The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada begins on Jan 8, 2007. The HD Guru will be covering the show, posting live from the CES, begining with a press day wrap up this Sunday, January 7th.
To whet your HDTV appetites, the HD Guru has contacted his many consumer electronic industry “inside” sources to get you the first scoop on the most exciting new CES HDTV products. Much of what you read below will not be seen on any other blog until the CES begins.
Plasma
2007 will be the year of 1080p plasma. Expect full 1080p HD (1920 x 1080) in screen sizes 42â€Â, 50â€Â, 60†63†65†71†(as well as the already available 103†Panasonic). 1080p prices will drop significantly from the current starting price of $8000. Pioneer will is expected to announce its next generation plasma with breakthrough in black level and contrast ratio. The HD Guru sneak previewed this next gen technology in Japan this past October, and it blew away every competing plasma flat panel at the Japan CEATEC electronics show.
LCD Flat
Lots of developments are expected. The most exciting: LED sequential backlights should greatly improve the color reproduction (gamut) of LCD, lower the black level and raise contrast ratio and has the potential of increasing resolution by a factor of three! There will be many vendors promoting new technologies to eliminate motion blur including 120HZ backlights. Larger screen sizes will be introduced with a significant number of new entries in the 50-70†or larger sizes. These new large screens are expected to be priced on par with similar size plasma. At least one vendor will announce a panel with 4X HD resolution (3840 x 2160).
Microdisplay
The HD Guru predicts the arrival of the first native 1080p DLP rear projectors (current DLP rear projectors use pixel shift to achieve 1920 x 1080 with a 960 x 1080 DLP chip). At least one, maybe more vendors will announce LASER DLP rear projectors. These new projectors will be brighter than their lamp driven competitors, with improved contrast ratios, thinner form factors (<10â€Â) and far wider viewing angles than current products. They are intended to compete head on with plasma and LCD flat panels with their lower price advantange. There is a rumored 37†rear projector with very thin form factor, priced as low as $999 to be a direct replacement for 32†4:3 direct view CRT ( its about the same picture height). Expect to hear about many LED driven projectors and possibly a Laser/ LED hybrid. LCoS vendors Sony and JVC are expected to announce new LED and/or LASER driven rear projectors. The other advantages of LASER/LED: far wider color gamut, no bulb to replace and lower power consumption than LCD and Plasma. Wireless HDTV Imagine simply plugging your flat panel TV into the wall AC outlet and be able to view all your content without the expense of purchasing and installing cables between your surround sound receiver and HDTV. The HD Guru expects TV makers to partner with surround sound receiver manufacturers to introduce HDTVs with built-in wireless TV receivers at CES. Here is how they will operate. You’ll connect all your source video components (HD cable box, disc player, video game etc.) to your surround sound receiver. The surround sound receiver will have a built-in wireless transmitter that sends the HD source signal to your television. The audio/video switching will be built into the surround sound receiver as well. HD DVD and Blu-ray 2nd generation high definition freestanding Blu-ray players will be announced and displayed by the major CE manufacturers. Prices will drop as much as 50%. Blu-ray recorders are expected to debut as well with ship dates by late 2007. HD DVD will announce new vendors and models and may have entry pricing as low as $299. HD DVD recorders will be announced and demonstrated, with deliveryexpected to be scheduled for 2007. LG Electronics has just announced it will introduce the first dual format high definiton disc player at CES. The player will accomidate HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. The new twin format HD player will be available for sale in the US in early 2007. Copyright 2006 HD Guru (SM) All rights reserved
Any chance any of the makers are producing 50″ or better, 1080p monitors with tuners for home use? I can’t be the only one whom has not turned on my HDTV’s speakers in the last 7 years. HDTV is meant to be played through a surround sound system, but the manufators insist on putting the speakers in all their resonably priced models. I have one of the early Mits 55″ projection HDTV’s and am ready to upgrade. I prefer having a more streamlined TV without the speakers. The commercial monitors don’t have atuner or the inputs that the home consumer models have. What to do?
Asking the hdguru
Ive been thinking about getting a mits ubishi LT-37132-HDTV OR A Samsung LNS4095D
I plan on gaming alot with PS3 whenever
I can get one and I have the new Tivo 3 to
use. Please tell me if either set is worth
getting?, Or if I should wait till next year to get a LCD HD-TV. Also are the latest PLAZMA sets okay for gaming? Burn- in wize
I need some good advice
You don’t mention if you want to use the HDTV strickly for gaming or as a TV too. Assuming double duty I recommend waiting for 120 HZ LCD sets or going with plasma.
