THE FRONT LINE: JUNE 8, 2007
Sony 2007 Line Show
Sony’s 2007 HDTV line show was held in part of a remodeled cold storage warehouse, located in a gritty, run-down area on Manhattan’s far west side — an odd location for unveiling so many upscale products.
In fact, some of us journalists who walked to the event from Penn Station wondered if we had the address wrong as we carefully stepped over scattered trash and debris, avoided puddles, and dodged trucks and delivery vehicles pulling in and out of businesses on West 28th Street.
Turns out, we were at the right place — the Xchange, a bar and club nine stories up that was filled with nine new Sony Bravia LCD HDTVs and five slim Bravia SXRD rear-projection sets, not to mention the company’s latest Blu-ray player. And if there was a common theme, it was 1080p (or Full HD 1080p, as Sony likes to call it) — there wasn’t a 720p or 768p display to be seen in the room.
Figure 1. Sony’s senior VP of marketing Randy Waynick holds court at the press conference.
Like Mitsubishi, Sony has sworn off lower resolutions for 2007 and is aggressively pushing the 1080p concept. The Bravia LCD line is actually quite simple — there are three different screen sizes (40-inch, 46-inch, and 52-inch), with variations largely coming in cosmetic appearance and features like 120 Hz refresh.
Starting at the bottom, the new W-series includes the 52-inch KDL-52W3000 ($4,300 MSRP), 46-inch KDL-46W3000 ($3,500) and 40-inch KDL-40W3000 ($2,700). All three include Sony’s Live Color Creation™ technology, a wide color gamut CCFL backlight, and 10-bit grayscale and color processing. The xvYCC expanded color gamut is also supported, as is 1080p/24 playback through both HDMI and component YPbPr jacks, according to the press release.
Sony’s XBR-series 4 and 5 models retain their popular floating glass design. The KDL-52XBR4, KDL-46XBR4 and KDL40-XBR4 models will be available in August for about $4,800, $3,800 and $3,000, respectively, and feature a black finish, plus eight interchangeable bezel colors.
The step-up KDL-46XBR5 and KDL-40XBR5 will set you back about $4,100 and $3,300, while the KDL-52XBR5 model debuts in September for $5,100. These models have a piano black finish on their bezels (not interchangeable). Both XBR4 and XBR5 LCD HDTVs include 120 Hz playback (MotionFlow) for reducing motion blur (and possibly supporting 3D gaming in the future), support for xvYCC, and 1080p/24 playback.
Figure 2. Bravia LCD HDTVs adorned most of the walls,
and a couple of them had demos of Sony’s MotionFlow 120 Hz refresh system
Figures 3a-b. The new Bravia SXRD rear-projection sets have gone on a diet,
and also use 120 Hz technology.
Sony’s rear-projection line is even more basic. The 50-inch KDS-50A3000, 55-ich KDS-55A3000 and 60-inch KDS-60A3000 models have super-slim cabinets, an interchangeable speaker grille (four optional colors are available), and debut in August for about $3,000, $3,300 and $3,500, respectively.
The 60-inch KDS-Z60XBR5 ($5,000 MSRP) and 70-inch KDS-Z70XBR5 ($6,000) have been slimmed down by 40%, according to Sony, and will appear in Q4. All five sets include MotionFlow 120Hz refresh for better motion detail (and again, ostensibly 3D gaming and movie viewing in the future), 1080p/24 compatibility through HDMI, component YPbPr, and RGB inputs, and support for the xvYCC expanded color gamut.
All five models are compatible with Sony’s Digital Media Extender (DMeX) offering a digital connection path for the BRAVIA Internet Video Link module (sold separately) allows users to view select Internet video content (SD and HD) from sites including AOL and Yahoo!, as well as Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony BMG Music.
The module mounts on the back of a compatible Sony TV and connects directly to the Internet via a broadband Ethernet connection (3 Mbps or greater) without the use of a personal computer. Sony has also added TheaterSync one-button control through HDMI ports to all components in a Sony home theater system, including DVD and Blu-ray players and AV receivers.
One interesting feature for all new HDTVs in the line is a Theater preset mode, developed with Sony Pictures. This sets color space mapping, gamut, brightness, and contrast for the SXRD and LCD sets to match a reference display, such as a CRT monitor or projector. I saw a demo of it using a pair of 46-inch Bravia LCD HDTVs and an older Sony BVM-series professional CRT monitor, and the results were impressive.
Figure 4. Sony’s BDP-S300 sets a new low price point for Blu-ray players — $499.
(Bet you it drops to $299 by the fourth quarter!)
The just-announced, lower-price BDP-S300 Blu-ray player was also out for inspection. It offers 1080p24/60 output, provides 1080p upscaling from red laser DVDs, supports the xvYCC color space, and is compatible with TheaterSync control. According to Chris Fawcett, Sony’s VP for home video product management, this $499 player differs from its predecessor (the BDP-S1, recently reduced to a $799 SRP from $999) in choice of components.
While he didn’t want to use the expression “not as robust” to describe the build quality of the BDP-S300, his meaning was quite clear. The BDP-S300 was obviously brought out to meet a lower price point, and that implies lower-cost manufacturing processes and components. That lower price point should stimulate faster sales growth for the Blu-ray format, although it’s still $200 higher than it should be.
A couple of questions immediately came to mind. First, will Sony make any profit on the BDP-S300, given the substantial losses they incurred on blue laser diode-equipped PlayStation IIIs last year? And why would anyone want to buy the older, more costly BDP-S1, when the S300 offers a more expansive feature set?
In my opinion, Sony ought to consider including the BDP-S300 in a bundled sale with some of the larger Bravia and SXRD sets, just as Toshiba is currently doing with its Regza LCD HDTVs and its HD-A2 and HD-A20 HD DVD players. Given the sell-through prices and sizes of the 52” LCD and 55” and 60” SXRD sets, a Blu-ray player bundle would be a logical promotion, considering all of the new Blu-ray titles to be released this summer and fall.
