As usual, CES was full of HDTV vendors touting their wares. Mostly, one could expect to hear the same old stories about bigger diagonals, higher refresh rates, and deeper colors.
Pioneer was a notable exception, exhibiting new technology with their infinite contrast ratio concept television. Yes, infinite (at least that's what the PR guy said).
Pioneer had a special viewing room set up to showcase their latest KURO Project. Even with priority press access and a PR rep at our side, it took quite some time to get into the theater given the mass of people waiting in line.
Once inside we saw that the walls of the room were covered by Duvatine (black cloth they use in movie theaters to block sound) and at one end sat two current 50-inch plasmas, the PDP-5010FD, flanking a black velvet curtain.
Another rep took over and warned us not to use any type of photography--they didn't want flashes to disturb our enjoyment of their infinite contrast. I nodded over to my colleague, Greg Adler, and muttered, "I hope they show us some slow motion video and not blast us with color and hype." The rep then dimmed the lights and the curtains parted.
As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could only see three illuminated screens (there was another PDP-5010FD behind the curtain...and an empty spot). Then, slowly, where the phantom fourth screen should have been, we could see a spinning ring emerge from the blackness. There was a fourth screen -- and it was actually on!
Now, I don't mean to be a sensationalist, but this concept television was pretty impressive. The three PDP-5010FDs all had a low grade gray cast to them, even when the screens went "black" between each demo scene. There were always three obvious rectangles hanging on the wall.
The concept TV, however, displayed blacks dark enough to match the bezel of the TV, creating an illusion of images floating in space. Goldfish seemed to hover as if swimming in the wall, rather than on TV. As men sea-kayaked toward their mountainous island, an orange night sky blazing behind reflected off their wake. I could almost feel the tranquility of the deep, black ocean as they paddled away from us.
Lastly, we were treated to a fireworks show with brilliant explosions of every color imaginable. As the finale reached its crescendo, the concept screen was littered with thousands of burning sparks. It felt like the Fourth of July was ending on just the right note as each one slowly winked out of existence, leaving the wall apparently black and blank once more. Ok, so maybe there was some flashy color and hype...
Hats off to Pioneer for their courage in showing a true side-by-side comparison of their state of the art plasma technology versus their "infinite contrast" concept television. It has been the highlight of my show so far.
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