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CES 2014: There's a 'Pre-Show' Before the Consumer Electronics Show (Video)

The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is the largest electronics show in the U.S. these days. It's so big that small companies easily get lost among the industry giants and their huge, noisy show floor displays. But there is a press-only 'pre-show' called CES Unveiled that gives visibility to companies that don't have 20' tall displays full of celebrity shills and other razzmatazz. So, in hopes of finding some products more interesting than the inevitable CES "Oh, look! Our latest TVs are 2" wider than last year's models!" blather over incremental improvements to existing products, Tim Lord went to CES Unveiled -- and found a few products that were not repeats from previous years. Good products? Useful? Maybe, maybe not. You decide.

30 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. Re:CES? by Russ1642 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Would you pay for that? Then no.

  2. Razzmatazz by ichthus · · Score: 3, Funny

    Razzmatazz -- now that's a word not used often enough anymore. I shall add it to my common vocabulary forthwith.

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    sig: sauer
    1. Re:Razzmatazz by Overzeetop · · Score: 1

      And a funny word choice as a substitute for boobs.

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      Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    2. Re:Razzmatazz by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      I thought it was Razz-a-ma-tazz. The extra syllable makes it extra fun. Try saying it out loud a few times.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  3. Dr. Evil by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 1, Funny

    Sharknado with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads? No, but the swag bag is full.

  4. Re:If CES is so pointless why do people go? by i+kan+reed · · Score: 3, Funny

    Because marketers know how to lie to their bosses.

  5. Re:CES? by Desler · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's not a show for consumers. It's a press show for things they hope to sell to consumers. The press is the audience not you.

  6. VolUME WarNING! by zamboni1138 · · Score: 1

    Holy audio warning Batman!

    I turned the volume up at first to hear person, then some guy asked a question and broke my ears.

    The 4 hours light bulb is somewhat cool.

  7. If'n ya wanna do video... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You guys fixed the mono l/r sound which I applaud you on but there are some more changes you should really do if you want people to watch any videos you make.

    This time I'm going to pick on volume leveling. I know your camera mic does automatic compression and leveling, but did you take the 5 minutes to listen to the sound quality? LOUD LOUD LOUD andthenallofasuddenverysoft WAIT IT'S LOUD AGAIN.

    This shouldn't be difficult at all to fix unless you're using something like Windows Movie Maker (Which I hope to god you aren't).

  8. Beautiful 4K upscaling by DavenH · · Score: 1

    There's no way upscaling to looks any better than HD, this isn't CSI.

    1. Re:Beautiful 4K upscaling by dollar99 · · Score: 1

      I can't imagine a 4k TV doesn't come with upscaling. Does it display non 4k in a thumbnail or something ridiculous like nearest neighbor enlargement? Baloney!

    2. Re:Beautiful 4K upscaling by Ralph+Wiggam · · Score: 1

      All of the 4k TVs show native 4k video. Last year Sharp's 8k TV was jaw dropping.

    3. Re:Beautiful 4K upscaling by jimshatt · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Except when your own 4K TV has crappy upscaling. The content has to be upscaled one way or another, except if you watch it at original resolution, meaning 3/4th of the TV is black.
      If you ask me, 720p is enough for most real life content, and maybe 1080p for animated movies. 3D can rot in hell for all I care.

    4. Re:Beautiful 4K upscaling by jddeluxe · · Score: 1

      Bollocks! The cable is HDMI 1.4, so refresh rate is limited to 24/30 Hz...

    5. Re:Beautiful 4K upscaling by multimediavt · · Score: 1

      Bollocks! The cable is HDMI 1.4, so refresh rate is limited to 24/30 Hz...

      LMFAO...HDMI is a network interface that has NOTHING to do with the refresh rate of the content. The bandwidth and quality of components of the cable determines the quality of the picture that ends up on the display. If it meets the 1.4 standard then its bandwidth and component quality meet the spec. They can't claim HDMI 1.4 otherwise. The limited frame rate is on the content. Cinema is 24fps and TV ranges from 25 to 30 depending on what country/standard is being adhered to. "HDMI 1.4 increases the maximum resolution to 4K × 2K, i.e. 3840×2160 (4K Ultra HD) at 24 Hz/25 Hz/30 Hz or 4096×2160 at 24 Hz (which is a resolution used with digital theaters)," this means that the data connection can handle 3840pixels×2160pixels*24-bit*30fps (~712 MB/s raw) worth of data. The fps/Hz is NOT determined by the cable but the frame rate of the content. Sure, they tuned it for those frame rates, but that's because the content comes that way and the number has to be accounted for in the bandwidth calculations to make sure it can carry the information.