Plasmas have much faster response time (really important in gaming so you don’t see motion blur) than LCD and overall better image quality. IF you keep the contrast down when gaming (and have had the set go past its first 200 hours when it is most sensitive to unenen wear) you should not have a problem.
If you insist on LCD there are 120HZ sets that will be arriving from almost every major LCD maker during the next 3-6 months
The HD Guru   ÂÂ
I bought the phillips 37 inch with ambilight lcd tv I have the hd service and I can’t believe the difference. It’s like hd is the new color tv and the color tv is like the black and white tv. I am really happy with the ambilight I feel like it makes the non hd channels more vibrant in color, but the first one I got was defective and had a thin black strip of light missing. Best Buy replaced it and I got the same one but with no issues. My question is should I be concerned of this happening again or did I just buy a defective one.
I reviewed an Philips Ambilight TV recently and had no problem. My guess is you initially received a defective set. I would not worry now, be happy.
The HD Guru
High definition started when Japan began research in the 60’s. In Japan,HD was known as Hi Vision developed by NHK. HiVision production began in 1981.NHK broadcast the opening Los Angeles 1984 oylmpic ceremony in HiVision. HiVision was analog and lost favor to the developing digital compression scheme favored by the US. The US electronics industry was determined not to let Japan win the HD race and dominate as they had done with thier televisions.
Now NHK has sucessfully broadcast “Super Hi Vision”,7680×4320 resolution in Japan.16 times more resolution then our 1080p system. Work is continueing on advanced satelite delivery and compression systems. It took them 20 years to start Hi Vision from the 60’s. They may well cut the developement time in half with thier new system,and the US will say uh oh…
We should not be so complacent,and let others lead. We are in a globel world today. I say,embrace it,lead not follow or we surely will fall behind.
So Doug,anything can happen. Now I will quitely step off this forum and sorry for the speech.
Doug,
In order to broacast 1080 progressively (p) a station will required the equipment to capture the video and then the equipment to broadcast it. Most networs have already invested in either 720P or 1080i and would need a reason to spend money on the new equipment.
Right now many are not broadasting HD content on a regular basis with the existing formats, so why they would upgrade is a reasonable question.
Upconversion to 1080p is quite frankly to me some what of a black science.
I don’t envision 1080p anytime soon. Some make the case that Blu-Ray or HD-DVD can do 1080p and if that content is avaiable and worth it to you is something you have to determine.
I decided not to break my bank and if 2 or 3 years from now the state of the art changes, I can upgrade.
I have just seen the future and it’s Sony’s OLED.
At CES they are demostrating a 27 inch OLED with 100% color gamut,high brightness,more then 1 million contrast ratio(not a misprint)10 bit RGB color processing. 11mm thin!,full 1080p.
Only a prtotype for now,but Sony has said on numerous ocasions,that they are commited to developing and introduing for the home,OLED panels.
Philips has announced a 63″ 1080p plasma that should be out in a few months. This will really help drop the 1080p pricing on the elite manufacturers, Philips is looking at under $3,500 for the set !!!
Doug: It could happen,but probably not anytime soon. Japan wants to put Quad HD in place nationally to beat the pants off the US.
Well Sharp dropped the bomb at CES,a 108 inch LCD!
Sign says “Worlds largest LCD”…I think they know something we don’t.Possibly a 120 inch plasma anyone? :-)
Sony anounced a 70 inch LCD XBR3. It has all the goodies,latest color processing tech.,120hz refresh rate,LCD backlighting,178 degree viewing angle and more. This one will set you back $33,000.00 in March. Sony also announced a 82 inch LCD for later.?? Sony is further reporting to be demonstating a 26 inch OLED.
Shopping at my local “big box” store the other day and was told the networks would be transmitting in 1080p within the next couple years. I think I was being hosed. I didn’t think the networks could or would ever transmit in 1080p. Can they?
:-)
Panasonic TH-50PH9UK
I do not recall whose HD-DVD or Blu-Ray’s, that was not something I paid attention to. I was more concerned at the time in the increase in data storage on the disks. They both lived up to their spec’s with the blu-ray able to store significantly more.
I do not believe there were any performance issues with the HD players, since there was extensive QA testing done when we recieved them.
The blue lasers on both were flawless. The technology related to their recording and reading data is proprietary to each format.
We quite frankly did not think we would see or expected to see a difference in picture quality on a 50″ set. The conversion of the basic content to HD still needs to be refined and that is an issue independed of the HD players.
Suspect Parcells is going to get drunk
lee; Also,what Hd player and blu-ray player? Toshiba had a chip problem and introdueing a 2nd generation at CES. I have heard reports of “soft” HD images coming from the Samsung. The Sony I viewed looked amazing. I’m waiting for the 2nd generation Sony blu-ray befor I jump in.
