CES 2010: Day 3 Round-Up

Another day, another Tech Digest CES 2010 round-up. Fancy Tweeting hands-free in your car or controlling your PC by breathing? Check today's top stories below and find out how. Twitter coming to Ford cars The digital equivalent of drink-driving? Motorola…

BBC iPlayer goes HD and Adobe Flash secures TV deal

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Here’s a no-brainer for you with them both stuck next to each other on the BBC News page. On the one hand, iPlayer is going HD today. On the other, we’re going to see Adobe Flash chips in TV sets and set-top boxes.

Now seeing as iPlayer, and YouTube for that matter, are both Flash based, it looks as if live broadcast TV is taking another step towards an ultimate demise. The issue before, as far as I’m concerned was that the likes of iPlayer and the Tube were too hideously pixelated and rubbish to ever watch on the big screen but in full resolution, there’ll be nothing left to stop them.

So far, they’ll be no Adobe love for the likes of Sony and Samsung but we should be looking at 420 million bits and pieces of hardware as made by Broadcom, Intel, NXP and STMicroelectronics within the next three years. Worth having a little think before you buy AV.

Sony announces high-spec, low-end BDS360 player

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When Sony announces a low end Blu-ray player without offering a price it does make me wonder exactly how low end they’re talking. This is, after all, the nearest company to Apple the AV market has.

That aside, the BDS360 does sound like an excellent piece of kit and just the ticket if you’re searching for some HD content for your newly bought LCD. It’s both DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD compatible and will upgrade all your DVDs to some kind of simulated 1080p.

You can connect the player up via Ethernet to get all your BD Live downloadable nonsense and there’s even a USB port to store it through as well. And, if you’re into unmeasurable proprietary technology, then Sony’s Precision Drive and Deep Colour systems promise to make sure even scratched and wobbly discs get played and played in good colour too.

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Sony’s also announced some 2.1 home cinema speaker systems to go with the set up in the shape of the HT-SS360 and HT-SF360. Both are wireless and support Sony’s DCAC (Digital Cinema Auto Calibration) to make sure you put them in the right place and at the right volume for a decent experience.

More details of dates and prices as soon as I find out.

Sony

Philips Essence 42" LCD – wall-mountable TV for the lazy, weak & rich

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Philips has released another LCD that I can’t afford. They’re not alone in the practice. Most television manufacturers bring out sets I can only dribble over with reassuring regulatory.

This particular untouchable boasts 100Hz technology and lightening fast 2ms response time to keep your evening of Coronation Street free from juddery, blurred images. Oh and the contrast ratio’s 66,000:1. Peanuts really…