Sony's 4K TV: A First Look

Sony's upcoming XBR-84X900 4K TV produced beautiful images in a demo at the IFA trade show last week, but its size, likely high price and a lack of content that can take full advantage of the set makes it an unlikely buy.

Sony's upcoming XBR-84X900 4K TV produced beautiful images under controlled circumstances at IFA.

Sony and a number of other vendors showed so-called 4K TVs. The name comes from their horizontal resolution of almost 4000 pixels: they have a resolution of 3840 by 2160 pixels, four times the number of pixels found on HDTVs, which have a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels.

It is easy to get carried away when seeing a 4K demo: Sony's set produces a 2D image that, thanks to the higher resolution, feels almost as immersive as a 3D image.

But demonstrations at trade shows such as IFA hardly give a balanced view of how a product performs under normal circumstances. All the 4K demos, not just Sony's, used slow-moving, bright images, which are the least challenging to reproduce.

While it is easy to be impressed by the images, it is also easy to see why 4K TV sets will initially have an uphill battle for a place in the market.

The two main challenges facing them are their price and the lack of native 4K content.

LG unveiled a 4K TV at IFA.

Sony hasn't announced a price for its XBR-84X900 TV, but LG Electronics' 4K TV will cost about US$22,000 when it starts to roll out in North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America starting in September.

The lack of content also has to solved before the 4K format can take off.

Movies are already shot or the analog film scanned to accommodate 4K, but when they will be available to consumers in that format remains to be seen. Broadcasters would have to upgrade their whole production and distribution infrastructure before TV shows can be broadcast in 4K. At present, on-demand distribution over fiber networks seems to be the likeliest option.

Sony intends to get around the lack of native content by having its TVs upconvert HD content such as that on Blu-Ray Discs to 4K format on the fly. It's the same process HDTVs use to display standard-definition images on high-definition screens.

Sony offered a comparison of 4K and upconverted 1080p content.

In a back room at its stand, Sony had two units on display next to each other. During a demonstration, Sony displayed 4K content on one and upconverted 1080p content on the other, and the results were barely distinguishable.

The best result will come when upconverting content that was originally mastered in 4K, while results won't be as good for sports broadcasts, a Sony spokesman said.

The last challenge is that to see the difference between 1080p and 4K you need a big screen. How big depends on who you ask, but Sony's TV is 84 inches, which won't be a good fit for everyone.

Send news tips and comments to mikael_ricknas@idg.com

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Sony’s VAIO Duo 11 Windows 8 Hybrid Appears Online

Samsung isn’t the only one with a Windows 8 hybrid up its sleeve. PocketNow has obtained photos of just such a device hailing from Sony, and the Sony VAIO Duo 11 looks attractive enough — and business-friendly enough — that it might just give the Microsoft Surface tablet a run for its money.

The website’s source didn’t divulge any information about the hybrid’s actual hardware components, but the “11? in “VAIO Duo 11? likely signifies the screen size. Digging into the images, it looks as though the VAIO Duo 11 will run Windows 8, given the appearance of a desktop version of Office in one of the pictures. Every image features a prominently displayed stylus and the keyboard is backlit.

Speaking of the keyboard, it appears as though Sony has opted to include a built-in, slide-out keyboard similar to the one in the Asus Eee Pad Slider rather than a Surface-esque optional stand or a detachable keyboard like the Samsung Series 5 Hybrid, which sports a magnetic connection at the hinge.

Other manufacturers have even more varied visions of how a keyboard and tablet should meld, and we’re hoping to see several Windows 8 hybrids unveiled this week at IFA 2012. Online editorial director Avram Piltch is on the floor in Berlin and will be keeping you up to date on all the latest and greatest gadgets being shown off. 

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Sony's Cute MMORPG Free Realms Offers Many Ways to Play

Free Realms, a freemium MMORPG from Sony, claims "millions" of accounts, though how many of those represent regular players is anyone's guess. There are many different ways to play the game; whether the youthful graphics and intrusive upsells render it less playable is a matter of taste.

Free Realms's design is kid-friendly, but it offers enough different kinds of gameplay to appeal to grownups. What makes Free Realms interesting is the wide range of dynamic play styles it supports. Whatever kind of task or microgame you're playing at the moment, your character's costume and skills warp to match it. The sheer variety of game modes, from fairly standard button-mashing combat to interactive cooking, means there's likely to be something appealing, at least as a diversion.

Free Realms is squarely aimed at younger players, and the graphic design might cause insulin shock in anyone over the age of 15. One can imagine the graphic artists were fired from Zynga and PopCap for being "too cute".

