Personal Tech: CES 2008

The Washington Post's Rob Pegoraro was online Thursday, Jan. 10, at noon ET from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to answer your tech questions and discuss his recent reviews and blog posts.

The transcript follows.

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washingtonpost.com: Rob will be joining the discussion shortly.

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Rob Pegoraro: Greetings from Gadgetville!

Las Vegas is normally America's capital of gambling, booze, tobacco and trans fats, but this week it's also the most electronic city in the nation, courtesy of CES. I've been here since Sunday, checking out all the exhibits on the show floor, and now I'm here to talk about that.

What can I tell you?

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Washington, D.C.: One of my secret dreams is to set a bunch of audiovisual components next to each other, turn them on, and have them configure themselves. Do you see any progress towards this goal?

Rob Pegoraro: Not so much. Several different manufacturers are boasting that if you buy all their hardware from them alone, you will be able to do that... which is both not as advanced as what you want and kind of pathetic (shouldn't we have reached that point years ago?)

For all the grief I give computer manufacturers, you can at least count on any random mouse or keyboard to work properly moments after you connect it to some new PC or Mac. Audio or video hardware is not quite there

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Pleasant Prairie, Wis.: Basic question - How can I tell if I'll need a converter box in February 2009? I think my TV has a digital tuner, since I can "delete" channels, and it's only a few years old. But I'd like to be sure . . . Charlie H.

Rob Pegoraro: The easiest way to tell is to look at how you hop to a new channel. If you have to type in a number with a dash or a period--9-1 or 9.1 for the CBS affiliate in D.C.--you're on digital. (The broadcast should also look much better, but it won't necessarily do that if it's some SD content sent out over the digital signal.)

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Richmond, Va.: Have you heard anything to substantiate the Internet rumors that Paramount and Universal are working to switch to Blu-Ray?

Rob Pegoraro: I have not--but I would not be surprised to learn that these companies are reconsidering their options after Warner's announcement that it was effectively kicking HD DVD to the curb.

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Alexandria, Va.: How's the robot situation? Are they still under control?

Rob Pegoraro: That seems to be the case... but that's exactly what they'd want us to think, isn't it?

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Arlington, Va.: Hi Rob, I bet you are having fun without gambling.

I am planning to buy my first flat panel HDTV, and have a dilemma. I am going to put it on the wall in the living room. Seven feet is the shortest distance from where the TV will be to where we would normally be sitting. I was thinking about buying 50 inch plasma, but was counseled that while it would look good with HD programming, with non-HD I might see more pixels at the distance. I do not plan to buy a HD-DVD player anytime soon, so that is a concern. The next size down is 46 inches, and they only come in LED for $1000 more for the same quality. Do you think a 50 inch would be okay at that distance? Any thought on going down to the 46 inch LCD or even farther to the 42 inch plasmas?

Thanks for your insight, Steve

Rob Pegoraro: Wouldn't it be wrong for me not to make every effort possible to prop up the gaming industry here? You know all these casinos are hanging on by a thread!

There are rules of thumb for screen size versus viewing distance-- here's a chart--and they suggest that either screen size would work, but so would a 42-incher.

But I'm surprised that you're seeing a thousand-dollar gap between plasma and LCD at any of those sizes. Which manufacturers are you looking at?

Anyhow, I wouldn't worry too mucch about how SD content will look on the set. That's a problem that's going to minimize itself over time; it will never be as big an issue as it is right now. You could look at what sort of upconversion or upscaling the TV performs as a tiebreaker.

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Alexandria: Has there been any discussion about making LCD/Plasma flat screen tv less expensive instead of bigger? I know price are falling but will we see a dramatic drop in the next 12 months?

Rob Pegoraro: No, but that's because they've already crashed through the floor. I asked one of the cheaper vendors around, Westinghouse, what a 42-inch LCD sold for, and the answer was $1,199--for a set with a built-in DVD player. Without that, their list price was $999.

Two years ago, that same set would have gone for $3,000.

