AfterDawn: News

Sharp intros HDTV with Blu-ray burner

Sharp has introduced the 20-inch AQUOS DX LCD this week, the first HDTV at that size to include a built-in Blu-ray burner.

The TV also has a built-in digital TV tuner that allows users to record episodes and burn them to BD-R/R DL and BD-RE/RE DL discs. The company says up to 30 hours of HD video can be recorded to BD-50 discs, and the data can be burnt at up 7x speed.



Users can also play media stored on DVD-R, including MPEG-4 and AVC high definition video files.

The TV itself, is 720p resolution and has a 1,500:1 contrast ratio with 450cd/m2 brightness. For inputs, there are two HDMI ports, a VGA, a D4, and S-video and RCA. There is also an Ethernet port for Internet connectivity.

The TV will hit Japan on June 20th, and will cost $1590 USD.



Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 24 May 2009 2:18

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• 15 comments

• b18bek9

  surprised the mafia didnt shut that down burning copyrighted material lol but who knows we'll see if they try and push some bullshiet on this one.

  24.5.2009 07:13 #1

• chicnshit

  Now I can tell the cable company to stick it with there dvr. It's about time. 15 bucks a month for a stb that don't work right have the time and only able to use "their" product. This is some good news.

  24.5.2009 17:54 #2

• DXR88

  i don't know why they don't go ahead an make an LCD panel with a DVR built in. have a drop out section where you can remove the hard drive and add a new one.
  
  Keep it simple, to many moving parts are a death trap.

  25.5.2009 01:10 #3

• gullzway

  Isn't the whole point of Blu-ray the 1080p resolution.
  "The TV itself, is 720p resolution" what's that about?

  25.5.2009 02:02 #4

• kyo28

  Originally posted by b18bek9: surprised the mafia didnt shut that down burning copyrighted material lol but who knows we'll see if they try and push some bullshiet on this one.Not sure if I understood your remark correctly, but strictly speaking, it's not illegal to record TV programs, provided you watch said recordings in a 'household environment' (meaning with your close relatives and friends). The minute you start mass-distributing such recordings is when you go from legality to illegal action. This could be, among others: sharing on the Internet, projecting in a theater room, etc.
  
  However, the act of recording regular TV broadcasts is, in itself, not illegal.
  
  To give an example using this equipment:
  - recording the latest LOST episode on Blu-ray because I'm not home so I can watch it later, together with my family = legal
  - recording the latest LOST episode on Blu-ray, making an ISO of it and sharing on bittorrent = illegal
  
  So it basically all depends on what you do with the recording. The recording in itself is not illegal though.

  25.5.2009 09:48 #5

• b18bek9

  seeing as the mafia doesnt want you copying your so called dvd's you own i would say they'd probably be saying the same about movies/tv shows on tv how hard is it to read through those lines which is what i meant. They'd want you to purchase the TV/Movies not burn them rite. And when did i say it was illegal read through the lines my friend. And yes recording your shows on dvr's and tivo is different from burning to a dvd/blu ray disk you can take anywhere with you and it makes it easier to make copies.

  25.5.2009 15:39 #6

• mike.m

  Originally posted by gullzway: Isn't the whole point of Blu-ray the 1080p resolution.
  "The TV itself, is 720p resolution" what's that about?Well you probably wouldn't notice the difference between 720 & 1080 on a 20inch, but still I agree, no matter what the screen size I would still like to have the highest resolution available. If they can put 1080p on a 15inch laptop, why not a 20” TV?

  25.5.2009 16:22 #7

• DXR88

  Quote:Originally posted by gullzway: Isn't the whole point of Blu-ray the 1080p resolution.
  "The TV itself, is 720p resolution" what's that about?Well you probably wouldn't notice the difference between 720 & 1080 on a 20inch, but still I agree, no matter what the screen size I would still like to have the highest resolution available. If they can put 1080p on a 15inch laptop, why not a 20” TV?thats because most GFX cards scale the image, so unless the tv has some kind of GPU that can directly effect the image it wouldn't Scale up or down it would remain at whatever dimension it was designed for in this case 20inch's. you'll notice that most tv's that promise imaging scaling actually cut the image of.
  
  besides i don't think you can stick that many pixels in a 20inch radius.

  25.5.2009 18:16 #8

• H_Seldon

  High Definition should mean 1080I/1080P period. 1080 should be the standard.
  Anything more than 420 and less than 1080 (eg. 720P) should be Extended Definition.
  IMO

  25.5.2009 18:33 #9

• DXR88

  Originally posted by H_Seldon: High Definition should mean 1080I/1080P period. 1080 should be the standard.
  Anything more than 420 and less than 1080 (eg. 720P) should be Extended Definition.
  IMOExtended Definition is only a term used for CRT's or RPTV's that can receive 420P And digital encoded information. it failed.
  
  they coined the term as it was an attempt to extend the life of a CRT tube tv.
  
  anything listed in 720P and up is HD, standards laid forth by ATSC only had 720P to work with. then 1080P busted threw the wall saying OH'Yeah.

  25.5.2009 19:09 #10

• ToxicFish

  I've had bad enough luck with the TV/VCR Combos... Like hell I'll get anything with a built in Blu-ray. F that.

  25.5.2009 23:31 #11

• DXR88

  i am no fan of combo's, and agree with you completely. but its a 20inch tv and built in blue-ray burner, truly a tv built for either fools or the rich. as you can get a 42inch and a stand alone blue-ray burner for the same price.

  25.5.2009 23:37 #12

• ZippyDSM

  If its not modular then its pointless, one will breakdown and the other will work but you can't use it....

  26.5.2009 14:18 #13

• ex.sonic

  The point of a blu-ray player when watching a single movie is indeed 1080p. But the fact that your recording HD content to these disc, makes the point of the blu-ray player the fact that it can play a high storage capacity discs (i.e. a blu-ray disc).
  
  That's the point of the blu-ray player on this 720p TV, recording space.

  27.5.2009 02:17 #14

• dadrian

  It's kinda expensive, if you think you can buy:
  - a nice laptop and a big HD display;
  - a pc, and a big HD display;
  - a BD Player, and a big HD display..
  for that money...

  30.5.2009 18:32 #15