Sharp to Release LCD TVs with Built-in Blu-ray Recorder

Oct 16, 2008 19:40 Shinya Saeki, Nikkei Electronics

Sharp Corp will release the DX series, a line of 16 new Aquos LCD TVs equipped with a built-in Blu-ray Disc recorder, in Japan Nov 20, 2008.

The new Aquos TVs allow users to record HDTV video content such as digital terrestrial broadcasts to a Blu-ray Disc medium and to play Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD media. It does not have an HDD.

The series comes in 26- to 52-inch models and in three bezel colors of red, white and black. There are no manufacturer's suggested retail prices, but the market prices of the 52-, 46-, 42-, 37-, 32- and 26-inch models are expected to be about ¥500,000 (approx US$4,987), ¥450,000, ¥380,000, ¥300,000, ¥200,000 and ¥170,000, respectively.

Mikio Katayama, president & COO of Sharp, appeared at the press conference and made the following comment, recalling the effort involved in the development and commercialization.

"The products have been planned for a long time from a strategic viewpoint," he said. "It took quite long to complete the development, but they are just in time for the year-end sales season."

Unlike the high-end models (such as the 65- and 52-inch products unveiled at CEATEC JAPAN 2008, which are as thin as only 22.8mm), the new series comes in "popular sizes such as 26 and 32 inches, as well as sizes suitable for living rooms, such as 42 and 52 inches," Katayama said. "We hope to make these TVs our main products for the year-end sales season."

The company also plans to release LCD TVs equipped with a Blu-ray Disc player in the US by the end of 2008 and in Europe and Asia in 2009, Katayama said.

Preventing cost increases by using in-house parts

Sharp used in-house products for the blue-violet laser, optical pickup and Blu-ray Disc drive unit, which are the key components of a Blu-ray Disc recorder unit. In addition, the recorder unit reportedly shares the power circuit with the TV unit. As a result, the extra cost for including a Blu-ray Disc recorder was reduced as much as possible, Katayama said.

In order to encode HDTV videos, the DX series is equipped with a transcoder LSI, which can extend the recording time by up to five times. The LSI converts HDTV videos in MPEG-2 format, which is used for the digital terrestrial broadcasting, into MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 videos.

The transcode LSI, which is manufactured by ViXS Systems Inc of Canada, was jointly developed by Sharp and ViXS Systems, Sharp said. As the minimum encoding rate of HDTV video is 4.8Mbps, the recorder can record up to about 21 hours 40 minutes of HDTV video on a 50-Gbyte Blu-ray disc.

The LCD panel used for the 37- to 52-inch models has a pixel count of 1,920 x 1,080. The TV analyzes the luminance histogram of the input video signals and controls the backlight brightness in accordance with the scenes on the screen. As a result, it has a contrast ratio of 15,000:1 when displaying moving images.

When the backlight is not controlled, the contrast ratio of the panel itself is 2,000:1. The TV supports 10-bit grayscale output for each of the RGB colors as well as double-speed display to render 60fps images at 120fps.

The 32- and 26-inch models have a pixel count of 1,366 x 768 and a contrast ratio of 7,000:1 when displaying moving images.

Click to see the video clip of the Aquos DX series (Japanese)

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