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Sharp's Aquos TV will come with a Blu-ray recorder built in.

(Credit: Sharp)

Sharp will make the first LCD TV with a Blu-ray Disc recorder built in.

The high-definition disc recorder will be wedged into the side of Aquos DX-series TVs. It will have dual digital tuners, allowing users to watch and record simultaneously on different channels. It will record using the encoding format MPEG4 H.264/AVC.

The TVs will be available in sizes ranging between 26 inches and 52 inches for the equivalent of $4,923 to $1,674.

The catch? They're only available in Japan for now, but Sharp is planning to sell it in the U.S. by the end of the year, according to PC World.. Whether it would find success stateside is a little murkier. While competitor Panasonic has already said it's bringing Blu-ray recorders to the U.S. by the first half of 2009, some other CE manufacturers aren't so sure.

Sony, the most high-profile backer of the Blu-ray format, has no immediate plans to bring Blu-ray recorders here. The general lack of interest in DVD recorders (compared with interest in DVD players) thus far, doesn't bode well for widespread interest in recording devices for a format that still hasn't totally caught on with average consumers.

Plus, it's unclear what you'd actually be able to do with a Blu-ray recorder here, as studios tend to be sensitive about how consumers manipulate and use their content.

Plasma TV purveyor Pioneer is bringing its LCD TVs to North America and Japan early next year, according to reports.

Pioneer's LCD for Europe...coming soon to North America?

(Credit: Crave UK)

A Pioneer representative in the U.S. didn't have an immediate comment on the report in the Japan Corporate News Network citing unnamed Pioneer officials as saying at a recent company product showcase that it will bring 32-inch and 37-inch LCD TVs to Asia and North America "in the first half of 2009." The report also says Sharp will be supplying the panels, but doesn't give any model names.

But it makes sense. Pioneer is already selling 32-inch and 37-inch LCDs in Europe. (See Crave UK's report here.) Sharp supplying the LCD panels follows the pattern of the recent deal Pioneer made with Panasonic to make panels for its plasma TVs.

Sony's 200Hz Z4500, on display at IFA, isn't a radical-looking TV. Indeed, it appears to be essentially the same as the excellent 40W4000. Click on the image above to see more Sony sets being shown at the Berlin show.

(Credit: Crave UK)

After Sony's press conference at IFA trade show in Berlin, we at Crave UK took a quick look around the company's booth and snapped some of the new Bravia TVs expected to be delivered by this holiday season.

The most interesting product is the ZX1, a 9.9mm-thick LED "backlit" LCD TV, which takes a new approach to TV design, and means that there's plenty of scope to reduce the depth of the TV. This is achieved by having the backlight at the side and using some clever and top-secret jiggery pokery to diffuse and distribute the light.

The announcement that Sony would be producing a "Motionflow" 200Hz television in the near future, called the Z4500, was an interesting one too. Here in Berlin there's a huge and mysterious advertisement on the side of the Sony Center claiming that "everything would be clear." In reality, we don't see much of an advantage to 200Hz over 100Hz, especially given the magic number is 120Hz anyway--because this is the rate to properly do 5:5 pulldown.

Sony managed to get a good reception here at IFA, and even some laughter over its new Starship Troopers Blu-ray, but that's a story for another time. Click on the image above for more pictures of the new Bravia goodness.

Editor's note: These new TVs are made specifically for Europeans. But don't feel left out: Sony and others will likely have plenty of news of U.S. models to share at next week's Cedia.

Related story

Panasonic puts plasma TVs on a diet

(Credit: Samsung)

We're in the "fourth wave" of LCD technology, according to Samsung.

Moving from the first LCD notebook screens, to monitors, to high-definition televisions, the next iteration of the technology is ... Thomas Kinkade?

At a press event Tuesday evening in San Francisco, Samsung introduced a prototype hybrid LCD TV and art display it is calling the Digital Masterworks Art-TV. Though not a shipping product yet, the TV is set to be a 46-inch widescreen display with a fine art frame in place of a traditional bezel. The display will feature 1080p resolution, 3,000:1 contrast ratio, 500 nits of brightness, and a 40GB hard drive to store other images.

The TV is being developed with The Thomas Kinkade Company, so naturally the first versions of this set will be used to display art by Kinkade. The set will come pre-loaded with his paintings or will be updated, either wired or wirelessly, according to Samsung.

