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<\/a><\/p>\nThis year there appeared optimism and hope in contrast to last year’s CES.\u00a0 There is also an emphasis on efficiency and going \u201cgreen\u201d \u2013 being thrifty while still getting excellent results.\u00a0 This editor can only give a tiny slice of what he experienced at CES this year and hopes it is relevant to your interests.\u00a0 Much of the time ABT spent at CES was spent on PC-related products and especially how they relate to PC gaming and PC hardware.\u00a0 Next year, we expect to field a team of ABT reporters at CES to give you much more thorough and quicker coverage.<\/p>\n
I\u00a0do not believe that the\u00a0CES management\u00a0anticipated the large numbers of the members of the press who covered CES.\u00a0 If you did not get your (free) lunch before 12 Noon, you could generally forget it.\u00a0 CES was an enjoyable if exhausting event for the press, exhibitors and attendees who were there\u00a0for all four days.<\/p>\n
There were over 20,000 individual products on display at CES but certain categories got a disproportionate amount of interest.\u00a0 You could divide these up generally, as follows:<\/p>\n There were a lot of e-reader and tablet systems.\u00a0 Lenovo introduced a combination notebook\/tablet PC.\u00a0 As evidenced at CES, tablet PCs will be one of the top technology gadgets for 2010 and beyond.\u00a0 Staying on top of the trend, NVIDIA launched its next-generation Tegra processor which is designed to complete the web browsing experience on tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices. We can expect that NVIDIA will showcase new tablets and other devices at Mobile World Congress, February 15 \u2013 18, in Barcelona, Spain.\u00a0 These new tablets will show off 1080p HD video, super-fast web browsing,\u00a0 complete Flash Player 10.1 support and several days of battery life.<\/p>\n Both D-Link and Netgear demonstrated outstanding in-home content solutions that let you stream HD audio and video anywhere in the house with Wi-Fi or Ethernet.\u00a0 Their all-in-one control stations are setting the stage for future complete home management solutions including security and energy.\u00a0 These boxes allow you to expand by adding features \u2013 not just more boxes. TV LCD manufacturers had record sales this past year because of the high-definition conversion. In America, over 110 million homes have one TV but less than 50 million have HD capable sets.\u00a0 So there is a lot of room for future sales in regard to new things like, 3D TV, Skype, IPTV or iTV, and wireless connectivity.<\/p>\n I have seen the future and it is 3D.\u00a0 However, I am not as optimistic about television transitioning as fast as for PC and console gaming.\u00a0 With games, there is a bit of depth already programmed in and it generally works well with 3D as long as you can adjust it.\u00a0 However, with converting 2D to 3D there are some issues with action that have to be worked out, in contrast to viewing still photos.\u00a0 Of course, to watch 3D TV requires that you purchase a new set that won\u2019t be economical for quite awhile.\u00a0 It also requires a constant stream of quality 3D programming which appears will start with sports.\u00a0 And one must consider what the premium cost will be for 3D content from your provider.<\/p>\n Manufacturers do not seem to consider the consumer cost to make the switch.\u00a0 Consider that a single pair of active shutter glasses can cost $200.\u00a0 One just need picture the expense to equip a family of five just to watch a 3D movie at home together – $1,000 just for 3D glasses.\u00a0 And with kids and their friends,\u00a0glasses break and will need replacement, in many cases out of warranty.\u00a0 We also saw the 120 MHz and 240 MHz LCDs that are required to use 3D technology cost a premium over last year\u2019s models.\u00a0 How many people \u2013 except gamers \u2013 are willing to give up their big screen TVs and LCDs that they recently purchased for another<\/em> big purchase of a 3D-capable TV?<\/p>\n It is hard to believe that 3D TV\u00a0is as yet disruptive to the industry despite many optimistic projections.\u00a0 And again there is the issue not\u00a0yet settled as to which 3D format will be chosen as a standard in the industry.\u00a0 Add to the negatives of 3D the cost of a new Blu-Ray player for playing 3D content.\u00a0 Of course there are the pessimists who will remind everyone of the many previous failed attempts of the industry since the 1950s to convince people to switch to 3D.<\/p>\n This reporter does believe that 3D is the future, but is waiting to see a compelling reason to switch to 3D TV quickly.\u00a0 For gaming, however, it is far more compelling.\u00a0 \u201cImmersion\u201d is the keyword here as NVIDIA has joined AMD in offering its \u201cEyeFinity\u201dwith an extension of its Quadro-enabled multi-monitor Mosaic setup \u2013 now called \u201cNVIDIA\u2019s Surround\u201d.\u00a0 Here we saw Age of Conan<\/em> being demonstrated on GTX 280 SLI at NVISION08, so the technology has been around for awhile, but now something new has been added.<\/p>\n What is new is that NVIDIA has upped the ante over Eyefinity by allowing their 3D Vision to be enabled on its Surround, also.\u00a0 This 3D demo was running at both of their booths.\u00a0 The difference is that NVIDIA does three panels in 3D at 120MHz with GT200 or GF100 SLI, whereas AMD\u2019s Eyefinity is rendered on a single card or in CrossFire in regular 2D and will drive up to six LCDs with their new 5000 series.\u00a0 Below we see NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround running on DepthQ HD 3D projectors and three Acer GD245HQ 1080p LCD displays.<\/p>\n NVIDIA showcased new products and technologies that demonstrate PCs based on their GeForce GPUs along with the NVIDIA 3D Vision hardware and software is an excellent platform well-suited for Blu-ray 3D movies, games, photos, and the Web.\u00a0 They even demoed Youtube 3D using a 3D version of Adobe Flash player.<\/p>\n On display in the booth, NVIDIA demonstrated 3D Vision technology running on desktop and notebook PCs equipped with 120Hz 3D-capable displays.\u00a0 Their 3D Vision Surround spans 3D content across three high definition monitors or projectors.\u00a0\u00a0 We saw Blu-ray 3D software players playing 3D movie trailers including Toy Story 3 as well as the latest PC games running in 1080p stereoscopic 3D which were viewed with NVIDIA\u2019s active shutter glasses.<\/p>\n Samsung has promised to cooperate with both AMD and NVIDIA by offering a new thinner bezel for their LCDs which debuted at CES as shown below:<\/p>\n One of the most impressive displays at CES was by Samsung<\/a>.\u00a0 They went all out to make their huge space both artistic and spectacular \u2013 in contrast to many other displays that were traditional.\u00a0 They did not allow photographs at their exhibit except by the press who needed to be accompanied by a qualified Samsung representative.<\/p>\n Of course, Samsung had many 3D displays and mostly they required 3D glasses.\u00a0 One thing that was touted was the conversion to 3D from 2D, but to this reporter it looked a bit unnatural in motion, unlike PC gaming that mostly has depth already pre-programmed in.\u00a0 The still images that were shown were spectacular, however.<\/p>\n Energy savings is important to Samsung and their next generation plasma TVs use quite a bit less electricity that the current ones, as they demonstrated:<\/p>\n And of course, OLED makes an appearance and also in 3D:<\/p>\n As a major exhibitor, LG<\/a> was not to be outdone by Samsung but put on quite a display which was quite pretty in pink.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n\n
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\n<\/p>\n3D and Televisions<\/h3>\n
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