Ok, I know, that force reference was probably lame even when George Lucas actually was the principal owner in THX. But I'm running out of ways to hype new flat panels!

While LG is a major player in LCD flat panels, it showed plasma in a big way with six new 1080p plasma models, which in and of itself may not be that surprising. What was more interesting is that these new plasma (and LCD) flat panels are loaded with features clearly aimed at elevating performance. These sets will be THX and ISF certified, and there were also slides with references to a THX Cinema Mode, which we can only assume means these sets will come preloaded a picture preset that's quite the opposite of showroom torch mode. Always welcome and we'll find out more this week when we can see them on the show floor.

In addition, LG is also working with Mark Levinson (the man and audio industry legend, not the Harman company that now bears his name) on a variety of audio initiatives. We'll have more details on this later, but there is not only a dedicated home theater speaker system designed in conjunction with Levinson, LG's "invisible" flat panel speakers are also referred to as "tuned by Mark Levinson."

In addition to all of this, there were numerous references to 1080p-capable wireless audio and video in conjunction with these new displays, but no details were given.

Also fascinating is LG's recent initiative with NetFlix to stream movies to consumers "embedded network player" devices, which we assume is an Internet-connected set-top box of some sort. No pricing was given, and product isn't expected on the market until the second half of 2008. Stay tuned, we'll get out on the floor and learn more this week!