    6. Re:Beautiful 4K upscaling by DavenH · · Score: 1

      Like someone else said, what 4K TV's won't be able to upscale, and at least as well as a microchip crammed into a tiny cable jack? It's not like a fixed-ratio bicubic filter is serious signal processing for the TV maker.

    7. Re:Beautiful 4K upscaling by Dahan · · Score: 1

      Bollocks! The cable is HDMI 1.4, so refresh rate is limited to 24/30 Hz...

      "HDMI 1.4 increases the maximum resolution to 4K × 2K, i.e. 3840×2160 (4K Ultra HD) at 24 Hz/25 Hz/30 Hz or 4096×2160 at 24 Hz (which is a resolution used with digital theaters),"

      So in other words, the refresh rate for 4K content is 24 to 30Hz, just as jddeluxe said? Got it.

    8. Re:Beautiful 4K upscaling by c++0xFF · · Score: 1

      But ... isn't 4k just a simple upscale of 720 and 1080? Use four pixels for each pixel of 1080 and nine for each pixel of 720? Maybe I'm just ignorant, though.

    9. Re:Beautiful 4K upscaling by Misagon · · Score: 1

      If you just upscale like you said, then you win nothing. The image will actually even look blockier on a higher-resolution screen because of there being less distance between pixels.

      The trick is in blending (interpolating) between pixels, but do so in a smart manner.
      The simple method is to do linear interpolation, I.e. just let the new pixels have the average of the pixels around them. Lots of TVs do this, but the method is a bit too simple: it will sometimes make things too blurry instead. The problem is to make sharp edges in the image stay sharp and blend elsewhere.
      The next step up is to interpolate using curves: plot a curve between pixel values. This will nudge the blended value towards one or the other neighbour depending on the values of other neighbouring pixels around them.

      There are lots of even smarter algorithms for upscaling, but the smarter they are the more hardware they require at a smaller gain from the previous algorithm, so at some point it does not become cost-effective for the TV manufacturer to go one step further.
      This product is apparently for those who want to pay more for a better algorithm.

      --
      "We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
    10. Re:Beautiful 4K upscaling by Misagon · · Score: 1

      The resolution matters in relation to the size of the screen and the viewer's distance from it. If your screen is 32" then 720p is often more than enough, but if you have a 50" screen then you notice the difference more easily.

      I agree that it depends on the kind of content you are watching. I know people who use a projector for watching movies at home but a 32" TV for watching TV programmers.

      --
      "We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
  9. Video volume normalization by astro · · Score: 1

    As is clear from the subject, this is not a comment on the topic but the /. execution. Please, folks, you really should have the basic facilities and sense to properly normalize the volume on a video like this. I, and I assume others, watch in a carefully volume limited situation, and I had to turn this off early as I couldn't reach out quickly enough to adjust for parts I couldn't hear versus those that were very loud. Yeah, I could I suppose normalize on the client end with a bit of work, but... ...won't someone think of the users

  10. Re:CES? by Penguinisto · · Score: 2

    Would you pay for that?

    No, but I bet the exhibitors would.

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  11. John Stamos IS NOT a shill!!! by TWiTfan · · Score: 2

    He is a respected actor of television and film!

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    The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
  12. Re:levels by TWiTfan · · Score: 2

    Poor mic placement + poor normalization

    --
    The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
  13. Perhaps next year ... by Grismar · · Score: 1

    ... the /. reporter can go find a stand that has a halfway decent camera with a microphone that actually works first and then use that to shoot the video.

  14. The normal reason by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    If CES is so pointless why do people go?

    Because everyone else does.

    I totally agree with you that it seems anachronistic. One particularly sad aspect is that I am here but as far as I can make out, there's no way for me to see any of the things mentioned in the video as those people don't have real booths here.

    It is impressive from an extravaganza standpoint to have all of these massive company booths...

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  15. No video for mobile users? by Walking+The+Walk · · Score: 1

    I'm on m.slashdot.org with my iPad, and there's no video. Not even a placeholder for a video (if they were using Flash or Silverlight.) So I also checked the CES Unveiled link in the summary, but it just goes to the schedule, no details. Not impressed guys...

    --
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    Can impart wisdom and truth
    Call proc signature()
    1. Re:No video for mobile users? by msobkow · · Score: 1

      You're not a mobile user -- you're an Apple user.

      So scream at Apple for the fact that they don't support Flash video. Every other device on the planet should work.

      --
      I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
    2. Re: No video for mobile users? by buchanmilne · · Score: 1

      I am on Android, and I don't see any way to see the video from m.slashdot.org.

    3. Re:No video for mobile users? by guruevi · · Score: 1

      Flash died before Jobs did... just get along with the times and support HTML5

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