CES Highlights: The TVs

Despite the whole economy thing, CES 2009 wasn't all that scaled down. Sure, there were some companies that pulled out, but for the most part, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Panasonic, and RCA had a full blown TV war going on. Whether it was 3D (that's Panasonic's 1/3" thick 3D TV above), OLED, or Quad HD — TVs dominated the CES floor. And as Jeff pointed out, with all of these vying 3D technologies, it almost makes you wonder if we're at the foot of yet another next-gen format war.

One thing worth noting, during our meeting with Samsung, we found out that LCDs are the company's golden child. Plasma demand is there, but LCDs are where it's at. As for DLPs, they're taking the backseat to plasma and LCD. For LCDs and DLPs, I've always been biased toward Samsung. I like their designs and the picture quality is top-notch (generally speaking). So if you're looking for a TV deal, it's worth checking out Samsung's DLPs as they begin to phase them out. They'll probably get you the most screen real estate for your buck.

Samsung's next-gen LCDs and plasmas are going to sport some cool features. Some terms worth noting:

-Auto Motion Plus: 240Hz refresh rate
-Internet@TV: this should make ditching cable subscriptions even easier. It lets you grab content from the Web (wired or wirelessly) via Yahoo's Widget Engine. Here's a video of the interface.
-Eco Friendly: The 6000 series LED-based LCDs will use 40% less power than today's LCDs
-Energy 3.0 compliant: Samsung's Series 8 plasmas will measure just over an inch thick and cut down on power by meeting Energy Star 3.0 standards.

Overall, the big TV manufacturers are all pushing 3D, OLED, and LED as buzz terms for 2009. As the new models begin to roll out, you can expect the older models to drop even further in price, which means we'll be listing some pretty nice TV deals by the time the Superbowl comes around.