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 42”, 50”, 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 (<10”) 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