The Consumer Electronics Show is like one massive birthday gift for those into tech: you like TVs, it’s got ‘em. HD players and audio systems, yep. Gadgets and gizmos, sure. And since it takes days to see even a tiny percentage of what’s there, prepare to do some intense walking. But if you can avoid PR hype and don’t mind carrying around 50 lbs. of CDs, flash drives and other promo stuff you can at least make a dent at seeing what’s going to be cool in 2008.

Let’s start at the Central Hall because that’s where the big boys hang (like Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, etc.).  Samsung has 3D integrated into their Series 4 Plasma displays, and polarized glasses and content will complete the loop. Or pull out one of HANNspree’s LCD XM series IT monitors because they have copyright-compliant HDMI inputs working so movies can fly. And forget about mounting this one, you’ll have to build a wall to hold Panasonic’s 150” Plasma (this monster’s even got resolution 4X that of 1080p HD). Now tease the eye with Mitsubishi’s LaserTV. The laser powered display provides more colors, and a stronger image with greater clarity. Venture down to Sony and you’ll find OLEDs in your face. This Organic Light Emitting Diode TV not only eliminates a backlight but also reproduces black better than anything before. Sure it’s small (11"), but what can you expect the first time out?

So how are you going to get images on those screens? There are plenty of DVD players, but we prefer HD. Format war aside, Toshiba’s adding web features to all their HD DVD players so they can stream video directly through the player to the TV, not download it to the small built-in memory.  But BD players finally are joining the Internet club - the feature may be called BD-Live, Bonus content, whatever - just remember that if the player doesn’t have an Ethernet port you’re out of luck. So it’s good to know that Panasonic’s new DMP-BD50 does, along with a powerful video processor and other tech for pushing out an HD view. And even better to know that both Samsung and LG have dual HD players so you don’t have to choose be-tween watching “Star Trek” in HD DVD or “Ratatouille” in Blu.

Another tech that’s getting advance play is HD wireless, with lots of TVs demoing the built-in technology. Let’s head over to the South Hall where Belkin has their FlyWire working (these guys make tons of iPod-related stuff like the TuneStudio 4 channel audio mixer which uses an iPod to store the digital recording). Just attach an HDMI cable from the small receiver to the TV and turn on the transmitter over by the HD source for up to 1080p HD freedom. It doesn’t interfere with your other wireless signals or get hurt from it either (just don’t look for it until the summer). Speaking of wireless, Bluetooth is big at the show and in more ways than just syncing a cell phone with your ear. As in Samsung’s YA-BS900 Bluetooth speaker system; a 30 watt three-channel speaker system with the smarts to power on and play tunes when you come in range listening to a Bluetooth-enabled MP3 or cell phone.

Page 1 of 2
1 2 >  Next