Gotta get me one of those 108" HD TVs.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070108/tc_nm/electronics_show_television_dc


Big LCD TVs take center stage at Electronics Show
By Franklin Paul and Philipp Gollner

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Televisions grabbed the spotlight at the Consumer Electronics Show on Sunday with companies showcasing everything from super-sized models for the red-hot LCD market to technology enabling TVs to play video straight from the Internet.

A slew of consumer electronics makers introduced bigger flat-screen TVs, while others highlighted products to enhance viewing, such as a DVD player that could be a bridge between rival formats for next-generation video discs.

Sharp Corp. (6753.T) showed off a 108-inch high-definition LCD television to rival a 100-inch model introduced only hours earlier by LG Electronics Inc. (066570.KS). Sharp said its was the biggest yet among liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs.

In an effort to counter steep price erosion in the flat TV market, manufacturers are increasingly offering larger TVs with higher resolution, which generally carry fatter profit margins than smaller models with conventional resolution.

Other companies looked for ways to make television more engaging and easier to view from anywhere. Philips Electronics NV (PHG.AS) unveiled a one-speaker surround-system and a wireless high-definition video hub.

Europe's largest electronics maker also showed off bigger models of televisions that light up the wall behind them and introduced amBX, a video game system with a fan to simulate wind, for the North American market.

Japan's Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news). (6758.T) took aim at growing consumer appetite for Web-delivered programming with its announcement that the company would equip its TVs with an attachable module that can stream broadband high-definition and other video content with the push of a remote control button.

"One of the key challenges to widespread adoption of video downloads is bridging the gap between the PC and -- the most important element in the home entertainment experience -- the TV," Yankee Group analyst Michael Goodman said.

The four-day CES event, which starts formally on Monday, is the biggest annual U.S. gathering for the $145 billion industry and will draw some 140,000 enthusiasts and retailers to a sprawling exhibition of gadgets to feed consumers' ever-growing arsenal for personal entertainment.

LG introduced a DVD player to support both next-generation, high-definition DVD technologies, offering a solution in an escalating war between Blu-ray and HD DVD. LG said its Super Multi Blu Player would be available in early February in the United States for about $1,200.

Despite the flurry of TV-related announcements, many analysts say mobility will be the key theme at this CES as more people watch TV on laptops and carry entire music catalogs in their pockets.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930.KS) said it plans to make available to U.S. broadcasters a new technology that lets people watch digital TV in cars, trains and on mobile computers.

BIGGER AND BETTER

Japan's Sharp said its new 108-inch LCD TV would be available in mid-2007, but it did not give details on price.

The Consumer Electronics Association says wholesale LCD unit sales are expected to jump 50 percent to $12 billion in 2007 from about $8 billion in 2006. By contrast, plasma unit sales are seen rising to $6 billion in 2007 from $5.7 billion.

LCD TVs have been popular recently, but they typically cost more than plasma TVs and have sold in smaller screen sizes.

Pioneer Corp. (6773.T) said it expects to introduce an advanced plasma high-definition TV this summer with richer colors, deeper shades of black and better contrast than predecessors.

The Tokyo-based company aims to compete better with rivals including Samsung and LG of South Korea and Japan's Hitachi Ltd. (6501.T), which offer both plasma and LCD TVs.

Toshiba Corp. (6502.T) said on Sunday it would launch 52-inch and 57-inch LCD TVs this year, playing catch-up with rivals such as Sharp in its foray into the 50-inch class.

Anyone with a decent sized media room, I highly recommend picking up one of these:

http://www.mitsubishi-hometheater.com/hc3000u.asp

They're down to like $1,200 and the picture is awesome for the size.

Plasmas are down also. Got a 42" Panasonic for $1400 at Costco.

Plasmas are down also. Got a 42" Panasonic for $1400 at Costco.
I've been reading up on Plasma vs LCD (for a purchase in the not too far off future i hope). LCD's in the 37-42 inch range are also 1000-1500 bucks too. I like the idea that the LCD's are a little more reliable than Plasmas (they are a lot better than they used to be, but still have risks of burning in images) and use less power. I was looking at them at Best Buy and the Samsung one looks pretty sweet. My only beef is they didn't show refresh rates there at all (but I do online research too).

Anyone have any insight on LCD's and Plasmas from experience?

Go to Costco to buy it. They have this ridiculous return policy where you can return anything with a receipt whenever. I have returned a tv 3 years after I bought it. I have both a plasma and an LCD in my house. They are both nice tvs but if I was to go with one, I would go to Costco and buy a plasma.

Ive been wondering a lot about LCD vs plasma lately too. I forsee a (reasonably) big one in the livingroom before too long so Im going to have to start researching. Mike do you prefer plasma regardless of cost? and why?

From the research that I did, Plasma's have better picture (i.e the colors are more vibrant) and has better viewer angles. I think LCD's last longer but that is where the costco return policy comes along.

From the research that I did, Plasma's have better picture (i.e the colors are more vibrant) and has better viewer angles. I think LCD's last longer but that is where the costco return policy comes along.
i'll have to look into that policy, pretty cool.

BTW, the viewing angles on most LCD's are %15 more than Plasmas now.

Plasmas are supposed to have much better pictures (color wise) in low light levels (ie bars, or if you have your shades closed), while LCD's are better in higher lights. For some reason plasmas aren't as good with natural light on them. LCD's suffer from refresh rate too, so you have to get a good level on that or the picture will suffer.

that's about all I know.

Anyone here ever been to a CES before?

Pretty cool announcement by Alticor (Amway) about a product that basically eliminates the need for power cords for almost anything electric.


