CES 2008

Definitive's Mythos SSA50: Is single-speaker the future of home audio?

(Credit: Definitive Technology)

You won't find a more institutionally conservative category in the consumer electronics space than home audio. More than any other industry segment, audio is one where technological advances tend to be lamented rather than celebrated, viewed with suspicion rather than embraced. And that's understandable: Subpar speakers are now passed off as good enough and used to listen to digital music, which is often highly compressed compared with CD or (even better) LP equivalents. And the music itself is coming from a dying recording industry, struggling to stay alive in the digital age, and often relegated to background music--fewer and fewer people are actually listening to the music anymore.

That's not to say that there weren't some home-audio highlights at this year's show. As predicted, single-speaker audio is taking off: Boutique manufacturers such as Polk Audio and Definitive Technology are turning their considerable expertise to single-speaker, as are mainstream names like Philips and Samsung. It's not totally new, of course--plenty of options already exist--but the clear desire for consumers to have a décor-friendly audio component to match their flat-screen TVs is undeniable.

One of the attractions of single-speaker units is the desire to cut down on the speakers, and the resulting speaker wire snaking throughout the room. The other alternative is going wireless altogether. It seemed like wireless speaker technologies were everywhere in 2007, with Neosonik's being the most impressive. The company's been offering peeks at its wireless speaker technology for the past couple of years, but it's now pledging to begin delivering actual product before the end of 2008. The company hopes to license its technology to other manufacturers under the Airpower moniker--but with so many nascent competing standards, it'll be quite a while before we see a Bluetooth-like standard in this arena.

Another carry-over from previous years was the complete dominance of the iPod. It's getting nearly impossible to find a home-audio product without an iPod dock. But unlike the bulky outboard docks of years past, manufacturers are integrating the dock directly into the main chassis of their products: all of Panasonic's 2008 home-theater-in-a-box systems have a nifty fold-down iPod dock built directly into the main head unit (as do JVC's P-Series TVs). Speaking of integration: Panasonic followed Samsung's lead by delivering an HTIB with a built-in Blu-ray player. And given that format's recent tailwind versus the increasingly struggling HD DVD, that's a trend that will only accelerate.

Needless to say, the iPod isn't the only way to listen to digital music. There are online services such as Rhapsody and Pandora, plus thousands of free Internet radio stations--not to mention the gigabytes of songs sitting on your computer's hard drive. And that's why Logitech's new Squeezebox Duet is so appealing. The Wi-Fi-enabled system lets you access all of those musical options from an iPod-like remote that fits in the palm of your hand. But unlike Apple's ubiquitous music box, you hear the resulting music through the big speakers of your home stereo (to which the networked Squeezebox base station is attached). It's not a new concept--see the Sonos Digital Music System or past iterations of Philips Streamium products--but the lower price ($400 versus $1,000 for the two-room Sonos) and consumer-friendly Logitech name gives the Duet the potential to expand the audio-streaming market to a much wider audience. Can't part with your iPod? Check out the Creative Xdock HD, which puts your iPod videos on your TV's big screen in addition to streaming the music to other rooms in the house.

Of course, that's all the mainstream stuff. For the real nitty-gritty of the CES home-audio experience, you need to go beyond the main CES show floor and hit the Venetian. The high-end guys are camped out in the upstairs suites, as well as the Sands Expo Center in the bowels of the hotel (right next to the porn show, in fact). There you'll find some of the more exotic, expensive, elaborate, and downright amazing audio products. It's too bad the audiophiles are exiled to the Sands--because spending just a few minutes with them will inevitably give you an insight into true music appreciation. Inevitably, these are passionate folks who truly love their work, and want to share an experience--not just sell you a product. And that's something that CES could use a lot more of.

A prototype of the Open Interface (now Qualcomm) SoundAbout Lossless Bluetooth audio board.

(Credit: Donald Bell/CNET Networks)

Despite its widespread adoption, the current Bluetooth audio standard (A2DP) isn't pretty. The lackluster audio quality currently achievable using Bluetooth is fine for noisy applications such as car audio or wireless workout headphones, but degraded Bluetooth audio has kept the technology from crossing over into the world of high-end audio and home theater components. With any luck, 2008 will be the year that the A2DP Bluetooth audio standard gets pushed aside by a superior audio codec called SoundAbout Lossless.

