CEATEC Day 1: SED, Blu-ray Recorders, PS3 Remote

October 3, 2006

CEATEC 2006As expected Sony announced “new Blu-ray disc product” at CEATEC two of them to be exact, the new Blu-ray devices were actually HDD/BD video recorders. The Sony BDZ-V9 features an internal 500GB hard drive while the BDZ-V7 sports a 250GB drive, I won’t even bother getting into any of the other specifics of the BDZ’s, because we’ll likely never see them hit U.S. shores.

Japan benefits from clear, concise and downright user friendly (ok at least user understandable) copyright protocols for their OTA and HD satellite broadcasts. The BDZ recorders would have to deal with our broken, disjointed, hodgepodge of a copyright system and at the equivalent of $2.5k and $2.1k respectively, I can’t see anyone willing to shell out that kind of cash to record non-flagged OTA HD, you never know though…

Anyway, getting back to something that may actually present a real world benefit to those of us in the States, Canon and Toshiba plan to start SED (surface-conduction electron-emitter display) production toward the end of 2007, with full-scale production ramping up in 2008. The first SE displays marketed will be 55”, 1080p models with an astonishing 50,000:1 contrast ratio.

Don’t expect SED to be price competitive with current generation LCD or plasma displays however, while superior to both LCD and plasma display technologies, it will be sometime before we see SED displays drop into the sub-2k range.

One last bit of news from CEATEC, if you’ve ever wondered (like many others) how you’ll control movies with the PS3, Sony unveiled their optional “BD remote controller”. Suggested retail for the BD remote is 3,600 Yen or about $30 USD.

The Bluetooth remote communicates with a USB base station plugged into the back of directly to the PS3. No word as to whether this base station the PS3 also receives IR commands, if not this would make integrating the PS3 BD remote commands into IR based universal remote problematic to say the least.



Posted by B.Greenway | | Filed Under Trade Shows


Comments

  • westcott
    I think it is sad that Reuters failed to mention that SED is said to have superior video quality over both LCD and Plasma as you stated in your article.
  • B.Greenway
    Brian, you’re absolutely right. I mistook that card reader (in the photo) for a base or extension. Regardless, I’m still left wondering how we’re to integrate this with an IR remote.
  • Brian Hoyt
    The PS3 supports Bluetooth natively so I don't think the remote will require anything additional to work with. The controllers on PS3 are all bluetooth as well. Does bring up an interesting integration issue though.
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