CES: Giant consumer electronics blowout in Vegas

PC World - Comdex is dead, long live CES: Las Vegas will be packed this week with products ranging from humungous TVs to home entertainment servers, smart cars, portable music and video players, and wireless devices. The 2005 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will draw more than 120,000 attendees and more than 2,400 exhibitors. Only the massive CeBIT show in Germany exceeds the sheer volume of attendees, exhibitors, and announcements expected at the 2005 CES show, which opens Thursday and runs through Sunday.

All the names you'd expect will be at CES -- computer giants Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. -- exhibiting side by side with such major names in consumer electronics as Sony Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.'s Panasonic unit, and Pioneer Corp. Those companies and hundreds more will vie for the attention of attendees in hopes of securing some of the consumer electronics industry's $101 billion in expected revenue.

To help attendees navigate the massive exhibition space, more than a dozen specialty TechZones will show off new products in areas such as digital video recording, in-car digital systems, portable power, storage compression and home networking.

Despite the massive number of exhibitors, attendance is actually down a bit from last year, when some 130,000 people went to the trade show, according to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), which produces CES. That's because the CEA spent more time qualifying attendees this year to make sure everyone in attendance has a legitimate attachment to the consumer electronics industry, said Kristen Peiffer, a CEA spokeswoman. The show isn't open to the public, and the CEA doesn't allow the blogging community or other independent observers to attend.

Really big TVs

With the transition to digital television looming ever closer, the flat-panel HDTV boom continues apace, with everyone from CE giants Panasonic, Samsung Electronics Co., and Thomson's RCA unit to newcomers Syntax and Westinghouse Digital Electronics LLC unveiling new high-definition LCD and/or plasma TVs. Generally speaking, the sets are getting larger, and prices are coming down. Look for at least a couple of announcements of sets supporting the 1080p ATSC format -- up to now, sets have maxed out at 768 rows of pixels.

LG Electronics Inc. will be showing off its line of TFT-LCDs for use as TVs, monitors and notebook displays, including a huge, 55-in. high-definition screen. The company will also be demonstrating a prototype Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode 20.1-in. screen that uses low-temperature polysilicon technology. Intended for future TVs, this technology improves on the response time, color saturation, and power consumption