The wraps came off high-definition DVD players at this year’s annual Consumer Electronics Show, offering the final component needed to replicate the movie theater experience at home.

And while a fierce DVD format war will likely delay the mass adoption of such devices, digital video is here to stay, with the Consumer Electronics Association trade group estimating 25 million U.S. homes will have a high-def TV set by year’s end.

But big, expensive flat-panel sets aside, this year’s gadget show offered plenty of smaller screens for video, featuring the works of the phalanx of celebrities - including Tom Cruise and Robin Williams - who came to Las Vegas to help hawk them.

The new gadgets included handheld devices that can play live or stored TV, music videos and even NBA games, one of the offerings Google Inc. announced.

Yahoo Inc., DirecTV, Starz Entertainment Group and Sony were also among the companies getting deeper into the business of trying to make it simple to watch recorded Hollywood movies, home video and even live streaming television wherever you may be, on all manner of devices.

Not to be outdone, radio was out in force as well, including palm-sized satellite receivers that hold hours of recorded music. Digital radios, which promise a high-definition listening experience from terrestrial stations, were also on display as that service begins a wider national rollout this year.

Among the more interesting gizmos on display at the show, which ends Sunday:

_ The Inno, a portable combination XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. receiver/MP3 player with 1 gigabyte of internal memory.

The device, from Pioneer Electronics, allows users to store songs taken from their own CD collection, as well as 50 hours of XM programming. Playlists can combine songs from both sources.

Users can also bookmark songs they hear on XM, then buy the tracks for 99 cents from Napster. The device will be available in March and retails for $399. A boom box and car kit are also available.

_ Samsung Electronics Co. also announced a line of portable satellite radio/MP3 players.

The Helix XM2Go player is similar to the Pioneer Inno and will also sell for $399 in March.

But an even smaller Samsung player, called the Nexus, works along with a portable XM antenna/receiver called the Passport. The Nexus receives satellite radio signals when connected to the Passport and can record XM programs along with a listener’s own music collection. Removed from the dock, the Nexus plays back the XM tracks recorded earlier.

A player that stores 25 hours of music will sell for $199 in March, while the larger player that holds 50 hours will sell for $249.99.

_ Several new handheld video options included the Gigabeat player from Toshiba, one of a series of devices running Microsoft Corp.’s portable media center software.

The device comes with either a 30- or 60-gigabyte hard drive and can store hours of music, videos, and TV shows and other content. The device displays the video on a 2.5-inch color screen. It also has a built-in FM tuner.

Both models will be available in March, with the 30 GB player selling for $299 and a 60 GB model retailing for $399.

_ GPS devices were another hot item at the show. The units, designed chiefly to get drivers door-to-door on unfamiliar roads, are expanding to include DVD players and music files.

The AVIC-Z1 from Pioneer has a 30 GB hard drive, using two-thirds of that space to store navigation information and the rest to hold as many as 2,500 songs ripped from CDs.

The system also plays DVDs on its 7-inch screen and, with an adaptor, can also be used to control an iPod music player.

The system includes voice recognition, so a command like “Go to LAX” will produce a detailed map to the airport. A user’s entire address book can be transferred to the device from a cell phone or PDA wirelessly using Bluetooth and can be accessed via the touch screen.

The AVIC-Z1 will be available in April at a cost of $2,250.

_ New technology is also updating an old habit - reading.

Sony is betting more on a smaller number of key products, including its electronic book reader.

The slim device can store hundreds of books in its internal memory and boasts a long battery life, which the company claims will allow a person to read “War and Peace” without a recharge.

The screen is not backlit so it doesn’t flicker. And the size of the text can be changed to accommodate aging eyes.

Sony will be selling books for download on its Connect online service. Users can also display their own documents on the device, making it an efficient place to store files for long business trips.

The device will be available sometime in the spring but has yet to be priced.

_ As sophisticated as most electronic devices are, it would seem many of their designers have taken a cue from a very low-tech device - the Swiss Army knife.

The I-Sonic from Polk Audio plays CDs and DVDs, is XM Radio-ready and has an auxiliary input for an iPod or other portable music player.

Oh, and its main function is as a high-definition radio player. HD Radio is relatively new, and the number of stations is growing. With HD radio, FM signals sound as good as CDs.

The I-Sonic is a one-piece unit that has remarkable sound for its small size.

The unit will sell for $599 when it goes on sale in April.

LAS VEGAS

Flat-panel televisions with built-in digital video recorders. Pocketable satellite radio receivers that can bookmark songs for online purchase. High-definition TVs engineered to play video or display photos from any computer on your home network.

The Sunlink.com
The new offerings from LG Electronics Inc., XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. are just a tiny sampling of a feast of gadgetry at this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show, an annual showcase of technologies set to soon hit the market. The show runs through today.

Spread out over 28 football fields of real estate it features a dizzying array of new products from small startups, dot-com boom retreads and such longtime players as Sony Corp., Toshiba Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd.’s Panasonic.

