Early buzz from CES 2016: Smart home hubs and HDR TVs

The biggest tech event of the year is about to kick off. I'm Bridget Carey. This is your CNet update. [MUSIC] It's time once again for the annual consumer electronics show known as CES, held in Las Vegas. This is where the tech world unites to show off what's to come in 2016. For the next few days. CNET's gonna be covering every corner of the show floor. And here's what you can expect. Companies are still putting the finishing touches on their booths right now, but there's already some news around televisions. Of course televisions are always a highlight of the show. Everyone goes gaga for screens. They get larger, brighter and somehow even thinner. You may be familiar with ultra high definition, also known as 4K, but the buzz word this year could be HDR. That stands for high dynamic range, and here's one way to explain it. HDR on a tv doesn't just mean more pixels, but rather think of it as better pixels. You're getting a broader range of contrast and color, and images seem to have more depth. We'll hear more about that in the days to come. LG announced it has LED LCD tv's with a new name. Super ultra high definition and calling it super it makes you feel it's even better than other 4K and I'm sure there's gonna be yet another TV introduce in a day or two. They'll be somehow even more super perhaps super duper, and they sure Samsung has 4K TVs that can talk to smart home system, as you control the front door lock and the thermostat. From your TV. Now aside from televisions, the smart home is gonna be another big star of the show. And I'm not talking about smart locks or garage door openers. It's the large appliances that get most of the attention at CES. And speaking of smart home LG's gonna show off its cylindrical speaker called the SmartThink, which can talk to some smart home gadgets. Does it remind you of something? Hello Alexa. Looks like LG's trying to copy Amazon's success with the Echo. But this is just a small taste of what's to come at the show this week. There's also gonna be lots of smart car tech. Toyota teased that it has some sort of new mapping technology that could eliminate the need for Google's dedicated GPS vehicles that drive around recording street maps. And of course there will be plenty of hype for a virtual reality in other contraptions to put on your add. If you already have your own headset like a google cardboard or a Samsung Gear VR You can visit the show yourself. CNET is doing it's own 360 degree video tour of CES. That's happening Thursday. So, that's your tech news update. But we're just getting started, so stay tuned all week long. Coming to you from the Las Vegas Convention Center, I'm Bridget Carey. [MUSIC]