About a year ago, Philips introduced an LCD TV with an aspect ratio of 21:9 (2.33:1), but it was never made available in the US. Now, Vizio is working on the same idea as demonstrated by this concept piece. It measures 58 inches diagonally with a pixel resolution of 2560x1080, perfect for displaying movies without the hated letterbox bars. The prototype uses CCFL backlighting, but the final version could use LEDs. I was told it could become an actual product by the third quarter of this year and that it would be "Vizio priced."

One of the highlights of CES for me is the DEG (Digital Entertainment Group) awards event, at which content providers, hardware manufacturers, and retailers are recognized for their excellence and innovation. There are three awards for hardware—Sight (video displays), Source (Blu-ray players and the like), and Sound (electronics and speakers). As a side note, I've suggested more than once to the DEG that the Sound category should be split into two—Sound (electronics) and Speakers. Otherwise, one or the other type of product goes unrecognized each year, yet both are essential for a complete home-entertainment experience.

Sharp's big announcement, apart from listing of their new models, was Quad Pixel Technology. Instead of the usual red, green, and blue sub-pixels that make up each pixel in the LCD image, Sharp adds a fourth, yellow-filtered sub-pixel. This is said to increase the number of colors up to 1 trillion. But who's counting?

Toshiba's big announcement concerned the incorporation of the advanced Cell processor into selected models of its new, 2010 Cell series of HDTVs. The Cell was developed by Toshiba but is best known up to now as the brains in Sony's PlayStation3.

In addition to its plasmas, LG's new LED LCDs embody the Infinia design concept and offer WHDI wireless HDMI connectivity and Skype capability. Show here from left to right are the LE8500 (backlit with local dimming) and LE7500 (edge lit with some addressable "zones"), which are both only 1 inch thick. Not shown is the flagship LE9500, which is 3D-capable with a refresh rate of 480Hz (actually, 240Hz with backlight scanning). Again, pricing was not announced, and these sets should hit the market in the spring and summer.

Toshiba's big announcement was the introduction into the US market of its Cell TV, first seen in a "soft launch" last year. This flagship sits at the pinnacle of a new lineup that includes 10 series of LCD TVs, seven of which are LED illuminated. Thanks to the incredibly powerful Cell processor in its outboard box, the Cell TV has it all, including LED local dimming with 512 zones (five times as many as most current local dimmers), 3D capabilities (including real-time conversion of 2D to 3D) using active-shutter glasses, 480Hz refresh rate (actually 240Hz with backlight scanning), WirelessHD 60GHz (wireless HDMI) and 802.11n WiFi connectivity, VoIP video-phone capability, and Super Resolution+ and Net Resolution+ video processing, which upscale SD images and clean up low-res Web video, respectively.