OTHER TECH

Al Griffin

Evolutionary, not revolutionary. That's how a good number of attendees characterized the vast array of products on display at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. And this did ring true for the HDTVs unveiled, which tended to be thinner, sexier, and outfitted with a wider range of picture-improving features than that of last year's models. But there were also some trends that pointed toward a more radical future for HDTV.

When it comes to TV design, "Thin Is In" is so last CES. This year's apparent concept: "Anorexic Is In." Hitachi grabbed attention with its 1.5 LCD TV line of sets whose cabinet is, yes, 1.5 inches thick. The series should arrive by this summer in 32-, 37-, and 42-inch screen sizes (no prices yet). Hitachi also had a 1.5-inch plasma prototype on hand. Not to be outdone, Pioneer surprised everyone with a 9-millimeter-thick, 50-inch plasma. (Who knew plasma TVs could be made so thin!) JVC and Samsung, meanwhile, had prototypes of 1.5-inch LCD sets to show off.

As skinny as these TVs were, they looked positively chunky compared with the OLED sets in the Sony and Samsung booths. The screen on Sony's 3mm-thick XEL-1 is only 11 inches (diagonal), but it's an actual product that you can pick up today - for a cool $2,500 (see my test report). The company also showed a 27-inch OLED model it hopes to introduce later this year. Samsung displayed its own 11- and 30-inch prototype OLEDs - the latter a 1080p-rez model. (More on OLED.)

Hoping to differentiate its TVs in the crowded marketplace, Samsung showed its Touch of Color (TOC) design Series 6 and 7 LCD models. Their amber-tinted bezels provide a sharp-looking alternative to your average boring black-bezel LCD.

Then there were the TVs with THX certification and ISF (Imaging Science Foundation) calibration modes. A stamp of quality previously found only on high-end front projectors from Runco and Vidikron, THX Display Certification has gone mass-market. Panasonic's PZ800 Series plasmas (due this spring) will be the company's first THX-certified sets, while LG's 50- and 60-inch PG60 Series plasmas (no dates or prices) feature both THX certification and ISF ccc (certified calibration controls) modes.

To judge from some of the demos seen at CES, 4K sets offering four times the resolution of 1080p models are a distinct (if somewhat distant) possibility. Staring at the 4,096 x 2,160-pixel image on the 82-inch screen of Sony's 4K LCD prototype was like looking through a window, literally. Samsung and Panasonic also had 4K demos - a 150-inch plasma in Panasonic's case, and an 82-inch LCD for Samsung. Unfortunately, each manufacturer's booth was so crowded, I couldn't get close enough to drool. (For more on 4K, see page 36.)

The big attraction in Pioneer's booth was a theater hosting its Extreme Contrast Concept TV, shown against the company's current Kuro technology (see The Dark Knight). S&V readers should be familiar with our impressions of the black levels on the Kuro plasmas (see, for instance, "The Great Flat-Panel Face-off"). To quote Spinal Tap's Nigel Tufnel (in reference to the black cover of the group's Smell the Glove), there is "None more black." I have some news: The blacks on Pioneer's concept TV go even deeper and blacker than those on current Kuro sets.

Another great A/B comparison was Sim2's demo of Dolby's HDR (High Dynamic Range) technology. Seen side-by-side with a standard LCD TV, Sim2's HDR prototype (a 46-inch LCD driven by a 1,838-module LED array with local dimming control over each module) displayed impressively Kuro-like shadow depth. (More on HDR.)

Panasonic showed its DMP-BD50 BD-Live Blu-ray Disc player, which satisfies all the requirements for a Profile 2 player. That means there's an Ethernet jack for Internet hookup plus 1 gigabyte of storage for data downloads. The player also includes dual audio/video decoders to enable the picture-in-picture feature on select Blu-ray Discs, onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, HDMI 1.3 output, 7-channel analog audio jacks, 1080p/24 video out, and an SD card slot. As for HD DVD, things were quiet - too quiet.