My Top 5 Gadgets of CES 2011

As part of my CES Wrap-Up, here's my picks for Best of CES 2011, in no particular order:

2012 Ford Focus

Plug-in electric car from an American carmaker. 'Nuff said.

Panasonic VT30 Series Plasma TV's

I picked this series of TV out of all of them because I believe this to be the best 2D TV on the market, not for its 3D performance or features. 3D is not ready for prime time, as I mentioned previously. Panasonic has the best plasmas on the market, which I enjoy more than LCD/LED sets. These TV's represent the best of display technology, with super dark, inky blacks, bright whites, accurate colors, and few motion issues, if any. I wish I could afford one.

Asus Transformer

I'm really not interested in a tablet PC for myself. I just don't see a use for it, personally. Having said that, the Asus Transformer blends tablet and netbook in a way I can definitely get down with. If its performance is up to snuff, and we won't know for sure until probably this summer, then I may get one.

Motorola Atrix

This phone is closer to a PC than anything before it. You travel with it, bring it home, dock it, and use it as a light PC, and maybe even watch a movie on it. It has the CPU and RAM to do it as well. Wow.

XI3 Modular Computer

For a guy like me that digs lightweight PC's, this was very interesting. From what I understand, you can swap out a bunch of little daughterboards, and upgrade them as new hardware comes out. You can also use 1 as a centrally located system, and have a few others around the house as thin clients or dumb terminals. I'm keeping my eyes on these guys for sure.

Top 10 Electronic Devices I Own

10. Sony PCM-M1 DAT w/ CSBs

In my more formative years, I was very interested in recording concerts, specifically of bands that I liked the most. The best thing you could use before flash memory came out was the Sony PCM-M1 DAT Walkman. It can record at 16-bit/48KHz and is small enough to fit in your pocket. Pair that with some clip-on binaural mics, like my Core Sound Binaurals, and you can make some fine bootlegs. My concert appetite has mellowed recently, hence my bootlegging appetite has as well, but I did make some fine recordings with this thing. Even though it's obsolete, I can't bring myself to sell it.

9. Linksys WRT54G w/ DD-WRT

Out of the box, the Linksys WRT54G is a damn fine router, but add the open souce firmware DD-WRT to it, and it becomes the best and most versatile router within $300. Most useful to me is the wired or wireless network bridge functionality. I still use mine every day.

8. Panasonic TH-42PZ85U Plasma HDTV

I bought my TH-42PZ85U without having seen it in person, instead relying on online reviews. I really do love this TV, especially for what I paid for it. If it didn't have horrible phosphor trails in black and white scenes, it would be perfect. Other than that, it's superb for TV and movies.

7. Onkyo TX-SR606 Receiver

With only one minor flaw, this reciever is the best bang for the buck sub-$1000. It has four HDMI ports, 1080p pass-thru and decodes every type of audio codec, including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA. It's last year's model, but I can't see needing anything else from a receiver for a decade.

6. Oppo DV-980H

Before Blu-ray, this was THE all-in-one disc player. It plays DVD, DVD-A, and SACD, and scales to 1080p like a dream. NTSC and PAL both work great. If you have no desire or money to go Blu, get this. Your DVD collection will never be obsolete.

5. Logitech Harmony 550

I have almost a dozen devices in my living room that require remote controls. The Harmony rules them all. I honestly don't know what I would do without it. Sure, there are newer and more expensive models than the 550, but it does everything and does it well. You need one.

4. Asus Eee PC 901

Ah, the 901. I was an early adopter. I really and truly love this netbook. Short of HD video, it does everything I need it to, has a 6 hour battery, and weighs 2.5 lbs. Webcam, mic, speakers, Bluetooth, Wifi. Runs XP and Windows 7 perfectly (except Windows Media center). Of course, I have to mention that I added a Runcore SSD to the thing, and without it, the 901 moves like mud. If you like th 9-inch form factor, one of these can be had on the cheap. Add a Runcore SSD, and the thing will fly.

3. PlayStation3 w/ Media Server

I got a PS3 last year for Xmas. It is the best Blu-ray player around, it's a solid gaming platform, and with the free PS3 Media Center suite for PC, it streams all my HD videos with full surround, basically all but eliminating my need for an HTPC.

2. FiOS w/ HD-DVR

FiOS is the best TV service in the USA. Best video quality, best channels. I thought I was going to have to spend $600 on an HTPC in order to record HDTV. The FiOS HD-DVR (QIP6416-2) has great video quality, easy use, and intelligent seeking. I love it. I just need more storage.

1. Modded Xbox running XBMC

My Xbox has been very good to me. What do I do with it, you ask? I have my entire music, video and picture libraries on it for couch-based enjoyment. I have 16 vintage console emulators running approximately 10,000 games. I can watch streaming TV shows. Apple movie trailers, too. No machine can do all this so well. I also have a Xir installed for ease of use with my Harmony remote. Thanks XBMC.

Phosphor Trails: Scourge of the Plasma

This post is not mod-related as such; It's more of a rant. In October, I purchased a Panasonic Viera TH-42PZ85U Plasma Television from Amazon. One of the caveats about owning an HDTV is that it requires quite a bit of time to tweak picture settings in order to ensure that your TV is giving you the best possible picture. In the proceeding months, I've fiddled with the various settings, like color, contrast, brightness, and even used a THX calibration disc and blue filter glasses in order to calibrate my set for optimal viewing from all of my sources (FiOS, DVD, PS3/Blu-Ray, DVR, Xbox). Overall, I've been quite happy with my Panny.

However, in recent months, I've noticed a very disturbing and annoying trend occuring in my TV: phosphor trails. These are green or blue trails that are left behind a moving object in a high contrast scenario. It occurs, as I understand it, because plasma pixels cannot shift directly from black to white, or vice versa. They have a brief green or blue phase in between. An example of this might be a hockey game that has players with dark jerseys on a white ice background. This scenario is plagued by phosphor trails on my TV. The players leave streaks as they move across the rink. I love hockey, and this is a major issue for me. Another example might be a movie or TV show where a person with light skin is moving through a dark room. This scenario is even worse for me. Light objects on dark background leave horrible green trails and are physically taxing on my eyes. Video games often have high contrast scenarios like this, and this effect is present in many that I own.



The video above is not my TV, but shows what I've been dealing with. Unfortunately, I don't have a video camera capable of accurately depicting this phenomenon. On the cheap point-n-shoot I have, the effect is far worse than it appears in person. Nevertheless, I'm very close to selling my TV, cutting my losses and getting a Samsung LN46A650 LCD. I know that I may just be trading one issue for another, as LCD's have problems of their own, but I've just about had it. If a representative from Panasonic is reading this, please contact me, as I would love to remedy this somehow.