CES 2006 - Day 2: Blu-ray/HD-DVD, PureVideo H.264, Viiv, Centrino Duo and a lot more
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Manveer Wasson on January 7, 2006 3:07 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Intel's Viiv at the Show
Given how much Intel has been talking about Viiv and how excited they were about it, you would expect to see an overwhelming number of absolutely breathtaking designs; after all, Viiv is supposed to be much more than just a rebranded MCE desktop. We are supposed to see new form factors, out of the box designs and all in all, things you would want to see in your living room. Unfortunately, what was shown off at the show was far from that. There were some nice looking designs, but the vast majority either looked like PCs with a jog dial on the front or bad attempts at disguising a PC as CE hardware.
Before we get to what was well done, let's look at what wasn't. We'll start off with Acer's Viiv PC, which really looks no different than the first generation MCE PCs that came out two years ago:
A number of companies took the same approach as Hisense, however the case just doesn't convince the end user that they are looking at a high end, stylish CE device - instead it looks like something a PC case manufacturer would make:
Shuttle's Viiv PC is a bit more stylish looking:
And Fujitsu also did a fairly decent job with their Viiv offering:
For users who aren't interested in a living room PC and instead want a very capable desktop PC then offerings like the HP pictured below or the Acer from earlier will obviously be a better fit:
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highlandsun - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link
These are edge-lit displays, i.e., the LEDs are all along one edge of the screen and lightguides are used to spread their light across the whole display surface. If you decrease the brightness of one or two LEDs that will cause a dark stripe. Probably not useful for most types of images.Clauzii - Sunday, January 8, 2006 - link
Hmm - bummer! Would have been nice though...each backlit....Lyman42 - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link
I agree, the rollable display is probably one of the most innovative things shown in the article. I also wish that AMD SFF PC would be for sale outside of Asia; it looks very cool. As for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray (BR), anyone notice how ugly the HD-DVD box looks compared to BR's? I like that the Blu-Ray Boxes say 1080p right on the cover, great way to try and differentiate yourself from the competition for J6P.psychobriggsy - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link
I didn't like the design of most of the VIIV devices. Still too 'PC' like.That Dell VIIV device only had VGA output. Welcome to VGA resolution DRM video on your HDTV. Come on, a VIIV PC should have DVI with HDCP at least, and HDMI would be nice too.
The Intel VIIV machine looked awful. What is it with PC manufacturers and the desire for ugly buttons and nasty smokey-black plastic panels?
OTOH the OLED display looked great, amazingly thin. And the rollable display has a lot of promise for the future.
lexmark - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link
great article. looks like intel is really pushing forward on its viiv platform. i really liked alot of the case designs on display.on the rollable paper idea, won't durability become a problem? something so thin and delicate looks easy to damage.
oh yea AT, stumbled upon a typo while reading:
The display was barely over an eighth of an inch "think"
Iv3RSoN - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link
That AMD media center was sexii indeed.skunkbuster - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link
that rollable display looks really coolKashGarinn - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link
If anyone can find a link to a video of the thing, that'd be awesome.K.
longfred - Sunday, January 8, 2006 - link
http://www.polymervision.com">www.polymervision.com technology -> download gives you pictures and a video.xsilver - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link
I think the idea of it keeping for months without power is pretty awesome, no cumbersome battery pack!