Sony Japan Adds Hard Drives To HDTVs

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Not to be outdone by Hitachi, Sony Japan has unveiled three new HDTVs in their Bravia BX series of LCD TVs that sport 500GB hard drives for internal recording and content viewing. SonyInsider is reporting that these TVs are the first produced by Sony with the internal hard drives (although, I can vaguely remember Sony introducing some last year in Japan – I digress).

The BX series is sold in the US as the BX300 series, but in Japan it’ll ship as the BX30H, with the key difference being the inclusion of the internal hard drives. You’ll be able to find them in three sizes, 22-inches, 26-inches and 32-inches. They’ll come with a 100,000:1 contrast ratio, CCFL backlighting and 720p HD resolution at 60hz.

It also includes some features that were previously seen on Sony’s Bravia series, including 24p True Cinema, the BRAVIA 4 Engine digital processor and BRAVIA Sync. As for sound, it’s got 5.1 surround sound and SteadySound audio stabilization. However, with most HDTVs, it’s probably coming out of some tinny-sounding 5W speakers.

You’ll be able to record from a TV Tuner directly to the 500GB HDD on the Japanese model and the UI appears to use Sony’s XMB from the PlayStation 3 (which is important as Sony has been expanding the functionality of XMB-enabled devices).

Pricing and a release date for Japan are unannounced. No word on it coming to Europe or North America, unfortunately. There seems to be a shortage of HDD-equipped HDTVs in the Western hemisphere…