Introduction:

Consumers Electronics Show 2008

Every year, North America hosts the largest Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which is where any and everyone can go to debut their newest or best products. If you can think of any technical gizmo or gadget, chances are that it's already there. This year's event didn't quite have the amount of computer components as last year, but there was still plenty and High Definition was all the rave. Of course, there were still endless rows of iPod and music player stations. As a matter of fact, there were more of those than High Definition Televisions. I'm not sure we need more docking stations, but HD TVs advancements are always a good thing. The more new products that come out, the quicker prices drop on the current products.

With that said, I browsed several HD product booths. It's not really like I had much choice either since just about every direction in the Las Vegas Convention Center had some sort of HD screen on display. Even the computer vendors had some sort of HD screen displaying their latest software or system features. While everything is all lit up, glitz, and glamour, in the end only a few of the HD TVs had anything to offer unique.

Blu-Ray Booth	Blu-ray Pirates
HD Booth	Very Cool

Blu-ray received a huge vote from Warner Brothers the day before the event started. This strikes a considerable blow against HD DVD's future. Microsoft may still find some use for it such as Downloadable Content, or movies via the internet. After the Warner Brother's announcement, the HD Association cancelled their press conference. Public perception was undoubtedly in favor of Blu-ray given the much larger crowds flowing through their booth.

If you watched CNET, you most likely saw Panasonic's newest 11 foot HD Plasma TV. The HDTV was their pinnacle project sporting four different 1080P quadrants on the X and Y axis. If you do the math, that's basically 4320P as the spokesman stated. The power requirements was rumored to be 2000 plus watts during operation which isn't exactly "going green".

Only 11 Feet?

In rebuttal, their newest Plasma TV lines are boasting half or less required wattage than current TVs. If your current 42" Plasma uses about 450 watts, then you'll be happy to know when you upgrade to the slimmer improved models, it'll require roughly half. Many screens are also much, much slimmer built inside a mere 1" chassis as opposed to today's current 4" average. If you've had to move your current HDTV and pay your electric bill, the future may offer hopefully cheaper TVs especially with better technology being used to help build better TVs.

Slim 103" HDTV (Approx. 1.5")

Panasonic seemed to be more aggressive about slimmer, power saving HDTVs. Their booth was very large, stretching through about half of the Central Hall area. And they filled every wall with some of their best screens and a few future screens not yet ready for our family rooms. While each major HDTV player had a lot to say at the event, the newer technologies seemed to tilt in favor of Panasonic. But, that can change over night which is what we want.

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