Hitachi debuts mid-size HDTVs with hard drive slots
updated 11:10 am EDT, Thu July 26, 2007
Hitachi Wooo P42 and L37
Hitachi on Thursday upgraded its Wooo flat-panel TVs with individual LCD and plasma sets. Similar to the initial sets, all updates today include Hitachi's own iDVR slot that uses removable hard drives to capture analog or digital TV shows while securing some videos against casual copying. Any video can be put through Hitachi's XcodeHD transcoder to compress video by as much as half for when recording time is more important than absolute quality.
The 37-inch L37-X01 is the sharpest of the two with a native 1080p LCD screen, a 7,000:1 contrast ratio, and 500cd/m2 brightness. It can also recognize 24 frames-per-second video and reduce motion artifacts, Hitachi says. Those who prefer plasma can choose the 42-inch P42-HV01, which drops resolution to 1024x1080 through wide pixels but ramps contrast up to 10,000:1 without sacrificing the same brightness level. Three HDMI inputs provide enough room for most HD movie players and other digital peripherals.
Deliveries of the L37 begin first, arriving in September for $2,162 in Japan. The P42 appears in October for $2,495. Hitachi has yet to release sets with iDVR technology in the US and has so far made no announcements to bring the technology to the West. [via Impress]
