Pricing for the 42" 16:9 widescreen was unannounced at the show, however Sanyo reps commented that "under $10,000" is a realistic bet.

Capable of 480i/480p, 720p, and 1080i HDTV presentation, the PDP-42WF100 was at the top of our list in terms of plasma flat TV image quality, even compared to some of the better plasma TVs we saw at Panasonic and Fujitsu.

SSP-PD7: Sanyo's foray into a portable digital audio MP3 player comes in the form of their new SSP-PD7 portable.

About half the size of a MiniDisc player, the ultra-small SSP-PD7 utilizes postage-stamp sized MultiMediaCards for data storage. One 32MB MMC card is included with the SSP-PD7, and music can be sent from a PC to the player via an included USB connector cable.

As with most of the other MP3 players on the market the SSP-PD7 offers an LCD dot matrix display paired with no moving internal parts, effectively making the player "skip-proof."

For battery power, the SSP-PD7 comes complete with a rechargeable Nickel-Metal Hydride battery, which can propel the unit for up to 6 hours continuously. In lieu of the Ni-MH rechargeable, a single AAA battery can also be used to provide power to the unit.

Sharky Extreme opinion: Pricing and availability for the SSP-PD7 player wasn't announced by Sanyo at CES, but in our estimation the unit is nearly ready for production. Sanyo probably didn't want to tip their hand and preferred to see where the bigger electronics companies will be pricing their own MP3 players first.

Frankly we'd rather see these devices all come standard with 64MB of storage space instead of the SSP-PD7's included 32MB card, as that's about the amount needed for a full 74-minutes of audio listening.

But we did like the ergonomic design of the small player, and believe that if Sanyo can price it at $150 or below, they'll be the new low cost leader for a brand name portable MP3 solution.