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Richmond, Va.: When will most of the 2008 TVs being displayed at CES be at stores? If I'm looking for a TV now, am I better off waiting a few months for these new models to hit the stores? Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: This is why it's so hard for me to buy any kind of gadget for Christmas--I keep thinking "CES is coming, and all the new stuff shown there will be in stores in only a few months."

A lot of the new TVs will be available as soon as next month, and just about all of them should be appearing by May or June. (Except for that 150-incher at Panasonic's booth that I wrote about the other day.)

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Gaithersburg, Md.: I have to replace my receiver and soon I will get an HD TV. I also own a good universal remote. My question is should I pay extra for a received with HDMI inputs or just use the (typically) 2 that come on the set. Also, I noticed some receivers have them but can't convert (say rca to hdmi). I should only have cable box, dvd player and occasionally a camera.

Rob Pegoraro: An audio-video receiver that can switch between different sources (HDMI, BTW, is a digital connector that delivers both high-definition video and surround-sound audio over one cable); the main utility there is simplifying the job of flipping from the DVD player to the cable box *if you have separate speakers plugged into the set.* Otherwise, it's just as simple to switch between inputs with the remote's "input" or "source" button.

Any half-decent TV should come with two HDMI inputs, but you can also use component video jacks to connect extra devices. For your camera, you could get a TV that, like many, has a USB port or memory-card slot instead of plugging the camera in. Most cameras don't include HDMI ports and limit you to a low-def RCA analog connector, so you'd get a much better look at your pics by popping the camera's card right into the TV.

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Washington: I'd love to have better reception. Are there affordable stand-alone digital tuners I can get for my t.v. yet?

Rob Pegoraro: Not yet, but wait until summer and you should see a decent variety. And it's not like you'll *need* them until Feb. 17 of next year; just keep watching TV as you've known it and watch the prices on these converters continue to decline.

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Alexandria, Va.: Given a choice between Comcast's pending speed upgrade that they just announced (docsis 3) and Verizon's FiOS, which you choose and why?

Rob Pegoraro: I'd go with Fios--it's cheaper. I like fast downloads, but at a certain point who cares? The monthly nut for the service will be a lot more noticeable.

But this is a bit of a fake question for me, since Fios still hasn't made it to my house AFAICT--the Fios truck has been moving down the cross street, but it's yet to make the right turn onto my own street.

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Dayton, Ohio: Which iMac did you purchase recently Rob? Do you have an opinion on iworks vs. office for mac 2008?

Rob Pegoraro: Haven't tried Office 2008 yet--that shipped just last week, but I was a little tied up with pre-CES business to start testing out a new office suite. I do plan on testing it once I get home...and catch up on sleep.

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Alexandria, Va.: Following up on the first question, about digital TV -- in 2009, will we just need to use "9" to get to the primary digital channel, rather than 9.1? How is that going to work?

Rob Pegoraro: Digital lets broadcasters send out secondary channels--9-2 is WUSA's weather-update channel--so you'd still be doing that, although some TVs could conceal that by assuming that you want 9-1 when you punch in 9 on the remote.

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Minneapolis, Minn.: hello. thanks for the time to answer our questions. mine is - is there anyone out in the show who has a device what will attach to my computer (upstairs back room) and shoot a wireless signal to my stereo (downstairs front room - through plaster walls and old wiring) so i can listen to streaming without the signal breaking up or running wires through the house..? thanks

Rob Pegoraro: I was surprised to see how many people are showing off stereos that do Bluetooth audio streaming--but that's more likely to be useful for sending music from an MP3 player or cell phone to the stereo. For computer-to-stereo music relaying, you could try the Squeezebox that Logitech sells. I tested that a couple of years back--in a house with plaster-and-lath walls and a computer a floor away from the stereo--and it performed really well. Only catch (which may not matter for you) is that it can't play iTunes Store DRMed tracks...but hopefully, that problem is about to go away, right? (Ask me after the Macworld keynote on Tuesday.)

