Runco has made great strides in projector development recently. The Union City, CA–based company unveiled three new DLP projectors in Las Vegas, all of them sporting single 16:9 HD2 chips, DVI inputs, and 1280 x 720 resolution. The least expensive of the three, the Reflection CL-720, supports the primary varieties of NTSC, PAL, and SECAM, and can be ordered from the factory with a short throw or long throw lens, for images as small as 40" diagonally or up to as large as 300". Brightness is specified at 750 ANSI Lumens when the projector is calibrated for home theater; contrast ratio is a very respectable 1500:1. The CL-720 is said to be "HDTV ready," although the product sheet handed out at the LV Convention Center doesn't list any ATSC format among those supported.

On Thursday, the first official day of CES, attendees were treated to another day of warm, dry weather—and a mind-boggling array of new home theater products.

In the ongoing battle between small-dish satellite and cable, the ability to broadcast local channels was a decided advantage for the wired approach. But the direct broadcast satellite (DBS) companies successfully petitioned the FCC for the right to carry local stations on their system; early in December a federal appeals court ruled that they must carry "all or none" of those stations to comply.

Echostar Communications has been planning to merge its popular Ku-band TV satellite service with Ka-band spectra that could add two-way broadbrand and interactive satellite Internet services, just like its competitors DirecTV and DirecPChave done. Operating on the 17.7 GHz, 21.2 GHz, 27.5 GHz and 31 GHz spectra, the KA-band slots would enable EchoStar's satellite to cover large areas with broadband service.