Scott Wilkinson

Samsung is one of the few companies that makes and markets LCDs and plasmas with equal fervor. Members of the new B850 plasmas, including the 50- and 58-inch versions shown here, are only 1.5 inches deep at their thickest point, and they consume 40% less power than last year's line. It also boasts a 600Hz sub-field refresh rate, which is supposed to lower black level and reduce contouring, though this is likely more about specsmanship than any significant benefit.

The beloved game show <I>Jeopardy!</I> celebrated its 25th anniversary by taping a week's worth of shows at CES. Interestingly, <I>Jeopardy!</I> and <I>Wheel of Fortune</I> were the first game shows to be produced and broadcast in high-def in 2006.

I saw a couple of LED-illuminated DLP front projectors at CEDIA last year, so it wasn't all that surprising to see another one at CES. Vivitek introduced the H6080FD, a 1080p projector with a single DMD chip and RGB LEDs that are supposed to last 20,000 hours. This 1080p model claims 800 lumens of light output and a 50,000:1 native contrast ratio. Availability is said to be the May/June time frame, and the price will be around $20,000.

After its meteoric rise in the flat-panel business, Vizio is expanding into the realm of Blu-ray players with the VBR100. It's BD-Live with 1GB of internal memory, it has 7.1 analog audio outs, and it can bitstream and decode all the advanced audio codecs. It should be available in April for&#151;get this&#151;$200, the magic price point. Mainstream, here we come!