CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

Spanky Ham · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5643 Location: Comedy Central

Anything you guys see of interest at CES. I have seen a couple of things, but not a lot.

- Phenom II - It has some potential and hopefully can do what the 4 series graphics cards did last year. That is bring down prices.

- Palm Pre - An Iphone killer!! Shocked

Maybe not, but it may give people who use other carriers a nice alternative.

- Vivitek - They have a LED DLP pj coming out. It costs $20k, but the LEDs last 20k hours. A $1 a hour. Smile

- Monster - The headline said that they are pulling out of audio cables, but the article is vague about it. If so, then maybe everyone pointing out
what crap it is finally got them. Very Happy

I am getting most of this from PC Mag's coverage.

I haven't had time to go and look elsewhere, so has anyone found anything else good? To me, the Palm looks like best of show.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 1:22 am Post subject: Re: CES thread

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 5:26 am Post subject:

Heyyyyy... I'm at CES. Call me. (604) 514-1751. Maybe we can meet up...

stefuel · Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 10:02 am Post subject:

rod · Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 5:06 pm Post subject:

Wish I was there. That event is a lot of fun! Hope you guys have a lot of fun.

Spanky Ham · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5643 Location: Comedy Central

Sorry Curt, I am not there. Just watching from afar. Say Hi to Dave's new buddy Darin for me. Smile

Have you seen anything good? I haven't seen to much OLED info or for that matter anything interesting on video. Has the market maxed out? I just spent the last hour going over engadget and the Palm Pre seems to be the best of show.

JayAllan · Joined: 03 Jun 2007 Posts: 175 Location: Los Angeles

This is the first year I have missed it in 20 years Sad

I would love to hear about all the 3D technology That they are demo-ing on TVs there. Seems like that will be the "next big thing" in home theater.

LMK if you guys see any good 3d demos Thumbs Up

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 3:18 pm Post subject:

I will do a complete writeup with the 150+ pix I took, but frankly, in short, the show was a wash this year. Everyone more or less thought that, at least that I talked to. CES said attendance was down 9%. BULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL! I'd say more like 25%. You could roll bowling balls down the entire car stereo area, one 'luxury' item that took a MASSIVE hit from 2 years ago when I was there last. Hardly anyone was there. Ditto for the entire home theater hall. Used to be 2 years ago that one hall was virtually completely full of HT exhibitors. This year even the signs read 'home theater/home'. This included gaming, and a buncha massaging chairs. WTF?

Yes, there was some cool stuff, the micro LED projectors weren't one of them. Neither were the gaming glasses. Both of the pictures were terrible. Went to a couple of high end exhibits, but bailed out when once again the ones at the Venetian all had terrible sounding systems, not due to the gear, but due to the perfectly square rooms, and the 'musical masturbation' CDs that were being used to demo the speakers/cables/amps, blah blah. Since these exhibitors know that the room acoustics suck, why not bring some bass traps or other room treatment? And sorry, hep cool cats, like, the groovy oboe/bassoon/clarinet soloing isn't quite my thing. One room was actually playing Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean', but the room had horrible bass nodes in it which made the CD sound bad.

Anyways, I'm on 2 hours sleep, got in at 3 AM, then couldn't sleep, but watch for full coverage from my slightly skewed point in the next few days after I get caught up from my emails.

Oh, the highlight of the show was Sparky's name being drawn at the HDnet stage to come up and vie for prizes. I have video of her barking like a dog, but I've been sworn to secrecy... Shocked

stefuel · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:03 am Post subject:

rod · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:10 am Post subject:

Curt (or other lucky attendees), did you see anything about blending digital PJs with stereoscopic (3D) viewing?

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:23 am Post subject:

No. I saw the Hotmail homepage with a list of '10 best' things, and missed them all apparently. Not that any of them were too interesting really.

I will bring the damn show down to earth though when I do my writeup in the next few days. I call it like it is without the sugar coating of some sales guy... Smile

overclkr · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 4227

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 2:48 am Post subject:

Get drunk, fool around?

Yes.

Very Happy

Robert A. Hill · Joined: 19 May 2006 Posts: 182 Location: Simpsonville, SC

So Curt, since the CES sucked, you did get to the Adult Entertainment Expo?? Post pics Smile

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 4:40 am Post subject:

I have a couple, but the two girls that we saw outside of the venue with short shorts on had cellulite galore. I didn't take pix of that. Horrible butts on them.

overclkr · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 4227

zaphod · Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 2002 Location: Cloverdale

or getting someone else STONED - you know what we're talking about Wink

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 5:31 pm Post subject:

No, I don't do that... much. Besides, living in BC, when you have a high end buffet available 24/7, why would I try a sammich when out of the country? Smile

THe only stoning I wanted to do was all of the high end audio morons that were selling their typical high end drivel for megabucks.

Spanky Ham · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5643 Location: Comedy Central

It sounds like the show was pretty tame. Everything I have read basically gives the Palm Pre the gold. Pete Putnam gave his top things at the show and it looks lame. Two things that pop out are the Vivtek pj and the 480 panels. On the Vivitek, I don't understand why everyone is complaining about the price especially over at AVS. I think Alan and Jason said something about it. Ummmm, okay! Remind me how much the Projection Design, Marantz and Sim pjs go for? I haven't checked lately so maybe they are a lot lower, but they were going for $15k to $20k for a single chip DLP. On the 480hz LCD, wouldn't the refresh rate cause a problem with the slow response time? Oh I just saw something else, a Joe Kane screen. I wonder how much that will go for. Shocked

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

Vivtek doesn't inspire cowsumers to spend a lot of money on projectors. Then again, I can say the same thing about Projection Design, Marantz and Sim.