Watch the Qualcomm Soundabout Lossless video on CNET TV.

Developed by Open Interface (recently acquired by Qualcomm), the Soundabout Lossless Bluetooth audio codec offers low-latency (as low as 2 milliseconds), low-complexity, lossless audio streaming. We had a chance to demo the Soundabout Lossless for ourselves and were blown away by the audio quality and wireless performance.

With the increasing share of Bluetooth audio products on the market, it makes sense that the concerns over streaming audio quality will need to be addressed eventually. If nothing else, Soundabout Lossless could be the key to finally creating the perfect pair of high-end, wireless headphones.

Squeeze this! With an affordable price and attractive design, the Philips Streamium NP1100 hopes to take streaming home audio mainstream.

(Credit: Philips)

Aiming squarely at devices such as the Logitech Squeezebox and Roku Soundbridge, the recently announced Philips Streamium NP1100 might not break the mold on features, but it will be offered at a great price of just $149. The Philips Streamium NP1100 offers three basic functions: an Internet radio tuner; a PC-link for streaming audio from a local computer; and a dedicated Rhapsody subscription music feature. The Streamium NP1100 uses a built-in Wi-Fi connection (or hardwired Ethernet), to pull down streaming music from the Internet or your networked PC library.

When not in use, the Streamium NP1100 doubles as pixel-flaunting clock.

(Credit: Philips)

On the back of the Philips Streamium NP1100 you'll find a standard pair of RCA audio outputs along with a digital coaxial jack, both used for connecting the device to a home theater system, boom box, or powered desktop speakers.

Aside from the Streamium's attractive price tag, Philips touts the product's small footprint, attractive design, and ease of use as major advantages over the competition. The oversize, high-contrast white LED display used on the Streamium does an admirable job of presenting large, legible text on a device no bigger than a clock radio.

A 30-day trial Rhapsody subscription is included with the Streamium right out of the box, with no account set-up requirement. No fee is attached to the Internet radio streaming feature.

The Vudu XL: 4 times the storage for 2.5 times the cost

(Credit: Vudu)

With its ability to deliver on-demand movies to your TV via a broadband Internet connection, the Vudu was one of the more promising home theater gadgets of 2007. The company is building on that momentum by adding a second, step-up model to its lineup: the Vudu XL. Physically, it's a near doppelganger of the original model--which remains available--but it ups the internal hard disk to 1 terabyte of storage. That's 4 times the size of the current version, and--according to Vudu--enough to store up to 500 standard-definition movies. The XL is also designed to be more friendly for home installation, thanks to the inclusion of an IR dongle. That'll allow the XL to be controlled by standard universal remote controls unlike the current RF-only Vudu, (Alas, there are no plans to make the USB dongle available to owners of the standard Vudu box.) Look for the Vudu XL to be available from home installers and high-end AV retailers in February for $1,000.

Separately, Vudu also announced that its slate of HD movies is expanding to 70 by the end of this month. Unlike the company's earlier experimentation with the HD movies--it had offered just the three Bourne movies in high-def last fall--the new slate of movies will be available for rental: $5.99 for new releases and $3.99 for older catalog titles. Vudu isn't touting its studio partners, but a quick look at some of the promised titles--including Blades of Glory, A Mighty Heart, the Star Trek movies, and Hostel: Part II--indicates that Paramount and Lionsgate are on board. For customers with a 4-megabit or faster broadband connection, Vudu is pledging the same instant-start feature for HD movies that's available on all its standard-definition content. Those with slower connections, meanwhile, will need to wait a bit while enough of the bandwidth-intensive HD video queues up for uninterrupted viewing.

Logitech Squeezebox Duet: Music streaming meets superior ergonomics.