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Arlington, Va.: This "bigger better faster more" trend in HDTVs is fascinating from a market sentiment standpoint (someone wants 150 inches of television? Do tell!) but I really want the answer to one simple question:

Will I be able to purchase a 26-inch LCD of decent quality and reliability for under $429 before 2/19/09 without the words "black," "Friday," or "3 AM" being involved?

Rob Pegoraro: I'll go out on what I think is a relatively short and sturdy limb and say "yes."

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Arlington, Va.: Hi Rob, In case you do not have enough questions coming your way.

To answer your question, I was looking at the Panasonic TH-50PX77U, which I can get the Costco version for $1,500 or the Sony KDL46W3000 for $2,249 (the lowest I saw here in the DC area). Granted one is a 1080P and the other a 780P, but a $750 difference.

Steve

Rob Pegoraro: See what other manufacturers have to offer--Sony is still at the high end of the price range. (One of its executives made a point of bragging about that at the company's press conference Sunday...it's customary to boast about that kind of thing at CES.)

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Columbia, Md.: Hi Rob, I'm getting FIOS and a little ticked off that I have to use (ie, rent) their TV tuners for anything more than the local channels. I hear comcast is doing the same thing in Chicago. Are you seeing TV's without tuners there at Comdex? Is that the way industry is going?

Rob Pegoraro: All the TVs I've seen have both ATSC (over-the-air digital) and QAM (unencrypted basic cable) tuners, but if you get a set or a digital video recorder with a CableCard slot, you don't need the Fios box, since Verizon supports CableCards--see this Help File column from me.

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Richmond, Va.: You've GOT to be having fun in Vegas.

I'm currently looking at various wide screen flat panels (plasma so far) but the biggest issue is the size. Your chart showing viewing distance to size is great but is there a chart comparing wide screen to standard so i can point out to my wife that we need a bigger size HD just to get the size of SD picture we have now? I want 50" and she doesn't want anything bigger than 42" and we currently have a 32 CRT.

Thx!

Rob Pegoraro: That math gets a little complicated, because HDTVs are wider than old TVs. The point you should make is that you will need a bigger screen to get one that's as tall as what you have now--for instance, a 32-inch HDTV has the same screen height as a 25-inch analog tube TV, if I'm remembering the equation right.

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Tina in Falls Church: Have you seen the cool transfer jet from Sony? What's your take on it?

Rob Pegoraro: I saw this not work in a demo at Sony's press conference--I would have laughed, but I've tried to get new software to work in public and I know how capricious the demo gods can be.

TransferJet, as I understand it, is Sony's implementation of a feature in the latest Bluetooth spec--you put two compatible devices near each other, and via something called "near field communication" (sounds very sci-fi, no?) they know to set themselves up for a file transfer.

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S. Rockville, Md.: RE: February 2009. So, I'm going to need all new remotes for all my analog TVs with the digital antennas? This change is getting to be pretty expensive for "free" television.

Rob Pegoraro: And it says you have a right to free television where in the Constitution?

I don't mean to be flip, but I can think of a lot of other things that the government ought to do for citizens, but does not, that are more important than minimizing the angst attached to the digital transition.

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Oklahoma City: As an owner of the Toshiba HD-A3, it looks like I am going to be in the market for a dual player of some sort, anything look promising in CES? (At reasonable prices that is)

Rob Pegoraro: Samsung and LG are both planning to ship new dual-format high-definition players, which should cost a bit less than the first-gen hardware from those companies and should not have their weird compatibility issues (LG's first Blu/HD player couldn't play audio CDs!)

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San Francisco, Calif.: Hi Rob, I'm planning to buy my first laptop - and my first Mac. I've decided to buy the 2.2Ghz MacBook with the 160gb hard drive. Do you think the price will go down (or that the model will be upgraded) after Macworld? Thanks so much for doing these chats - reading the archives was really helpful.

Rob Pegoraro: I don't expect to see a major update to the MacBook, but some kind of speed or storage upgrade would make sense. Hold off on buying until Tuesday afternoon; if the laptop hasn't seen some change in its configuration or pricing, you're probably safe to buy.

