CES 2010

New to Dish Network's lineup of HD DVRs is the ViP 922 with Slingbox built in, which lets you watch any recorded program from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. To store all the HD programs you can't live without, it houses a 1-terabyte hard disk. Also new is the remote, which sports half the number of buttons as the previous design and a little touchpad that moves an onscreen cursor around a much more graphical menu system. As if that weren't enough, the 922 also offers RSS widgets, and it even recommends shows you might like based on what you select to watch.

Dolby has been working on an LED local-dimming system for LCD TVs for a couple of years, but now it's finally finished and ready for manufacturers to use in their products. It comes in two flavors—Dolby Vision is intended for prosumer, commercial, medical, and industrial applications, while Dolby Contrast is intended for consumer TVs. Pictured here is a 47-inch prototype implementation of Dolby Vision from SIM2. I also saw a demo of Dolby Contrast next to a Samsung 950 LCD with local dimming, and the difference was clear—the set with Dolby Contrast had better contrast and lower blacks, and the colors popped more.

DTS, one of the home theater world's guardians of surround standards, was showing these dongles which are designed to adapt stereo signals to surround headphone use. The resemblance to vacuum tubes was neither here nor there. The company was also talking up its DTS Premium Suite of licensed DSP technologies. They include DTS Connect, for upconverting two channels to 5.1; DTS Surround Sensation, for headphones; DTS Symmetry, which balances levels among input sources; and DTS Boost, which makes laptop sound louder, clearer, and more immersive. Also new to us was the 7.1-channel version of Neural, the stereo-to-surround technology purchased from original developer THX a year ago.

While at least one other major manufacturer besides Sony (Samsung), this entry from enTourage Systems, the Edge, takes a...ah...page from another book. One size of this device is a relatively large screen e-Reader, the other offers an LCD display with some of the functionality of a tablet netbook. You can write on the screen in longhand, or type on either an electronic keyboard or an external keyboard attachable via USB. You can surf the web in full color. The only downside is the 3 lb weight (which felt unusually heavy when I lifted it. About $500, next month (February).

Eco-friendly TVs that consume less power seem to be in everyone's line up now. Though by and large, I noticed they tend to be smaller sets with fewer features. Hopefully, in the years to come it won't be necessary to denote specific models as eco-friendly because we know they all are.

We maintain that a well-voiced sat/sub system can be a thing of joy and Epos is one good place to look for one. The 8VS 5.1 system includes a satellite that looks smaller than its 9.25-inch height with matching center and sub. Tweeter is aluminum, woofer is kevlar, and price is $1750. Nice black gloss finishes too.

Summit Wireless is coming closer to bringing their super-easy, super-robust, super-sounding wireless technology to the market. In addition to being able to deliver uncompressed 24-bit 48 kHz audio wirelessly without interference or dropouts, the system can handle up to 7.1 channels of audio. Ease of setup is also part of Summit Wireless's technology. Pressing one button on the remote control allows the equipment to automatically determine the position of all the speakers in relation to the holder of the remote. The system uses that info to set delays and output levels. The demos I heard at CEDIA were extremely impressive, and the latest round of demonstrations Summit Wireless did for me here at CES were even more engaging. The chip that contains all the horsepower and the wireless antennae can built into AVRs, TVs, speakers, and subwoofers. Summit Wireless doesn't intend on bringing out branded products, but they will be announcing partners in the very near future. We could even begin seeing product by Christmas of this year. That's the most exciting part of all, because if the systems perform in the real world as well as they have in the demo suites this is going to make the dream of a high performing wireless home theater system a reality.