There are also apparently plans for the screen to be touch sensitive, which will allow lighting or colors within an artwork to be altered by hand.

And when you're not using the display as a decorative piece, you can always use it for its intended purpose--as a TV.

After a dramatic rise to the top of the LCD TV market last summer, Vizio seemed to have gotten a taste of reality as it settled back down to the No. 3 spot through the end of the 2007.

But it appears Vizio is ratcheting up the price pressure again on its closest competitors, according to new figures from iSuppli, a market research firm that monitors the LCD industry.

For the first quarter of 2008, the top vendors' share of unit shipments, led by Samsung with 13.9 percent of units shipped, and followed by Sony (13.7 percent) and Vizio (13.5 percent), remain separated by 0.3 of a percentage point. The three were separated by 1.8 points in the fourth quarter of last year.

As the economy worsens, and consumers have less discretionary income for luxury purchases like a flat-panel TV, lower-priced sets are going to sell better. Vizio is in a better position than most in its industry to do that because of its distribution channels, which are mainly bargain-friendly outlets like club stores, and Wal-Mart Stores, and because it saves money by not building and maintaining multi-billion-dollar fabs, or panel manufacturing plants. Instead, it buys its panels from those that do.

Both Sony and Samsung have already responded to Vizio's price pressure with lower-cost LCD TVs of their own. But those TV manufacturers that haven't responded similarly to the Vizio threat are finding the North American flat-panel market an increasingly difficult place to do business.

Philips was the first to buckle under the pressure, announcing last month that it would no longer make or distribute its own TVs in North America. Instead, it arranged for low-cost TV vendor Funai to do so on its behalf.

Shipments of LCD TVs were down across the board in the first quarter, reaching 5.6 million units, versus the same quarter a year ago when 7.96 million LCD TVs shipped, iSuppli said. Although the first quarter is always the weakest for the industry, it appears the second quarter may not fare much better.

iSuppli says unit shipments in North America are expected to grow just 26.6 percent overall this year, to 27.4 million units. That's a far cry from the 88.8 percent growth in 2007 and the 92.6 percent seen in 2006.

If you've been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to own the thinnest flat-panel LCD TV, now's your chance.

Hitachi's 1.5 LCDs are just that thick.

(Credit: Hitachi)

Though already available in Asia, the 1.5-inch-thick TVs from Hitachi are now available in the U.S. The sets come in three different screen sizes, 32 inches, 37 inches, and 42 inches.

One of the secrets, by the way, of how Hitachi managed to slim down the TVs so much is that they took out the ATSC tuner. And although it is definitely the thinnest LCD TV, it's downright bloated when compared to Sony's impossibly thin OLED TV, which measures a mere 3 millimeters thick.

See my colleague David Katzmaier's take on the latest TV from Hitachi here.

If you haven't heard of Loewe you're missing a treat, because the company specializes in some of the most eye-catching equipment you've ever seen. It's probably fair to say Apple designer Jonathan Ive would be happy to have a Loewe in his living room. The German company's latest is the innovative Connect 37, a 37-inch LCD TV with built-in media streaming abilities.

The Connect 37 is aimed with a sniper's accuracy at people who must have the best of everything. It's a 'Full HD' 1080p TV, with support for 24p playback from HD media. It has both Wi-Fi and wired Ethernet options, which allow it to connect to a PC running Windows Media Player file sharing. Our slight disappointment is that there isn't a more open approach to streaming, such as from other network shares.

(Credit: Loewe)

To prove its high-end characteristics, the Connect 37 also has a Scart socket configured to display component video. That's pretty rare, but you might find it useful if you need an extra component input. There are also two HDMI sockets, and RCA digital audio inputs and outputs for connecting a home-cinema system. You'll find two USB sockets for photo and music playback.

The even higher-end DR+ model comes with a built-in 160GB hard drive, for recording TV without the need for an external set-top-box style PVR. A handy feature indeed, and one we'd love to see more of in TVs.

There are five configuration options available when you buy the TV and a number of add-ons to complement it. You get a choice of three colors: silver, black, and white. You can add DVB-S functionality, which enables the TV to receive HD via satellite--though Rupert Murdoch makes this impossible in the U.K. because Sky provides no CAM for its services. There's also a version available without the media-streaming option, if that's not your beverage of choice. 

You can also add a matching Blu-ray player or a DVD recorder with 250GB hard drive, for recording Freeview channels. To round off the setup, why not choose a surround-sound speaker system color-matched to your TV? Now that's an integrated approach for you.

