By CNET Staff
14/01/2008
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/home_av/others/0,39037627,62036538,00.htm

Television

Thin is in
Flat panels are popular for a reason, and part of it is because people love thin screens. While plenty of folks are satisfied with standard 150mm-deep screens, HDTV companies are betting there's a market for ultrathin sets measured in millimeters rather than inches. The most impressive thin TV tech we saw was Pioneer's "Project Kuro" prototype plasma, which measures only 9mm thin, but unfortunately won't be released in 2008. On the more conventional side, JVC announced the "world's thinnest" LCD--coming in at 74mm deep--while LG showed off an even thinner 43mm thick LCD with a hole in it. Trumping both JVC and LG was Hitachi, with its new superslim LCDs measuring only 38mm thick--although they ditch an internal ATSC tuner to do so. Of course, no mention of thin HDTV technology would be complete without OLED...

OLED is coming
Sony made a big splash by showing off the 11-inch XEL-1, which will be the first OLED HDTV available in the US and measures just 3mm thick. Samsung also had a 31-inch prototype OLED on display and there's no doubt that OLED technolgy is promising: Razor thin screens, low power consumption and an excellent contrast ratio. At this early point in the game OLED isn't commercially viable--Sony's 11-inch set will cost US$2,500--but as prices drop and screen sizes increase, OLED could become a major contender in flat-panel TV technology.

WebTV all over again?
Bring the web to your TV sounds like an idea better suited to CES 1995 rather than CES 2008, but we saw a lot of HDTV manufacturers promoting their sets' ability to grab content off the internet. HP, which has been a step ahead of everyone in this regard, announced an update to its existing MediaSmart HDTVs. Sharp is promising the ability to check weather and stock quotes on certain LCDs, while Samsung is focusing on recipes, artwork and RSS feeds. And Sony is continuing to support its Bravia Internet Video Link service, which at least looks slightly more interesting now that Sony's announced a deal with CBS.

RPTV is (mostly) dead
Some of the biggest HDTV news at CES 2008 was what wasn't there. Rear-projection HDTVs (RPTVs) were basically nowhere to be seen on the show floor, and just a week before CES started Sony announced that it would officially stop producing RPTVs altogether. While the general buzz is that RPTVs are essentially dead, that didn't stop Mitsubishi from launching a big laser TV demo--which was short on details and did little to convince us that laser has a real shot to unseat flat panels as the dominant HDTV technology.

Green machines
While we were expecting to see more green HDTVs this year, we're betting Philips is in front of the curve on power-saving TV tech. The power-saving innovations on the Philips' Eco TV was enough to earn it CNET's Best in Show award and it uses less power than any other 42-inch LCD we've tested. In addition to using less watts, the Eco TV is produced using only lead-free materials and "trace" amounts of mercury. With a very reasonable US$1,400 price tag, the Eco TV could be a big hit with consumers looking to control their energy costs--and if so, we'll see more green TVs from other companies.

Home video

What was arguably the biggest story of CES 2008 occurred three days before the show actually opened for business: Warner Home Video went Blu-ray exclusive, leaving just Paramount and Universal (and smaller DreamWorks) as exclusive HD-DVD content partners. Indeed, in the days since, the issue of those studios following Warner's lead seems to be one of when, not if. Blu-ray seems on the verge of a complete victory in the HD disc format war to become the high-def successor to DVD. As a result, combo players--including a newly announced model from Samsung--were greeted more with yawns than "oohs" and "aahs." Even without HD-DVD to nudge it, prices for Blu-ray players seem destined to become more affordable, as evidenced by forthcoming devices from Philips and Funai. That said, with the specification still evolving--Panasonic's DMP-BD50 became the first 2.0 player to be officially announced--though there's no reason to rush out and buy one anytime soon.

But there's still a big question as to whether or not the future of home video will be one of discs--or, in fact, physical media of any kind. Online delivery of home video seemed to be everywhere: Major companies such as Samsung are getting into the game, while upstarts such as XStreamHD are offering intriguing delivery options and increasingly improved video quality.

Elsewhere on the home video front, we saw indications that wireless in-home HD video is getting closer to the mass market. As with wireless audio, standards remain frustratingly elusive, but devices such as the Belkin FlyWire offer the potential for an end-to-end solution to decouple your video sources from your TV--which is increasingly vital to those with wall-mounted flat-screen TVs and projectors.

