Posted Thu Jan 6, 2011 at 12:00 PM PST by Dick Ward
First up this year is Sony, with plenty of3D to show off and a wide array of cool new TVs to boot. Blu-ray players aren’t exactly a focus for this year’s show, but there’s one prototype that managed to catch everybody’s eyes.
I started off the tour with one of the most interesting new devices that Sony’s working on - a glasses-free portable 3D Blu-ray player. The screen isn’t tremendously large and it doesn’t do 1080p, but has a 1366 x 768 resolution. These would all be worthy of criticism if it were ready for market but as a prototype it was impressive.
Of the glasses-free displays that Sony had available, the Blu-ray player had the most defined 3D effect, but the worst picture. The OLED and LCD sets that Sony showed off had near flawless pictures, but the 3D effect was much more subtle – unnoticeable on some scenes.
Sony had plenty of 3D televisions on display showing off a ton of 3D content that will be hitting soon. From movies to games and home video there was a lot to see, and all in 3D. If any company is going to make the 3D push work it seems like Sony’s the one.
I got to play with the Bloggie 3D for a bit, and it’s exactly what you’d expect. It’s light, it’s portable and at $250 it will almost certainly be a hit. One of the best things about the Bloggie is that you can export your video in a variety of formats. If you have a 3D monitor or TV, you can get the good stuff. If you don’t, you can still use the red/blue anaglyph glasses.
The video on display used anaglyph and it certainly showed. Aside from the coloration issues always present in this style of 3D, the picture looked very good. Don’t expect to shoot ‘Avatar’ with it, but it’ll make for some great home movies.
Finally I got to check out Sony’s always impressive wall of TVs which included the range of new 2011 sets from entry-level on up. The crown jewel of course was the XBR-55HX929 with its full-array local dimming, OptiContrast tech to boost color and brightness and X-Reality Pro engine.
That X-Reality engine seems pretty slick. It cleans up streaming content and HD television content to boot. It did a great job in the show-floor demonstration, but its really hard to judge just how much a difference it makes in a tradeshow environment.
The XBR-555HX929 looked amazing in both 2D and 3D, and utilizes the amazing monolithic design style that Sony’s pushing. It’s a great looking set and we’re definitely excited about it.
I’ll be checking out Oakley’s 3D glasses, as well as visiting Toshiba and Samsung later on today, so keep checking back for more.
Want to see pictures from the Sony booth and the rest of the show? Hit up The Bonus View for some shots!
See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.
The latest news on all things 4K Ultra HD, blu-ray and Gear.