INSIDE ELECTRONICS: WHAT'S HOT FOR THE HOLIDAYS?

By David Darnell

What’s hot for the holidays? The president of one of my TV suppliers once told me, “Americans are getting wider and their TVs are getting thinner.” Thin is in, at least as far as your TV is concerned.

A relative newcomer is the Hitachi UT 1.5. UT stands for “Ultra Thin” and the 1.5 represents its depth in inches. So you have an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) TV that is thin, as well as very lightweight. The 42-inches weighs less than 40 pounds. They are available in 32-inches, 37-inches, 42-inches and 47-inches.

At the recent CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association) EXPO here in Denver in September, Hitachi unveiled its new UT1.5 50-inch plasma TV. This product along with a new 60-inch will not be available until the second quarter of 2009. To go along with thin TVs, the TV mount manufacturers have also been busy. Peerless Mounts has a .4-inch wall mount, while Chief Mounts has a .5-inch mount. So you take an ultra thin TV, and combine it with a thin mount, and you have a TV that hangs off the wall two inches or less. And, by the way, the picture is awesome. That’s HOT!

Speaking of awesome, Sony introduced the OLED TV this year. OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. You see a lot of LED products these days in everything from flashlights and traffic lights to taillights. However, this is the first Organic LED product. It’s super thin, three millimeters, which is about the thickness of three credit cards. The drawback on this amazing TV is its screen size – it’s currently available only in an 11-inch screen model. I have seen a 27-inch model, but it’s still in the prototype stage. And, of course, the price-per-inch is quite high - $2,499.00 retail.

TIVO, one of my favorite DVR (Digital Video Recorder) companies, is introducing a kit to turn your PC into a DVR. It will include a remote and TV tuner that plugs into your PC. An icon will appear on your computer screen that, when clicked, will look like other TIVO equipped DVR products. This kit will sell for $199.00. This is one example of the convergence of audio/video and computer products, which will continue to accelerate.

Speaking of convergence, I was recently visiting friends in Mexico and wanted to make a call to Denver. They offered their computer, which was hooked up to Skype. It cost me two cents a minute. This service allows you to call anyone in the massive list of countries for the same cheap rate. Also, if the person you’re calling has Skype, the call is free. You only need a computer, an Internet connection and a headphone/microphone set. Most headphone/microphones these days have a USB jack that your PC recognizes as soon as you plug it in.

What leads me down this Skype road is a product called SV1, a home networked videophone. Yes, that’s right, no more talking on the phone in your boxer shorts. This is a stand-alone Web cam and video display, which works on your home network. The manufacture and model number are ASUS AiGuru SV1, and it sells for $300.00. It’s simple, easy to use, and comes with both a mini headphone/microphone jack and a USB jack.

This is really HOT! Enjoy the holidays!

Links to Web sites:
www.hitachi.us/tv
www.peerlessmounts.com
www.chiefmfg.com
www.sonystyle.com
www.tivo.com
www.asus.com

David Darnell is President of U.S. TECH, an electronic
systems integration company. He may be contacted at
ustech@qwestoffice.net or his company Web site,
www.ustechdenver.com.