The state of tru2way according to CES
If you were waiting for CES to see all the great new tru2way devices then you probably noticed that there really weren't any. In fact we spent some time towards the end of the show looking for tru2way and was very surprised to see that there was actually less tru2way this year then last.
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The most noticeable was Panasonic who proudly displayed its tru2way plasmas on an end-camp at its booth last year, while this time around the same two models were hidden in a dark demo area. Panasonic said this was because these sets were announced last year and the new stuff gets the center stage, which makes sense, but what about extending tru2way through the line? Overall Panny did have the most information about tru2way and in fact told us that in the next few months it is expected that another five Comcast markets will be opened up to 3rd party tru2way devices. Samsung was also showing a few tru2way sets and was more than happy to share the wonders of the technology with us, but unfortunately the one question we had went unanswered; when would the 42 and 50 inch sets (pictured above) go on sale? The two biggest disappointments thought were from LG and Sony. While LG had a tru2way set hidden away at last year's booth, there wern't any to be found this time around. Sony on the other hand made a big splash earlier when it signed on to the memorandum of understanding, but the closest thing to a commitment at the show was a add-on box that would strap on to the back of your set. It didn't help that the demo was obviously just an empty shell and far from a real product.
The bottom line is that if you thought that 2009 was going to be the year of tru2way, then think again. At the very most there will only be about four TVs for sale, from two manufacturers, and maybe an add-on box from Sony. This also means that there probably won't be a tru2way box from TiVo, Moxi or even an Windows Media Center tru2way compatible tuner. Of course this could all change and since last year The Cable Show was practically the tru2way show, we'd expect that if there was any good news we'd hear it there in April.
