LAS VEGAS – Sony tied its consumer products closer to the Internet by adding a small gizmo that hooks its Bravia TVs directly to the Web. The company also announced a redesigned TV, and several more high-def products.
Sony began its CES 2007 performance here on Sunday with a violin recital from Sony BMG recording artist Joshua Bell, then followed with the real highlights: the biggest of which were several scalable internet solutions that embrace high definition content.
Sony displays continue to grow, literally, as the company launched a 70-inch Bravia display with the highest refresh rate to date. On a smaller scale, Sony HandyCams and other mobile products will see some significant bumps, including 16 new camcorders in multiple formats (hard disk-based, MiniDV, and DVD) and updates to the VAIO series.
Embracing the Web
The most intriguing Sony product at this years CES 2007 was the Bravia Internet Video Link(IVL), a module for future Bravia displays that streams HD content from the Web without the aid of a PC – as opposed to Apple's iTV box, which streams video wirelessly from a remote PC. The concept for the Internet Video Link is simple: It's a USB attached module about the size of a VHS tape. A USB cord, as well as a 100-Mbyte/s Ethernet port, connects to a Bravia TV to download content directly from the Web. HD content can be streamed using an HDMI port form external source or over the Ethernet port with the help of some of Sony's new partners.
As one of Sony's new partners, AOL will deliver content such as music videos, movies, and recorded concerts, as demonstrated by a Coldplay music concert streamed directly to a Bravia display. Another key partner is Yahoo Connected Life, bringing a plethora of content providers into the Sony community to deliver news, sports, videos, and real-time traffic and weather reports using the Internet Video Link. A recent acquisition by Sony called Grouper will deliver home made video blogs to users. Best of all, these services are free.
Now, this device does have some drawbacks: It only works for new Sony Bravia displays that will announce in 2007. So far, Sony only announced the S-Series 720 display—the only display that will support the IVL.
Sony also announced the WA1 Wireless Digital Music Streamer, a box that looks like an alarm clock radio that also happens to stream music, wirelessly, via a PC, an auxiliary device, internal memory or directly from the Web. The magic is done through a wireless 802.11b/g card built into the device, and you can interface that with your PC to bring over your entire iTunes library. If you don't have a PC, a company called Live365 can provide Web radio at a nominal fee. You can also attach any music device or use the 128-Mbytes of memory built in, which isn't much. Prices for the WA1 will start at $349 and units will start shipping in March of 2007.
New Look For PCs
In the PC segment, Sony introduced the VAIO TP1, a consumer version of the popular VAIO XL2 media center. The TP1 has a wide spherical design that should fit harmoniously in the living room environment. It's basically a desktop with an array of PC components and media friendly ports in the back of the unit, loaded with an Intel Core 2 Duo T5600(1.8Ghz) laptop processor, and a 300-Gbyte desktop hard drive. It's packed with media ports, including an ATSC/NTSC tuner, optical-out, S-Video In, and HDMI-out – but no Blu-Ray drive. The TP1 is targeting a mainstream consumer base, and it'll load the basic DVD burner. The PC will have 802.11b/g wireless, like a laptop. Prices will start at $1,599, and the PC will ship in March 2007.
The Sony VAIO UX Series, a handheld PC, will be outfitted with Windows Vista's Business edition. The VAIO UX380N will incorporate a 40GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, and the Intel Core Solo U1500. The VAIO UX390N, on the other hand, will get the gift of a 32 GB Solid State Disk, which uses flash memory. Both models will be available in black or silver.
More High Definition Products
With the widespread popularity of plasma televisions, Sony went ahead and increased the size of their Bravia line to a 70-inch, full 1080p display, dubbed the Bravia KDL-70XBR3. The 70XBR3 will have the highest refresh rate in the entire line, featuring a floating glass design and improved color uniformity. Oddly enough, this brand new 70-inch display is not compatible with the Bravia Internet Video Link.
In terms of numbers, the HandyCam line contained the most numerous announcements, including 16 new camcorders. Four of those belong to the Sony HandyCam HDR series, featuring High Definition recording.
The HandyCam HDR-HC7, HC5, UX7, and UX5 will all showcase a new Sony color technology called x.v.Color. This newly established spec will optimize video performance of the latest HD camcorders, LCD panels , and microdisplays. Products with x.v.Color can receive nearly twice as many colors than the current models support, possibly in support of the new "Deep Color" HDMI specification. In addition to the new spec, hard drive based camcorders will go from 30 Gbytes to 40 Gbytes of standard hard drive space. They will also come standard with a docking station, facilitating the transfer(data) process from camcorder to PC, Sony said.
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