More Hz! Last year: Even less prestigious companies, like Vizio, were showing off their new panels with their swanky new refresh rates. They were announcing that 1080p was now standard and, thus, old news. The new crusade was one to be fought against jittery picture and dropped frames. We were treated to the same scene from the Pirates of the Carribean Blu-ray over and over again, encouraged to observe just how realistic the picture was. The difference is very noticeable and 120Hz has actually made the move into the marketplace, which is more than we can say for some of these other trends. This year: With the size and resolution wars gone quiet (until 4k comes rolling around, of course) TV makers still need specs to fight about. Some manufacturers have already upped the 120Hz ante to 240Hz, because more is almost always better. Unfortunately the 240Hz results have only been marginally better, earning themselves a reputation as kind of a novelty for the moment. But, doing things for bragging rights usually makes for some pretty interesting demos. And what will happen when LG drops the 480Hz set they're rumored to be bringing? We hope our eyeballs can handle it.

OLED Last year: When the doors of the convention floor were flung open, journalists flocked to the site of the 150-inch TV. But for most of us, one of the best moments was stumbling into Sony's enormous compound of a booth and laying eyeballs on the 9mm wonder of their OLED panel. The words "organic light-emitting diode" were flowing from fingers straight onto the internet, but unfortunately the actual TV sets haven't come so easily. This year: The vision of its beauty long drifted from our minds, replaced by the disappointing XEL-1, Sony's $2,500 proof of concept with an impressive-but-puny 11-inch screen. Kodak rolled out their fancy OLED digital picture frame, too. But $1,000 for a 7.6-inch screen without a tuner isn't exactly the hot item this holiday season. But we plan on seeing a lot of stuff powered by OLED this year. There's talk of everything from keyboards to a 50-inch display from Samsung, but we would be more impressed if someone were to drop a 27-inch panel that didn't cost as much as a private jet.

Head-mounted displays (video goggles) Whether they're trying to look like a normal pair of glasses, a piece of Star Trek headgear or just some horrific-looking visor with two little screens attached, head mounted displays made a big push last year by upping resolutions and lowering prices. Unfortunately, they couldn't quite manage to make a unit that didn't make the viewer look pretty ridiculous. This year: In the 12 months since last year's show, wearing your screen on you face still hasn't caught on. That doesn't mean they're going to stop trying, though. We expect to see just as many, if not more "booth babes" wandering the halls, trying to watch Transformers without banging into distracted show-goers.