Digital Trends

Introduction

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is perhaps the largest show of its kind on the planet. Companies from around the world use this show as an opportunity to highlight their products, build relationships with distributors and show which emerging technologies their company will be backing in the years to come.

There are always trends to be found at CES, and while this year's show may not have been as exciting as previous years, several subtle themes stood out. Plasma and LCD televisions continue to push forward with larger screen sizes and declining prices enticing the consumer to buy now while the technology is hot. Thomson, Philips, Pioneer, Sony and other major flat panel manufacturers presented their new products for 2005, while smaller and lesser known manufacturers such as Syntax and Kreisen unveiled LCD television lineups at record setting low prices.

Flat Panel televisions were only one of the themes we noticed this year. As could be expected the convergence gap between your homes personal computer and your home theater is closing even more. With interfaces like FireWire and HDMI coupled with wireless technologies such as 802.11X WiFi and Bluetooth, your PC's media is only a button click away. Companies like Microsoft, ATI, and NERO among others showcased the power of their multimedia servers and software.

And lastly, the third major theme at the show was the awesome power of two new storage technologies, Blu-ray and HD DVD. Both promise larger storage capacities than ever before allowing companies to store high definition content and media. But which format should you choose? That will be a very tough decision to make. We saw several large companies promoting their support for one format or another. Pioneer, Panasonic Philips, HP, and Sony all showcased new products which take advantage of the Blu-ray format. But with the recent announcement of Hollywood's support for HD DVD, Toshiba appears to be winning the battle for your home theater. Our predication is that you will see Blu-ray technology in computer and video game applications, while HD DVD will be used more for movies.

The Designtechnica staff was attending CES in Las Vegas from January 2^nd to January 9^th and walked through the large 1.38 million square feet Hilton Las Vegas Convention Center. This year's show featured more than 2400 exhibitors and 140,000 attendees. Are our feet sore? You betcha, but our fix for technology subsided the pain in our shoes. Read on as we show you which products attracted our attention in this multi-part feature.