CES 2012

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CES 2012
Monster Wants to be "More than Just a Headphone Company"
Lauren Dragan  |  Jan 05, 2015  | 
2015 is the year of Monster collaborations. Pushing slogans of "the Internet of everything" and "more than just a headphone company", Monster focused on its desire to expand into projects that extend beyond their ubiquitous cans.
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CES 2012
Tech Trends 2012: Headphone Haven
Michael Berk  |  Mar 27, 2012  | 

THERE WERE countless headphone exhibitors at CES 2012: familiar names showing incremental upgrades to longstanding models, Chinese OEMs showcasing suspiciously familiar designs under house brands, upstart firms testing the waters with hybrid driver designs and innovative fit systems, automotive and furniture firms muscling their way into the latest hot retail category.

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VoteCES 2012
What Are You Most Excited About From CES?
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jan 20, 2012  | 
What Are You Most Excited About From CES?
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CES 2012
CES 2012: The TV Report
Al Griffin  |  Jan 19, 2012  | 

There was no shortage of cool stuff being pitched by TV makers at this year’s CES. While 55-inch OLED sets around 4 millimeters thick nabbed the spotlight (rightly so, since they weren’t prototypes but actual products scheduled to come out in 2012), we were also surprised by the number of 4K models — some of which were also real products on target for a 2012 release.

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CES 2012
35 Miles…a CES Personal Best
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jan 19, 2012  | 
I couldn't believe it when I looked at my pedometer upon returning to my hotel room after CES closed last Friday—I had walked just a smidge under 35 miles in five days! That's way more than I've ever done before, and my feet knew it.

Lying on the bed, exhausted, I couldn't help thinking about all I'd seen in those 35 miles. Some attendees I spoke with summed up their feelings about the show with a yawn, but not me. I found this year's CES to be very exciting, full of important introductions and announcements that will fill the coming year with plenty of things to write about and lust after.

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Home Theater Geeks PodcastCES 2012
Podcast 95: CES 2012 Wrapup
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jan 19, 2012  | 

Home-theater consultant Ray Coronado and HomeTheater.com correspondents Tom Norton and Barb Gonzalez join me to discuss our impressions of CES last week, including OLED TVs, 4K flat panels, 3D, online streaming, audio, answers to chat-room questions, and more.

Run Time: 1:01:48

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CES 2012
Samsung OLED TV
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jan 19, 2012  | 
No doubt about it, the 55-inch OLED TVs from Samsung (shown here) and LG stole the show for me. (Yes, there were a lot of 4K flat panels as well, but without 4K content, they are not all that important except for passive-glasses 3D.) This is the first new TV technology to become a real commercial product in many years, and it beats LCD and plasma in every way. Both manufacturers claim to have solved OLED's longevity problem, but only time will tell if they actually have.

No pricing was announced—nor was a model number in Samsung's case—but I've heard rumors from $5000 to $10,000. If it's closer to $5000, that will be a home run right out of the gate; if it's more like $10,000, these TVs will be a niche product until the next generation brings the price down.

CES 2012
LG EM9600 OLED TV
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jan 19, 2012  | 
For me, the stars of CES 2012 were the 55-inch OLED TVs from LG (seen here) and Samsung, which both companies promise will be available as actual retail products later this year. Like the Samsung, the LG EM9600 is a mere 4 millimeters thick with the electronics in the base, but if you want to wall-mount it, some of that base will have to come along, increasing the effective depth. The picture quality is absolutely stunning, with truly infinite blacks and vibrant colors. Given that OLED is infamous for degrading over a relatively short time—especially blue—will those colors last? LG claims they will, and I certainly hope they're right.
CES 2012
Google TV Makes a Comeback
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jan 19, 2012  | 
Photo by Barb Gonzalez
After failing miserably last year, Google TV has risen phoenix-like from the ashes to become an important part of several major companies' IPTV strategy. As you may recall, Google TV tried to integrate streaming services with broadcast and pre-recorded DVR content into a unified Android environment, but the user interface was clunky, and too many services blocked access from that particular platform.

Now, it seems Google TV is getting a second chance from LG, Sony, and Vizio, all of whom introduced products that include the service. LG announced two LED-LCD TVs (LMG860 and LMG620; LG's Android Market interface shown above), while Sony unveiled the NSZ-GP9 Blu-ray player and NSZ-GS7 network media player (a media-streaming box like Roku). Interestingly, Sony had a TV with Google TV last year, but not at this year's show. Vizio introduced three LED-LCD TVs with Google TV (R3D470VS, R3D550VS, and R3D650SV) along with the VBR430 Blu-ray player and VAP430 streamer box.

CES 2012
DEG Awards
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jan 19, 2012  | 
Each year at CES, the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG), an industry-funded, nonprofit organization that promotes the benefits of home-entertainment products, holds a reception to honor the winners of several awards voted upon by its members as well as journalists such as myself. This year marked the group's 15th annual event, which was held at the XS nightclub in the Encore hotel. And the winners are...
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CES 2012
Altec Lansing Live 5000 Wi-Fi Speaker
Michael Berk  |  Jan 18, 2012  | 

Altec-Lansing showed us a very interesting new spin on their inAir concept at CES. The new device resembles the existing inAir 5000 AirPlay speaker - but the resemblance is only skin deep.

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CES 2012
Panasonic Smart Viera
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jan 18, 2012  | 
Panasonic's latest incarnation of the connected-TV paradigm is called Smart Viera, which includes not only movies and TV shows but social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, Skype, and the newly resurrected MySpace. Users can load apps from the Viera Connect Market, and a new graphical user interface makes control easier than ever. One app of particular interest is Flixster, which implements UltraViolet, the emerging service for storing your purchased movies and TV shows in the cloud, watching them on a variety of devices, and sharing them with up to six family members or friends.
CES 2012
Panasonic LED-LCD TVs
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jan 18, 2012  | 
Whereas Panasonic used to make only small LCD TVs and large plasmas with no overlapping screen sizes, that is no longer true. New for 2012 are four series of large-screen, LED-edgelit LCD TVs (flagship to entry-level right to left above)—WT50 (47 and 55 inches), DT50 (47 and 55 inches), ET5 (42, 47, and 55 inches), and E50 (42, 47, and 55 inches). All use IPS (in-plane switching) LCD panels for wider viewing angles, and they offer Viera Connect online content apps.
CES 2012
Panasonic Plasma TVs
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jan 18, 2012  | 
With all the talk about OLED and 4K at the show, it was easy to overlook the other 2012 TV introductions. Panasonic's new plasma lineup includes four series (from flagship to entry-level left to right in the photo above)—VT50 (55 and 65 inches) with Infinite Black Ultra panel; GT50 (50, 55, 60, and 65 inches) and ST50 (50, 55, 60, and 65 inches), both with Infinite Black Pro panel; and UT50 (42, 55, and 60 inches). Not shown are the XT50 (42 and 50 inches) and 50-inch TC-P50U50, the only TV in Panasonic's lineup without 3D capabilities.
CES 2012
LG Smart TV
Scott Wilkinson  |  Jan 18, 2012  | 
As with most of the major TV manufacturers, LG announced big improvements in its Smart TV functionality, which is available in 60 percent of its 2012 lineup, including the LM8600 series shown here. In addition to content from providers such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, Vudu, and many others, LG offers 3D Zone, which streams 3D content and almost 1200 apps from the LG App Store. Also new this year is a full web browser with Flash and HTML 5, allowing you to access just about anything you can find online.

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