2005 Home Entertainment Show Coverage

By Ian Bell Updated October 19, 2009

“The Home Entertainment Show was held again in New York City at the Hilton from April 28th through May 1st. It’s comprised of dealers and manufacturers alike, showing off their wares in hotel rooms and suites. This is one of the few consumer electronics shows open to the public, and its goal is to reflect the current state of home entertainment products including high definition TV, high-resolution video, and multi-channel surround sound.

Unlike other CE shows, HES, which is sponsored by Primedia, features numerous esoteric audio companies along with mainstream brands like HP, Polk, RCA, Runco, Samsung, and Yamaha.

Surprisingly, several new 1080p HDTVs were introduced this year in addition to some really slick (if expensive) audiophile-like products. In fact, there were more than 250 brands on four floors of the Hilton. Also, there were several technology seminars presided over by various CE journalists, covering different aspects of Home Theater, Big Screen Technologies, Convergence, and Analog Audio. This reporter’s coverage primarily focuses on new TV/Video and Audio products, and only scratches the surface.”

Read Digital Trends’s full coverage

Publisher

I work with the best people in the world and get paid to play with gadgets. What's not to like?

Smart Home

Best Amazon Echo deals: Echo Dot, Echo Show 8, and more

If you want to upgrade your house into a smart-home, the first step is getting a hub that all your fancy new devices can connect to. Amazon's Echo devices are perfect for that. There are a lot of different options in the Echo line, such as smart speakers and smart displays. Choosing which model is best for you will come down to your available space and what you intend to use the device for. We've broken down every model and generation of the Echo that is currently on sale, so read on to find out which one is best for you.
Best Amazon Echo deals
Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Gen) -- $25, was $40

Why Buy

Audio / Video

I replaced my kitchen TV with an Echo Show 15 — and I kinda liked it

Amazon Echo Show 15 showing Fire TV experience, with an Amazon Fire TV voice remote in the foreground.

For the better part of the last 20 years, my family has had a TV in our kitchen. It was the cheapest 19-inch flat screen I could find at the time -- a 720p Sharp model -- and we hooked it up to our cable connection and a Tivoli One speaker for better sound. It worked just fine -- no complaints. But when Amazon asked if I wanted to try swapping that ancient rig out for something a bit more modern, like an Amazon Echo Show 15 with its latest Fire TV update, I figured why not? Three weeks into the experiment, here’s how it’s going.
You’re gonna need a mount …

1.
The original Sharp 19-inch TV …
2.
… and the Amazon Echo Show 15.

Audio / Video

The new HomePod is still too expensive, which is exactly how Apple wants it

Handoff between Apple iPhone and Apple HomePod second-gen.

Apple just announced its second-generation HomePod. And it did so without too much fanfare, via press release and just a day after it unveiled new M2 processors inside new a MacBook Pro and Mac mini. And while there maybe wasn't much fanfare, there was plenty of flourish — also in typical Apple fashion — without divulging all that many details about what's new.

There's the lower price, of course, with $50 shaved off the first-gen HomePod price. The internals have been reworked some, though whether that's to lower the overall cost, or just to make things better, remains to be seen. But It's got a new S7 processor instead of the older (and less purpose-driven) A8. It's got support for the Matter smart home standard and can listen for things like carbon monoxide alarms. And it'll still play music and do other smart home stuff.