OK, when I first got wind of this rumor a couple days ago, I dismissed it. It’s something that I chalked up to background chatter. The thing is, I got a second email today from another source who’s always been right, so now this thing is looking more like a real deal.
Rumormonger One told me that Vizio, you know, the HDTV guys, were getting ready to build hard drives into their TVs. Whatever, wanky wanky. But then Rumormonger Two emails me saying something similar. Not HDs built into the sets, but rather complimentary units that play DVDs, output surround sound, and act as a DVR. I called a source who’s a buyer here in Seattle for a major retailer, and she said she’d heard people talking about something similar, so it’s plausible.
If true, it would be the first non-TV product (other than a few accessories) that Vizio would offer. We know that the scrappy Vizio is the unlikely marketshare leader in HDTVs in the USA. It sounds like its planning on parlaying that success to branch out in more directions, which we’re for: Vizio makes great HDTVs we can actually afford.
We’ve got our sweaty tentacles all up in Vizio’s grill trying to track down more information. We’ll post it up here when we get it.