Whilst 2010 may be the year of the 3D HDTV, manufacturers of course are still producing latest and greatest two dimensional units for us to drool over too. Sony are certainly no exception to this and have unleashed a plethora of traditional 2D BRAVIA units on us at CES 2010. Ironically three of the series LX900, HX9000 and HX800 are in fact 3D capable with the LX900 series having ‘Integrated Full HD 3D technology’. For the other two series a 3D emitter and glasses are sold separately. These series are also not available until the summer.

However we shall concentrate on what you can get your mits on right now and that’ll be the Sony Bravia NX800 series which sports screen sizes all the way from 46 inches up to the big boy 60 incher. Here are the details on the largest with any exceptions on its smaller siblings noted

* Edge Lit LED backlight
* Sony’s Monolithic design
* Integrated LightSensor technology automatically adjusts to your room’s ambient light
* Motionflow 240Hz refresh rate
* Full HD 1080p picture quality
* Built-in wireless connectivity to your home entertainment network
* USB port
* Handles 1080/60p (HDMI/Component), 1080/60i, 1080/24p (HDMI Only), 720/60p, 480/60p, 480/60i
* 60 inch 16:9 Full HD 1920×1080 res (52 inch and 46 inch)
* Audio Power Output : 20W (10W x 2)
* 60 inch - 1440 x 927 x 380mm and 50.6 kg with pedestal
* 52 inch - 1261 x 819 x 400mm and 36.1 kg with pedestal
* 46 inch - 1127 x 742 x 320mm and 28.8 kg with pedestal
* 5.1 Channel Audio Out

Perhaps the most unusual thing about the Sony Bravia NX800 series is the Monolithic design which presents the display at an upward angle of 6 degrees. This would present the viewer with an ever-so-slightly non-square display. Without actually seeing it in the flesh we’re not sure whether this is a good thing or not, but it is definitely different. Anyway on to possibly more important things the price tags. Pre-ordering these suckers will set you back $4600, $3400 and $2800 respectively through the Sony Bravia website. Whilst hanging on to see how the 3D market pans out may be a wise move, if you’re itching for HD love right now then these bad boys would certainly fill that need.

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Spent many frustrating hours hunting around for your favourite Blu-Ray movie, which of course wasn’t in its case? Well, Sony may have a handy, if slightly large, solution for you with their latest Blu-Ray player the BDP-CX7000ES MegaChanger. This unit, err, weighs in at US$1900 and can handle 400 Blu-Ray movie discs. Of course, it plays nicely with DVDs and CDs in case you don’t actually have 400 Blu-Ray videos. There’s also a nifty function called Gracenote which downloads relevant movie info when you load up a disc. Of course this assumes you have an internet connection wired up to your MegaChanger. A full set of specs seem to be eluding us, so here’s what we can gather from the Sony press release on the BDP-CX7000ES

* store and play 400 Blu-ray Discs, DVDs, and CDs
* download information from Gracenote’s MusicID® and VideoID™ products to organize movies and music
* outputs full HD 1080/60p and 24p True Cinema
* features an RS232 connection and IR-in
* 7.1 channel analog output
* Deep Color via HDMI (v1.3)
* upscales standard definition DVDs to 1080p
* Ethernet port for connectivity to a local home broadband network
* support 7.1 channel Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, and DTS-HD Master Audio
* plays nicely with BD-ROM/R/RE (BDMV and BDAV modes), DVD-+ Video/R/RW, CD/R/RW, and MP3/JPEG on BD/DVD/CD recordable media

Certainly seems like the BDP-CX7000ES MegaChanger has a heap of functionality but of course it comes with that rather large price tag of $1900. If you fancy something a little less heavy on the wallet then Sony will also be unleashing the BDP-CX960, another MegaChanger but lacking the RS232 connection and IR-in features along with Deep Color. The BDP-CX960 MegaChanger will be available for $800 in the fall, while the big boy BDP-CX7000ES will out and about in August.

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Finally Sony have unleashed their response to Apple’s iPod Touch with the X Series Walkman, which sports a 3 inch OLED touchscreen, Wi-Fi connectivity and 33 hours of music playback time. It comes in two capacities, namely 16 and 32 GB and has Slacker Radio integrated. Here are some more numbers on the Sony X Series Walkman

* 3 inch OLED WQVGA 432 x 240 res display
* Supports MP3/WMA/AAC/L-PCM audio formats
* Supports AVC(H.264/AVC)/MPEG-4/WMV video formats
* 2.2 x 3.9 x 0.5 inches
* 3.5 oz
* 5 band equalizer

The 32 GB version will set you back US$400 whilst the 16GB unit has a price tag of US$300, which match Apple’s prices for their iPod Touch exactly for similar capacities. The specs are relatively similar too, with the Walkman being slightly lighter, so we guess the difference will be in the displays. The iPod Touch boasts a larger display and resolution but what about the quality? Unfortunately we’ve seen neither unit in action, so if you’ve taken a look at either the Sony Walkman X Series or the Apple iPod Touch let us know what you think.