Cameras, MP3 players, DVD recorders, giant plasma screens and accessories for all the above — you name it, and chances are it’s here at the Sin City convention center-turned-electronics mecca. Judging from wares on display, here’s what the near future holds in the way of digital technology.

Portable gadgets will be smaller but have more powerful features. Laptops will boast longer battery lives. TVs will be bigger and sharper, but cheaper. And many devices will have the ability to connect to the Internet, a home computer network, or to each other — with more ease than their predecessors.

In the home appliance arena, Samsung Electronics Co. will show a refrigerator with four convertible compartments that can switch between being a freezer or a fridge, depending on the user’s needs. LG will debut a washer and dryer system that lets users monitor the laundry cycle from a small remote control.

Satellite radio, climbing in popularity, will become more accessible as a growing number of portable and home audio and video devices absorb the feature right into their hardware. LG, for instance, will debut a 5-disc DVD player that will also feature an XM satellite radio-ready tuner.

Samsung and Pioneer Corp. will introduce mobile MP3 audio players that also play live XM radio. Samsung’s new Helix XM2Go player even integrates the Napster music download and subscription service, so users can “bookmark” songs heard on XM for online purchase from Napster.

“We’ve seen millions of MP3 players sold and millions of satellite radio products sold. Now we’re marrying them together and will hopefully create a new market,” said Chance Patterson, spokesman for XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc.

Portable multimedia players, which first hit the market a few years ago, are enjoying a renewed buzz this year, assured the attention by Apple Computer Inc.’s debut of a video-playing iPod and recent deals that have made TV shows available for sale over the Internet.

LG will introduce its first portable media center, the PM70, with a 4.3-inch screen and 30 gigabytes of storage, enough for 50 hours of video or 7,500 songs.

“More content availability is what’s driving the demand for these things,” said Tim Alessi, a product development director in LG’s consumer electronics division.

HP is promising its most comprehensive lineup of digital entertainment products yet. For 2006, the computer and printer maker will unveil seven new ultra-compact digital cameras, ranging in price from $119 to $299.

HP is also introducing nine high-definition TVs, including an innovative 37-inch LCD TV that can access other digital media from any computer on a home network.

Without the need for a separate device, the television will automatically connect to a home network so users can switch from watching TV to grabbing music, photos or video any one of their networked computers.

The TV will also offer access to Real Networks’ Rhapsody music subscription service, films from CinemaNow or MovieLink and HP’s own Snapfish photo sharing service, among other content.

Also debuting in the “When is a TV not just a TV” category is a line of LCD sets from Humax Co. that will feature integrated DirecTV tuners. The first is a 20-inch standard model, with a 32-inch high-definition model promised for later in the year.

Digital video recorders continue their relentless march into homes as phone companies and others challenge cable and satellite TV for home viewers.

Motorola Inc. is debuting a line of DVRs that are meant to serve as home multimedia hubs, with Verizon Communications Inc. due to offer them as part of its nascent TV-over-fiber-optics-cable service.

Not only will Motorola QIP series boxes record and store TV programming, they will also let people access video, pictures and music using the coaxial cable in their homes as a networking conduit.

Such converged, networked devices were attention-getters at previous CES shows but have gained little traction with consumers.

This year, analysts and electronics makers say, promises to be different.

“More and more consumers are comfortable with the Internet and with networking now,” said Jan-Luc Blackborn, HP’s director of digital entertainment. “In previous attempts, the technology was ready but the consumers were not. Now consumers are more ready for this stuff than ever before.”

Minutes after I published my last post stating that there is a lack of Mobile WiMax (WiBro) handsets in the market, Samsung introduces ite M8000.

Using its M8000, a smart phone equipped with a QWERTY keypad, Samsung showcases WiBro services available in the Korean market through a series of applications including broadcasting, home networking, video conferencing, video on demand, mobile navigations, and push-to-all (push-to-talk/data/video).

Congratulations to Samsung for beating Sony/Ericsson, Nokia and others in delivering the world’s first fully functional WiBro handset during the first-half of this year (2006).

The ramifications of this handset’s existence is quite significant. The Mobile operator will, of course, utilize this phone to continue its hold on its subscribers by offering some very wonderful streaming services that will be chargeable according to the mobile operator billing model, but there is another possible outcome as well…

If Samsung allows subscribers to self configure their SIP user/pswd, proxy address, and other VoIP credentials, then users can extend their home VoIP accounts (Vonage (US), OneCall (Norway), etc.) to their WiBro handset. Better yet, the VoIP provider should use the OTA (Over-the-Air) functionality of the mobile phone/network and “push” the necessary VoIP configuration to their subscribers.

For example, VoIP subscriber goes to their “MyPage” within the VoIP provider’s homepage, enters their WiBro handset mobile phone number into the “WiBro VoIP Configuration” field and clicks “send”… Moments later, the WiBro handset is self configured for that individual subscriber and everyone is happy…(well, almost everyone)