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Sunday January 10, 2010

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Show Audio

Edited Audio

Posted one week after broadcast…

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Hour 1

Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine

Scott Wilkinson is with us for the full three hours today to talk about what’s he’s seen at CES pertaining to Home Theater.

Dr. Kiki, Host of Dr. Kiki’s Science Hour

Dr. Kiki Sanford, host of Dr. Kiki’s Science Hour is also joining the show today. Kiki has been walking around CES with Leo covering the show for TWiT Live!

Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford

Alan Mulally is the CEO of Ford and he’s talking about Ford and the Ford Sync/My Ford Touch digital system. Alan was an engineer by trade and designed the electronic cockpit for the 767. Now he’s a car man. Alan studies the competition by driving a different competitor car every day. And it’s paid off as the Ford SHO was recently named the international car of the year.

Ford is upgrading the Ford Sync with an improved interface, audio Twitter capability, hands free, voice activated with eyes on the road and still having access to all the information you need. The new name is My Ford and My Ford Touch and it’s an open source setup with an SDK they will be offering to allow people to write “apps” for My Ford.

3D TV:

Scott says that there was TONS of new stuff pertaining Home Theater here at CES. Leo says it’s unimaginable the immense size of CES. 150,000 in attendance, several new halls the size of two footballs fields and two stories high. Scott has had a pedometer on just to see how much he would walk and he’s put over 10 miles just walking the halls looking for technology.

Panasonic has a 4K screen with 4 1080p sectors on the TV set. Scott also saw a 4K concept 50″ TV from Vizio as well. But Leo wonders why isn’t everyone pushing 4K, rather then 3D?

The big story in Home Theater at CES? 3D TV. Also, Leo was surprised that the Keynote address was done by Ford Motor Company CES Alan Mullaly talking about how your car is becoming more than just a car, but a connected device.

The Motorola Droid, Kiki likes it because it has a slide out physical keyboard, which she prefers over the virtual options of the Nexus One or the iPhone. Leo says that the Nexus One isn’t cheap at $500 or subsidized at $200 through T-Mobile.

The Best in Show was the Panasonic VT35 3D Plasma HDTV. Thoughts?
Why is 3D TV a bid deal this year? Scott says that there’s two different standards for 3D. There’s active shutter synchronized technology like RealD where the glasses are powered and synchronized with the program, and then there’s the passive 3D technology like the old fashioned red/blue 3D glasses. Scott doesn’t really have a stand out favorite in 3D even though the VT35 was best in show. But he liked the Mitsubishi demo.

Kiki also mentioned that 3D viewing takes work and is difficult for people with vision problems like a stigmatism. And Scott wonders why 3D is being pushed. Is Hollywood wanting it because it’ll be yet another sad attempt to curb piracy? That’s Kiki’s thought.

Also, 3D Quality doesn’t look as good. Scott agrees. The only really good option could be for gaming and sports broadcasts. And for those two, 3D makes sense, but Leo is of the mind that making a more vivid experience, like with 4K, would provide a better user experience.

What about front projection 3D? Scott says he wasn’t that impressed with the offerings in front projection 3D this year. Ghosting has become a common problem with polarized glasses that are really cheap. Also scaling and artifacts.

But rear projection 3D is far better, especially with active shutter glasses, which are more integrated. Often far forward images on screen can be disconnected and take you out of the experience.

Leo says the more he hears about 3D, the less impressed he is. Scott agrees and thinks that while 3D is an interesting distraction, he’s certainly not ready to “live with it.” Leo agrees.

LG though, showed off the thinnest TV at 6.9mm. and Vizio has a concept at 6.8mm thick. Another there’s also an 15″ OLED screen that’s 3mm thick! That’s VERY thin.

What’s the big whoop about OLED? Well, Scott says you can make them really thin. They can be controlled individually and they make their own light. So you can get really clear and bright colors. But Leo says that most people who just invested in HDTVs aren’t really likely to get a 3D TV or OLED TV. Scott agrees and adds that OLED will probably never make it to the large screen market as they are too difficult and expensive to make. But they work great in smart phones like the Nexus One.

Kirk Harnack, Host of This Week in Radio Tech

Kirk Harnack, Host of This Week in Radio Tech stops by. As a vet of NAB, Kirk is visiting CES for the first time. He found something interesting called the Abby Commercial Free Radio System that senses and edits out commercials. Kirk thinks that would give rise to more live reads or in music commercials. Product Placement. Leo says that more bad news for radio is that Ford is putting Pandora Radio on their My Ford system.

