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Techradar: Barely three months ago, we were talking of booming times for flat-panel TV makers as competition drove sales relentlessly upwards, yet now a consumer-spending slump is combining with legal wrangles to paint a very different picture.

Japan’s Sharp joined several other manufacturers at the weekend in reducing the number of LCD panels it will make in the coming months.

Its production cut of at least 10 per cent puts it in line with Panasonic, Samsung, LG and AU Optronics (AUO), which have already trimmed their projections amid the sudden sales downturn.

To make matters worse, authorities in Japan, the US and EU are also investigating many of the same companies, accusing them of price-fixing in their TV businesses between 2001 and 2006.

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CrunchGear: A Sharp big wig, Shigeaki Mizushima, has gone on record stating that his company is committed to developing TVs that consume less energy than current offerings.

Sharp has done it in the past by cutting its 2005 TVs’ power consumption in half over model year 2000 and plan on doing it again ’cause it’s the responsible thing to do.

“TV sizes are growing to be larger than 30 inches, and the number of TVs is also increasing. However, it’s unjust to simply take it for granted that power consumption should increase as the size of TVs grows, it is important to keep the power consumption of large TVs as low as that of smaller ones.”

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HD News: With the introduction of Sharp LCD TV’s as re-badged Pioneer’s are we seeing any real integration of technology between the two companies?

Having seen the inexorable rise of LCD TV’s to become the most popular flat panel technology we could hardly blame Pioneer for wanting a slice of this lucrative market and for Sharp to want a bigger percentage of European sales. The fruits of Sharp’s 14.28 per cent stake in Pioneer has seen the recent introduction of KURO branded KRL LCD TV’s, offered in 32in, 37in and 46in sizes, which represent the first crack at this lucrative market.

The LCD screens from Pioneer certainly introduce a distinctive look, standing apart from the crowd with an ‘industrial’ look with brushed aluminium finish. Under the covers, we were pleased to see some real integration of technology with the presence of Pioneer’s ‘high contrast front filter’. The technology from Pioneer’s plasma range of flat panels has been designed to increase contrast ratio and colour saturation. Early indications are that Pioneer’s LCD TV’s are good, with excellent black levels.

Elsewhere we can see integration between Sharp and Pioneer on a more rudimentary, albeit supremely stylish level, with Sharp’s XS1E LCD TV’s. The svelte like, 23mm thick screens feature RGB-LED backlighting and a detachable Pioneer 2.1 soundbar.

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Electronista: At the FPD International show in Japan, Sharp demonstrated a 14.1-inch monochrome LCD panel with 1030×606 resolution that has the ability to “remember” the image displayed even after power has been cut off.

In this fashion, it is similar to e-paper displays. Sharp also had other sizes on display, including 6.1-, 2.4- and 1.7-inch black and white LCDs, along with 14.1- and 6.1-inch eight-color displays.

While specific information on the technology behind the display was not revealed, it is known to use a cholesteric LCD design and that power consumption for saving the image is relatively large.

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Crave: Sharp will make the first LCD TV with a Blu-ray Disc recorder built in.

The high-definition disc recorder will be wedged into the side of Aquos DX-series TVs. It will have dual digital tuners, allowing users to watch and record simultaneously on different channels. It will record using the encoding format MPEG4 H.264/AVC.

The TVs will be available in sizes ranging between 26 inches and 52 inches.

The catch? They’re only available in Japan for now, but Sharp is planning to sell it abroad by the end of the year.

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SlashGear: Sharp have been demonstrating a solar-powered HDTV at CEATEC 2008, capable of operating solely from the power generated from sunlight. 

The 52-inch set uses an LED backlight and other energy-efficiency technology so as to reduce it’s power requirements to just 220kWh; coincidentally, that’s the same amount as the solar panel generates.

Of course, in its demonstration setup this wouldn’t be much use – unless you watch TV outdoors, or don’t have a roof – but I’m imagining that Sharp intend for the solar panel to go onto the roof rather than at the base of the set.  It’s actually a demonstration of both the company’s high-power solar panels and their LED-backlight efficient TVs.

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HD News: Hot on the heals of Pioneer and LG, Sharp have announced their own ‘true black’ or ‘infinite contrast’ range of flat panel LCD TV’s with their new ‘X’ series.

