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EngadgetHD: Europeans can look forward to three more BD-Live-capable players in the near future, all of which support 1080p24 and upscale DVDs to 1080i.

As of now, details are pretty scant about the low(er)-end BDP3000 and the mid-range BD5000; all we’re told is that they’ll be DivX Certified, and the latter of the two will boast a USB 2.0 port for multimedia viewing.

The top-end BDP7300 will include integrated 7.1 audio decoding along with 1GB of storage, but prices for the three are still undisclosed. Though, we shouldn’t be waiting long, as the 7300 should land in March with the other two following shortly after.

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Electronic House: Sony recently said that it plans to put Blu-ray into a variety of CE products. Now, Funai says “me too!”

Starting next summer, the company will saturate shelves with combo Blu-ray/LCD TVs at low-low prices. Crunch Gear says that 20 percent of Funai’s current U.S. TV sales are based on TV/DVD combos, so the company must be doing something right.

Don’t expect something too eye-popping. However, the idea of a low-priced combo unit could pull in a few more Blu-ray fans.

No specs have been announced. There is no news on a European launch yet.

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I4U: Digitimes reports that Philips is likely to completely get out of the PDP TV market in 2009.

Funai, who operates the Philips TV brand, says that the company and Philips have no plans to develop new PDP TVs from the end of 2008, indicating that Philips will officially quit Plasma TV operations in 2009.
Philips is still expected to ship 500,000 Plasma TV sets this year.

Funai just recently signed the licensing deal with Philips. Under the deal, set to take effect Sept. 1st, Funai will pay licensing fees to Philips in exchange for the exclusive right to use the Dutch firm’s Philips and Magnavox brand names.

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Guardian: Funai Electric, hit by a shortage of liquid crystal display panel supplies this year, said it may procure LCD panels from Sharp, in a step to secure a stable supply source for its flat TVs.

It would be a welcome move for Sharp as it plans to start up the world’s largest LCD panel plant in western Japan by March 2010. Sharp plans to spend $3.4 billion to build the new LCD plant, which will use cutting-edge 10th-generation glass substrate that can yield more panels per glass than earlier-generation, cutting per-panel production costs.

Funai Executive Vice President Yoshio Nakajima told Reuters in an interview that the company also plans to withdraw from cathode-ray tube TV operations by the year ending March 2010, responding to a shift in demand to flat screen models.

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Guardian: Funai Electric, hit by a shortage of liquid crystal display panel supplies this year, said it may procure LCD panels from Sharp Corp, in a step to secure a stable supply source for its flat TVs.

It would be a welcome move for Sharp as it plans to start up the world’s largest LCD panel plant in western Japan by March 2010.
Funai Executive Vice President Yoshio Nakajima told Reuters in an interview that the company also plans to withdraw from cathode-ray tube TV operations by the year ending March 2010, responding to a shift in demand to flat screen models.

Osaka-based Funai in October cut its operating profit forecast for the year to March by 79 percent due to a rapid shrinkage of the U.S. tube TV market and failure to secure enough LCD panels for its flat TVs.

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Blu-ray.com: In a recent interview with ListenUp.com, Jeff Talmadge from Denon stated that they would announce plans for a high definition player as early as July, but no format was given.

When you couple this information with the fact that Funai (who recently announced a Blu-ray player for this fall) makes DVD players for Denon, and that D&M Holdings, the parent company of Denon, is now an adopter of BD+, it appears that the Denon player will most certainly be Blu-ray.

This information, of course, is all speculative right now, but we hope to hear more from Denon in the upcoming months about their future high definition plans.

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Blu-ray.com: The first low cost Blu-ray player will hit US shelves this fall from Funai, according to reports from Japan.

As we reported earlier, Funai makes low costs electronics which are then sold under brand names such as Sylvania, Emerson, and Magnavox. While no pricing or specs have yet been released, expect pricing to be lower than players from top manufacturers, which are expected to drop to around $400 (around €300) for the holiday season.

At this year’s CES, HD DVD announced that they would leverage cheap players from China to reach a wider marketplace.

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Blu-ray.Com: Low cost electronics manufacturer Funai has revealed in their latest financial report that they plan to launch a Blu-ray player.

With 52% of the DVD player/recorder market in the US, it is very likely that a low cost Blu-ray player would be widely adopted, similar to the success Funai continues to have in the DVD market.

No specific player has been announced, nor any time frame, or manufacturer partnerships, but the inclusion of the bullet in their annual financial report alerts stockholders of their intention to move into the Blu-ray market.

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DigiTimes: Japan-based Funai Electric recently said it is exiting the PDP (plasma display panel) TV market due to sharply-falling prices and rising competition from vendors such as Panasonic, according to the Japanese- language newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

Funai offers 42-inch PDP TVs in North America with panels sourcing from LG Electronics (LGE). The TVs are manufactured in Malaysia, the paper quoted sources as saying. Sales volume from its PDP TVs in North America were no more than 100,000 units in 2006, the paper noted.

In the future, the Japan-based company will focus on LCD TV business, added the paper.

During a recent announcement of its fiscal year of 2006 (the year ended March 2007) performance in May, Funai updated its LCD TV business strategy and highlighted the company is scheduling to launch a 42-inch full high-definition (HD) LCD TV in the US in mid-2007. The company will also have a full line up of LCD TVs, from 15- to 37-inch models with a DVD player, noted Funai.

The Japan-based player is also planning to seeking for more LCD TV OEM orders, stated the company. In addition to OEM business, Funai also has brand names of Sylvania, Symphonic, Funai and Emerson.

Meanwhile, Funai announced that its new LCD TV plant in Poland will commence operation next month with monthly capacity of 200,000 units. The new plant should help the company to shorten lead time, reduce the inventory level of finished goods and lower tariff, said the Japan-based company.

Funai shipped about 600,000 LCD TVs in fiscal year 2005, sources said, adding that Funai is aiming for LCD TV shipments of 1.8 million units worldwide in fiscal year 2006.

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