HD Radio is huge as well. Leo says there’s a whole HD Radio pavillion at CES.

New stuff Kirk found at CES:

Westone Truth in Earphones are headphones that Kirk found at CES. They have triple drivers and have foam earbuds. They can be customized as well. Downside, cost is between $250–1000. Dr. Kiki says earbuds just aren’t good for you as they can damage your ears. Kirk agrees and says to get the best sound, you want to listen low tones.

A great product to prevent texting while driving - TXT BLOCKER. It’s software for the smart phone which uses GPS to determine if the phone is moving. If so, it blocks the ability to text while traveling. Ford is planning to use their Ford Sync technology to introduce texting and tweeting via audio dictation. This is all possible thanks to processor’s getting powerful enough to handle.

LED lights replacing light bulbs. These are screw in bulb replacements for ceiling lights. Sharp introduced LED lights where you can change the color tone. And Leo says you can also put them on a dimmer and get constant lighting all along the power curve.

Follow Kirk on Twitter @kharnak

Best of CES People’s Voice Award - Intel’s Wireless Display (WiDi)

Called WiDi, using a WiDi enabled laptop that wirelessly connects to an adapter box with HDMI out. And you have wireless HDMI.

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Hour 2

Now we’re taking calls!

Q Greg - New Pioneer Plasma TVs and what’s coming

Greg has a 50″ Pioneer Kuro. Is planning to get a 60″ but wonders if he really needs it. IS there something on the horizon? Well, there’s 3D which is coming. If important to you. Internet access. But you can also get your Internet content via a blu-ray player as well.

Leo says that the new D-Link Boxee Box can connect to your media center to allow for internet access, play shows on the Internet. Scott says that the thing though is that there are competing standards for internet TV depending on who hardware partners with.

Q Jay, Pleasantville, CA - analog to digital conversion

Jay doesn’t watch regular TV but recently got an Sharp Aquos HDTV, is concerned about digital TV access. You need an ATSC tuner on your HDTV for broadcast and a QUAM receiver for cable. These days HDTVs have both. Scott also says that a pair of rabbit ears aren’t the best thing to use. In room options don’t work all that great. But you can get a roof mount digital antenna that will pick up HD Broadcasts and look great.

Check out AntennaWeb.org for more information about what antenna’s work great in your area.

Q Brandon, Atlanta, GA - HDTV quality w/ Mac mini

Brandon uses his Mac mini has a home theater box. He’s concerned about sound quality. Leo says that optical audio out is the best quality and there’s a Gefen DVI+ optical audio to HDMI converter which any HDTV can see. There’s also digital audio and analog audio. There may be scaling issues, so you want to try going from DVI to DVI and tell the Mac Mini the HDTV is a PC monitor.

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Hour 3

Dr. Kiki gets a massage courtesy of the Inada Massage Chair! It’s a stowable cube that folds out into a massage chair. Base on Eastern principles of reflexology, it massages feet and calves, lower back and “seat,” which affects the entire body. Cost is $799.

What was Best in Show for Computers? The Lenovo U1 Laptop/Tablet. It’s a laptop with core 2 processor and Windows 7, and the screen detaches to become a tablet PC running Linux.

The funny thing is that Slates have become the rage at CES and it’s all based on the rumor that Apple is coming out with a tablet called “iSlate.” Talk about preemptive marketing. Scott also points out to the ton of eReaders at CES here in response to Amazon’s success with the Kindle.

Leo’s favorite was the Entourage Edge, which had dual screen book like interface with eInk reader on the left and netbook slate on the right. Very slick.

What was Kiki impressed with? PICO Projectors. Tiny, iPod sized projectors that use DLP technology to show slide shows, movies, computer presentations. They are surprisingly inexpensive, too.

Q Dale, Palmdale, CA - Pioneer Elite Projector TVs

The Pioneer Elite Projector TV. Thoughts? Scott says that the Pioneer Rear Projector is a rebranded JVC projector. He also says that JVC makes some of the best projectors in the industry.

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What’s new for Samsung? Scott says that they aren’t doing any LED backlighting anymore, because resolution of backlighting and the Pixels can be dramatically different causing haloing.

What will the future be like? Holodecks? 4K TVs or more? Real 3D? Kiki says that scientists are working on brain chips which will enable people to interface more with their technology. So, maybe CES 20 years from now will be devices that play to the chips in your head.

Have a great geek week!

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