CES 2020: What to expect from the tech bonanza - from smart toilets to 8K TVs

LAS VEGAS - CES 2020 officially kicks off here in Las Vegas on Tuesday, and companies from around the world are rolling out the forklifts to build out some of the massive exhibits that will be on display for the 170,000 attendees at this year’s edition of the tech industry’s trade show.

But we’ve already got a good idea of the kinds of major announcements we’ll get during the biggest week in tech. Here’s what to expect, from 8K TVs to smart toilets to smartphones with foldable displays.

As usual, some of the hottest news will come from the TV industry. This year, you can expect plenty of companies talking about 8K resolution. It's more than a bit of a stretch to say that 8K, which offers twice the vertical and horizontal resolution of 4K if you're keeping count, is necessary for most consumers.

In fact, 4K is still not even the norm for streaming services - you have to pay to watch 4K content on Netflix (NFLX) - so it's unlikely that you'll want to pony up the extra cash for 8K anytime soon, with sets costing well into the thousands of dollars.

“There’s a mathematical equation for viewing distance”

I can’t wait to see an 8K video. I need to find out what the resolution of the eye is. 20-20 vision is pretty darn good.

Also, wonder what the resolution of 35mm or 70mm film is and also how much color and intensity is packed into each “grain” of the film.

For a person who went to a one room school & used one of the 2 outhouses behind the school building, I am plenty happy with current ‘toilet technology’.

I figure that Mr Kohler did all the R & D necessary & he KNEW that 3 gallons of water wasn’t enough for solids to be properly removed. Keep in mind that when Kohler built his empire, running water INSIDE homes was a new & novel idea.

“Smart toilets”?
What exactly do they mean...like Sheryl Crow/ Al Gore smart?

“Can’t flush now, you’ve used more than one square of TP, remove the excess NOW, or images of your hairy butt will be splashed all over youtube!”

Islamic market will offer sharia compliant bacon sniffing sensors that will lop off your head.

And the devil only knows what Californians might mandate.

The biggest advantage 4K has over 1080p is the color depth/saturation. Blacks became incredible with 4K. I’ve also noticed a distinct improvement in eliminating motion blur. The resolution improvement was not truly apparent to my eyes upon upgrading to 4K.

Colors and blacks don't really have much to do with the resolution. Those will be other build factors in your TV. If you want really black blacks, the Kuro was one of the best. Plasma display. 720p if I remember correctly.

On a side note, were you actually running true 4k? Or did your source only output 1080, with the TV upscaling? In which case you aren't even running 4k, you're running a 4k display that has squares of 4 pixels for every actual pixel.

“Colors and blacks don’t really have much to do with the resolution. Those will be other build factors in your TV. If you want really black blacks, the Kuro was one of the best. Plasma display. 720p if I remember correctly.”

“On a side note, were you actually running true 4k? Or did your source only output 1080, with the TV upscaling? In which case you aren’t even running 4k, you’re running a 4k display that has squares of 4 pixels for every actual pixel.”

I have an all Sony 4K HDTV setup, 4K BDP800, with plenty of 4K UHDs to have experience enough to back up my opinion.

Color has everything to do with resolution. The more pixels there are, that means that the density of the color is higher per scan line. It also means that any particular color is more true. I operate a printing press by trade, and it’s generally the same theory.

No, that only means the density of the color is higher per scan line, if you don't have a much bigger screen. Someone upgrading their 1080p 32" to a 4k 80" will actually have a WORSE looking screen, because his density just dropped from 69ppi to 55ppi. It's not just the resolution that affects this, it's several factors. And generally, (assuming exact same style of construction) a higher ppi will give you worse blacks, because that's a denser packing of the little bit of light that is 'black'. Pixels aren't always turned off for black, they're just really, really dim. That's why turning your TV off actually looks darker than any 'black' you display - between your backlight, and pixels not dropping entirely to zero. Similar to how your printing can't just mix all colors and make black - you have to have a key ink for that.

True color is much more dependent on the capabilities and quality of the hardware. No consumer grade TV has 'true' colors - for that you want a reference monitor, which costs in the thousands and then some. For a 24" monitor. Sure, a low resolution will have 'worse' color simply from the fact that you see more of the space between the actual pixels, but that has nothing to do with each pixel's actual color quality. Increasing resolution there will help your overall picture, but at a certain point it's useless - the human eye can only distinguish so much resolution at a certain distance. And on a normal size TV, most people can't even see the difference between 1080 and 4k once they're more than a couple feet away. Ten feet away on the couch, and you probably need somewhere around an 80" or bigger for really sharp eyesight to start to see a difference. If not even bigger.

A printing press is similar, yet different. A monitor is sourcing the light, while printing is actually taking away light. That's your difference between additive color addition and subtractive color addition. Why printers are generally CYMK, while video signals are RGB. Light fully mixes, whereas inks do not.

I respect your reply here, it’s not wrong. My point being that any person could test the theory on their own with any fine point color marker. If you make a grid of 25 dots in a square formation on a piece of paper (5 x 5), and then next to it make the same square again, and start adding extra dots in the blank spaces, you’ll see it. Even without improved video processing, you’re going to see improvements in the color with 4K.

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