For the third consecutive holiday season, Panasonic is making its Viera Concierge service available not just to existing owners of Panasonic HDTVs--but also to those just thinking of buying one. Call (888) 777-1170, Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m to 9 p.m. ET. On Saturdays and Sundays the hours of operation are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. You may also visit the Viera Concierge website for chat room assistance.

As previously reported here, Panasonic will be the manufacturing partner that takes over the making of Pioneer-branded plasmas.

Canon's effort to establish a new video display technology called SED has finally hit a wall. SED is dead, at least as a consumer product.

Although the show floor of the CEDIA EXPO 2005 hasn't officially opened yet, there are already hundreds of installers taking advantage of numerous educational classes offered by CEDIA and sponsoring manufacturers. New and old installers alike can learn about anything from remote control programming to acoustical engineering and video calibration. Of course, education is for the men and women who do the real work of installation. Those of us with the cushier jobs - the press - get to eat shrimp and drink free cocktails…