USATODAY.com - Techno-enhanced televisions take big step into spotlight

USATODAY.com - Techno-enhanced televisions take big step into spotlight: "New ways to take digital entertainment from the PC to the living room and beyond will dazzle visitors starting Wednesday night at the tech industry's giant annual party, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.


But the most buzz at this year's conference will come from a product found in nearly every American home: the TV. The show's more than 130,000 attendees will be treated to dozens of new, sleek televisions sets with huge screens and eye-popping graphics.

Camera manufacturer Canon on Thursday will demonstrate another new TV format called SED, which stands for surface-conduction electron-emitter display. A joint venture with Japan's Toshiba, SED is said to have the brightness and contrast of traditional tube TVs while using one-third less power than plasmas. Canon and Toshiba are showing SED for the first time at CES and hope to have sets on sale this year.

During CES, Thomson's Acoustic Research division will introduce the Digital MediaBridge, a $299 device to wirelessly stream high-definition digital pictures, music and video from a PC to an HDTV set.

Regardless of which products they choose, consumers are expected to increasingly convert their living rooms into digital playgrounds. That's great for the electronics industry, which held steady through the tech downturn of recent years, thanks to strong consumer sales.

The more innovative new products that are released, the more Americans are expected to gobble them up, saying "I want to be part of the future," technology analyst Richard Doherty with the Envisioneering Group says."

By Bob Riha Jr., USA TODAY