I have just returned from CES 2006 in Las Vegas, where 150,000 geeks showed up to gawk at the bodacious sights to see in Las Vegas (103" plasmas) and ignored everything else (it seemed like half the shows in Vegas were dark). I'll be breaking out the next few posts into a quick look back on 2005 trends and a quick discussion of products introduced at CES 2006.
In 2005…
LCD, Plasma, and DLP TV sucked the life (or, more accurately, the money) out of every other aspect of home theater. Prices on the big panels dropped enough that consumers who weren’t looking to upgrade did, and in most cases, all the money went to the display.
At CES 2006…
1080p was the spec to beat – everybody had at least one product with full progressive 1920x1080 resolution. New technologies included real world demos of SED and LED-based DLP systems without color wheels. The other big trend holding down pricing is the influx of no-name brands sourcing panels from the same fabs as the big brands and selling it direct for less. In cases where the display/upconversion electronics in the no name brands are good, this presents a major problem for the majors. And even when the quality is lousy, the glass is often the same (or just a generation or so behind), so the specs look good on paper, and the price looks great.
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