Second bad news for Sony today: Following the hack attempts at three of their networks, the company today announced [JP] that it will recall a total of 1.6 million BRAVIA LCD TV sets sold in Japan and other regions. The problem is a backlight component inside the TVs that could overheat and make the upper casing melt.
The eight TVs in question were sold after 2007. Here are the model numbers: KDL-40D3400, KDL-40D3500, KDL-40D3550, KDL-40D3660, KDL-40V3000, KDL-40W3000, KDL-40X3000 and KDL-40X3500. → Read More
Sony has unveiled [JP] a total of six new BRAVIA LCD TVs to be released in Japan next month, and it looks like technically, Sony has focused on three key areas: the integration of 3D, web connectivity, and advanced picture processing. → Read More
Sony announced [JP] three new BRAVIA-branded TVs today, and – big surprise – none of them are 3D-capable. The main selling point here is that all models come with a built-in 500GB HDD and allow users to transfer content from the hard disc to external HDDs via USB. → Read More
Mitsubishi showed them yesterday, and Sony followed [JP] today: All-in-one LCD TVs that feature 3D capability and come with built-in Blu-ray recorders and HDDs. The so-called BRAVIA 2 KDL series consists of three different 3D TVs (two of which come with “2D” Blu-ray recorders only). → Read More
Granted, the seven new LCD (non-3D) TVs Sony announced [JP] in Japan today are not as sexy as their 3D counterparts, but they are worth mentioning, too. The new BRAVIAs break down into three series, the NX800, the HX700 and the HDD-equipped BX-30H. In contrast to the 3D TVs presented today, Sony didn’t go into details regarding international sales plans for their 2D models. → Read More
Just yesterday, we reported about Panasonic’s sales plans for their 3D devices in the US (Samsung is ready, too). And today, Sony has announced [JP] prices and release dates for eight 3D BRAVIA TVs for the Japanese market. The company wants to sell a total of 25 million LCD TVs next fiscal year (a whopping 67% increase from its forecast for the current fiscal year that ends this month), with 3D TVs accounting for 10% of that number. → Read More
A total of eight new LCD TVs have been announced [JP] by Sony in Tokyo today, and all of them are part of the new BRAVIA EX series. Sony has unveiled four EX700 (flagship) models with LED backlight, one TV named EX500 and three rather basic devices branded as EX300. → Read More
It’s safe to say that it looks like Kaká, the Brazilian footballer who has played for AC Milan for the past six years, is moving to Spain’s Real Madrid this summer. (Don’t worry, this is technology-related, I swear.) Milan’s vice-president, Adriano Galliani—here’s a photo of him (and new AC Milan coach Leonardo and SlashGear’s Vincent Nguyen) that I took at the San Siro in December—told an Italian newspaper that the Kaká has to leave for the financial well-being of the team. My question is: what happens to the Sony Bravia commercial—I’ve seen it on TV a few times now—that shows Kaká playing keepy-uppy? → Read More
Here is some news from Sony, which comes directly from the who-on-earth-needs-this department. The company has launched a new service for the Japanese market that enables owners of Bravia TVs to send and receive e-postcards. Obviously, “Bravia Postcard” [JP] only works if you have an Internet-enabled Bravia at home. → Read More
Sony just pushed out a new series of TVs, the W, with 1080p resolution and Yahoo! widgets, Amazon Video On Demand, and other networked TV features. They’ll come in 52-, 46-, and 40-inch models and include 4 HDMI ports. → Read More
I bet the boys and girls over at Sony breathed a huge sigh a relief when that “Kaka-to-Manchester-City” rumor finally died last month. After all, he’s the star of its latest commercial, seen here, promoting the company’s Motionflow technology. Fast-paced sports benefit from all those hertz (and a nice helping of signal processing). → Read More
Looking for a sweet new LCD HDTV for the den? You’re not going to find a much better deal right now than this 52″ Sony. Its Bravia line is, of course, known for its quality, and $1450 is hundreds off of the “real” price. It’s got four HDMI inputs, it’s 1080p of course, and it supports 24p (thank god). → Read More
[image credit: CNET] The short answer is: almost certainly not. The benefits of a 120Hz refresh rate are pretty clear, but as I noted when Sony had people playing Gran Turismo at 240FPS, there is a point at which the human eye can no longer distinguish any difference. You’re getting seriously diminishing returns after 100-150Hz, but adding considerably to cost. Not only that, but the smoothing of the image can eliminate the “implied motion” of a 24FPS picture that makes it so compelling; it’s not without reason that every film in theaters is displayed at 24FPS or a close approximation. The picture, I’m sure, is very good, and for many things a high refresh rate will improve the visual quality, but paying $1000 for the 240Hz option is looking a bit like paying $500 for cables: Yeah, there’s technically a difference, but the placebo effect of owning these things is greater than the actual effect. → Read More
http://blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?enablejs=true&file=http%3A//blip.tv/rss/flash/1556164&feedurl=http%3A//crunchgear.blip.tv/rss/&autostart=false&brandname=CrunchGear&brandlink=http%3A//crunchgear.blip.tv/ AC Milan Brazilian midfielder Kaká scored the winning the goal against Catania only a few minutes ago. This, believe it or not, is relevant to us here at CrunchGear, for the Manchester City-bound player (if you believe the European sports pages) is Sony’s new frontman for an upcoming Bravia ad campaign. And if you’ve spent any amount of time on YouTube then you know what to expect from such a campaign: a big idea and an even bigger budget (Kaká’s no fool) leaving you wondering, “Wait, this is about TVs, right?” That quick, shaky (sorry!) video shows you some behind-the-scenes action of the shoot in a Turin square. It also shows one Dan Magness breaking a whole bunch of keepie-uppie records. Incidentally, Turin is home to Juventus, one of AC Milan’s principal rivals. Some explanation is in order. → Read More
Sony’s $300 Internet Video Link add-on box for BRAVIA-series TVs has recently added the Slacker streaming music service to the list of available channels. Also added was content from Howcast.com, a site that contains a series of user-generated how-to videos. Slacker ought to lend some good music features to Sony’s service and Howcast has won some awards from TIME and PC Magazine, so both seem like good additions. Full release after the jump… → Read More
http://blip.tv/play/ih_Q7RaJ5FQ Above is a short video I made of Sony’s most spectacular product at the CEATEC, its 0.3mm curved OLED TV. http://blip.tv/play/ih_Q7ViJ5FQ The second video shows a 40-inch Bravia full HD TV that is just 9.9mm at its thinnest part (they made it flip so it looks good on video). That’s it from Sony at CEATEC this year. But the OLED screen is really cool. → Read More
Today at CEDIA, Sony announced that the US will soon get their hands on some slender 9.9-mm thin LCD HDTVs. The KDL-52XBR7 has a whopping 240Hz frame rate displayed on a 1080p 52-inch LCD screen with 80,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. No word on price but it ships in December. The 40-inch 1080p KLV-40ZX1M LCD weighs a mere 26 pounds, but this one can only claim a 120Hz frame rate. This, too, will be available in December. → Read More
