Top executives from many of the world’s biggest consumer electronics retailers took the stage at the Consumer Electronics Show on Tuesday to hash out tough topics like the troubled U.S. economy, the Blu-ray - HD DVD format war, and the coming U.S. analog TV cut-off. The lineup ranged from stoned-faced Circuit City CEO, still smarting from a December shortfall, to Chen Xiao of China’s Gome, who looked relaxed as he forecast double-digit growth.

Here is a sample of their comments:

Gary Shapiro, CEO of CEA:
How important is the economy for consumer electronics sales?

Phil Scoonover, Circuit City CEO :
We are concerned about the economy. People that are getting their first oil bill at $3 a gallon…are just realizing the implications of the energy costs. Of course the subprime issues have haunted us for some number of months, and the share of mind that the “r” word is getting in the media today has us concerned. At least in the first half of the year we are going to take a cautious approach to expenses and try to make sure that we are being prudent given what we believe to be more difficult economic headwinds.

Steve Eastman, VP/GMM, consumer electronics, Target:
Big items that people really want they are still buying in droves. We had several gadgets through the holiday that we had people lining up at the stores to come in and buy. I think the consumer is a little more empowered, in a tougher economy they are going to be more selective.

Chen Xiao, CEO, Gome (China’s top electronic retailer):
Our growth is many times faster than the overall economic growth.

Shapiro: Will the next-gen DVD war go on now that Warner Bros. has sided with Blu Ray?

Schoonover: We are very excited to see progress of any type and we see this as significant progress.

Brad Anderson, Best Buy CEO: It makes it a lot easier to see the likelihood that we get to one format, and it makes it easier for us as retailers to help push it to that one format. It’s time to get that (problem of movies not being on one format or another) solved.

Shapiro: The transition to digital television comes in 2009. How do you see that playing out?

Anderson: This is one of the biggest risks our industry has. The number of converter boxes that are going to be required, the potential impact on television manufacturing in such a brief window of time could put tremendous pressure on all of us trying to solve those problems for our customers.

We are very nervous about the potential risk. the more we can handle this up front for customers, the better, because once it gets turned off it could be interesting. For all of us in the industry, we have a vested interest that this be a smooth transition for the customer. This industry would be damaged if we don’t do a really good job.

Vishesh Bhatia, Group Director, Electronics, Engineering & Technologies Division, Al Futtaim:
The learnings that we will see from you gentlemen here, we will bring to the Middle East when it happens there.