Not to be outdone, Samsung unveiled its own 55-inch OLED TV that afternoon, calling it the ultimate in picture quality.
Its not all about bigger, brighter screens. Theres been some chatter, but few specifics, at CES about the next generation of home-theater audio, including 3-D sound systems that create sound fields around the TV viewer. Expect to see more of this by the end of the year.
Sharp Electronics, on the other hand, spent much of its press event Monday emphasizing its push toward massive screens. The company showed a video encouraging consumers to fit larger TVs into smaller spaces in their homes and handed out special glasses to demo what it claims is the worlds first 80-inch 3-D LED TV, coming in April (price not announced).
TV sets cant get much thinner, but that hasnt stopped manucturers -- always looking for a design edge over a competitor -- from trying.
Samsung on Monday announcedits flagship ES8000 LED model, whose built-in cameras, microphones and software let usplasma vs led TVs in 2012 will get brighter, thinner, more socialers speak commands like channel 7 to control the TV. Users also will be able to use gesture controls for Web browsing, adjusting the volume and more.
More social features
The buzz surrounding 3-D has subsided, but television makers here are pushing other enhancements in the hopes something will stick: TVs that connect seamlessly with the Internet, TVs that interact wirelessly with your tablet device, TVs with built-in social features so you can post to Twitter about the show youre watching and TVs you control by speaking or waving your arms.
Weve gone to great lengths to reduce the thinness of our TVs without sacrificing picture quality, said Wayne Park, president of LG Electronics USA, whose 55-inch OLED TV is just 4 millimeters thick (or thin).
LG also is adding voice control to the Magic Remote intece that comes with all its high-end Cinema Screen TVs in 2012.
But these impressive-looking TVs wont be mainstream products anytime soon.
As long as it looks decent and it wont break down and its within their budget, thats whats important to most people.
HDTV debuted at CES in 1998, but it was another five or six years before HD sets became common in living rooms. 3-D TV arrived at CES in 2009 amid massive hoopla but has yet to catch on with mainstream consumers.
Voice and motion controls
OLED is beyond the reach of most consumers at this point, he said. But it looks gorgeous.
Its been documplasma vs ledented that more people are watching TV with a phone or tablet nearby so they can check Facebook during commercials or chat with their friends about what theyre watching.
To confuse matters further, Sony unveiled a 55-inch prototype TV that uses an eye-opening 6 million LEDs in place of pixels.
Justin Timberlake appears during a Panasonic press event to announce Myspace TV.Panasonic also announced its partnering with flagging social network Myspace for a new service called Myspace TV. Pop star Justin Timberlake, a Myspace investor, appeared onstage Monday to help promote the product, which will let viewers use a connected tablet to share music and TV shows with friends.
Sound is always the unappreciated element of TVs, Eisner said. People dont pay much attention to it, and they probably should, because surveys have shown that good sound can make the picture look better.
So judging from the variety of next-generation products being unveiled at this years show, TV manucturers are still scrambling to find the next killer feature that will entice buyers to ditch their flat-panel plasmas for something better.
Both LG and Samsung say their OLED sets will hit the market in 2012, although neither would talk about price. The TVs wont be cheap; Eisner, the Retrevo analyst, expects them to sell initially for at least $8,000.
At a CES press event Monday morning, LG Electronics introduced what it called the worlds thinnest, largest and lightest OLED TV: a 55-inch model with a remarkable picture.
But theres no evidence that the average person wants all these new features when shopping for a TV, said Andrew Eisner, a gadget analyst with Retrevo, an electronics shopping site.
The biggest buzz at CES has surrounded TVs with OLED screens instead of plasma or liquid crystals. OLEDs, or organic light-emitting diodes, produce a crisp picture and deep, saturated colors. They appear in some high-end smartphone displays but until now have been difficult to manucture in larger screens.
Based on CES press announcements and interviews with analysts, here are some TV features that may be on display at your neighborhood electronics store within the next 12 months:
Now, manucturers want to help you do all that through your television. On Monday, Panasonic announced a series of Web-connected Smart Viera TVs that will flash your social-networking updates on the screen. The company also unveiled a split-screen feature that lets you launch Skype and chat with friends while youre watching TV.
The remote control may be an endangered species. Some TV makers are following the lead of Apples Siri, the iPhone 4S virtual assistant, and Microsofts Kinect gaming system, which allows players to operate their TVs and manipulate onscreen avatars by moving their bodies.
plasma vs led TVs in 2012 will get brighter, thinner, more social,Las Vegas (CNN)-- When it comes to TVs -- often the flashiest, most buzzed-about gadgets at the International Consumer Electronics Show -- it takes several years for reality to catch up to the hype.
And dont forget Apple, which may add Siri voice-recognition functions to the TV set it is rumored to be building this year.
Bigger, thinner, lighter screens
Do consumers really care? I dont know, Eisner said. As long as it looks decent and it wont break down and its within their budget, thats whats important to most people.
Editors note:Follow @cnntech, @griggsbrandonand @markmilianfor Twitter updates this week from the Consumer Electronics Show.
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There was an audible gasp in the room when it was unveiled, and a throng of photographers crowded around the set afterward like paparazzi around a starlet.
Better sound