The Connect 37 is available direct from Loewe for around 2,150 pounds ($4,300). Subtract 100 pounds if you don't want a built-in PVR. Adding extra options will of course increase this substantially. It is a beautiful TV though, and any tech-head will fall in love with it at first sight.

(Source: Crave UK)

SAN FRANCISCO--Though times may be tough for other TV manufacturers, Sony says it isn't feeling a thing yet in its electronics division here in the U.S.

At a press briefing with reporters here Wednesday evening, Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow said that despite indications of a weakening U.S. economy, all is well with the Japanese electronics giant.

"I don't think consumers buying consumer electronics yet feel that," Glasgow said. "Sony did particularly well during the holidays. It was the best in the history of Sony Electronics in the U.S."

A boon to Sony's bottom line has been the growth of its Sony Style stores, both brick-and-mortar outlets, and its online presence. Glasgow said Sony Style experienced a 34 percent growth in sales over the 2007 holiday shopping season.

Another high point was its TV business. According to data collected by market research company DisplaySearch, Sony lead all LCD TV manufacturers in the fourth quarter of 2007 with 12.3 percent of worldwide shipments, considered a major comeback for the company.

One of the things that appeared to help Sony in 2007 was its expansion of specific television models made to sell in Wal-Mart Stores and Target. Glasgow said the company is expanding that commitment to supplying those retailers with 40 percent more variety of TV models this year.

Glasgow kept the gloating to a minimum, however, when it came to Blu-ray's recent victory in the format spat with HD DVD. As one of the leading investors and supporters of Blu-ray, Sony does see prices dropping on standalone Blu-ray players over the next couple years, but it will be 2009 before a $199 unit becomes a reality, he said. Price drops will happen, but it needs to be done in an orderly fashion, Glasgow said.

"I don't see any reason to do it stupidly and lose money," he said.

In the meantime, Sony is "in discussions" with a number of partners in order to get them on the Blu-ray bandwagon. An Microsoft Xbox 360 console with Blu-ray is certainly "a possibility," he said.

But perish the thought that Sony will take trade-ins of now-obsolete HD DVD players. "Sony is not going to make up for Toshiba's sins," Glasgow said emphatically.

Other tidbits gleaned from the evening:

• Though 11-inch OLEDs are the largest size Sony is offering right now, bigger screen sizes are on the way--some day. But there are currently limits on exactly how big Sony can make them right now. Glasgow specifically said that there are major obstacles (mostly to do with the physics of creating the panels) to make OLED screens larger than 30 inches. "It would take another significant investment to get bigger than that," he said.


• Sony is apparently unfazed by Amazon.com's recent entrance into the electronic book reader market. "The Kindle has helped," Glasgow said. "I think the (Sony) Reader market needed a boost. We're selling more since the Kindle came to market."

Pioneer plans to let someone else make its plasma TV panels, according to several reports.

Reuters reported Tuesday that the company will cease production of its own plasma panels because that portion of its business continues to lose money. The company will still sell plasma sets, but plans to get its plasma panels from Matsushita, parent company of Panasonic, the Nikkei business daily reported. Panasonic is the biggest plasma TV vendor in the world, shipping nearly 40 percent of all plasma displays, while Pioneer ranks fifth, shipping just over 6 percent of plasmas worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to DisplaySearch.

(Credit: Pioneer)

So far, Pioneer isn't confirming or denying the reports ("Our headquarters are planning to publicly discuss our TV strategy at the end of this week, so we'll have no information until then," said a spokesperson), but it doesn't look good.

As CNET colleague and resident TV expert David Katzmaier put it, this news amounts to "a black day for black levels."

Pioneer has been repositioning its plasma business over the last few years as a premium brand, most recently pushing its "Kuro" technology, which emphasizes deep black levels and contrast, at CES 2007 and 2008. CNET Reviews ranked the 50-inch plasma from Pioneer as "the best it's ever tested" last year.

Though it appears Pioneer will continue to sell plasmas sets, if it's not making the panels, it seems unlikely that it will prolong the life of its Kuro technology. Pioneer is, however, already planning to buy liquid crystal display panels from Sharp in order to start selling LCD TVs. LCD sets have quickly become the fastest-growing TV technology, displacing traditional cathode-ray tube sets, as well as rear-projection and plasma.