Half time is over,back to the play off game. :-)
lee: what is the model of the Panasonic?
I have both a HD-DVD and Blu-Ray sitting on a test bench in a laboratory. The mass storage capability of both is our interest. In terms of picture, we are using a Panasonic 50″ plasma. We have played around with it to look at video and frankly have not seen a dramatic improvement in picture quality, comparing it to a conventional progressive DVD player.
Our interest however is focusing upon using the HD/Blu ray platform for very large technical data distribution and storage and will be doing that next year. The video capabilities and quality is just something we are all curious about, and right now have concluded that the juice is not worth the squeeze
lee: What got me started in video was the first time I saw a Kloss Novabeam front projection tv in a bar in 1975. It had a 8 foot picture. Henry Kloss is the “k” in KLH,the lengendary audio company,makers of the famous KLH electrostatic speakers in the 60’s. He formed a company called Advent and developed the front projection design he invented. I purchased his Advent Novabeam 750 front projector which had a 6 foot picture. I later purchased his 10 foot front projector,the model 10 I believe it was called. Those early projectors could not match todays quality,but they gave you a truly cinematic experience in your home. For the first time your eyes were not focased straight ahead at a small screen,but rather your eyes were tracking the image from left to right on a 10 foot screen,just as you would do at the movies. It is generally accepted that Henry Kloss started the big screen revolution in this country. Later, one piece front projectors were developed by Mitsu and others. One pulled out a sliding drawer in front of the screen. The 3 tubes would project the light onto a mirror and then to the screen from the front. This design was hailed as eliminating the box that had to be precisely set up in front of the screen. Then came the rear projectors which eliminated the unsightly sliding box. Prior to 1975,I was heavily envolved in audio(and still am)purchasing my first stero receiver in 1965. Prior to that time,I built crystal radios in the 50’s,strung up wires along telephone lines between houses in my boyhood neighborhood so that us “guys” could talk to each other on intercons that we made and all kinds of other mayhem.
Yes,I have seen dead pixels on small portable lcd devices and in fact my current Sony monitor had 4 dead pixels right out the box,but no new ones in 4 years. Yes the backlight warms up to a bright picture. I will say I have had my Sharp 65 inch Aquos LCD panel for 13 months. It has over 6 million,200 hundred thousand pixels. I have not spotted one dead pixel and I looked hard . The 4 wave wide color gamut backlight is rated for 60000 hours,but whose is to say it will last that long,only time will tell.
I have to say,I purchased a Pioneer Elite 50 inch plasma in 2002 which at that time was considered one of the top 3 plasmas. I had it professionally calibrated by a ISF (Image Science Foundation)technician. The sets brightness and contrast was turned down. The panel was wall mounted. I enjoyed a beautiful HD image,but poor analogue images. The set had a bad scaler. After 2 years and several months the panel began to deteriorate. The pixels began to bleed into each other and I had a orange yellow blob of color on all scenes which got worse.
Needless to say,this left a bitter pill in my mouth for plasma. Will all plasmas perform this way? No. I was just unluckly. If you have to move a large panel to another location,a LCD is more forgiving,but both still are fragile. I still have my RCA (made by Thomson)16×9 HD 38 inch CRT. It has over 2 million pixels. It can’t hold a candle to my Sharp in terms of brightness,reflections and image quality. Over the many years,I have owned front projectors, rear projectors,Trintrons and others.New promising technowledgy is on the horizon,OLED,SED and Laser.Right now,SED may not make it for various reasons,but I hope they overcome thier problems.
lee: go out if you can and take a look at blue-ray,but do it on a calibrated panel or projector in a good store. Blue-ray is uncompressed progressive scan video. It looks amazing. I think you will see the benefits of progressive scan and you can enjoy it right now. As far as HDMI 1.3,I view it as just another evolutionary small step improvement to help our viewing and listening experience.
HP moving away from DLP has less to do with its maturity and more to do with its ability to compete with Samsung.
If we turn back the clock 2 years, going for a very large set was pretty much limited to Rear Projection that has been around for years. Large Plasma and LCD was limited to manufacturing technology. People embraced the flat screen look and the promise of HD.
I am unclear as to what the real issues may be with large LCD’s, no one does. Will dead pixels occurr, perhaps. Also I have no reason to believe that large LCD’s will not suffer from reductions in clarity as your computer screen does over time.
I would be curious to hear your opinion on if any of the emerging technologies such as HDMI 1.3 or native 1080p will really make a difference to those of us that just watch TV from Cable or Satellite. I don’t see how a signficant picture improvement is possible, but consider your opinion as trust worthy.
