Chris Martens: Sharp's 108-inch LCD HDTV
Sharp’s 108-inch, 1080p-capable LCD display, which takes the “world’s biggest flat panel display” crown away from Panasonic’s also humongous 103-inch plasma set. Frankly, I didn’t foresee LCD displays getting so big and so fast, which is probably the very point Sharp hopes to drive home with this “halo” product. In every size range, HD LCD TVs will go toe-to-toe vs. plasma sets in 2007, both in terms of image quality and price.
Scott Wilkinson: LCD at 120Hz & RPTVs
Another tie for me. First, I was quite surprised by the proliferation of LCD TVs with a refresh rate of 120Hz, which doubles the number of frames displayed in one second to reduce the dreaded motion blur. I first saw this technique implemented in Hitachi’s LCD panels at the company’s line show less than a year ago, and now nearly every LCD maker is demonstrating panels with 120Hz refresh rates. Many were shown side-by-side with 60Hz panels, and the improvement in motion detail was striking.
Also surprising was the number of attempts to extend the life of the RPTV market category, which, according to many pundits, is on an inevitable decline toward extinction. Quite a few RPTV manufacturers were showing slim cabinets with depths in the 10-inch range for screen sizes up to 60 inches or so, allowing you to hang them on a wall. Next, Panasonic introduced several LCD-based rear-pros with a new type of lamp called LiFi, which loses only 20 percent of its brightness after 25,000 hours and turns on almost instantly.
Silicon Optix introduced its Geo processor chip that corrects for geometric distortion among other things, theoretically allowing cabinet depths of only five inches for a 60-inch screen.
Finally, a company called MicroDisplay announced it will be manufacturing low-cost, single-chip LCoS rear-pros (the first single-chip LCoS sets I’ve ever heard of) for Akai and Memorex (yep, Memorex) to be sold in mass market outlets such as Sam’s Club and Costco. Maybe there’s some life left in the old gal after all.
Arnie Williams: Return of Proton
If you’ve been around the TV business for awhile, you might remember the name of Proton as a pretty highly regarded maker of CRTs. But in the past several years, that company seems to have fallen off the map. Well, as it was with Mark Twain, reports of Proton’s death have been decidedly exaggerated. At CES, Proton was showing 32- and 37-inch LCDs that it plans to bring to market this summer in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. So even though it was a surprise to see them, it was nevertheless a welcome surprise. Proton in its current iteration will distribute its products through California-based Brix Lab. We’re eager ourselves to see how Proton will do in its return to the TV marketplace and have our eye on the summer release of its LCDs to answer that question.
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Barry Willis: MediaFlo's History of Technology Display
MediaFlo USA’s mockup archeological site on the upper level of the South Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Complete with sand, picks, hammers, and “archeologists” in khaki outfits, the site was a repository of dead technology—including Polaroid cameras, record changers, CRT television sets, and personal computers reaching all the way back to the Commodore 64, Tandy TRS-80, and Compaq “luggable.” A delightfully funny stroll through tech history, and a welcome reminder of how much better everything is today.
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Christopher Jones: Video Recording Dock for iPod
When is somebody going to develop a video recording dock for the iPod? This is such a no-brainer, I can’t believe it’s taking so long to appear. There are lots of new devices for playing iPod video on bigger screens, on the go and in the home, but there’s still no easy way to get video content onto an iPod – unless you consider buying overpriced movies and sitcoms from iTunes ‘easy.’ When it takes three or four cumbersome steps to simply record and transfer a video file to an iPod, is it any wonder that so few people have embraced mobile video (last I heard, about one percent of video iPod owners actually use it for video)? Maybe now that Apple has finished up work on its iPhone, it can get moving on video recording. Or maybe Hollywood doesn’t want them going down that path. In any case, at CES 2008, I’ll be surprised if we don’t see a few iPod video recording docks.
Stewart Wolpin: GPS
Suddenly it seems as if everyone in the consumer electronics business is selling GPS navigation devices for car, home or both. Two highlights: the Dash Express (March, $600-$800) and the Pharos GPS Phone 600 (February, $650). The former supplements its maps, suggested routes and turn-by-turn instructions with Web-based traffic and points of interest info fed via cellular and Wi-Fi connections. The latter is an unlocked quad band GSM EDGE cell phone that includes street maps of the entire U.S. and Canada and more than five million points of interest. It's also an MP3 player and has a 2 MP camera to snap shots of where the maps take you.
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Neil Gader: Missing Alexis Park and Prolification of Phono Preamps
Beyond my surprise at how much I missed the ramshackle environs of the Alexis Park it was the sheer number of new phono preamps that are hitting the market–with some even popping up on the latest AVRs. Yet another testimonial to one of the most unsinkable formats in audio history.
Wayne Garcia: Nola Viper Reference speakers
For me it would be the performance of the $12,000 per pair Nola Viper Reference loudspeaker. Though many have touted the sound of Nolas over the years, I have been less than pleased with their sound at the last several shows, finding their bass way out of line with the rest of the frequency range.
Of course, it probably didn’t hurt that this year they were being driven by the new $85,000 (no, that is not a typo) Western Electric model 97-A 300B-based tube monoblock amplifiers, but the Nolas sounded wonderfully open, easy, natural, and, especially when seated farther back, remarkably of a piece. Which once again shows how tricky it is to get decent sound at an audio show.
Jim Hannon: Room sounds at Venetian
The biggest surprise was how good some of the rooms at the Venetian Towers sounded, far better than in last year’s Alexis Park. The rooms did not get in the way of demonstrating how much the performance of loudspeakers in the $3K to $13K price segment could be extended with first rate electronics. For example, the Quad ESL-2805 powered by Wavestream Kinetics electronics, an SME 30 front end with a Graham Phantom B-44 tonearm, and a Koetsu Coralstone cartridge might well have been the most natural sound of the show.
Robert Harley: DSP in loudspeakers
The application of DSP power to overcome the limitations of horn-loaded loudspeakers in Kubotec’s Haniwa loudspeaker. The system uses a woofer, compression-driver midrange and compression-driver tweeter in a large horn-loaded enclosure, and then makes the disparate components time-coincident with DSP. The DSP also corrects for tonal colorations imposed by horn-loading the drivers. The result is a horn system with flat frequency response and perfect time behavior. Sensitivity of the midrange/tweeter is a whopping 115dB.
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