The Weigh in 86

This last week, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) convention took place in Las Vegas. This is one of the 3 shows us geeks really get into. It gives us a chance to look at all the new technologies and products that will be sent down the pipeline and into our homes to make our lives cooler, better and sometimes even easier. Many of the products may never see the light of day and many aren't any better than what we currently have in our own living rooms. However there are a handful of items out there that really pushed technology in the right direction and I would like to take a couple of minutes to discuss some of the featured things we can look forward to:

LG's Blu-Ray/HD-DVD player: This whole Blu-Ray HD-DVD thing is going to kind of be fun to watch. I was too young to know the backstory of the Betamax/VHS wars of the early eighties. It sounds like it's going to be a similar situation, however. Blu-ray reads to be the far superior format, but HD-DVD was realeased first and companies may be edging towards a company not as tightly watched as Sony. LG is the company to release the first of what will likely be many dual platform DVD players. It'll play both Blu-ray and HD-DVD's. This deck will be out in early February, and will start at about $1200. Remember folks, old VCR's cost that much 25 years ago, so we know the price will drop.

Sharp's 108" LCD TV: Personally, I would have to be paid to own an HDTV right now. HD truly looks great, but standard def TV looks like the bottom of a desk in elementary school when viewed on an HDTV. But if I were to own an HDTV and price was not an option, I'd certainly have this one. It is advertised as having a contrast ratio of 15,000:1 where most LCD TV's have a 1000:1 contrast ratio. What does this mean? That the blacks truly look black AND it's 108". How cool is that? Sony and Pioneer also announced new LCD technologies this year that will hopefully make me want to get onto this bandwagon sooner rather than later.

JVC HD Everio: In the past couple of years there have been a handful of low cost HDV cameras, which record onto tape at 1440x1080 as opposed to HD's real 1920x1080 resolution. Though it really is a flavor of HD, the quality and problems working with the format are not necessarily screaming at the industry professionals to go out and grab this low end HD stuff. JVC, though, seems to be making the line of consumer gear and professional HD gear a little bit blurrier. Its release is around April and should be going for about $1800. It shouldn't be too long before we start seeing the real heavy hitters releasing their pro-summer HD devices as well. Making good quality video a very viable option.

Polk Audio in wall Sub-Woofer: This is something I can really sink my teeth into. It may turn out to be very impractical, or just sound bad, but I am intrigued by the concept. Of course, you have to build this speaker into your wall, and make sure you don't have a house that rattles easily, but to know that people who are either limited on space or are looking for that extra nerd-candy and bragging rights that surround an in wall sub woofer. This is awesome.

Now, there are of course, a couple of other products that were not around at the time of CES this year, and that is because Apple had their own convention the same week called Mac World. This is of course where we all fell in love with the iPhone and AppleTV. You will be seeing and hearing a ton on these two devices over the next couple of months leading up to their release, but understand that some of us will be changing their cell phone plans to become a part of the Cingular family to own an iPhone. Yes it's that cool.