An lcd with perfect 180 degree viewing angle, I think not, like all LCD’s the colors and contrat will wash out at extreme angles. Only CRT tubes and to a lesser extent plasmas are great at extreme angles.
It sounds like 2009 will be the year to buy a fantastic 60″+ display.
I hope the 4X HD resolution (3840 x 2160) displays will be reasonably priced soon, with the software to match. When are the 4X discs and players going to be released? C’mon Oppo!
I can dream can’t I?
I’m looking forward to your CES report Guru!
Thanks
Gary: I am very much interested in the Samsung 70 inch LCD flat panel announced for sale in Feb. or March. If it’s displayed at CES,can you comment on it in this forum? Samsung claims 180 degree vertical and horizontal viewing angle and 120hz refresh rate. Thank you. Also very much interested on your take of the LCD backlighting.
when will the laser DLP sets come out in 2007? also is Mitsubishi 52″ Projection HDTV (WD-52631) THAT HAS A 6 COLOR ENGINE. Is this top of the line when it comes to DLP and also how reliable as far as breaking down is this one and even all the DLPS?
My soon to be released Microdisplay ratings puts a Mitsubishi on the top of the DLP list. I know of no reliabilty issues with it. Unlike LCoS, DLP is a proven technology. LASER TVs (as listed in my pre-CES article) will be shown at CES with availablity sometime in the 3rd-4th QTR of 2007.
The HD GuruÂÂ
I say buy the best possible quality you can afford today. That means 1080p full HD. Set yorself up for the near future. You can take advantage of blue-ray right now. The players will proliferate and get cheaper. It’s inevitable. My personal opinion,plasma is on the way out. I have a lot of reasons for saying this,but I won’t elaborate here.DLP is mechanical. HP (Hewitt Packard) has dropped DLP from thier 2007 lineup. Get a set with a good scaler,very important. Wait until you can get a set which will accept HDMI 1.3. Look for sets that refresh at 120HZ for fast motion scenes on your screen. Go to a well established audiophile/videophile oriented store to do your evaluations. Avoid places like Best Buy. Thier places are noisy,jam packed with people,with sales staff generally under educated and working on low wages. I will probably be taken to task for this comment,but it’s my opinion. Good luck and enjoy.
I have seen the “blur” on the best 1080p lcd sets while looking at sets in the stores-sports football etc. I bought a 42″ samsung plasma-nov 06- for $1300 and I sit in amazement each & every nite at the picture quality. I love my TV!
thanks lee…appreciate your comments
I am just your average guy who has done more consumer research than a sane person should. I believed little in what sales people said, and read everything I could find. I then did further study so with that here is my 2 cents.
All the new TV’s have a very good picture, but the best picture comes from the old CRT. They however are large, essentially non existent over 36″. Burn in they say is no longer a problem with Plasma, but who knows since they do not have years under their belt. I have not experienced blur on LCD, nor rainbow on DLP or screen affect on LCD RP.
Lots of what you read as issue is written by geeks doing tests in a lab to intentionally identify some flaw. In reality all produce a good picture.
A friend of mine has the Panasonic Plasma and it has a great picture. I would not be afraid to buy the Sharp either and don’t think the refresh rate is a big issue.
The relection issue is not limited to Plasma and the light in your viewing room is something to contend with regardless.
HDTV’s that display 720p and 1080i (they essentially all do) will serve you well. 1080p right now is more hype than a true performance leap and there are lots of good columns about that.
To some extent what we are being exposed to now is marketing junk that we got with computers over MHZ speed and whose display is crisper, brighter, etc.
Bottom line, take a lot of time looking at sets in different stores and remember their lightening is different, their settings suspect, the content optimized to look great. If your an average guy your getting your signal by cable or sattelite and if not, you should before shelling out big bucks for a next generation set.
Wow, probably more than you wanted to read.
I know these are elementary questions but some other readers may be in the same situation as I am so I’d like help on trying to decide between plasma and lcd. I’m trying to decide between a 42″ Panasonic 60U plasma model, a Sharp 45D40U Aquos lcd, or the Hitachi42HDX99 plasma.
I think all are 720 which as I understand you, is just as good and cheaper than 1080i or p if you are sitting close enough to the tv. Also, I don’t do any gaming but I do watch sports and I’d hate to pay $1500 to 2 grand and see blurred action.
1) Which has a better picture? Seemingly simple question but I’ve been going round and round on this for months, with good arguments for both sides.
2) Is burn-in no longer a problem with plasma and have they dealt with the reflection issue?
3) Are there any lcds out there now that don’t have the ghost images when you watch fast action?
thanks again for your site and your help. Don