Event Coverage

CES 2008: Home Entertainment Galore

By Terence Ang & Zachary Chan - 15 Jan 2008

Samsung and Viewsonic's Booth

Samsung's Booth

 Samsung demonstrated its 31" and 14" OLED displays at their booth as well. We won't be surprised if the company follows on Sony's footsteps with the commercialization of OLED TVs this year.

 Samsung demonstrated its Ultra High Definition 82-inch TV that outputs video images in the 3840 x 2160 resolution. This is four times the resolution of 1920 x 1080 (Full HD).

 Samsung announced two updated series to its LCD line-up: Series 6 and 7 under its Touch of Color initiative. Featuring a hint of amber color mixed with Samsung's traditional piano black bezel frame, these LCD TVs come in three sizes per series (40", 46" and 52"). The major difference between the Series 6 and 7 is that the latter comes with a side-mounted USB 2.0 port so that users can connect their portable thumb-drives and view images or listen to their MP3s via the Series 7's integrated woofer. Not only that, the Series 7 TV comes with an internal flash pre-loaded with premium content out of the box. The Series 6 LCD HDTVs come out in March 2008 while the Series 7 comes out in May 2008.

 Samsung showcased the next-generation BD-UP5500 set-top next-gen disc player that allows users to play both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs in a slim and sleek design. Succeeding the UP5000, the UP5500 Duo HD player supports both BD-Java and HD DVD interactivity. Its Ethernet connection also allows viewers to experience a broad array of immersive viewing options with numerous movies as well as download new firmware for the player. Supporting 7.1-ch PCM, DTS-HD High Resolution and Master audio, and Dolby TrueHD Bitstream output via HDMI 1.3, the UP5500 is expecting a US release in the second half of 2008. It is however unfortunate that unlike the UP5000, this model doesn't come with the HQV processor.

 Samsung teamed up with Reactrix to demonstrate what could be a marketer's dream. Applicable as a form of interactive digital signage at retail outlets, shopping malls and so on, the Reactrix WAVEscape system is paired up with a 57" large format Samsung display. Passers-by can wave their hands and interact with various objects on the screen based on an overhead mounted sensor that detects hand movements within a certain zone about a few inches in front of the screen.

Viewsonic's Booth

 ViewSonic ups the ante for desktop monitors with the introduction of the VLED221wm desktop monitor. It is a 22-inch widescreen display with a 12000:1 dynamic contrast ratio in an LED desktop display. Leveraging on the OptiColor technology to display 118 percent of the color gamut, the VLED221wm is ideal for CAD/CAM, desktop publishing and moving production. With native resolution at 1680 x 1050, it has a 5ms response time and a low power consumption of 38W. Estimated to be available in the US in February 2008, it has a street price of US$799.

 

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