We aren’t quite finished with our CES coverage yet. Morgan of KnitWitology contributes an overview of Panasonic’s massive presence at the show:
During his keynote address at CES, Panasonic AVC President Fumio Ohtsubo outlined their new “Whole Life Connectivity” campaign; affordable, simple, and connected products for a increasingly digital consumer. While the “affordable” part is still up in the air, the connected bit is without question. Based on a heavy reliance on SD memory card technology, Panasonic has released a slew of new televisions, DVD recorders, and camcorders that astonished many and set imaginations running.
The D-Snap SV-AV100 is the world’s smallest MPEG2 (that’s DVD quality folks) camcorder with a 2.5-inch LCD display and weighing only 5.5 ounces. (During the keynote they demonstrated a simmilar prototype that captured HDTV onto a 4GB SD card.)
DMR-E100 DVD Recorder, a progressive scan DVD player with a 120GB hard drive, SD & PC Card Slots (for both recording and retrieving media), a DVD-RAM/DVD-R burner, and Firewire connection for copying digital video. Also included in the fleet of DVD recorders they released were several models capable of simultaneously recording and reading DVDs and many offering free Electronic Program Guide listings courtesy of TV Guide.
One of the most exciting announcements was the AVC Server, a set-top box that uses DVD-Ram, hard disk, and SD storage to store photos, music, and videos from any number of devices (including one snazzy motion sensitive camera for capturing people who stop by your home while you’re out) and distributes this content across your home to multiple devices simultaneously.
Up to four devices can connect to play entirely different video streams, and even allow a user to pause their content in one room, and resume watching it in another. Of course this gives rise to the need for a home network, and rather than force the average user figure that mess out, Panasonic has also improved the old Homelink technology that touted a weak 14 Mbps link over existing power lines, and now offers HomePlug, which can transmit at up to 170 Mbps second, though I’m not quite sure how they plan on limiting transmission through connected power grids.
