Rather than give a blow-by-blow account of each press conference, I'll sketch some of the big themes. Based on Press Day, these have the potential to be the top 10 stories of CES.
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Thin is Even More In: Last year, several manufacturers showed ultra-thin flat panels, and that trend is accelerating for 2009. LG announced a 55-inch LCD that's 24.8 mm deep - under an inch.
Samsung's new Luxia series are the thinnest TVs on the market that incorporate a tuner and jack pack: they're just over one inch deep. Samsung will also offer an Ultra-Thin wall mount with a gap of only 0.6", so the TV hangs like a picture. Complementing the new TVs is the wall-mountable, one-inch-deep BDP-4600 Blu-ray player.
Panasonic showed a one-inch-thick plasma that will ship this year, and demonstrated what it says is the world's thinnest PDP: a 37-inch display that's less than 1/3 inch thick!
The Cord is Being Cut: Many of the new super-thin flat panels employ wireless HDMI for connection to the external media receiver/tuner/switcher. That feature is employed on LG's super-thin display. Wireless HDMI is also used to connect Panasonic's one-inch-thick Viera Z1 plasma to its matching set-top box.
LED Gains Ground: The number of LED-backlit LCD TVs is increasing dramatically. LED backlighting allows for dimming of the backlight in dark areas of the picture, for better blacks and shadows, and higher contrast ratios. LG's new super-thin 55-incher has 240 dimming zones and a specified dynamic contrast ratio of 2,000,000:1. Samsung employs mega-contrast LED backlighting and local dimming on its 6000-, 7000- and 8000-series Luxia LCDs. And in May, Toshiba will introduce the 46" and 55" Regza SV670-series models with full-array LED backlighting and local dimming.
LCDs Get Faster: In their high-end models, LCD manufacturers are offering 240 Hz processing to reduce blur even further than models with 120 Hz frame doubling. That feature is offered on premium models from LG, Samsung, Sharp, Sony and Toshiba.
Panasonic, which is firmly in the plasma camp on larger screen sizes, noted that the 600Hz sub-field processing on its Viera plasmas results in full 1080p resolution on scenes with motion, better than the performance of LCDs with 120 Hz frame-doubling.
Black is Just Basic: Manufacturers are moving away from plain-black bezels, not just on premium models, but on mainstream sets as well. Samsung kicked off the trend in 2008 with its Touch of Colour (ToC) flat panels, and in 2009 is adding slimmer, more colourful ToC models. Toshiba is offering LCDs with "deep lagoon design," in which the bezel has a three-dimensional finish with subtle gradation. 
Blu Movies and Blu Boxes: Blu-ray is now hitting the mainstream. "I believe this will be a watershed year for Blu-ray," stated Stan Glasgow, President and Chief Operating Officer of Sony Electronics Inc. Glasgow said the combination of a growing software catalog and attractively priced players "creates a compelling consumer proposition."
The most interesting announcement came from Sharp: the company's forthcoming Aquos BD series (available in 32", 37", 42", 46" and 52" sizes) will have built-in side-mounted Blu-ray players. Reflecting a trend away from basic black cosmetics, the new panels have a subtle blue accent on the bottom. Sharp also announced two new Blu-ray players and two Blu-ray home theatre systems.
Samsung is introducing three standalone Blu-ray players and three Blu-ray HTIB systems. Of particular interest is the HT-BD8200, a Blu-ray-equipped sound bar with wireless subwoofer and virtual 5.1-channel sound.
There are also lots of Blu-ray products with Internet connectivity, some of which are outlined in the next section.
Everything's Connected: In 2008, we saw the beginnings of the connected TV: flat panels that bring a subset of the Internet to the home theatre. That trend is being entrenched big time this year, and not just on TVs, but on Blu-ray players and Blu-ray HTIBs. And networking companies are finding their own entries into the home theatre.
LG is introducing two new Blu-ray players and three Blu-ray home-theatre systems that let users download high-definition movies from Netflix; the new models can also display content from Cinema Now and YouTube. New flat panels from LG have support for Netflix, YouTube and Yahoo! Widgets: small TV-based Web applications for services like news and weather.
Sharp introduced Aquos Net on its SE94 and Limited Edition Aquos LCDs in 2008. That feature offered services like stock quotes and weather. Aquos Net is being enhanced in 2009, with services like NavTec traffic reporting, Rally Point sports and social networking, and Screen Dreams screen savers.
Samsung's 7000- and 8000-series Luxia LCD televisions will incorporate wireless networking (so you don't need an Ethernet cable drop or wireless bridge in your home theatre). The new TVs feature built-in content library, Yahoo widgets, eBay auction tracking, and support for YouTube and Flickr. There are plans to add widgets that connect the TVs to social networking sites. Samsung's BDP-4600 Blu-ray player is Wi-Fi-ready (a small wireless dongle is used to connect it to the home network). With a network connection, the super-thin player can connect to the Netflix and Pandora movie services.
