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Inside Sharp’s new LCD factory, we can see our next HDTV from here

The path back to LCD leadership for Sharp begins at its just opened Sakai City manufacturing facility. Being a 10th generation facility means it can roll out more and bigger displays, producing six 60-inch LCDs from each glass substrate, 60% more than older 8g facilities. Check out the pics for a peek at where 72,000 substrates per month will be made, delivering those slim LED backlit televisions getting so much love, along with solar panels (also being installed on the roofs for that extra green vibe that’s in vogue these days) and a few of the more than 100,000 energy efficient LEDs lighting the factory itself. Whether your closest HDTV purchase is a turkey fueled memory from last weekend or yet to come, bargain hunters and AV fans alike can appreciate an eyeful of the robots and testing equipment slicing, dicing and stamping screens headed for shelves nearby, whether bearing an Aquos brand or any number of other nameplates.

Inside Sharp’s new LCD factory, we can see our next HDTV from here originally appeared on Engadget HD on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sharp’s AQUOS DX2 HDTVs don’t need any help to burn Blu-ray discs

So, Sharp, you introduced the world’s first HDTV line with integrated Blu-ray players last year, what are you going to do next? Only naturally, the Japanese lineup of DX2 series one-ups the original DX by adding Blu-ray recording as well. It doesn’t appear that these pack the LED backlighting of the new X-Gen based displays headed our way this fall, so for now buyers will have to make do with the 15,000:1 contrast ratio shared with the other D-series televisions. Still, the big deal here is that the 1080p (52-, 46- and 40-inch) and 720p (32- and 26-inch) displays will burn up to 30 hours of HD video on dual-layer Blu-ray discs, by way of transcoding and compressing to MPEG-4 format without any messy external boxes or wires. The price range from ¥170,000 ($1,740) at the low end to ¥480,000 for the largest size when these ship September 15 but don’t count on seeing them on this side of the Pacific (or the Atlantic.)

[Via AV Watch]

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Sharp’s AQUOS DX2 HDTVs don’t need any help to burn Blu-ray discs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sharp’s new AQUOS lineup eyes-on

We just crashed Sharp’s AQUOS launch party and got a nice look at the new AQUOS panels, along with a bit of a peek at the LEDs behind the curtain. In a lot of senses, Sharp’s new panels are a collection of last generation technologies: the LEDs aren’t locally dimmed, the 120Hz refresh rate falls short of the 240Hz that’s been bandied about of late, and the internet services don’t offer video playback or WiFi connectivity. That said, the picture is looking pretty great. Sharp credits its specialized LEDs for increasing the color gamut, and new LCD tech for improved blacks and improved brightness due to better controls and less electronics getting in the way. As for 120Hz, Sharp says that its engineers found that 240Hz introduced noise, and on a personal note we don’t think we need many more Hz in our lives. There aren’t really any excuses for the shortage of internet services, but we should be seeing some new stuff at CES next year. Localized dimming is also due for the next generation, but Sharp sees the next big step for LCD tech being the RGB backlight available in its XS1 top-of-the-line set. In practice the blacks look great and the colors look great, but we’ll have to sit these new sets down next to competing TVs to really get a good idea of where Sharp’s at with this gen.

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Sharp’s new AQUOS lineup eyes-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sharp says ITC ban on LCD imports won’t affect US consumers

We just spent some time talking to Sharp’s reps about that ITC ban on its LCD panels, and while they certainly didn’t sound happy about the ruling, they made it clear that it shouldn’t have too much of an effect on US consumers — Aquos TVs and Sharp professional LCD displays currently on shelves are fine to be sold, and updated models have been hitting the channel as of last month. As you’d expect, the new displays have been re-engineered to workaround the Samsung patent in question, but here’s where it gets confusing: the basic model numbers haven’t changed. Instead, the new units have an “N” at the end, so a TV like the Aquos LC52-E77U will now be labeled LC52-E77UN. Sharp says the updated models have exactly the same specs as the outgoing ones, but we’re waiting on a detailed list of spec changes — or better, a side-by-side comparison — so we can decide whether or not the HDTV equivalents of a pre-CBS Fender are floating around out there.

Update: Sharp hit us back with some revised information, so we’ve changed the post slightly.

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Sharp says ITC ban on LCD imports won’t affect US consumers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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