Poll: What HD-related technology stole the show at CES 2009?

by Darren Murph posted Jan 10th 2009 at 12:00PM

As we talked about on the podcast, a lot went down at CES in the high-def arena. The world's first portable Blu-ray player, even skinnier sets, the global emergence of the connected HDTV, a deliberate focus on eco-friendliness -- and we're just getting started. In case you've missed anything over the past few days, have a look back and then drop your comment / vote in below. What was your favorite HD-related product or technology at this year's show? And yes, you can have two.

Filed under: Polls, Blu-ray, Displays, DVRs, Media streamers, Players, Receivers

Tags: ces, ces 2009, Ces2009, poll, polls

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Richard Ginn @ Jan 10th 2009 2:16PM

I said connected TV'S, but even that did not fully impress me.

What could have made me happy was a blowout price on a NEW small sized HDTV which I did not see at all.

Neutral

GundamWingEW @ Jan 10th 2009 1:14PM

Samsung stole the show IMO. Between the new slew of HDTVs and the beautiful bluray players I was blown away.

2nd place goes to LG in my opinion.

Neutral

Maneki Neko @ Jan 10th 2009 1:28PM

I'm pretty hyped that even off brand LCDs like Vizio have LED backlighting, and contrast ratios like plasmas.

Neutral

GundamWingEW @ Jan 10th 2009 1:34PM

Oh yeah I forgot about Vizio. If the reviews of their tvs are excellent and considering the price I wouldn't be surprised if they get an even stronger grip in the HDTV market. I'd probably buy a tv of theirs for the bedroom or the parents.

Neutral

WebDev511 @ Jan 10th 2009 1:29PM

Not impressed by the refresh rate race.

Bummed by the dirth of DLP outside of projectors. I was really hoping that someone (Samsung or Mitsubishi) would step up and show an LED driven 3 DLP chip rear projection set.

Very happy to see more LCD sets with LED back lighting and will probably pick one up when the prices stabilize.

Neutral

Boo Radley @ Jan 10th 2009 1:45PM

The new Dish network DVR is pretty sweet. Too bad it's on Dish Network.

Neutral

Bozster @ Jan 10th 2009 2:27PM

This CES was all about internet connectivity and new devices sporting digital.

Every CE manufacturer showcased new internet connected and decoding capable TVs along with Netflix and Yahoo Widgets.

Every digital device by end of this year will have either file decoding capabilities or internet connectivity for playback and every manufacturer has been push it.

Blu-Ray showcase was nothing to write home about, just newer versions of players that finally sport Profile 2.0 (which is a good thing) if they were in $200 price range. The real good thing coming from Blu-Ray camp was Vizio showcasing sub $200 Profile 2.0 player.

But definitely this year, it was all about internet connectivity.

Neutral

Big Sam @ Jan 10th 2009 2:36PM

I'm still stuck on Palm... but the HD related stuff that most got my attention was Dish finally integrating Sling into their boxes.

Neutral

Kyle Johnson @ Jan 10th 2009 2:46PM

I voted "other" and place the Palm announcement in that category. WebOS could really change the way people think about interacting with their mobile devices, and it resurrected a company I thought was dead.

The Dish 922 HD-DVR with Sling was a very close second in my mind. It's made me consider ditching my TiVo and moving to Dish.

Neutral

Kyle Johnson @ Jan 10th 2009 2:47PM

Here's a throw away so I can save my login credentials. Why Engadget won't let me pick a password I can actually remember is beyond me.

Neutral

palehorse @ Jan 11th 2009 1:16AM

click on your own name... you'll find the password changing function there.

welcome to 2009...

Neutral

Charles R Hamilton @ Jan 10th 2009 2:58PM

The new Sling loaded Dish box looks very sweet indeed.

@Kyle You can choose your own password, but I forget how you go about it.

Neutral

zargon @ Jan 10th 2009 4:49PM

Click on your username link, one your profile page, click on the "Are you USERNAME, If so, logon here." link. From there you should be able to change your password.

I would make sure the profile url is engadget.com and not one of he other sides (like engadgethd.com) as I have always has trouble logging in from them.

Neutral

nathan @ Jan 10th 2009 5:46PM

The new DISH 922 looks sweet. We make extensive use of external storage and streaming TV 1 and TV 2 all over our house, and remote access to programming, so the 922 is what we have been waiting for. Who cares that it's DISH? It's cheaper HDTV programming with just as many real HD channels as Direct.

Neutral

Ph0sph0ruz @ Jan 11th 2009 1:00AM

DISH 922, I want one but I'm sure they will be in limited supply once it launches.

Neutral

kermit24 @ Jan 11th 2009 11:20AM

The Dish HD DVR with Sling looks nice. If they had MLB Network, I would consider switching.

Neutral

john @ Jan 11th 2009 11:30AM

i thought it was quite boring. i dont want internet gadgets everywhere. and all these interactive tv guides can go away too. all i really need is for my providers channel guide to have a button that lets me only see the channels im subscribed to. and furthermore, if ive got hd service, only show me hd channels if both sd and hd are available.

i thought the new lcds are nothing to scream about. it's just the typical performance increases that we've come to expect. the depth of current lcd and plasmas more than meet the demand of consumers. going to 1in thickness isnt a big deal. for other applications (ie. non-television) there is substantial value-- but for a tv? come on. once the base of the tv is wide than the screen itself there is no value in making the screen any thinner.

who cares about slim dvd players either? or new blu ray players (dont the current ones all push 1080p? what so new aside from the fact theyre new?) is this CES or nerd-fest? CONSUMERS dont care about half of this crap.

Neutral

Fred @ Jan 11th 2009 1:59PM

I somewhat agree. I did not think this year was that great. Last year we were hanging on every post, but this year was just, meh.I think the slimmer HDTV's was the best of the bunch, but there was not much to choose from this year.

Neutral

D @ Jan 11th 2009 5:07PM

How much better are OLEDs than LED LCDs? Is it best to just wait for OLEDs to go mainstream? When is Samsung going to market the 40" OLED and for how much? How will Sony respond? When is someone going to put on LCD on a refrigerator that can display scanned images from cookbooks and access recipes on the web? A lot of impressive stuff out there tough, including the emergent 3D technologies (setting up possible trade offs between image quality and dimensionality - although not much on the lens screen based goggle-less 3D this time around).

Neutral

Matt @ Jan 12th 2009 12:11PM

I also thought it was mostly hype, all internet connectivity stuff. Sorry but half of the internet connected devices I have now don't work all the time. Can you image if more things didnt work?

Oddly enough my fav item (which I can't seem to find again on Engadget) was a lightweight tv. Something like 5kg. I thought it was nice to see proven technology, at a reasonable price, loaded into a relatively thin and extremely lightweight enclosure. IDK why.

Neutral

giesen @ Jan 12th 2009 4:48PM

Best tech that has just entered my budget: LED backlit LCD. In 2008, LED backlit displays were only at the really high end. With CES announcements, it looks like LED backlights will finally be on mid-range sets in 2009.

Best cool tech on the horizon: 3D displays. It will probably take at least two years before I'd consider buying anything, but having holographic like 3D projections that don't require glasses sounds amazing.

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