Alticor Cuts Wires

Published: January 8, 2007

LAS VEGAS, NEV. — Alticor startup Fulton Innovation will debut a revolutionary technology today at the Consumer Electronics Show intended to eliminate the use of power transmission wires for potentially every device that must be plugged into an electrical outlet or charger.

The technology, eCoupled, is based on inductive coupling, a 200-year-old technology that transfers energy from one device to another through a shared magnetic field. It has been used for six years within Alticor’s eSpring Water Treatment System, representing more than $1.2 billion in sales in that time.

Essentially, the technology can be used to power or charge any device of up to 1,400 watts by simply placing it within a half inch of the eCoupled device.

Fulton Innovation launched in November out of the Grand Rapids-based Access Business Group to commercialize eCoupled within the larger consumer space, with licensing agreements already in place with Visteon, Herman Miller, Motorola and electronic adaptor company Mobility Electronics.

“The technology can go virtually anywhere we use power today,” said David Hazlett, Fulton Innovation’s director of business development. “In the consumer electronics ecosystem, you have all these devices — cell phone, PDA, iPod — and power cords everywhere for everything. You have a charger for each at home, in the car, the office.

“This is universal,” he said. “You can just sit whatever it is on top of the base, without having to plug anything in. Anywhere you plug something in, you can use this technology.”

Early buzz for an eCoupled debut from Visteon scheduled for tomorrow morning has made first-time exhibitor Alticor one of the most talked about companies at CES. Visteon is showing several concept designs, integrating a “cup holder” charger into the Toyota Scion, Honda Civic and some Ford models, along with freestanding demonstrations.

Visteon plans to begin manufacturing the product for distribution this summer.

“We’ve been working on this for six years under the radar,” said Hazlett. “Our relationships are maturing in key areas, and we’re ready to go public.”

Hazlett said the company hopes that eCoupled will become the standard technology for wireless power transmission in the manner that Bluetooth and Wi-Fi have become industry standards for their respective niches.

Although most of the first applications will focus on mobility, the technology is not limited to small, low-power devices. With a potential output of 1,400 watts, eCoupled could theoretically be used to power kitchen appliances and office machines.

I remember reading about the technology for wireless power transmission a while back but had no idea it was so close to market. That's some cool shit and I can't wait to see it start popping up everywhere.

I'd be a little worried about the health effects.

The technology's been around for years (check out Splashpower), though it's gotten cheaper at the wireless power end so more people are having a 'go' at it (check out Wildcharge). The idea is, rather than mess with power cords, you set your litany of devices all in one place and it just charges them. The challenge is to get device manufacturers to support some vendor's particular approach to wireless power in their gear. Supposedly, Motorola's onboard with Alticor, but it's unclear what that'll mean in practice. And it's not just a matter of an interface standard for the wireless power exchange, but there are different flavors of wireless power exchange that have different tradeoffs as far as how you'd design and implement the handheld device.

Folks, stop by the palace store or palace.com to get your 2010 animated glowing piston gear! Also check out wtf.com for customized alpaca versions of hats, t-shirts and jerseys.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5775


At CES 2007 Philips discreetly demonstrated its light-emitting fabrics, called Lumalive, that allow everyday garments or soft furnishings to light up with colorful patterns or animated displays.

Lumalive fabrics incorporate arrays of LED pixels mounted on a flexible lightweight substrate, with each pixel containing closely spaced red, green and blue LEDs. Electric conducting tracks on the plastic substrate connect these pixels into a matrix display configuration, allowing each pixel to be individually addressed and the light intensity of its three LEDs varied in order to produce any desired color. Standard Lumalive panels measure 20 cm square and contain an array of 14 x 14 pixels, spaced a little over one centimeter apart. The panels can be interlinked or scaled up to cover large areas.

Layers of translucent material covering the LEDs diffuse the light such that adjacent pixels merge into one another, allowing the display of daylight-visible colored patterns, dynamic images, short text messages or even full color animations. Cover materials with different light dispersion/diffusion characteristics can be used to create different lighting effects. In the Lumalive couch (pictured at right), for example, the cover materials have been combined with white canvas to create a textured luminance. When the LEDs are turned off, Lumalive fabrics are indistinguishable from normal fabric.

The flexibility of the substrate material in which the LEDs are embedded and the softness of the covering layers make Lumalive fabrics pliable, while the low weight of the panels (typically around 100 grams) means they add very little to the total weight of garments. As a result, clothing made of Lumalive fabrics should remain comfortable to wear.

Electrical connection to the panels is made via a waterproof connector leading to a compact control unit, measuring around 11.5 x 6.5 x 2 cm and weighing approximately 150 grams, that contains the control electronics and battery pack. Additional display driver/multiplexing circuitry built into the panel itself reduces the number of connections between the control unit and the panel to just five conductors, greatly simplifying the size and weight of the wiring harness. Based around an ARM microprocessor and 256 MB of flash memory for content storage, the control unit allows the display of animated graphics sequences of up to ten minutes duration.

Lumalive fabric solutions are supplied with Windows-based PC software that interfaces with the USB connector on the control unit, allowing for animated graphics, scrolling text messages or moving images to be uploaded. Alternatively, the unit can be connected to a GSM module, allowing pre-loaded content to be triggered via SMS messages or SMS messages to be transferred directly to the Lumalive panels.

If you are looking for a high end monitor my old one is available:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k70/WTFchris/other/IMG_0300.jpg

Actually, to be serious for a moment I just replaced this one with a ViewSonic Q19wb and it is really nice. It was only $150 at CompUSA.

I just gave away a dead monitor so someone could drop it from a high building. Or recycle it. I'm honestly not sure which.

You could make a nice planter out of it. lol

I'm going to drop it off at the SOCRA Recycling center near us.