Show Report
 

CES - 2007

Las Vegas, Nevada, January 8-11, 2007

Staff

 

Page 24 - Sharp

Sharp makes projectors for all budgets. To the far right, you will see the two main home theater projectors. Of those two, the top is the flagship XV-Z20000 1080p projector, and just below it is the forthcoming XV-Z3100 720p model. The door which you can barely see the edge of to the right was the exit to the demonstration theater where I got a taste of both units. I have always been impressed with the high end models, but was fairly surprised at how good the 3100 looked. They used all sorts of demo material including a D5 deck outputting uncompressed HDTV to the XV-Z20000 for the finale. It was quite a treat.

A close-up of the XV-Z20000. Sharp uses their own scaler and processing along with high quality Minolta glass. They have outfitted the two home theater models with a nice piano black finish.

This shot was actually taken at the Blu-Ray Disc Association's booth, but I am including it here. It is of the prototype Blu-Ray player from Sharp. One thing you will probably notice from the show report is that there are plenty of manufacturers making a Blu-Ray player, but only one making a standalone HD-DVD player (two if you count LG's combo drive). Interesting to see how that will affect the outcome of the so-called 'Format War".

Sharp had an interesting display showing the difference between 1200:1 and 3000:1 contrast ratios. We have no idea how the televisions have been calibrated, but I guess the point is that you see deeper black levels and thus, richer colors with a better contrast ratio. Just next to that display was one showing the difference in screen refresh rates (which they somewhat curiously labeled response time). It was much easier to see the difference in person, but flicker is basically eliminated on the 120Hz refreshing monitor.

Sharp has introduced a line of their Aquos LCD HDTV's that have the ability to show internet browsing on-screen while the TV keeps playing. This may be useful for things like sports statistics during a game, or cooking recipes while watching the food network, for example. No computer required!

In the back of the Sharp booth was a small room in which they showed the super high resolution 64 inch LCD television. At 8.81 Megapixels, photos taken with most digital cameras could be shown in full detail on this baby. While there are plenty of 4K masters of films, none will be released to the consumer any time in soon. Still, it's nice to see a display capable of a picture far beyond today's best.

This, my dear readers, was the largest flat panel display shown at the 2007 CES: The 108" Sharp Aquos LCD HDTV. Delicious.

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