CES 2006 - Day 3: Playstation 3, Quarter-size Hard Drives, SED and lots of TVs
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Manveer Wasson on January 9, 2006 1:25 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
1080p Plasmas Galore
Plasma display technology has improved by leaps and bounds over the past few years. Once only available for the ultra-wealthy, you can now purchase a very respectable unit for around $2000. Now that High Definition television has become more mainstream the market for these displays has grown significantly. Last year plasma took a back seat to other display technologies like LCD, DLP, and LCOS when 1080p version of said sets started shipping and plasma 1080p sets were nowhere to be found. However at this years CES almost every plasma panel maker is showing off their 1080p displays.
Hitachi's "modest" 55" 1080p Plasma
The latest 1080p pets from Pioneer, Panasonic, LG, Hitachi, and Samsung were being displayed with sizes ranging from 50" all the way up to 103". One interesting to note is the number of "Worlds Largest" plasma displays we saw on the floor. We saw a 102" sets from LG and Samsung, and a 103" from Panasonic - all claiming to be the worlds largest.
It's the world's largest 102" plasma
...and the world's largest 103" plasma
The sets we saw were stunning to say the least.
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Sunbird - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link
No problem for me here. IE6 on WinXP SP2.Aquila76 - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link
Hmm... I wonder if my account is experiencing the 'y2k6 bug' that wiped out some of the lifers.semo - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link
some lifers accounts got wiped out?y2k6 bug?
man i should stop living under this stupid rock. soooo much hilarity.
Aquila76 - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link
dwell, SampSon, buck and a few others got wiped out last week - all their posts got wiped too.ukDave - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link
Last word in 2nd last paragraph on pg14."comarpsion" should be "comparison".
Word.
Calin - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link
Why they compare the quality of digital TV seen on a shiny new digital TV to the quality on a 1980's analog TV? Why not compare to the latest analog only TV they built?Probably because the quality difference would be underwhelming?
Calin
psychobriggsy - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link
If I read what that digital TV 'convertor' box did, then they have been available in the UK (and probably other European countries) for around 4 years already, initially as the ITV Digital boxes, and for the past couple of years as Freeview boxes.They usually have two SCART (Eurotel) outputs (what we have instead of S-Video outputs, ours can carry RGB signals as well as composite, but the connector is pig-large), one to the TV, another to a recorder, and an RF output in case the TV is old and doesn't have SCART inputs.
Cheap models (<£40) skimp of course, or 'specialise' in not having some of the features like RF output of digital signals. They also lose the 7 day program guide and only offer Now&Next, grrr.
Regardless, it should mean that these boxes will cost under $99 when they're released in the US, probably around $79. If they try it on with $199 then you know they're trying to rip you off, unless it downconverts terrestrial HD signals too.
semo - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link
good point. how many ppl have tvs from the 1980s anymore (as far as the targeted audience of ces is concerned)Sc4freak - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link
Is it just me, or is the entire page completely screwed up?gsellis - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link
I noticed that the index and pages were one off.