Scott Wilkinson

Perhaps the most highlighted section of Hitachi's booth is called Style Unlimited, in which the current Ultra Thin TVs are wrapped in various designer frames, including the gold-leaf pictured here. The gold leaf was applied by a company called Hakuichi, one of the most famous in Japan for this skill. Hitachi had several people in the booth asking attendees which designs they preferred to gather data on the US market. Some of the designs were way cool and very beautiful, but I always prefer a black bezel that calls as little attention to itself as possible, and I said so to the pollster. However, I realize that I'm quite geeky and many Joe the (insert occupation here) types might really like this idea.

You may not have heard of Analog Devices, Inc. because the company makes integrated circuits and other components, not consumer products. But ADI is big into video. I saw a demo of a video-transmission system based on JPEG2000, the same compression technology used in digital cinema. Dubbed HDAnywhere, the system can be used to send video over any wired or wireless medium very efficiently. The demo included two TVs displaying the same content—one was receiving conventional HDMI over fiber-optic cable while the other got its signal wirelessly using UWB (ultra wideband) over a distance of 50 feet. There was a slight delay in the wireless image, but they were nearly identical otherwise. Hitachi is shipping a TV with an outboard input/processor box that uses HDAnywhere via UWB, which I'll take a close look at when I get over the Hitachi booth.

Unlike WirelessHD, which I wrote about yesterday, Amimon's WHDI (Wireless HD Interface) is now included in several TVs, but they are only available in Japan. Sony's Bravia Wireless Link module and Belkin's FlyWire also use WHDI and are available in the US. WHDI uses the 5GHz band to transmit up to 1080p/60 with second-generation chips over a distance of up to 30 meters through walls with a latency of less than 1ms. Amimon's hotel suite has 10 streams going at once across three rooms in addition to WiFi in the same 5GHz band with impressive results. Pictured are two WHDI receiver modules—a major reduction is size from the suitcase-sized box I saw a couple of years ago. Members of the WHDI Consortium include LG, Sharp, Sony, Hitachi, and Samsung.

TVs aren't the only things at Samsung's booth, though you might not realize it looking at the front of the booth, which is awash in flat panels. Also present and accounted for are three new Blu-ray players, including the BD-P1600 (bottom) and BD-P3600 (top). Both conform to BD-Live, though the 1600 needs a 1GB flash drive; the 3600 has 1GB built in. Both can also access Netflix content and support WiFi operation with an optional USB dongle. The 3600 also has 7.1 analog-audio outputs. Blu-ray marches ever onward…