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Now that's a bookshelf speaker! The ICS designation indicates that this speaker is designed with in-cabinet use in mind, Snell's ICS 1030 LCR speaker is a work of art. Literally. Snell works with a talented artist and will paint any scene the customer wishes on the grill to make the speaker disappear into its environment. The speaker pictured here is obviously painted like a set of books and the effect is nothing short of striking.

Microsoft's Kevin Collins staged a couple of impressive demonstrations of interactivity features upcoming from HD DVD.

Sony showed this giant 82” LCD prototype, which featured LED backlighting and XVycc color space, but you can actually buy a 70” model (for $33,000) with similar technology. A special SXRD rear-projection prototype was powered by a laser rather than a light bulb and was only 10” deep. While there were many claimed advantages of using a laser as a light source, I found something just a bit wrong-looking about the picture on the SXRD prototype. The current SXRDs looked great as did the LCD sets.

Samsung had an impressive showing of newly developed LCD technology beside the old. Their LED backlit model boasted a 100,000:1 contrast ratio and a new, clearer panel for enhanced contrast and color clarity. One comparison showed how the LED backlit set, even working at 60 hz, was able to show motion as clear as a conventional set running at 120 hz. While Sharp seems to have the advantage in LCD right now, that may all change in the third quarter of this year when these new Samsung models arrive.