(Credit: Logitech)

Digital audio is great--especially if you've got a multigigabyte music collection sitting on your computer or you subscribe to an "all you can eat" music service like Rhapsody. The problem, for a lot of people, is that they're stuck listening to all that great music on the tinny speakers of their computer--or perhaps patching the laptop into their living room stereo system. Dedicated audio streamers have helped somewhat, but they have tiny little screens, which--like docked iPods--aren't very useful if you're sitting on a sofa across the room. And the best solution to date--the excellent Sonos Digital Music System--costs a prohibitive $1,000. Enter Logitech's new Squeezebox Duet: the $400 network digital audio streamer employs a winning handheld remote with a brilliant color screen (not unlike an iPod) that lets you navigate your entire music collection--including some online services and the majority of free Internet radio stations--from the palm of your hand, even while you hear the music from the big speakers of your home stereo.

(Credit: Sling Media)

It's been hinted at for months, but Sling Media has finally officially confirmed that a BlackBerry version of the company's SlingPlayer software is on deck. The software--which allows live TV to be streamed from any Slingbox model--is designed for broadband-enabled (3G wireless or Wi-Fi) BlackBerry smartphones. The software will cost the same one-time $30 fee as the similar versions already available for Windows Mobile, Palm, and Symbian phones. Sling will be demoing an early version of the software on the Pearl 8120 at CES next week, and the company hopes to have it ready for public release by the end of 2008.

The Slingbox PRO-HD: True high-def video streaming--at least on a home network

(Credit: Sling Media)

Sling Media has unveiled the Slingbox PRO-HD, the first version of its video place-shifting boxes designed to stream true high-definition video. The catch? Due to the massive bandwidth requirements, HD video can't be streamed over the Internet--just to other locations on a home network. Still, that means that PCs running the SlingPlayer software--or TVs attached to Sling's soon-to-be-reannounced SlingCatcher--should be able to view a high-def stream at up to 1080i resolution with 5.1 surround audio. (To date, some Slingbox models have been able to accept HD video, but the output stream was limited to DVD-level standard-definition resolution.)

Watch the Slingbox PRO-HD video on CNET TV.

The Slingbox PRO-HD will be loaded with a full range of inputs and passthrough outputs. Although it will lack HDMI (thanks to copy-protection restrictions), the PRO-HD will include NTSC, ATSC, and clear QAM tuners. The newest Slingbox is scheduled to be available in the third quarter of 2008 for $400.

New MediaSmart TVs will sport full MCE functionality

(Credit: HP)

HP has updated its MediaSmart TVs for the new year. On the surface, the new SL4282N (42-inch) and SL4782N (47-inch) are very similar to their 2007 counterparts: full 1080p resolution LCD flat-panels with 3 HDMI inputs, built-in high-def and analog tuners, and--the big differentiator--the ability to stream digital video, audio, and images via their built-in 802.11a/b/g/n wireless networking connections. But the big upgrade for 2008 is the inclusion of Media Center Extender functionality, which offers easy connectivity to PCs running most flavors of Vista. Prefer a non-HP TV, but want those same media features? HP's got you covered there, too: the company's external MediaSmart Receiver x280N attaches to any TV and delivers the same functionality.

HP's MediaSmart Receiver x280N streams media via a home network, or from an optional internal hard drive (shown on the right)

(Credit: HP)

HP likes to hedge its bets. In addition to a couple of big-screen flat-panel TVs with built-in Media Center Extenders, the company is now offering a set-top box as well. Like the MediaSmart TVs, the MediaSmart Receiver x280N has the ability to stream a wide variety of video (including MPEG-2, DivX, WMV, WMV-HD, and H.264/MP4 files), audio (MP3, WMA, WMA-Pro, WAV, AAC/m4a), and images (JPEG, BMP, GIF, and PNG photos) from networked PCs to your living room TV via its wired Ethernet or wireless 802.11a/b/g/n connections. Local media playback is also available via plug-in USB drives or HP's own proprietary Pocket Media Drive (also found on many of the company's desktop PCs). The box boasts HDMI and component video output at HD resolutions up to 720p and 1080i. The MediaSmart Receiver x280N will connect easily to PCs running most flavors of Windows Vista--and will go head-to-head with very similar models from Linksys and D-Link when it becomes available later this year.