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Washington, D.C.: This is a little offtopic but did you see the news that both Sprint-Nextel and Verizon are increasing their text messaging rates to 20 cents per message?

How can they get away with this highway robbery? Assuming 160 bytes per message, that's over $1300 per megabyte! They should pay US to use texts because it uses less bandwidth than a phone call and it doesn't have to be delivered immediately.

Rob Pegoraro: I had not--but since I've been texting back and forth here at CES, this is probably going to whack me in the wallet very soon!

I thought Sprint had bumped up the SMS rates to 20 cents each a while ago, though... Verizon had not, so that would be the news here.

The scandal behind all that is that texting should cost a wireless carrier *less* than a phone call. It's less data to send (which is why you can text in a place where you don't have enough of a signal to make a phone call).

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Washington, D.C.: Hey, Vegas Rob,

So, what's the biggest wow factor at CES? What gadget has blown you and everyone else away?

Rob Pegoraro: None of the above. There isn't any "wow" gadget. There are some "huh?" things here--like the Sony Rolly robot--but nothing to make people stop and stare.

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For Minneapolis...: If you use iTunes, an Airport Express will do what you want. I have 2 that I use to stream music in different parts of the house. My wife can stream to one room while I'm streaming different content to another.

Rob Pegoraro: Thanks!

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Washington, D.C.: Re. the earlier question on plasma TV sizes and viewing distances - I see Panasonic will intro a 46" plasma this year, filling that size gap between 42 and 50.

Re. the computer audio-streaming question: won't Apple's AirPort Express do this via Airtunes/iTunes? And no DRM concerns, as you'll be running within the Mac sandbox.

Rob Pegoraro: I don''t have Panny's press kit with me, but that would make sense for them.

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Merrimack, N.H.: Now that Blu-Ray appears to be the default HD format, any word on when a HD DVD recorder with hard drive for it will be available?

Rob Pegoraro: That is a great, great question. I asked people in both the Blu-Ray and HD DVD camps why you can't buy a recorder in either format to put under your TV--even though such things are available in Japan--and they blamed a mix of "content protection" and "interoperability" issues.

That is, they can't make a recorder that would work with any cable or satellite system in the U.S., which means customers would need to futz with plugging such a thing into their cable or sat box and using an "IR blaster" to change channels on the cable/sat receiver (read: lots and lots of tech-support calls). And the movie/TV business can't seem to make up its mind about how vigorously such a recorder ought to lock down TV recordings.

BTW, if you're looking for a *DVD* recorder with a hard drive and a digital tuner--something that people have asked about here before--Philips makes one. They seem to be the only vendor doing that, which is just a bit weird.

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Alexandria, Va.: I know you don't think 1080p televisions are worth the additional cost right now, but assuming that I watch a lot of Blue Ray discs - all the reviews I've seen still say that Pioneer's 720p 50 inch plasma TV has a better picture than any other manufacturer's 1080p 50 inch plasma? Has this been your experience?

Rob Pegoraro: I haven't made any side-by-side comparisons--you can't at CES--but I wouldn't get too hung up about 1080p at this point. It's just about a standard feature on LCD TVS above a certain size; you pretty much get it for free.

Also, Pioneer is a super-expensive brand. They make it very clear that they're catering to videophiles--their booth has this mission statement about how its new Kuro plasma TVs display the deepest blacks possible. It's impossible not to hear Spinal Tap's Nigel Tufnel reading out that manifesto: "None more black!"

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Knoxville, Tenn.: The Apple Airport works well for streaming to a stereo, but it doesn't have a visual interface (other than the one on iTones). I stream from a conveniently-placed laptop, but for some the interface issue could be a problem.

Rob Pegoraro: Following up on an earlier question--I should have noted this issue myself!