Panasonic introduced Viera Cast on its premium 850-series plasmas in 2008. That feature delivers Internet services like YouTube, Picassa photo-sharing and Bloomberg news to the home theatre. For 2009, the company plans to offer Viera Cast throughout its Viera lineup, and also on three new standalone Blu-ray players, plus a new portable model, the DMP-515. Later in the year, support for the Amazon Video on Demand service will be added to Viera Cast, giving users access to Amazon's 40,000-title library. After renting a movie, viewers can watch it at their convenience on their Viera display, or on a PC or Mac.
Toshiba will offer TV Widgets, Windows Media Center Extender capability and support for Cinema Now on new LCD televisions and LCD/DVD combo units. Widgets from new content providers will be added to existing TVs and that content becomes available.
In late 2008, Sony made Hancock available to users of its Bravia Internet Video Link via the Net four weeks before its release on DVD and Blu-ray. For 2009, Sony is building Bravia Internet Video capability into select models, including the XBR9 series, which will ship in the spring. Bravia Internet Widgets, a new feature based on Yahoo's technology, includes Flickr, stock quotes and news services.
Netgear's new Integrated TV Player is a small set-top-box-like component that brings video from YouTube and other sites to the home theatre. The unit has a clever search function that complements its preset channels. Users can download torrent videos direct to the device and view them without a PC. Also supported is the Cinema Now movie-download service. Also new from Netgear is the Digital Entertainer Elite, which combines a media receiver for streaming content from a PC with a built-in hard drive. It can be used with Negrear's Ready NAS Pro Pioneer Edition network drive, which can provide up to nine terabytes of storage.
At its press conference, Cisco announced the Linksys Media Hub, a US$299 device that automatically stores and finds all your media content, regardless of where it's located, and makes it available to devices inside and outside the home. The networking giant also unveiled a series of Linksys-branded home audio products, and its Cisco Eos platform, which lets media companies quickly develop artist and community Websites.
Dreaming in 3D: Panasonic held demonstrations of 3D high-definition TV during the show, and said it planned to propose a standard for 3D Blu-ray disc authoring during 2009, allowing for creation of 3D Blu-ray content beginning at 2010. "Panasonic doesn't think that 3D HD for the home is that far away at all,' stated Yoshi Yamada, President and CEO of Panasonic North America. The noted cinema director James Cameron made an appearance at the Panasonic press conference via a recorded video message, in which he described his forthcoming 3D sci-fi movie Avatar. "3D isn't something you watch," Cameron stated. "It's a place you're taken to."
At its press conference, Sony described how its technology would be used by Fox to broadcast a U.S. College Bowl game in 3D to theatres across the U.S.
Going Green: Manufactures are promoting the environmental benefits of their products this year, describing their eco-friendly manufacturing processes, and announcing or enhancing their recycling programs. Panasonic announced new plasmas that can produce a picture that's twice as bright as last year's models without consuming more power, or alternatively, a picture of the same brightness while consuming half the power of last year's models.
Makers of LED-backlit televisions pointed out the ecological benefits of their technology. LG's LED-backlit TVs are Energy Star 3.0-rated, the company noted. Sony made similar claims about its Eco Bravia TVs, which include the HCFL (hot cathode fluorescent lamp) backlit VE series. Arriving this summer, those models achieve Energy Star 3.0 status.
Sony is already operating its own recycling program, which handled 5,500 tons of waste last year. Sony said its goal is to recycle a pound of waste for every pound of equipment it sells. Panasonic, Sharp and Toshiba announced a joint recycling program, which will have 400 sites in the U.S. by the end of 2009, and 800 by the end of 2011.
The Next Generation: Last year, Sony introduced the first TV to use OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) technology, an 11-inch model, and this year is announcing 21" and 27" models, plus an 11-incher that's a mere 0.9mm deep.
Not surprisingly, LCD stalwart Sharp maintains the OLED is still a niche product. "OLED is not ready for prime time," opined Doug Koshima, CEO and Chairman of Sharp Electronics Corp. "LCD is the best technology today and in the near future."
But interesting things are happening with OLED. At an evening press event, an OLED manufacturer's association demonstrated several interesting OLED panels, ranging in size from very small to about 15 inches. Corbin Church, Vice-President of Montreal-based Ignis Innovation Inc. described a new process that would allow OLED panels to be made using the same backplane designs used for LCD. Amorphous Silicon LED technology will drive up yields and drive down costs, predicted Church, whose company has developed the technology. "The next few years will see an awakening for OLED," he predicted.
On to the Show! Are these really the top 10 stories of CES? It's early days, with the show only having been open for an hour. So it's time for your correspondent to haul himself over to the Convention Centre, and see what's happening. Watch this space, and the next issue of the print edition of Marketnews, for lots more from CES.
-----------------------------BY Christine Persaud
Source：here's how!
© Copyright 2008 Bomar Publishing. All rights reserved.
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