Before even CES started, we received a media invitation to a sideshow called The Digital Experience. This was a good opportunity for exhibitors and press to interact without all the noise from the main showfloor at Las Vegas Convention Center.

LG multi drive, screen technologies

LG was ready to show their dual format high definition player before the official announcement took place on CES day 1. We had a write up posted earlier this week here.

Once at CES, LG showed alongside a PC combo drive capable of rewriting Blu-ray and reading HD DVD discs.

As one of today's giants in consumer electronics LG was also demonstrating display technologies. Active matrix OLED screens for cell phones of various sizes, and a huge "world's first" 100 inches LCD TV screen. It should be worth adding that Panasonic, which we will cover more thoroughly on our Part 2 coverage, was showing an even larger 103" Plasma TV.

Dell

Dell and Alienware were showing their gaming setups. In the first picture you have a 22" Dell monitor next to the behemoth 30" model which sells for $1699. They were playing a high resolution video of Crysis in the larger monitor, which needless to say looked simply astonishing. Unfortunately it was nothing close to a playable demo (which we finally saw at the Microsoft booth, more on that later).

Making a statement regarding their transition to a broader market where the PC acts as the center of media, Dell was showing off a beautiful 37" LCD screen connected to a laptop and Xbox 360.

Netgear

Netgear was showing their latest line of power-line Ethernet adapters, network media storage, VoIP/Skype phones, and a digital media player capable of wirelessly streaming video to your home network.