The best tech at the Consumer Electronics Show 2006 was Toshiba/Canon's SED television.

"The prototype SED displays on-hand at CES 2006 were absolutely spectacular. I'm going to separate individual words with periods in order to stress a point. Pay attention now because I hardly ever do this. SED. Is. The. Freakin'. Future.

Consider that my 50" Panasonic plasma -- which, by the way, I adore -- has a contrast ratio of 3000:1. Today's cutting-edge flat panels have upped the ratio to 4000:1. SEDs, by comparison, sport a contrast ratio of 100,000: 1. Not a typo. One-hundred thousand to one. The result? Blacks so deep that they look even better than any CRT I've seen. Toshiba/Canon showed us video designed to demonstrate the way in which SED handles grayscale situations. Even in dark environments, it's entirely possible to make out different degrees of blackness -- which is something that is rarely possible on LCD or plasma. For instance, a boat floated through a lake in darkness. Everything was black, but I could still clearly see the lake shimmering and reflecting, just as I could make out the boat. Faintly and realistically. I may as well have been there. Demonstrations showing off SED brightness, color and motion particulars were every bit as impressive."

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