The 2009 Consumer Electronics Show may have been less about making business connections than the glitz of the previous CES shows, but what it lacked in glitz it made up in truly amazing new technology that will pave the way for how we watch television and movies. Thin, light and energy efficient were other themes that echoed the show floor. Connected TVs and streaming video set-top boxes were also popular exhibits.

There were a number of companies that opted not to have a public show of their new products, but had private screenings for their vendors and partners so that they can keep their costs down amidst the financial hardships that many companies are facing. Even with the hard times, the CES is important in making deals and showcasing their wares to their partners, retailers and the press.

Panasonic and LG presented their 3D TV and movie projector technologies. The 3 variants for viewing were passive polarized glasses, active LCD shutter glasses or direct view without glasses. LG's passive 3D looked quite amazing as did Panasonic's active 3D technology.

The 3D displays had 1080P display panels and electronics that were specially designed to display two images. One for the left eye and one for the right eye. This allows for stereoscopic vision and the perception of depth. The source video is coming from a Blu-Ray player since the Blu-Ray disk has the enough storage for the duplicate frames. The sets use HDMI v1.3 to allow it to reproduce accurate color (Deep Color)

The video quality was amazing as was the 3D affect. Panasonic's had a presentation that utilized a 103" 3D capable plasma display. Unlike some of the other vendors who were showing off their 3D capabilities using animations, Panasonic actually showed scenes from the 2008 Olympic games opening ceremonies and clips from several sporting events. It was almost like being there.

I felt the passive polarized glasses made for a more comfortable viewing experience than the heavier Active LCD shutter glasses. It also was less eye strain. Others may find the active more comfortable.

Samsung showcased a technology that takes HD 2D source and adds depth for a 3D experience. The TV is equipped with the built-in 3D formatter along with the 120 Hz Full HD (1080P) display panel. Samsung states that the the formatter can work on any HD 2D content such as broadcast TV, legacy Blu-Ray players and games.

The direct view 3D displays still have limited viewing angle and are not quite as breathtaking as the active and passive 3D TV technologies. Hopefully the glasses will be a stepping stone to a a true direct view 3D experience. We'll have to see what advances CES 2010 will bring.

Company URL:Panasonic , LG

Panasonic Thin LCD (top) and LG AMOLED TV (bottom)

Thin was in for LCD displays at the CES. All the major TV manufactures showed off very thin LCD displays 42" and over.

There were a couple of companies displaying new OLED displays. These displays have an edge over LCD in that they OLED display is self illuminating and therefore doesn't require a backlight. The display is also much lower power consumption than Plasma and lower power requirements than LCD due to the absence of a backlight. The contrast ratio for OLED is amazing. These displays are very thin in comparison to the current LCD displays.

The photo below shows the LG thin LCD width in comparison to a HTC Touch Diamond cell phone. The TV was actually a bit thinner than the cell phone.

Another display technology that allows for thin displays is AMOLED (Active Matrix OLED) which was showcased by Samsung and LG. This technology has the advantage of having a lower power requirement than OLED since it eliminates the need for very high current required for the passive OLED displays. AMOLED can also be fabricated on to a plastic substrate that allows for lower cost and more rugged than using the glass substrate.

Company URL: Panasonic , LG , Samsung

The next big thing in TV's are televisions that have built-in connectivity for streaming video. This would be using DNLA or internet streaming of video as from Hulu.com and Youtube.com.

The other big technology to hit TV's came out late last year in a couple of Panasonic plasma TVs. This year more TV manufacturers such as Samsung are going to add the technology to their TVs. The previous generation of cable-cards were only one-way and was limited in its access to premium content. The Tru2Way technology provides a two-way cable card access to cable providers content without the need for an external set-top box. With Tru2Way, cable providers can offer their customers access to the TV guide, pay-per-view and other content that was previously only possible with a cable-box.

Company URL: Panasonic, Samsung

At the 2008 CES, Thiel introduced their wireless IP based surround system called Zoet (previous article). The new generation of the product allows for higher fidelity.

The speakers each have their own power amplifier, digital signal processing and networking (Ethernet connection and wireless). The wireless connection will hop between 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz wherever it has the best bandwidth. The speakers do have to be near a power outlet, but that is unavoidable until wireless power becomes a reality.

The receiver contains quite a few connections including a 8 HDMI Inputs, 2 HDMI outputs, 9 ethernet jacks.

The sound quality from the system was amazing.

Company URL: Thiel Audio

The company Anybot has produced a very cool device which they call a teleprescence robot. The robot stands 5 feet tall and moves by way of 2 wheels. The robot's shapely curves give it a friendly humanistic feel that people would feel comfortable interacting with.

The purpose of the robot is to allow a person in a remote location to drive the robot around and interact with people. One example was given of a manager who is in the USA and has workers in a factory overseas. The manager can roam the halls and interact with the employees on the factory floor. He/She can also attend meetings and point at things with the robot's laser pointer.

The robot is navigated by the human, but itself has obstacle avoidance provided by its forward looking LIDAR (light detection and ranging). LIDAR is is an optical remote sensing technology which measures properties of scattered light to determine range and/or other data of a distant target. The robot appeared fairly stable when pushed and stops when it backs into a object or person.

The remote operation of the robot is via a windows interface which allows one to control direction, head and body movement as well as the forward and back camera feeds.

Company URL: Anybot

SanDisk presented their new audio initiative called SlotMusic which provides DRM free recordings from major artists. The basic premise is to provide a physical media format that can be used in SlotMusic media players, cell phones, computers or any device supporting MP3 and microSD cards. The SlotMusic microSD card comes with an adapter to allow the card to work in a standard USB slot.

A basic SlotMusic Player will cost less than $20 without a SM card. A 1 GB SlotMusic card preloaded with music recorded at 320 kbps bit-rate can be purchased separately.

Some of the record labels supporting SlotMusic are EMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group.

The SlotMusic card will also allow users to add their own MP3 titles to the card or even format the card for other computer uses.

SanDisk provided a Sansa SlotMusic player and card preloaded with music from the artist Akron for review.

The player is slightly larger and thicker than a lighter and comes with a removable cover than houses a standard AAA battery. The cover can be replaced with personalized covers such as artist covers. The unit reviewed didn't have a display, but it wasn't really necessary for this unit. Only keys are play/pause, forward and back on the side and a volume +/- near the headphone jack. The bottom of the unit has the SM card slot. The unit came with a USB card adapter to allow one to play the music in a computer or other USB enabled music player.

The player battery life is touted to be 15 hours. The player supports MP3 and WMA without DRM Free.

SanDisk also has a unit called SlotRadio that sells for $39.99 preloaded 1000 DRM-free songs. The unit also has a display and FM radio.

Sound quality is actually very good.

Company URL: SlotMusic.org