Television is always a big centerpiece of CES, but video really dominated the show this year. For the consumer, this is mostly about buying a new, thin HDTV. There are plenty of those on the floor, although several vendors told me that demand is so high right now that getting a top tier LCD or plasma may be tough for the next six month or so.

For the industry, however, there was a huge focus on working with the video itself: time-shifting it, burning it to disc, distributing it over the Net, slinging it around the home, making it portable, and so on. Everyone wants to offer their own version of TIVO. TIVO itself showed off new Series 3 box, which supports HD, but perhaps more importantly they announced a set of open source APIs that will let anyone build video services for distribution on the TIVO network.

Of course, this shift from a broadcast model to a on-demand, time-shifted, mobile video platform has left the business guys struggling for figure out business models and pricing schemes.

As a geek, I am just looking forward to figuring out how to make this stuff work.

(Apologies for the gratuitous video wall shot.)

Watching Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Radio duke it out is a lot more fun to watch than the HD-DVD vs Blu-ray battle. To be honest, I am a Sirius fan, but the new Sportscaster ($59.99 MSRP) for XM is pretty appealing. (And what a great name!) The product was developed with Advanced Global Technology and is designed to be a personal satellite radio device that can use in your car, at home, in the office, or just slip into your pocket. It plays 160 XM radio channels and comes with a FM transmitter, which is a nice nod to the old school.  I would still like to have some storage for local MP3 playback, like the Sirius S50, but I that just might me.

Panasonic upset Samsung as the company with the largest HDTV plasma in the world--by just one inch. Samsung is showing its 102" plasma on the show floor, but Panasonic claims the "World Largest" title with a 103" set. it has a resolution of a 1920x1080 resolution and a 3,000:1 contrast ratio.

At this size, it is hard to see a one-inch difference, but bragging rights are worth something. It was certainly big enought to stop these guys (see left) in their tracks.

For more coverage of HDTVs at CES check out PC Magazine's HDTV coverage here.

We reviewed the Garmin nuvi ($798.00 - $954.00) a few months back at PC Magazine. It is a handheld GPS system that comes loaded with a host of features. We were a little torn about it, because although it worked in the U.S., it wasn't being sold here yet. That changed just a few days before Christmas and the company is showing the product on the CES show floor now.

At the most basic level, the nuvi is a very powerful, very simple GPS device with a great screen in a super small form factor, but it goes way beyond that. Among the added features are:

   * Travel guides, detailed information about local attraction through out Europe. (The U.S. version of the Travel guides will be coming soon.)

   * Language guides, software that translates words and languages and will even play them back to you.

   * Geo-coded coupons, which let you know about retail stores near you that are offering sales and discounts.

   * Oh, and it plays MP3s.

And if that isn't enough, the GPS chip that the nuvi uses is very sensitive. The company won't claim that it can penetrate buildings, but when we tested it, it did so easily. It isn't cheap, but Garmin hinted that the ability to rent a nuvi when you travel could be in the works. For more details check out our full review.