Sony Announces LED-backlit Bravia TVs

Jan 21, 2010 14:13 Shinya Saeki, Nikkei Electronics

Sony Corp announced the LED-backlit "EX700" series as new products of its Bravia LCD TVs Jan 20, 2010.

The EX700 comes in four sizes; 52, 46, 40 and 32 inches. Their expected street prices are ¥300,000 (approx US$3,277), ¥230,000, ¥170,000 and ¥120,000, respectively. Though they are equipped with an LED backlight, the prices are equivalent to those of popular models.

As for 40-inch and larger TVs, Sony aims to increase the sales volume of LED-backlit models to about half that of LCD TVs using other types of backlights, the company said. The EX700 series will hit the Japanese market Feb 25, 2010.

Though the EX700 has a built-in tuner, it is as thin as 22mm at the thinnest part. The slimness was realized by using white LEDs as a backlight source and positioning them at the top and bottom edges of the panel. Sony declined to comment on the number of white LEDs.

The EX700 features an enhanced energy saving performance. Sony employed an LED module with a high luminance efficiency and an LCD panel with a high aperture ratio and newly developed optical elements such as a light guide plate. As a result, the power consumption of the EX700 is about 15% lower than that of the V5-series TVs, the company's existing LCD TVs featuring energy saving functions.

Furthermore, the EX700 has a function to automatically black out the screen by using a human presence sensor when there is no person in front of the display as well as a function to reduce the power consumption to almost zero without unplugging the TV. They are the same functions that the V5-series TVs have (See related article).

With the human presence sensor, the power consumption can be cut by as much as 80% when the screen is blacked out because Sony reduced the power consumption of the LCD panel. The time to black out the screen can be set in 12 stages, from 5 to 60 minutes, while that of the V5 series can be set only in three stages (5, 30, and 60 minutes). Also, the detection range of the human presence sensor was increased from 3 to 6m.

New network capabilities

The EX700 features enhanced network capabilities including the "Bravia Net Channel," a new function to use Google Inc's Youtube video sharing service, Usen Corp's "U-next" video-on-demand (VoD) service and Actvila Corp's "Actvila Video Full" VoD service on its own operation screen. Sony plans to start the Bravia Net Channel in the spring of 2010.

In addition, Sony announced the USB wireless LAN adapter "UWA-BR100," which complies with IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n standards. With the adapter, users who already have a wireless LAN environment do not have to do wiring. The company will release the adapter Feb 25, 2010, at an expected street price of ¥8,000.

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