[opendtv] The other CE show
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 08:34:01 -0500
CES is now over. In general it does not sound like there were any
blockbuster announcements from the desert that is CES.
According to the CEA: The 2005 International CES set several
major show records including number of attendees (142,585 - subject
to independent audit), exhibitors (2,550) and exhibit space (1.531
million net square feet). International attendance also grew to more
than 23,028, up from 18,000 at the 2004 CES.
Also according to the CEA: Media servers, portable
entertainment, hybrid white goods, innovative gaming and telematics
are hot technologies to watch, according to the annual Five
Technologies to Watch report issued today by the Consumer Electronics
Association (CEA).
Of particular interest to this audience, the report goes on to
say: "Media servers, the first technology highlighted in the 2005
Five Technologies to Watch report, contain a hard disk drive for
storing digital media and allow distribution of those files to other
devices located throughout the home. The publication stipulates that
with more than 52 percent of U.S households expected to have home
networks by 2008, the infrastructure for media servers is firmly in
place. However product interconnectivity, bandwidth capacity and
copyright issues remain the largest barriers to mass adoption. As
these issues are resolved in the near future, the market for media
servers is expected to grow rapidly, allowing consumers to store
digital media, including photos, movies and music, on one device and
listen to or view it on another."
And the CEA is bullish on portable media players: "While
portable entertainment is not a new fad, advances in digital
technology are changing not only the types of portable entertainment
devices but also the way consumers use them. With the explosion of
digital music and the popularity of digital music download services,
shipments of portable MP3 players have topped 2.5 million units in
the first half of 2004, according to CEA market research. Five
Technologies to Watch also indicates that portable entertainment
devices are on a convergence path with cell phones, personal digital
assistants (PDAs), digital memo recorders and even cars hitting the
market with MP3 capabilities. In the digital video realm, portable
DVD players and installed mobile video are the hot ticket items as
consumers increasingly want the ability to take their digital video
content with them wherever they go."
It is not surprising that the CEA DID NOT mention that "the
explosion of the digital music market and the popularity of digital
music download services" had virtually NOTHING to do with their
member companies. The company that created and now dominates this
market was nowhere to be seen in Las Vegas, although the impact of
the iPOD could be seen everywhere in the convention center, as
traditional CE and PC vendors keep trying to understand what is
incomprehensible (to them) - that people will pay a premium for a
product and service that is properly integrated, leveraging the
resources of the owners Mac or PC.
HDTV is acknowledged as being real - but the CE industry
continues down the path to incompatible HD-DVD standards raising the
specter of another VHS/Best war. Both U.S. DBS services announced
major upgrades to their systems to support HDTV.
Samsung won the bragging rights war for the biggest flat panel
displays (plasma and LCD). The 102" plasma is more than 8 feet high,
the average ceiling height for U.S. homes.
And the Wintel PC world is consumed with the belief that they
can invade the family room with Media PCs and media extenders. Bill
Gates made this "official" during his CES keynote, demonstrating the
Microsoft seal of approval (AKA the Blue Screen of Death).
Providing their own direction to support this "trend," HP CEO
Carly Fiorina announced an HD Media Center built atop Linux. HP was
the standard bearer for the iPOD at CES - QuickTime and iTunes ship
on every HP PC, to support the HP branded iPOD.
Now, the OTHER Consumer Electronics/Computing show is set to
open in San Francisco. Jefferson Graham of USA Today reported from
Las Vegas: "Apple Computer moves to center stage this week as the
tech world shifts its attention from the desert to San Francisco for
answers to two big questions: Will Apple introduce its first bargain
computer - and a cheap iPod?"
"At the just-ended Consumer Electronics Show here, Microsoft,
Hewlett-Packard, Dell Computer and others touted their vision for
driving digital entertainment into the living room. Apple was a
no-show. It holds court at its own event - Macworld - which begins in
San Francisco Tuesday."
The report concluded: Gene Munster, an analyst with securities
firm Piper Jaffray, predicts iPod sales for the holiday quarter could
hit nearly 5 million. Munster says lower-priced iPods and an economy
Mac could double Apple's sales. The company sells around 8 million
computers a year; a $500 Mac could add 5 million or 6 million to
that, he says.
At CES last week, Munster surveyed the array of heavily promoted
new iPod rivals from Creative Technology, Rio Audio, RCA, Panasonic
and others.
"There was no iPod killer," he says. "Nothing that could take on
Apple in terms of price or ease of use."
And now the press releases continue as companies scramble to figure
out where the CE BEAST is really headed.
The following release caught my attention.
Regards
Craig
LaCie silverscreen drive connects to TV
By Jim Dalrymple jdalrymple@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Silverscreen
LaCie will release this week a portable USB hard drive with the
ability to plug directly into multi-standard television sets for
instant playback of stored movies, music or photos. The drive comes
in 40GB or 80GB capacities.
According to LaCie, silverscreen is pre-configured to recognize and
instantly play back a wide range of movie file formats, including the
MPEG-2 ISO format and the compressed DivX format. Silverscreen also
supports surround sound thanks to the optical digital output that
supports compressed Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS pass through.
Other features of the silverscreen drive include:
* Supported Video Formats: MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (ISO, AVI, VOB), MPEG-4
(AVI, DivX, XviD)
* Supported Audio Formats: WAV, MP3, AAC, WMA, AC3
* Supported Photo Formats: JPEG (up to 8 megapixels)
* Video Outputs: NTSC/PAL composite and S-video, analog YPbPr
video scalable up to 1920x1080i or 1280x720p, VGA scalable up to
11024x768, RGB via SCART (Europe only)
* Audio Outputs: Dual stereo analog audio, coaxial and optical
SPDIF digital audio
The 40GB LaCie silverscreen is immediately available for US$249; the
80GB model will be available in February for $329.
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