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Sony: Sony’s new BRAVIA Z4500 takes you to record speeds. As the first ever TV to come with 200Hz technology, the BRAVIA Z4500 brings you the clearest, most vibrant, fast-action shots ready to burst out the screen.

Their latest technology Motionflow 200Hz is taking the new BRAVIA Z4500 Series to amazing new heights. One up from the original Motionflow 100Hz, the frame rate has been doubled yet again to create the first ever quadrupled speed frame rate for TV.

Now, three new scenes are intelligently created, predicting movement in all directions, to smooth out every element of the action including flicker so you never miss a single detail. Whether you’re a sports fan, movie buff or hardcore gamer, this TV will blow you away.

Find out more about Motionflow 200Hz.

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EngdagetHD: Still believe in the potential of BD-Live? Sony does, exec David Bishop called this the “Pong” stage of development in the technology during an industry demo yesterday on its lot.

Apparently wanting to get some fresh eyes on BD-Live after some glitchy releases and underwhelming features, Sony, Disney and others are still trying to find different ways to work BD-Live into their discs, and new wireless capable players like Samsung’s 2009 models mighty see more people going online.

We’ve seen live directors chats, games, story databases and other twists, but at the moment we’re not as optimistic about where BD-Live is headed in 2009 and beyond.

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TechDigest: When Sony announces a low end Blu-ray player without offering a price it does make me wonder exactly how low end they’re talking. This is, after all, the nearest company to Apple the AV market has.

That aside, the BDS360 does sound like an excellent piece of kit and just the ticket if you’re searching for some HD content for your newly bought LCD.

It’s both DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD compatible and will upgrade all your DVDs to some kind of simulated 1080p. You can connect the player up via Ethernet to get all your BD Live downloadable nonsense and there’s even a USB port to store it through as well.

And, if you’re into unmeasurable proprietary technology, then Sony’s Precision Drive and Deep Colour systems promise to make sure even scratched and wobbly discs get played and played in good colour too.

Sony’s also announced some 2.1 home cinema speaker systems to go with the set up in the shape of the HT-SS360 and HT-SF360. Both are wireless and support Sony’s DCAC (Digital Cinema Auto Calibration) to make sure you put them in the right place and at the right volume for a decent experience.

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CNet: Move over Hotforwords, Lonelygirl15, and all the other YouTube stars. The video site is bringing in more professionally made content and plans to make it a marquee product.

The Internet’s largest video site on Thursday announced that it has struck deals with a host of entertainment companies, including Sony Pictures, CBS (parent company of CNET UK), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Lionsgate, Starz and the BBC, to acquire “thousands” of TV episodes and hundreds of films.

The new content will only be available in the US. YouTube executives also said during a conference call that they have redesigned part of its Web site to create separate areas for professionally made content.

On the site’s front door will be two new tabs. “The ‘Shows’ tab allows you to browse shows by genre, network, title and popularity,” YouTube said in a statement. “The ‘Subscriptions’ tab will grant logged-in users one-click access to fresh content from their favourite creators.”

At this point, it appears the most significant partnership is with Sony Pictures, one of the largest Hollywood film studios. The studio has agreed to post several full-length feature films and TV shows to YouTube.

The rather long-in-the-tooth TV shows include Bewitched and Charlie’s Angels, while among the films are Blue Lagoon, Single White Female, and Nowhere to Run. CNET UK’s sister site CNET News reported earlier this month that the companies were in talks about a feature-film deal. Representatives from Sony Pictures declined to comment.

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Electronista: Google’s video site YouTube is in discussions with Sony Pictures to carry the latter’s full movies, a leak hints.

Without mentioning sources, CNET asserts that YouTube hopes for a license to play the movies on its site. Most of the terms of the deal aren’t specified, though expectations would likely see YouTube pressing for free, ad-sponsored versions of the movies.

Neither company has agreed to comment on the slip. The expansion would signal further efforts by YouTube to start generating money through professionally-made, long form content.

It already carries music videos and short clips from multiple producers, including a recent deal with Disney for segments of ABC, Disney and ESPN shows, but has been limited to just a small group of MGM titles that include some movies and TV shows.

A formal agreement for Sony would give owners of mobile devices with full YouTube clients, like the iPhone and multiple HTC Touch series phones, access to whole movies for free or near-free as long as the movies themselves aren’t deliberately excluded from non-web visitors.

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EngadgetHD: Sony’s STR-DA6400ES, which casually streams high-def content over CAT5e, has finally nailed down a date to mingle with crowds in Europe.

Just yesterday, Sony had announced that the aforementioned model will be available this May along with three other new STR-DH receivers: the STR-DH500, STR-DH700 and the STR-DH800.

