Vizio conquered the LCD HDTV market last year. Now it wants a piece of the TV accessory market.

While the Irvine TV company unveiled its first Blu-ray Disc player, sound bar and cables last year, this year’s show had many nice surprises as well. It not only showed its latest TVs, including a 3D model and a super skinny HDTV, but it offered up a bunch of interesting TV accessories. I’ve highlighted the following, with pictures of course:

Universal remote control with built-in LCD – Two of them are coming but the more interesting one is the XRT100 touchscreen remote control has a 3.5-inch LCD display to control the home’s entertainment system. It will work with Vizio’s upcoming (and delayed) Internet TV, as well as older audio and video devices. Unlike the Samsung Wi-Fi remote with the built-in TV display, this one works over Bluetooth. Click photos to enlarge.

Headphones with built-in LCD — Why does one need an LCD screen on a set of headphones, I’m not quite sure. But it was cool to see. Vizio added a round LCD display to the outer part of each earpiece. Users will be able to see the album cover or personal images on the screens. These are future products with no price or availability date available. Watch the video I took inside Vizio’s dark CES suite:

	Vizio’s LCD headphones

Fashion-minded headphones — Vizio hired fashion designers to come up with its new home theater Europa Bluetooth wireless headphones. With a touch of color, these fashion-minded headphones look like a headband and come in textured finishes and hand-stitched leather. As part of its new move into fashion, Vizio also added singer Beyoncé Knowles – Carter as its new face (see earlier story “Vizio hires Beyoncé as new spokesperson“). The company wanted to go beyond the basic black headset. Other in-ear headphones are simple and sleek. These are future products with no price or availability date. Some images:

And what are headphones without music? Well, there won’t be a Vizio MP3 player, but there’s going to be a new iPod/iPhone docking station with attached speaker. The VHP100 is a Bluetooth wireless home-theater headphone set with an iPod dock. It uses 2.4 Ghz to wirelessly connect with a Vizio soundbar or older soundbar systems (it accepts SPDIF and RCA inputs). There is active noise cancellation, five-hour battery life and a 3.5 mm audio jack if you want to take the headphones on an airplane.  This should be available in May for $299.99. Click image on right to enlarge.

Again, not an MP3 player, but Vizio also plans to launch two Internet radios with iPod docks. The $189.99 VIR100 (below left) Wireless Internet Radio with iPod Dock has a 7-inch touchscreen, includes FM radio and, of course, access to Internet radio stations via Wi-Fi wireless technology. The pricier $299.99 VOR 200 (below right) has the same display and Wi-Fi access but adds a better 2.1 audio system with subwoofer and audio processing from SRS Labs. Both radios are expected to ship in the fall 2010.

A Vizio Internet router? Yup. Vizio wanted to make sure its users get the best wireless HD video experience  so it’s launching the XWR100 HD Wireless Internet Router. This is an 802.11n dual-band wireless networking router with a 4-port 10/100 switch and a USB port. This should launch in April 2010 for $99.99. Separately, Vizio also will offer a four-port switch to extend the Internet signal to the living room. Its XWH100 Wireless HDMI Adapter is a four-port switch that uses SiBEAM’s 60 GHz technology, which is supposed to interfere less with other wireless technologies. The switch also offers communication between devices of up to 30 feet without needing to be in the line of sight. This is expected to go on sale in summer 2010 for $249.

Whew! What a show for Vizio. Don’t forget to check out other posts I wrote about the company’s new TVs:

One-third inch? Ha! Vizio TV is even skinnier

Vizio takes battery-operated TVs to new level

Vizio hires Beyoncé as new spokesperson

Vizio announces biggest, priciest HDTV (yup, it’s 3D)

For more CES 2010 coverage, visit the Gadgetress CES page at gadgetress.freedomblogging.com/ces2010.
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