CES 2004 Coverage

TheCheat writes "CES 2004 is just getting underway in Las Vegas. It looks like there is quite a bit of coverage from several websites including: Anandtech's revelation of Intel and AMD roadmaps; Tom's Hardware's look at Xbox2 rumors; A look at Microsoft's keynote at ExtremeTech; and finally a look at some BIG monitors at TrustedReviews. It looks like CES is much bigger than COMDEX this year."

Plasma is for sucks. DLP is the way to go.

[revscat]

Plasma displays seem to have gotten all the media attention for some reason, but DLP projectors and displays are superior in just about every measurable way: brightness, weight, resolution, etc. Plus DLP screens are far less of a maintenance nightmare: the only thing you will ever have to replace is the bulb, and that only once every 3 or 4 years. Plasma screens, on the other hand, are not expected to have a total lifetime of much longer than that.

Oh yeah, and vim is better than emacs.

not quite the largest plasma screen....

[Kamphor]

"This 76in plasma screen is the largest in the world." - from TrustedReview's website

here's a link from dell's website selling an NEC 84inch plasma monitor!

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.a spx?sku=A0149525&c=us&l=en&cs=19&category_id=5914& page=external

Re:Plasma is for sucks. DLP is the way to go.

[Trolling4Columbine]

I recently helped my parents purchase a 41" Sony DLP for less than $3000. The parent poster is 100% correct; the picture is outstanding, has a surprisingly good sound system (of course no substitute for a good home theatre system), and the whole thing only weighs 70 lbs!

Just my 2c.

four 42s != one 84

[RowdyReptile]

here's a link from dell's website selling an NEC 84inch plasma monitor!

Dell is marketing it as an 84-inch Plasma Monitor [dell.com], but it's just "four NEC PX42VP4 Plasma Displays and the required wall mount bundled together". Not the same.

infinium labs is a huge bunch of spamming assholes

[Indy1]

proof you say ?

proof #1 [google.com]

and proof #2, an email i recieved from their former hosting service who terminated the assholes for spamming.

Dear postmaster.

ASP-ONE corrected the issue of excessive spamming from one of our clients. Infinium labs were a client of ours who abused their account by spamming through our mail servers. We corrected this issue by terminating their account and permanently deleting them from our exchange servers.

We like to request that you remove us from your blacklist so that our good standing clients can deliver their mails to your mail server.

We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you, and look forward to a favorable and a speedy response from you.

With regards,

Jae Sim

ASP-ONE

System Administrator

-

You didn't help your parents that much

[swb]

You didn't help that much. Sony doesn't make DLPs, and they don't make their signature Grand Wega LCD rear projection sets in 41". Closest is 42". But it is still not a DLP.

Re:Gadgets, schmadgets....

[Kenja]

Across the street from Comdex at Adultdex [adultdex.com]. I only wish I was kidding.

Not necessarily

[swb]

Plus DLP screens are far less of a maintenance nightmare: the only thing you will ever have to replace is the bulb, and that only once every 3 or 4 years. Plasma screens, on the other hand, are not expected to have a total lifetime of much longer than that.

Bahh, you haven't been paying very much attention. Samsung has had a ton of lamping problems with their DLP sets, and rumor has it they are even replacing the bulbs in them with a new design, requiring a retrofit. (Source: AVSForum).

Furthermore, Sony's newest line of LCD rear projection sets, the Grand Wega IIIs, have had their own spate of lamping problems. There have been widespread failures of the lamping systems (which are compact arc lamps), and Sony's still not 100% sure what the issue is. My first GWIII failed after a week, and there are several others on the AVS Forum who have had theirs fixed and still they don't work right.

I bnought the GWIII because the DLPs were rather harsh with SD content, and the image was overall a little too pixelish -- it FELT like a computer driven display, while the GWIII felt a little more film like to my eyes.

As far as long term reliability once you get past the lamping systems and replacing a couple of $200 bulbs in them, nobody REALLY knows. DLP uses micromirrors, and we don't really know how long those will last. LCD panels won't last forever, either.

As for plasmas longevity, we don't really know what that's like in terms of ordinary TV usage. They feel too fragile for my tastes, but we have two at work used for displaying PowerPoint, and despite the marketing people's use of a solid color logo in the same corner of every page for hours on end, I don't notice any evidence of burn in on them, and they're over 2 years old. The AVS Forum plasma posters seemed to indicate that the anti-plasma noise is much overstated, none noticing any evidence of burn in or other problems.

Anyway, there are no perfect technologies. You just accept the tradeoffs you think are worth it, and hope that spending $3k+ on a TV doesn't make you a fool in 4 years.

Re:really BIG monitors?

[ePhil_One]

No, because the resolution is only 1920x1080, meaning its good for HDTV content, presetaions, etc, but will suck doing your spreadsheets unless you want to work on them from accross the room.

Re:Plasma is for sucks. DLP is the way to go.

[Golgofrinchian]

Call me biased because I was a Sony employee for a couple years in the Retail Sales Division... I want to set the record straight a bit,
DLP's micro mirrors have a higer probability of breakdown than plasma. DLP is _not_ made by Sony. They make Plasma and LCD projection. Plasma has a lifespan of around 10,000 hours. After that the gas loses life, kinda like an old neon tube. LCD's can pop pixels. Nothing is as long term as the good old CRT. Problem is to make a large CRT you need a long neck at the back of the screen. This prevents most CRT's to stay around 40" else they cant make it through the door of your house.

Golgofrinch *8^)

DISCover

[Anonymous Coward]

"In addition, the DISCover guys argued that the PC beats all consoles when it comes to titles and where else can you play Halo and GTA: Vice City on the same system."

Uhm. That would be Xbox.

However, I don't see Panzer Dragoon Orta, Virtua Fighter 4 or Zelda The Wind Waker running on PCs.

Coolest announcement at CES: Fast cellular data

[Magnus Pym]

Verizon [verizonwireless.com] is launching [vzw.com] 1xEV-DO nationwide. This is a cellular (fully mobile) data technology that delivers 300-500 kbps average downstream thoughput, and 30-70kbps upstream. Peak rates are 2.4Mbps downstream and 153.6 Kbps upstream. The service is already operational in San Diego and Washington D.C and is marketed as Broadband Access [verizonwireless.com].

Think Richochet on steroids. The US has caught up with and surpassed Europe on wireless with this one.

I tried to submit this story yesterday thinking this will of high interest to the slashot audience, but it was rejected. Oh well.

Magnus.

Re:Coolest announcement at CES: Fast cellular data

[Magnus Pym]

No idea, but EVDO latencies are said to be far less than latencies of 1xRTT, GPRS or EDGE networks.

Magnus.

Re:76" Monitors?

[slaker]

Christy Canyon was stunning when she was 18 or 19 years old (around 1985). She kept performing until at least '97, though, so if your only memory of her is mid-90s, you missed her best work. If you can dig up a copy of "On Golden Blonde", you'll see what I mean.

Re:Not necessarily

[Quikah]

We have a 2 year old Plasma here at work, was great until the dumbass head of IT left a windows error message on it for a few days. There is now a huge ghostly windows error message on it.