The flagship model boasts 7.1-channel audio, DLNA compatibility, six HDMI inputs (alongside two outputs) and Digital Cinema Auto-Calibration.

The rest of the crew ranges from 5.1- to 7.1-channel and are generally stripped down versions of the big papa.

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JCNNetwork: Sony Corp. reduced its planned dividend payment by 15 percent in order to conserve cash after the global recession forced the company to forecast a record operating loss.

Sony is eliminating 16,000 jobs worldwide and slashing its number of manufacturing sites after projecting a record 260 billion yen (US$2.7 billion) operating loss for this fiscal year.

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Reuters: Japanese electronics firm Sony Corp said on Thursday it would freeze workers’ salaries this year as the company tried to recover from a record loss, and its rivals may follow in the face of a global sales slump.

Unemployment is rising in Japan as a slide in exports forces firms to curb production, with the tech sector among the worst hit. Unlike many Japanese companies, Sony does not automatically raise salaries each year based on seniority.

Instead pay rises are set annually for each worker based on their role and performance.

“This time we decided to keep the workers’ salaries unchanged,” Sony spokeswoman Mami Imada said, ahead of the pay round for the financial year starting next month.

Three other Japanese tech companies — Toshiba Corp, NEC Corp and Hitachi Ltd — said on Wednesday they were considering similar moves.

The global financial crisis and a strong yen that hit 13-year highs in January is pushing Sony to a projected operating loss of $2.9 billion for the current financial year to March 31.

Sony’s shares dropped 1.4 percent to 1,963 yen on Thursday, underperforming a 0.6 percent fall in the Nikkei 225 index.

Sony said in January that pay for managers would drop by 10 to 20 percent through wage cuts and bonus reductions of 35 to 40 percent. Imada said Sony workers’ bonuses would be cut to four months’ pay from six months.

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Electronista: German magazine Manager claimed on Wednesday that Ericsson plans to back out of phone maker Sony Ericsson.

The Swedish half of the partnership has reportedly brought up a split with Sony, which has “expressed interest” in talking to banks for help buying out Ericsson’s 50 percent stake and leaving Sony in full control of the company.

The likelihood of a deal going through is called into question by Sony’s health in the current economic crisis. It recently posted its first loss in 14 years and so might not have the resources or justification needed to make such a larger purchase.

Questions have also been raised regarding the likely success of a Sony-only phone company. Why Ericsson might look to back out of Sony Ericsson isn’t mentioned, though it and Sony have frequently been rumored as fighting each other over the future direction of phones.

Sony has allegedly refused to compromise on developing a PlayStation phone and has increasingly taken control of its phones’ design directions, such as with the XPERIA X1

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Akihabara News: It’s interesting to see despite Sony’s announcement a while ago to drop their GPSs line-up, they still continue to produce new compact GPS in a country (Japan) where virtually almost every car has one installed by default.

The only car I drove in Japan that didn’t have one were European press cars like Aston Martin, Lotus Exige, Lamborghini…

Regardless, here’s the NV-U3C with its 3:5” 4:3 QVGA touch screen, 4G of internal memory, and compatible with PetaMap data, that provides valuable information and announcements on stores and restaurants.

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Engadget: The Agence France-Presse is reporting that Serge Foucher, president of Sony France, is being held “hostage” by angry workers whose plant is about to close.

“He won’t listen to us, we didn’t find any other solution,” said the union spokesman. Foucher had come to the video tape manufacturing plant at Pontonx-sur-l’Adour in southwest France to meet with the 311 workers one more time before the plant’s closure.

Unhappy with the the compensation offered, the workers barricaded the entry with tree trunks late Thursday night. Look, times are tough, but let’s be civil, ok? Besides, demand for video tapes is certainly not at risk.

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Gizmodo: Compact discs weren’t always impromptu drink coasters. Once, in the not-so-distant past, they played music, contained pictures, and let people play video games with tacked-on FMV sequences.

And today, the venerable CD turned 30. Happy birthday! 1979-2009.Thirty years. Pretty amazing that it’s been that long since those crazy Dutchmen at Philips spun the technology off of laser discs as part of an optical digital audio disc demo in Eindhoven.

Of course, the CD didn’t immediately take off right then and there. It needed a little help from Sony, which worked with Philips to get the format standardized.

The standard they named Red Book, which included everything from playing time (initially 60 minutes), to the disc diameter to sampling frequency. Put simply, the collaboration worked out, and Red Book was a success.

In the book The Compact Disc Story, Philips reps lauded the task force they established with Sony. The CD that team created was “invented collectively by a large group of people working as a team,” Philips said. If only Apple and Microsoft could say the same, no? Oh, the things they could build.

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