What was already clear last year is that all major manufacturers of displays are not doing any further development in CRT technology, they’re all moving forward with flat panel displays. This year we couldn’t find a single CRT monitor at the show floor, which is a good indication that CRT is now no longer on any manufacturer’ roadmap. What we did see, and what has been normal and accepted in the US and Japan, is HDTV capable displays for the first time.









A number of lcd and plasma displays most of them offering HDTV resolutions.
We’ve seen a wide variety of HDTV capable displays, ranging from the entry level 20” devices, to displays with a 40 or even 50” diagonal with a full 1920x1080 resolution. These flat panel displays are a whole new challenge to the manufacturers, not only in terms of resolution and image quality, but also in sound quality and volume. With cabinets just a few inches deep, and most of the space taken up by the flat panel itself, it is hard to reproduce sound of hifi quality.