Samsung - HDTV Comes To DirecTV

For those of you that are DirecTV subscribers and who are currently receiving DirecTV's HDTV content, we have something that you should look at. For some time now, DirecTV has been saying that Samsung is working on a new DirecTV HD receiver. We saw the new SIR-TS160 today, and you will notice from the picture that it has DVI and HDCP outputs. We asked DirecTV what the status of HD 5C Copy Protection was, and as we are accustomed to, no one at DirecTV knew what we were talking about. The only thing that we were able to drag out of them is that the SIR-TS160 is new and has not completed certification or field trials yet. We asked them if HD was going to be disabled on the older HD boxes, and no one seemed to know for sure. We looked at the unit and it appears to be a unique design. We have no additional info to offer you beyond this picture. We'll keep an eye on this because satellite is a growing market, and it gives you a heck of a bang for your viewing buck when compared to cable.

Samsung's new SIR-TS160 HD DirecTV receiver. We know little about it, but it is new and does claim to support HDCP.

Summary For Day One

This isn't a bad way to kick off 2002. It's up. It's cool geek stuff. There's an air of optimism around here that was missing from Comdex. Not a bad way at all to kick off 2002.

CES is one show that you can wallow in. It's also a great concept show where the geek shopping list of the future can be prepared. With the emergence of digital television, home networking, and wireless connectivity, consumer electronics is heading into the 21st century looking like a science fiction fantasy come through.

Appliances can be digital and connected and controlled across the Internet. Homes can be wired to run to the pulse of digital media content from MP3 files to satellite and cable feeds. You can practically reshape your lives in a way that has never been possible before.

It's also worth noting that CES is organized by the consumer electronics companies themselves, and targets the resellers and dealer networks. Therefore, it is much more realistic to assume that what we see here will make its way into places like Circuit City and Best Buy, or in other words, the mainstream. Sure, there are $100,000 home theater set-ups and cars that have more audio wattage than an Aerosmith concert, but that's what makes it so fun.

Again, the upbeat enthusiasm of the vendors and the attendees here is a refreshing change from the recent subdued and glum outlook we have been witnessing in the technology arena.

The sun will come out tomorrow, you can bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there will be sun......

Please follow-up by reading CES 2002 Day 2: New Solutions And Surprises .