Looking at it in the rear-view mirror, you get a strong feeling from this CES that 2008 will be a big transitional year in the home video world. It's clear that the public wants more high-def programming and more on-demand video, as well as the ability to watch it where and when they want. Which manufacturers and standards will deliver on those promises? If we're lucky, the answer to that question may be more in focus by the time CES 2009 rolls around.

Home audio

You won't find a more institutionally conservative category in the consumer electronics space than home audio. More than any other industry segment, audio is one where technological advances tend to be lamented rather than celebrated, viewed with suspicion rather than embraced. And that's understandable: Subpar speakers are now passed off as good enough and used to listen to digital music, which is often highly compressed compared to CD or (even better) LP equivalents. And the music itself is coming from a dying recording industry, struggling to stay alive in the digital age, and often relegated to background music--fewer and fewer people are actually listening to the music anymore.

That's not to say that there weren't some home audio highlights at this year's show. As predicted, single-speaker audio is taking off: Boutique manufacturers such as Polk Audio and Definitive Technology are turning their considerable expertise to single-speaker units, as are mainstream names like Philips and Samsung. It's not totally new, of course--plenty of options already exist--but the clear desire for consumers to have a décor-friendly audio component to match their flat-screen TVs is undeniable.

One of the attractions of single-speaker units is the desire to cut down on the speakers, and the resulting speaker wire snaking throughout the room. The other alternative is going wireless altogether. It seemed like wireless speaker technologies were everywhere in 2008, with Neosonik's being the most impressive. The company's been offering peeks at its wireless speaker technology for the past couple of years, but it's now pledging to begin delivering actual products before the end of 2008. The company hopes to license its technology to other manufacturers under the Airpower moniker--but with so many nascent competing standards, it'll be quite awhile before we see a Bluetooth-like standard in this arena.

Another carry-over from previous years was the complete dominance of the iPod. It's getting nearly impossible to find a home audio product without an iPod dock. But unlike the bulky outboard docks of years past, manufacturers are integrating the dock directly into the main chassis of their products: All of Panasonic's 2008 home-theater-in-a-box systems have a nifty fold-down iPod dock built directly into the main head unit (as do JVC's P-Series TVs). Speaking of integration: Panasonic followed Samsung's lead by delivering an HTIB with a built-in Blu-ray player. And given that format's recent tailwind versus the increasingly struggling HD DVD, that's a trend that will only accelerate.

Of course, that's all the mainstream stuff. For the real nitty-gritty of the CES home audio experience, you need to go beyond the main CES show floor and hit the Venetian. The high-end guys are camped out in the upstairs suites, as well as the Sands Expo Center in the bowels of the hotel (right next to the porn show, in fact). There you'll find some of the more exotic, expensive, elaborate, and downright amazing audio products. It's too bad the audiophiles are exiled to the Sands--because spending just a few minutes with them will inevitably give you an insight into true music appreciation. Inevitably, these are passionate folks who truly love their work, and want to share an experience--not just sell you a product. And that's something that CES could use a lot more of.

Gaming

CES 2008 wasn't a very big show for gamers. Sure, there were plenty of controllers and accessories on display, but actual game developers were conspicuously absent. We're not surprising; CES is always oriented more towards general consumer electronics, and game-heavy companies usually wait until spring or summer shows like E3 to make their big announcements.

We were surprised by a major announcement from Namco at CES, though. According to the game company, its upcoming Soul Calibur 4 will feature Darth Vader and Yoda as playable bonus characters. Soul Calibur 2 saw Zelda's Link, Tekken's Heihachi, and Todd MacFarlane's Spawn as playable characters, but they aren't as big as Vader. Let's see the lightsabers fly.

Nyko unveiled its Wireless Nunchuck for the Wii, one of the first actual third-party controllers (and not simply a clip-on accessory) for the Nintendo Wii. When it ships in early February in the US, it'll cut the cord between the Wiimote and the Nunchuk for about US$30.

After the holiday season, gaming has hit a bit of a lull. Besides a few big titles coming out next month, don't expect much major news until spring or summer, when E3, PAX, and other shows bring out the developers.