To borrow a line from UAV reviewer David Vaughn, CES 2009 is now receding in the rear-view mirror. It was a grueling week during which we all put many miles on our shoes—and cars, since Gary Altunian, Kim Wilson, and I all drove to the show and around Las Vegas, avoiding what we thought would be long cab lines. (We would have all driven together to be more eco-friendly, except that each of us was heading in a different direction after the show.)

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CES not only introduces all the new products we can expect to see on store shelves for that year, new trends in technologies and how we will use electronic products in our everyday lives come into full view, as well. CES is not just a showcase of the latest and greatest consumer products, it is a vision into the future.

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CES is over and by this time the huge exhibits have been dismantled and put in storage until next year. This year marks my 20th CES, and that doesn't include the summer CE Show that used to be held every June in Chicago, Ill.

Although the economy is in a slump and attendance was lower this year, that didn't stifle the development of innovative products I saw and heard in Las Vegas. Here's a show summary and a recap of the best of the best home theater products from CES 2009.

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At the stroke of 4:00 PM on Sunday, a great cheer was heard throughout the show and the mad rush to tear down the booths began. Stay tuned for our wrap-up reports in a couple of days after we catch our collective breath and take a little time to digest all that we saw and heard.

As in-wall speakers have grown in popularity, manufacturers have introduced in-wall subwoofers to complete the package. They have also struggled to deal with the inevitable rattles and vibrations of a subwoofer mounted inside a wall. Paradigm has introduced the RVC-12SQ Architectural Subwoofer, which solves the vibration problem by using two drivers in-phase but firing in opposite directions, thus canceling vibrations. The drivers face each other and fire horizontally rather than from front to back, further reducing vibrations. The RVC-12SQ can be used as a standalone sub or with the optional enclosure shown in the photo. The new Paradigm sub will be available in the first quarter with price to be announced.

Sony's OLED demo included several 27-inchers and some 11-inch XEL-1s as well as a new 11-inch model (in the center of this shot) that's less than 1mm thick. The prototypes were all mounted in super-cool brushed-aluminum flat stands. As OLEDs are wont to do, these looked stunning. I only wish this technology was practical and economical from a manufacturing perspective.

Even though Samsung has announced it is suspending research and development of OLED, there were still some prototypes at the front of its booth, including a 31-incher and several measuring 14 inches. They looked amazing.

Samsung is one of the few companies that makes and markets LCDs and plasmas with equal fervor. Members of the new B850 plasmas, including the 50- and 58-inch versions shown here, are only 1.5 inches deep at their thickest point, and they consume 40% less power than last year's line. It also boasts a 600Hz sub-field refresh rate, which is supposed to lower black level and reduce contouring, though this is likely more about specsmanship than any significant benefit.

I agree with Kim Wilson that the wall o' TVs at the entrance to the Sharp booth was impressive, but I thought the Samsung "wing" was even more so.

The beloved game show Jeopardy! celebrated its 25th anniversary by taping a week's worth of shows at CES. Interestingly, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune were the first game shows to be produced and broadcast in high-def in 2006.

I was surprised to see Haier in a huge booth in the middle of the convention center's Central Hall. This Chinese company has been at CES in years past, but until now, they've had a smaller booth somewhere in the back. Based in Qindao (or Tsing Tao, where the beer of that name is brewed), Haier is one of China's largest appliance manufacturers, and it's been selling LCD TVs in the US market since 2006. Where are they sold, you ask? Mainly independent appliance and TV stores such as BrandSmart; they are also big on the QVC shopping network.

Highlighted in the booth was the HL42XTW1, a 42-inch, 1080p, 120Hz LCD that uses a 10-bit panel and measures only 1.75 inches thick. It should be available in June or July for $1100.

I saw a couple of LED-illuminated DLP front projectors at CEDIA last year, so it wasn't all that surprising to see another one at CES. Vivitek introduced the H6080FD, a 1080p projector with a single DMD chip and RGB LEDs that are supposed to last 20,000 hours. This 1080p model claims 800 lumens of light output and a 50,000:1 native contrast ratio. Availability is said to be the May/June time frame, and the price will be around $20,000.

Following the successful introduction of their high-end Zeppelin iPod speaker system, B & W has entered the sound bar market with a higher end model, the Panorama. Few details were available, although it is a powered sound bar with 5 source inputs including 2 optical and 1 coaxial digital input. Price is $2200. B & W also says it does not require a subwoofer and has enough bass to fill most rooms. We'll see.

Vizio is getting on the widget bandwagon with Vizio Connected HDTV, a feature set that will be added to all XVT models this fall. With 802.11n WiFi and an Ethernet port, it can run various widgets to access online weather, news, and so on, and new widgets can be downloaded from the company's website into the TV's Widget Gallery shown here on the left of the screen. Also included is a new Bluetooth remote that slides open like a smartphone to reveal a QWERTY keyboard.

After its meteoric rise in the flat-panel business, Vizio is expanding into the realm of Blu-ray players with the VBR100. It's BD-Live with 1GB of internal memory, it has 7.1 analog audio outs, and it can bitstream and decode all the advanced audio codecs. It should be available in April for—get this—$200, the magic price point. Mainstream, here we come!

The 55-inch VF551XVT is Vizio's first LCD TV with LED backlight and local dimming. Slated for June, it also operates at 240Hz and offers a USB port and five HDMI inputs. The price? Only $2000! For that little, I could certainly tolerate the garish red soundbar grille below the screen.

When I heard that Samsung has a new Joe Kane-designed single-chip DLP projector, I had to check it out. The SP-A900B boasts 35% better contrast than the SP-A800B, mostly due to lower blacks thanks to the DarkChip 4 DMD and other refinements. To help Samsung sell the projector—which it has been unable to do in any volume with previous models—Kane is helping to set up a real distribution channel that will make the projector available only through dealers who install and calibrate it. The SP-A900B should be available next month for $15,000. The demo is using the new Da-Lite Affinity screen, which Kane also helped design, and the result is spectacular—the best video image at the show in my view.

Dolby has been working on an LED local-dimming system for LCD TVs for a couple of years, but now it's finally finished and ready for manufacturers to use in their products. It comes in two flavors—Dolby Vision is intended for prosumer, commercial, medical, and industrial applications, while Dolby Contrast is intended for consumer TVs. Pictured here is a 47-inch prototype implementation of Dolby Vision from SIM2. I also saw a demo of Dolby Contrast next to a Samsung 950 LCD with local dimming, and the difference was clear—the set with Dolby Contrast had better contrast and lower blacks, and the colors popped more.

I've always liked Optoma's 1080p DLP projectors, except for one thing—no lens shift, which makes placement difficult. I guess the company listened, because the new HD8200 takes lens shift one step beyond normal. Called PureShift, the Optoma shifts the entire light engine up to 20% left/right and 30% up/down, keeping the light path in the center of the lens. It'll be available only through custom installers for $5000 starting in February. The similar HD808 will be available at retail for $3500 in March; the 808 uses the DarkChip 2 DMD, whereas the 8200 uses the DC3 chip for greater contrast.

New to Dish Network's lineup of HD DVRs is the ViP 922 with Slingbox built in, which lets you watch any recorded program from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. To store all the HD programs you can't live without, it houses a 1-terabyte hard disk. Also new is the remote, which sports half the number of buttons as the previous design and a little touchpad that moves an onscreen cursor around a much more graphical menu system. As if that weren't enough, the 922 also offers RSS widgets, and it even recommends shows you might like based on what you select to watch.