CES 2010

I agree with Kim Wilson that the wall o' TVs at the entrance to the Sharp booth was impressive, but I thought the Samsung "wing" was even more so.

I was surprised to see Haier in a huge booth in the middle of the convention center's Central Hall. This Chinese company has been at CES in years past, but until now, they've had a smaller booth somewhere in the back. Based in Qindao (or Tsing Tao, where the beer of that name is brewed), Haier is one of China's largest appliance manufacturers, and it's been selling LCD TVs in the US market since 2006. Where are they sold, you ask? Mainly independent appliance and TV stores such as BrandSmart; they are also big on the QVC shopping network.

Following the successful introduction of their high-end Zeppelin iPod speaker system, B & W has entered the sound bar market with a higher end model, the Panorama. Few details were available, although it is a powered sound bar with 5 source inputs including 2 optical and 1 coaxial digital input. Price is $2200. B & W also says it does not require a subwoofer and has enough bass to fill most rooms. We'll see.

After its meteoric rise in the flat-panel business, Vizio is expanding into the realm of Blu-ray players with the VBR100. It's BD-Live with 1GB of internal memory, it has 7.1 analog audio outs, and it can bitstream and decode all the advanced audio codecs. It should be available in April for—get this—$200, the magic price point. Mainstream, here we come!

When I heard that Samsung has a new Joe Kane-designed single-chip DLP projector, I had to check it out. The SP-A900B boasts 35% better contrast than the SP-A800B, mostly due to lower blacks thanks to the DarkChip 4 DMD and other refinements. To help Samsung sell the projector—which it has been unable to do in any volume with previous models—Kane is helping to set up a real distribution channel that will make the projector available only through dealers who install and calibrate it. The SP-A900B should be available next month for $15,000. The demo is using the new Da-Lite Affinity screen, which Kane also helped design, and the result is spectacular—the best video image at the show in my view.

I've always liked Optoma's 1080p DLP projectors, except for one thing—no lens shift, which makes placement difficult. I guess the company listened, because the new HD8200 takes lens shift one step beyond normal. Called PureShift, the Optoma shifts the entire light engine up to 20% left/right and 30% up/down, keeping the light path in the center of the lens. It'll be available only through custom installers for $5000 starting in February. The similar HD808 will be available at retail for $3500 in March; the 808 uses the DarkChip 2 DMD, whereas the 8200 uses the DC3 chip for greater contrast.

Radiient Technologies has partnered with THX to jointly license and market THX Roomcaster, an ultra-wideband wireless speaker adapter system for surround sound and stereo speakers. THX Roomcaster operates in the 3.1 to 10.6 GHz frequency range to deliver uncompressed audio to as many as eight speakers in 24-bit signal resolution. High frequency operation minimizes potential interference from other electronic devices and THX Roomcaster has a range of 30 feet. The system includes one Wireless Audio Source Adapter that connects to any audio source in the system and one Wireless Speaker Adapter connects to each powered speaker in a system.