted, fitting neatly underneath your display. This futuristic boombox is as flat as your flat-panel TV but packs a built-in DVD drive with 1080p upscaling HDMI output, AM/FM tuner, speakers, and virtual surround. The amps are built into the external sub enclosure.
The Polk DSW4000 MicroPRO ($1,780) shows that even a lowly subwoofer can be cool. The largest sub in Polk's new Micro lineup, the DSW4000 has a digital amp rated at 1,200 watts driving a very beefy front-firing 12-inch driver. There's also a bottom-mounted square passive radiator for added deep bass. Packing DSP hardware and proprietary software, this sub adjusts volume, phase, and crossover digitally. It also uses digital EQ and a supplied microphone to measure response peaks and to optimize its response according to room placement. And, because you just don't have enough of them on your coffee table, it comes with a remote. — Ken C.Pohlmann
Quiet, Bitte
Sennheiser, a German firm that's been making high-end headphones longer than most, is finally entering the serious-performance noise-canceling headphone arena with the PXC 450 ($499, March). Its on-site demo, performed in a couple of rows of First Class airliner seats, complete with realistic levels of piped-in ambient jet noise, was impressive. The PXC 450s include a "talk-through" feature that uses built-in subminiature mikes and smart electronics to permit nearby voices and other "useful sound" (a scarce commodity at CES) to be heard while still very effectively blocking noise. The Sennheisers' comfy over-the-ear design also boasts fold-flat construction and a slim carrying case. — Daniel Kumin
Wall of Sound
Market pressures foment innovation. That's what they teach you in Harvard Business School — or so I hear. I skipped the B-school, being, umm, otherwise engaged. Sunfire's Bob Carver was, too — in his case constructively, innovating products such as his company's $2,995 SubRosa SRS-210W in-wall subwoofer/amp combo, one of several (Polk, PSB) interesting new woofs of the type seen surfing the high-end custom-install wave. (Who knew there were so many rich folks in this country?) The SubRosa features an amp-driven mechanical shaker that "drives" the baffle/mounting plate in anti-phase to its dual ultra-long-throw 10-inch drivers. The result, Sunfire claims, is a dramatic reduction in unwanted wall vibrations and enhanced deep bass. (The separate-component amp, which claims 2,700 watts, includes automatic room EQ.) An on-wall version,the SRS-210R ($3,495) — pretty much the same, but no Saw-z-all required — imposes just 3.5 inches of bump-out. We can't yet speak to the design's bass-ic efficacy, but the demo, showing a little dish of tiny ball bearings that stopped dancing when the anti-vibe gizmo was engaged, was swell. — Daniel Kumin
THX Adjusts
The mind-numbing complexity of most A/V systems makes it easy to miss a setting and end up with a less than optimal experience. Aspect-ratio adjustment is a perfect example. Nobody likes those pesky black bars, but between the display, the DVD player, the cable or satellite receiver, some A/V receivers, and outboard video processors, there can be three or more separate aspect-ratio controls. If even one of them is set wrong, you end up with pictures stretched or squished out of shape. Wouldn't it be nice if there were a foolproof, automatic way for your system to know what to do?
THX thinks so. Behind closed doors, it demonstrated a new technology with the working name "Blackbird." (That totally apropos name is borrowed from an ultra-high-tech Cold War-era spy plane, the SR-71.) During mastering, Blackbird places metadata into the content stream — cable, satellite, DVD, or videogame. Once embedded, the triggering signal remains with the content throughout the delivery chain. When a Blackbird-enabled system recognizes the metadata, it takes action, automatically setting your system appropriately. THX demo'd a proof-of-concept system that adjusted aspect ratio, picture parameters, audio reference level, and surround processing modes.
Like its spy plane namesake, Blackbird works invisibly to the user. Just pop in your favorite movie, concert video, or game, or channel-surf, while your components adjust themselves for the perfect presentation. THX, hoping this technology will be widely accepted, will be making it available for both THX-certified and uncertified components. — John Sciacca
Going Wireless
How many times has this happened to you? You trip over a speaker wire and spill your martini on Nicole Kidman. It's happened to me plenty of times, which probably explains her restraining order. Wires have never been the most attractive or convenient part of an entertainment system, which accounts for the plethora of wireless gear that flooded the airwaves at CES.
Klipsch unveiled the CS-700 ($1,300), a DVD-based 2.1-channel system. It uses Dolby Virtual Speaker to compensate for the missing surrounds (and to omit those wires) and sends audio to its subwoofer wirelessly. The receiver also acts as a wireless hub that transmits to one or more KlipschCast products, such as the RoomGroove Music Center ($349, April — above). The CS-700 can play up to two separate sources.
The Panasonic SC-PTX7 jukebox ($800) packs an 80-GB hard disk and all the GUI you need to navigate that capacity. This "3.1" system uses two satellites and a subwoofer, with each left/right satellite also housing drivers dedicated to center-channel audio. Dolby Virtual Speaker provides the surround soundfield. The jukebox itself is wired, but with the addition of an optional wireless module, it can deliver different audio streams to three wireless SH-FX85 amplifier/speaker clients ($200 each).
Soundcast Systems also hit the airwaves. Drop your iPod into the included iCast wireless dock and transmit music to the SpeakerCast ($399) amplifier/speaker system, or send it outside to an all-weather, AC/battery wireless OutCast ($499) system.
Second-gen Philips Streamiums (someday I'll drive a flying car that's named Streamium) show that com- pany's commitment to wireless. For example, the WACS3500 ($399) looks like a traditional three-piece shelf system, with a main chassis and a pair of two-way speakers. But it packs an 80-GB hard drive and handles both Ethernet and wireless downloading from a PC. With five-zone capability, it transmits Internet radio, unprotected AAC and WMA, and MP3 files to clients such as the WAS700 amplifier/speaker ($299).
As final proof of the ascendancy of wireless, Philips will also introduce a wireless HDMI cable. Oxymoron issues aside, the system can send uncompressed 1080p HD signals 25 feet. Available in the fall for $300 to $400, wireless HDMI might not be terribly cost-effective, but think of the trip-and-fall accidents it will prevent. Ms. Kidman, would you care for a martini? — Ken C.Pohlmann
See pictures and descriptions of more than 50 new products from CES, the latest new gear from Sony's 2007 spring line show, and our reviewer's picks for the best products of 2006.
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