CES, Blu-Ray and the format war
I got back from CES and had the weekend to think about what I saw. I also spent the weekend watching the NFL playoffs in HD on my new 52 inch Sharp LCD. Something occurded to me that I think is being overlooked about this technology. It's the BIG FLAT SCREEN TVs stupid! I've been going to CES shows since the late 80s. Back then I was a kid working in color TV product planning for Philips / Magnavox. My first big assignment was supporting their worldwide projection TV strategic plan. So I've always had a warm spot for those big bad TVs. In the past, when you walked around CES you heard as much as you saw. The noise was always there. Car stereos thumping, karaokee, audio demonstrations. The TVs always looked great - as long as you were not to close or to far, and had the right angle. This year it occurred to me - HD TV screens were everywhere. Plasma, LCD or DLP. But no matter where you stood, they looked great. If you were looking at a screen across the hall, down the isle or 3 feet in front of you. The picture was always spectacular. But unlike all that audio, it wasn't just visual noise. I found myself being sucked into the demos and the content - even when it was going on in the booth next door. Even more important was just how close you can be to the screen and have it look so damn good. What does Blu-Ray have that HD DVD does not? Sure PS3 is the trojan horse to get Blu-Ray into the living rooms of the world. But what Blu-Ray has - that HD DVD, Toshiba and Bill Gates can't compete with - is the glass. Beautiful spectacular HD glass.
- Pioneer - #1 leader in HD Plasma technology
- Sharp - #1 leader in HD LCD technology
- Sony - #1 brand name for TV
- Samsung - #1 selling brand of HD DLP sets.
- Panasonic, Philips, Hitachi, LG, Mitsubishi - Leading brands in large screen TV
Leave a comment