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Raleigh, N.C.: Hi Rob: In your opinion, what are the most durable laptops and can you recommend a particular one? A friend of mine will be deployed overseas with the military and is planning on taking one, but can't spend more than $1500. Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: Panasonic's ToughBooks have an excellent reputation--but I don't think too many of them sell for under $1,500. I have heard from some soldiers who have taken laptops to Iraq, but I don't have their e-mails in front of me.

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Woodley Park, Washington, D.C.: I'm in the market for an up-converting DVD recorder with an ATSC tuner. Is there anything showing at CES that I should wait for, or can I pick one up now. Thanks for taking my question!

Rob Pegoraro: Apparently, you and I are in the minority for liking DVD recorders--a lot of the manufacturers who showed off these things last year don't have them at their exhibits this year. Seems they didn't sell too well, so they're emphasizing different kinds of products now.

I think you can buy now without too much angst--DVD recording is one of those technologies that's basically "done" and not in any danger of some paradigm-shifting upgrade.

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Burbank, Calif.: Ain't they supposed to have some kind of teeny tiny macbook at the macworld?

Rob Pegoraro: So they say! I'll know for sure not long after Steve Jobs walks onto the stage at the Moscone Center Tuesday morning.

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From Daniel Greenberg, recovering from CES:"Are there affordable stand-alone digital tuners I can get for my t.v. yet?"

Is FREE affordable enough? Let Uncle Sam buy you one.

At CES I saw Dish Network's soon-to-be-available digital tuner, which they have committed to sell for no more than 39.95.

Dish Network execs said that you can pay for 100 percent of the cost of it with your US government coupon for $40-off the purchase of a digital turner (or two):

https://www.dtv2009.gov/Default.aspx

Consider it your little piece of the peace dividend, since it is being subsidized by the sale of the newly freed-up airwaves that belong to all of us.

Rob Pegoraro: Hey Daniel! Glad to see you've made it home. Thanks for the tip...

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Hudsonville, Mich.: Rob, Is there any hope for us to be able to have less wires and cables....in dealing with computers, TV, audio, printing, multiple rooms....? I'm just wondering what might be out there for normal people in this regard.

Rob Pegoraro: There are several different companies showing off wireless HD systems--either to share one video source throughout the house or to send the video two feet from cable/sat/Fios receiver to the wall-mounted TV above it.

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Frederick, Md.: Rob, a chance to opine: If I was considering the purchase of a new TV, .mp3 player or cell phone/PDA, is there any emerging technology or significant product advancement on the horizon that would make it worth waiting just another six months? If not, how about a year?

Rob Pegoraro: This is the angst we all have to live with when shopping for technology--what if I wind up paying the early-adopter tax?

The odds of a "wish I'd waited" new product are highest in cell phones, lower in MP3 players and lowest in TVs, I think.

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Bloomington, Ind.: Continuing the cell phone texting issue - I would like to be able to prevent texting, but Verizon does not allow this!! I cannot believe that someone can send me a text message and I get charged for it and there is nothing I can do to prevent it!

Any chance this is going to change? maybe you can speak to them!

Rob Pegoraro: If you get spammed via SMS, complain to Verizon. The company (along with all the other nationwide carriers) says that you won't be charged for junk texting if you notify it.

But if it's some pushy friend who keeps texting you... make them buy you a beer sometime.

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for Minneapolis: Some comments on streaming audio through heavy construction:

I use a Roku Soundbridge on my stereo, and it works pretty well.

My older house (drywall, but with some dense sections of other materials) produced lots of interference problems with streaming music to the Soundbridge, but I resolved them by upgrading to a really good wireless router. The one that I got (after trying 2 cheaper routers) is a Belkin pre-N with 3 antennas. It cost $100 about 8 months ago.

Good luck on your music streaming ...

Rob Pegoraro: Thanks!

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Rob Pegoraro: I've gotta log off--I need to spend a couple of hours checking out the CES exhibits at the Sands that I haven't even seen yet, and then there's a plane to catch. Thanks for all the questions; I'll save a copy of the ones I didn't get to and I'll try to answer them in a blog post tomorrow.

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