Panasonic holds live tru2way demonstration on TH-50PZ80Q plasma

They said they were going to do it, and do it they did. While Samsung's tru2way "demonstration" was barely more than a hack job used to show off what the technology was about, Panasonic demoed the real deal at its CEDIA booth. The 50-inch TH-50PZ80Q plasma contained a real CableCARD (yes, we checked) and was receiving a live signal from Comcast. Denver is just one of a few markets where tru2way is theoretically ready to rock, and according to a Panny rep, the set we saw today is a production unit that will ship sometime "later this year." The idea here is to provide buyers with the ability to insert any CableCARD from any carrier (if you move, for example) into an HDTV, thus eliminating the cable company's stranglehold (best known as a "carrier-issued set-top-box") on you. The demo we saw went over very well -- everything was responsive and image quality was excellent. See for yourself in the gallery below.

Panasonic holds live tru2way demonstration on TH-50PZ80Q plasma

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2008 6:18PM]

Is that a standard CableCard there in photo #13? I thought Tru2Way would use a different kind of card? I've read some articles which talked about downloadable security modules, thus eliminating the need for a physical card. It seems like it would be in everyone's best interest to get away from the current PCMCIA CableCard form factor. If a physical card is a regulatory requirement, I would think that an inexpensive SD card could do the job.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2008 6:47PM]

Why is it not a proper widescreen guide? Last year they demoed a nice big fancy guide, now they show us the crappy hour and a half, 5 channel stretchovision guide from Comcast's boxes.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 6th 2008 10:42AM]

Of course they don't have the ad's turned on in the guide. When you get this for real, I bet that last row will be ad's. They could of at least changed the grid guide to single height to show 6 channels on the screen at once.

Graphically it looks much better than the current I-Guide software, but I like that 16:9 HD guide that was shown at CES and The Cable Show dubbed "J-Guide 3.0".