Source: Sony

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Only two years ago we were saying how Sony were getting desperate in the format war by slashing the price of their low-end BDP-S300 Blu-Ray player. Yet here we are and obviously desperation won the day. Their latest Blu-Ray player, the BDP-S360 is now available for a mere US$300 at Best Buy and features the following

* 2.2 x 16.9 x 8.1 inches
* 4.6 lbs
* Supports BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE, DVD, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, CD, CD-R/RW, AVCHD, MP3, JPEG formats
* 1080p output
* Progressive Scan, Dolby Digital Decoder, DTS Decoder
* USB Port
* Optical and Coaxial Digital Audio Outputs
* Composite Component and HDMI Video Outputs
* Ethernet Port
* BD Live Ready
* 24p True Cinema playback
* Upscaling DVD to 1080p

The BDP-S360 has already scored a five-star customer review on the site and with those features and a price tag of US$300, it certainly gets a thumbs up from us. So if you haven’t already invested in the format war victor, the Sony BDP-S360 may just be what you’ve been waiting for.

Source: Best Buy

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It must be spring already as Sony have unleashed their new Bravia KDL-46V5100 HDTV model on the unsuspecting world. Originally penciled in for a spring release this V Series unit has appeared on Sony’s b2b site. This 46 inch HDTV sports the following bells and whistles

* 16:9 Full HD 1080p Resolution Panel (1920×1080)
* Motionflow™ 120Hz technology
* BRAVIA Engine™ 2 fully digital video processor
* Four HDMI™ inputs (up to 1080/60p capable)
* HD component input, HD combo input (1080/60i capable) and PC input (HD-15 pin)
* USB input
* 24p True Cinema mode
* Energy Star Version 3.0 Compliant
* Audio Power 20W (10W X 2)
* Power Consumption (in Operation) 245 W
* Power Consumption (in Standby) < 1W
* 1080/60p (HDMI/Component), 1080/60i, 1080/24p (HDMI), 720/60p, 480/60p, 480/60i
* 1123 x 770 x 323mm with pedestal
* 1123 x 725 x 96mm without
* 25.5kg with pedestal (22.6 kg without)

All this at a remarkably reasonable price tag of US$1900. No doubt that figure may reduce a bit once it’s available outside of the b2b website. So keep your eyes peeled for a bargain.

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Here’s another projector, the Sony VPL-GH10 from their SXRD range, supposedly with its lens fairly and squarely aimed at business use

high-resolution professional projector specifically designed for the simulation, training and industrial visualization markets

Yeah right, I sure the first time this little sucker gets taken out of its box will be, oh may be around the end of January on one sunny Sunday afternoon may be? Sorry I’m getting a bit cynical there, but yet again this ‘business’ projector, certainly will ‘do the business’ right in your very own home. Check out the more than adequate specs

* Full HD 1920 x 1080 res display
* 1.6x zoom lens
* Motorized horizontal and vertical shift function on the lens
* Onboard RJ45 Ethernet network port

Sony have squeezed in their Motionflow technology into the VPL-GH10 too. Motionflow manages to squeeze in another 60 frames per second over the normal 60 frames using a cunning algorithm to work out what the extra frames should display. This in theory will increase image quality especially for fast moving scenes, err such as football games.

Unfortunately for all you football fans, the VPL-GH10 won’t be available until the spring of next year and still has no price tag as yet. But of course there’s never an excuse for not getting all geared up for the following season, right?

Source: PR News Wire

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Sony Ericsson have just announced that the Xperia X1 will be available on their Sony Style website from the 28th of November for US customers in an unlocked form. Are Sony being kind to their customers by offering the unlocked version only or did the likes of Sprint and AT&T decide they weren’t gonna touch this sucker with a proverbial barge pole? Well the X1 certainly stacks up in the spec front with the following array of features and numbers for you to drool over

* 800 x 480 res display
* 400 MB Phone Memory with MicroSD slot
* Networks - GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1900, EDGE, UMTS tri-band, HSPA
* 110.5 x 52.6 x 17.0 mm
* 158g
* 3.2 mp 3x digital zoom camera
* Windows Mobile OS with Outlook Mobile
* Windows Media Player for your tunes
* Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity
* IM, MMS, SMS and email
* 500 hours of battery life on standby
* 10 hours of talk time
* QWERTY slider keyboard

This all looks very impressive, but then you’re brought down to earth with a big bump when you check out the price tag of US$800. Well the Xperia X1 is unlocked and does sport all the expected bells and whistles, but even so … 800 smackers? Not quite sure what Sony are playing at here, as there are plenty of cheaper smartphone options around at the moment. So we’re going to have give the X1 the thumbs down even with its slider QWERTY keypad!

Source: Sony

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