Manufacturers are suddenly clambering to produce a version of the latest must have technological feature, ‘infinite contrast’, usually quoted at 1,000,000:1.

LCD has to surmount different technological challenges than Plasma to achieve deep contrast levels. LCD requires ‘backlighting’ to illuminate the screen and here lies the problem. For a number of years ‘local dimming’ technology has been under development in an attempt to achieve the holy grail of LCD development, true blacks.

RGB LED backlighting is under development by a number of manufacturers with the use of controllable LED lights instead of traditional CCFL lights a common theme.

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Electronista: Sharp is adding to its recently introduced GX5 line of AQUOS HDTVs with the 65-inch AQUOS LC-65GX5.

The 1080p, 120Hz display panel also features a moderate 15,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and 450cd/m2 brightness. Sharp’s ARSS speaker system features a 2.1-channel set-up, while the built-in digital amplifier sends 7.5W to each speaker and 15W to a subwoofer.

The set includes both analog and digital terrestrial tuners, while connection options include three HDMI inputs, three composites, three D5, one S-video and one DVI video inputs as well as an optical audio input. Internet connectivity is via two FireWire connectors, or what Sony calls i.LINK.

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infoSync: Boasting enhanced image and sound quality in combination with a thin design, the Sharp Aquos Limited Edition Series LCD HDTVs will arrive in stores soon.

Sharp today unveiled a next-generation LCD TV series that combines image quality, thin design and advanced environmental performance. The full HD 1080p Limited Edition LCD TV series, available in 65-inch (the LC-65XS1U-S) and 52-inch (the LC-52XS1U-S) screen class sizes, utilizes a newly-developed 10-bit Advanced Super View (ASV) LCD panel that enables a slim profile of only one inch at its thinnest part.

The Sharp Aquos Limited Edition Series incorporates a new RGB-LED backlight system for a 15 percent NTSC color gamut, and high Dynamic Contrast Ratio of more than 1,000,000:1 for deep blacks and crisp picture quality.

To deliver improved sound, Sharp joined with Pioneer to develop a thin-design speaker system that combines Sharp’s 1-bit digital amplifier.

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PC Advisor: Sharp is presenting an environmentally friendly way to watch television at this year’s IFA electronics show in Berlin.

The company says solar-panel and LCD TV technology is at the stage where a single panel can provide enough energy to power the TV for four and a half hours per day with no additional electricity required from the grid.

Sharp is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of solar panels for electricity generation and on its stand at IFA it’s showing a polycrystalline-type panel that is capable of generating 200kWh (kilowatt hours) per year of electricity.

That corresponds to the same amount of energy used by its LC-52XS1E television, a 52in model that was introduced at IFA, if it’s used 4.5 hours per day, which is the average amount of time a Japanese household spends watching TV each day.

At IFA the TV and a solar panel were set up together on Sharp’s stand but were not actually connected. The lack of sunlight inside the exhibition hall meant it wasn’t something that could be demonstrated at the show, a Sharp spokesman said.

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HDTV.org: Sharp has released the LC-19D1E in the UK, a 19in HD ready LCD TV which boasts a 1,366 x 768 resolution.

Designed to act as a second TV in the kitchen or Bedroom, this compact screen is available in a glossy White (LC-19D1EWH) or Black (LC-19D1EBK).

It comes with just the single HDMI input along with an integrated digital Freeview tuner.

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Techradar.com: More than half a year on from the demise of HD DVD and the so-called format wars, it’s clearly time to take the temperature of the market’s desire for the victorious Blu-ray alternative and determine where punters are putting their money.

For the most advanced figures we need to look to Japan, where the latest data for sales of Blu-ray recorders (i.e. no PS3 and other players) show an astonishing decline for early pacesetter Sony.

From a peak of 66 per cent of sales in January, Sony’s machines now account for just 33.6 per cent of the BD recorder market. That still puts it in first place, but a pair of rivals is breathing down its neck.

Right behind, on 32.8 per cent, comes Sharp, with Panasonic just a fraction further back, on 32.1 per cent of total sales in July.

In terms of the total market for disk recorders, BD snared 40 per cent, with the remainder going to DVD recorders. The total value of the disk-recorder hardware market had been growing by over 30 per cent compared to last year for the early summer months.

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