CES 2010

Even though Samsung has announced it is suspending research and development of OLED, there were still some prototypes at the front of its booth, including a 31-incher and several measuring 14 inches. They looked amazing.

As in-wall speakers have grown in popularity, manufacturers have introduced in-wall subwoofers to complete the package. They have also struggled to deal with the inevitable rattles and vibrations of a subwoofer mounted inside a wall. Paradigm has introduced the RVC-12SQ Architectural Subwoofer, which solves the vibration problem by using two drivers in-phase but firing in opposite directions, thus canceling vibrations. The drivers face each other and fire horizontally rather than from front to back, further reducing vibrations. The RVC-12SQ can be used as a standalone sub or with the optional enclosure shown in the photo. The new Paradigm sub will be available in the first quarter with price to be announced.

Eco-friendly TVs that consume less power seem to be in everyone's line up now. Though by and large, I noticed they tend to be smaller sets with fewer features. Hopefully, in the years to come it won't be necessary to denote specific models as eco-friendly because we know they all are.

New to Dish Network's lineup of HD DVRs is the ViP 922 with Slingbox built in, which lets you watch any recorded program from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. To store all the HD programs you can't live without, it houses a 1-terabyte hard disk. Also new is the remote, which sports half the number of buttons as the previous design and a little touchpad that moves an onscreen cursor around a much more graphical menu system. As if that weren't enough, the 922 also offers RSS widgets, and it even recommends shows you might like based on what you select to watch.

Dolby has been working on an LED local-dimming system for LCD TVs for a couple of years, but now it's finally finished and ready for manufacturers to use in their products. It comes in two flavors—Dolby Vision is intended for prosumer, commercial, medical, and industrial applications, while Dolby Contrast is intended for consumer TVs. Pictured here is a 47-inch prototype implementation of Dolby Vision from SIM2. I also saw a demo of Dolby Contrast next to a Samsung 950 LCD with local dimming, and the difference was clear—the set with Dolby Contrast had better contrast and lower blacks, and the colors popped more.

The 55-inch VF551XVT is Vizio's first LCD TV with LED backlight and local dimming. Slated for June, it also operates at 240Hz and offers a USB port and five HDMI inputs. The price? Only $2000! For that little, I could certainly tolerate the garish red soundbar grille below the screen.

Vizio is getting on the widget bandwagon with Vizio Connected HDTV, a feature set that will be added to all XVT models this fall. With 802.11n WiFi and an Ethernet port, it can run various widgets to access online weather, news, and so on, and new widgets can be downloaded from the company's website into the TV's Widget Gallery shown here on the left of the screen. Also included is a new Bluetooth remote that slides open like a smartphone to reveal a QWERTY keyboard.