OTHER TECH

DLP Developments

Digital Light Processing, or DLP, has been a huge hit since Texas Instruments made the technology available for consumer TVs a few years back. Two important trends seen at CES were rear-projection HDTVs that use red, green, and blue solid-state LEDs (in place of a traditional white bulb) and front projectors incorporating TI's new 0.95-inch 1080p display chip.

LED-LIT RPTVs For DLP rear-pro TVs, the key advantages of LED lighting are increased longevity, a quick 7-second turn-on time, improved color range, and no color wheel - the source of "rainbow effects." One of the first LED sets will be Samsung's HL-S5679W ($3,999) - the company plans to ship the 56-inch, 1080p-resolution model in April. Akai's 52-inch PT52DL27L ($2,199) and 42-inch PT42DL27L ($1,799) are slotted to arrive around the same time, while HP's 52-inch ID5280n (no price announced) is scheduled for early summer delivery.

DISCRETE 1080p PROJECTORS Unlike its previous "wobulating" 1080p chips, TI's new 0.95-inch chip uses a discrete 1,920 x 1,080-pixel array to display images. Sharp, Marantz, Runco, Sim2, Optoma, and the Norwegian company projectiondesign used CES to announce projectors featuring the chip. Most of these are scheduled to ship to stores in the late summer or early fall. As for prices, I was able to nail down two: $10,000 for Optoma's HD81 (shown above) and about twelve grand for Sharp's XV-Z20000.

Other HDTV News

DIRT-CHEAP SETS I knew HDTVs were getting cheaper, but take a look at these prices! Vizio's P42HDTV 42-inch plasma (shown at right) went on sale in March for $1,800, and Optoma's 720p-rez HD72 DLP front projector will be a steal when it's available this spring for only $2,000.

OCAP With both the major phone companies and Microsoft pushing IPTV (Internet-protocol TV) as an alternative to cable, it wasn't surprising to see the cable companies using CES to announce a Java-based software platform that permits two-way interactive services via cable boxes and TVs. You can expect to see these new products from a wide range of manufacturers. Panasonic, Samsung, and LG all demonstrated prototype TVs or cable boxes featuring the system, which is known as OCAP (OpenCable Applications Platform).

SED From last year's show, I reported on a restricted-access Toshiba/Canon demo of a new flat-panel TV technology called SED (surface-conduction electron-emitter display). This year, SED figured prominently in displays at both companies' booths, with attendees welcome to gawk at the impressive newcomer to the flat-panel TV scene. Although the sets on display were prototype 36-inch, 720p-rez models, Toshiba said it plans to introduce a 55-inch 1080p SED TV here by the end of 2006.