Sony revealed a few cool home theater displays and components Thursday, revealing pricing and specs on some LCD displays, free content from YouTube and other online content direct to the TV set and a home-theater-in-a-box (HTiB) setup that features tiny but powerful speakers. All in all, a good day for tech watchers and home theater aficionados.
The
seven new Bravia LCD TVs introduced are all HD models and feature Triluminos LED backlight and local dimming, which matches LED color backlighting to the LCD color display. The dimming feature helps reproduce better black levels, something the plasma TV makers have always claimed they're a bit better at reproducing with their technology.
The Web content is delivered by a new module Sony introduced that will fit onto the back of many of its 2007 and 2008 LCD panels, called the
BRAVIA Internet Video Link. YouTube, CNET and C-Spot content is added to offerings from Yahoo!, AOL, Sports Illustrated, blip.tv, CondéNet's Style.com, Men.Style.com, Epicurious.com, Concierge.com, Sony Pictures' Crackle, The Minisode Network, Inside Sony Pictures, FEARnet, Ford Models, SingingFool, and VideoDetective. That's plenty to watch. The module costs $299 but since the content is all free we are certainly intrigued. (Note: Sony's not the only company to offer up Web content on its sets. For example,
Panasonic's got content streaming on some of its top end units with VIERACast.) Other modules announced include a DVD Link (which attaches at DVD player onto the back of the TV) and and Input Link (more inputs onto the back of the TV. The Internet Link is available now, but the other modules will be out by the end of the year.
Finally, that
HTiB with tiny drivers, called the HT-IS100 BRAVIA Theatre Micro System, has five speakers each about the size of a golf ball or a large strawberry (see the image above). It's designed for high-def input with three 1080p HDMI inputs with repeater functionality and support for eight channels of uncompressed audio, which means your Blu-ray Disc player, your PlayStation3 and other HD sources will work hand-in-hand with the system. Look for a price tag of about $700 on this system.
The
new Bravia LCD TVs will be shipping this fall but pricing is not yet available. The lot includes the 55-inch KDL-55XBR8 and 46-inch KDL-46XBR8 models, which incorporate the outfit's TRILUMINOS three-color LED backlight technology, 10-bit processing, BRAVIA Engine 2, Motionflow 120Hz and Advanced Contrast Enhancer PRO. The 70-inch KDL-70XBR7 and 40-inch KDL-40XBR7 headline the XBR7 lineup, while the XBR6 features sets range from 32- to 52-inches in size. [Source:
Sony Electronics.]
Sony's taken the crown in the race for thinnest LCD HDTV. At just 9.9mm thick the KDL-40ZX1 nearly halves the depth of Hitachi's former champ (likely throwing up in the bathroom right now) and comes within a whisper of Pioneer's ultra thin concept. Featuring a LED backlighting, a 3,000:1 contrast ratio, 120Hz MotionFlow tech, x.v.Color and BRAVIA Engine 2 image processing this is about as close to a 40-inch window on your wall as is likely to arrive soon. 
