Geoffrey Morrison Blog

As rumored, Toshiba/Canon showed off three 55-inch SED displays, proving without a doubt that they can make at least three SED panels. They looked as impressive as the oft-seen 37-inch, with a mix of pre-recorded (and motion filled) colorful images, and even a live action scene (with a camera on a person and puppet that was in sight of the audience). Here’s the bad news: They’re now saying the end of 2007, but with no definite pricing or quantity.

CEATEC (See-Tech) is a yearly trade show in Tokyo, Japan. For the most part it is either a preview of what the Japanese manufacturers are going to show at CES, or what they’re hoping to come out with in the near future. Then there’s the rest of the massive building that has parts like LEDs, IR transmitters, and all the bits that are in the products you buy.

In case you missed it, here's the link to all our CEDIA coverage. Next week, I'll be at CEATEC, and I'll hopfully have some cool things to blog about while I'm at that show.

Coolest CES Ever

We were just outside of Barstow, on the edge of the desert…

I hate contrast ratio. It's a stupid and pretty much useless measurement. It's up there on the list with horsepower as a useless number that tells you next to nothing about actual performance. "My SUV has 300 horsepower!" yeah, and a 0-60 time pushing double digits. Congratulations. Hmm, bad example. 0-60 is a useless number too, but that's a different conversation.

E3 opened this morning, and it was the usual jumble of people and wonder of video gaming. Surprisingly, though, the show itself seems to have been toned down. It is still loud and garish, but there seemed to be more room to move in the aisles, and it was at least 30 dB quieter than before. You could actually talk to the person next to you in a normal voice, something not possible in previous years. Here's the PS3 in black. According to the latest specs, the $500 PS3 will not have the card readers, wi-fi, or, get this, HDMI. My guess is that it will output component at 1080i. Even the $600 version has gone from 2 HDMI jacks to just one. Perhaps most amusing is that they will play SACDs. It well go on sale November 17. From reports I’ve heard, lines have already formed for one of the 2,000,000 available on that date. Two-mil more will ship at the end of December (after Christmas).