CES 2012

Billed as the "ultimate home-theater experience at CES," a ballroom in the Sands Convention Center was equipped with a Digital Projection Titan projector, Kaleidescape Blu-ray server, Stewart CineCurve screen with masking (Studiotek 130, 14 feet wide), Totem Acoustic speakers, ADA power amps, and D-Box motion actuators in luxurious recliners. Because I'm sensitive to motion sickness, I can't tolerate motion-actuator systems, but the rest of the audience seemed to really enjoy it with clips from Avatar, Monster House, Top Gun, and Fast Five. The picture quality was outstanding, as was the sound.

In case you thought 3D was dying out, LG’s booth was proof that 3D is alive and well, and expanding. As you walked into the LG booth, you were urged to grab passive 3D glasses. Once in the booth almost every TV was set to show 3D content. Most visitors of the booth who donned the new stylish LG glasses were treated to butterflies floating in mid-air, baseballs soaring toward home plate and other fantastic 3D images.

LG showed also showed off their 3D mobile phones that come equipped with 3D cameras to shoot photos and videos that can be transferred for viewing on LG’s 3D TVs.

One of the best parts of CES is the intellectually stimulating entertainment you’ll find at the various booths. Instead of the traditional scantily clad young women with heels so high they can barely walk, this booth chose to use a slightly different type of bird to draw attention.

Technicolor showed off M-Go, the robust new media app for TVs, tablets, smart phones and computers that makes it possible to access anything you want to watch on the device or thrown to your TV. Through a simple menu on your mobile device or computer you can get to your desired movie or TV show without the need to navigate to each service, comb through the TV program guide or scroll through your DVR to find it.

Aerial Acoustics has long been known for great-sounding speakers but not, until now, for those with high sensitivity or efficiency ratings. The Model 7 changes that with an efficiency rating of 89dB, something that can run off a decent receiver with, say, 50 watts per channel. Price $9850/pair.

This bouncy little guy got to curl up at the DISH press conference, and seemed reasonably bored despite the 4,000 camera flashes he had to endure. But those of us in the CES press corp looked and acted more like cattle as we were herded through a marathon of dog-and-pony shows at the Venetian hotel and the Las Vegas Convention Center yesterday. Celebrity sightings included Justin Timberlake at the Panasonic press conference promoting the new MySpace app in this year's HDTVs, and Will Smith with director Barry Sonnenfeld were at Sony's event to promote Men In Black 3. Sony closed it out with an acoustic guitar-accompanied performance by Kelly Clarkson. But the best news out of the day for Home Theater was the announcement of pending OLED and/or 4K sets from LG, Samsung, and Sharp. The real show begins today; check back for our reports from the floor.