Despite the name, Free Realms has fairly hefty limits on non-paying customers--for example, you cannot advance any job past level 5. Furthermore, it has the most obnoxious and in-your-face advertising and upsell attempts of any freemium game I've played. Games from much smaller companies, with far fewer financial resources, offer more to free members and are less intrusive about trying to collect cash.

Free Realms can be fun in a candy-colored way, but it's like watching your favorite Britcom on PBS during pledge week; whenever you start to relax and enjoy yourself, here comes the beg-a-thon…except instead of a tote bag, you get a unicorn.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

--Ian Harac

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Sony's Hirai, Executive Who Led PlayStation Turnaround, Promoted to CEO

Sony said Wednesday that executive Kazuo Hirai, who runs the company's core consumer products division, will be promoted to CEO and president in April.

Kazuo HiraiHirai, a charismatic Sony veteran who has long been groomed to lead the company, will take over from current CEO Howard Stringer. Stringer will continue as chairman of the board of directors after the handover.

Hirai, 51, is widely credited with leading a turnaround in Sony's PlayStation business, after taking over just after the launch of the PlayStation 3 game console. He is fluent in English and will become the company's youngest leader since its founder, Akio Morita, according to local media reports. When Sony promoted Hirai to his current role from April of last year, Sony said its management changes were aimed at "empowering the next generation of Sony's management." It was Hirai who spoke for Sony, acknowledging the Playstation Network security problems last year.

The management shuffle comes a day before Sony is due to release its earnings for the October-December quarter. The company said in November it expects losses of well over a billion dollars in its current fiscal year through March, after saying several months earlier it could make a ¥60 billion (US$770 million) profit.

"The path we must take is clear: to drive the growth of our core electronics businesses -- primarily digital imaging, smart mobile and game; to turn around the television business; and to accelerate the innovation that enables us to create new business domains," Hirai said in a news release announcing the leadership change.

Howard Stringer, a former television executive who was knighted in 2000, has led the company since 2005, when it was struggling to achieve profitability. He oversaw the cutting of about 10,000 jobs and slashed numerous product companies, while selling off company assets to raise cash and closing factories. The selection of a foreigner to lead a beloved Japanese company like Sony was seen as controversial domestically, and he was sometimes criticized for not spending enough time in Tokyo.

Japanese companies often make key personnel changes in April, when most begin their fiscal year.

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Sony's Glass-Plated TX200V Camera Stays Fashionable Even Underwater

Over the past few years, Sony's TX line of rugged cameras has distinguished itself from the rest of the durable pack by looking nothing like the everything-proof competition. The Cyber-shot TX cameras are slim, fashionable, and largely touchscreen-controlled--three traits that you rarely see in waterproof, dustproof, drop-proof, and freezeproof models.

Announced today, the new glass-fronted Cyber-shot DSC-TX200V takes a step forward on the aesthetics front, but a couple of steps back in terms of ruggedness: While the TX200V is waterproof (to a depth of 16 feet underwater) and dustproof, that fancy glass faceplate means that it's not drop-proof; the camera isn't rated as freezeproof, either. (And thank goodness it's waterproof, because dunking it in soapy water will likely be the best way to clear its front plate of all the fingerprints it's bound to collect.)

Sony Cyber-shot TX200V

Ruggedness aside, this camera has an iPhone-esque physical design. The glass-fronted TX200V's design might even be a visual riff on the fact that the Apple iPhone 4S's popular 8-megapixel camera is a module made by Sony.

Under its slick looks, the new camera contains some souped-up innards: an 18-megapixel backside-illuminated Exmor R CMOS sensor, a revamped autofocus system that Sony says can lock in on subjects within 0.1 second in bright lighting and within 0.2 second in dimmer environments, and an internal 5X-optical-zoom lens (25mm to 125mm) that extends to a simulated 250mm telephoto via the "by-pixel super resolution" digital-zoom technology first found in the Cyber-shot TX55 and several new Handycam camcorders announced at CES 2012. In its new Cyber-shot lineup, Sony bills the new digital-zoom technology as "Clear Image Zoom."

Sony Cyber-shot TX200V (back)In video mode, the TX200V records 1080i footage at 60 frames per second, and it can capture 13-megapixel still images while shooting video, without interrupting movie recording. Built-in GPS geotagging (just raw longitude and latitude information; no in-camera mapping) and a 3.3-inch-diagonal OLED touchscreen round out the Cyber-shot TX200V's array of features.

Due in March in three body colors (red, silver, and purple), the Cyber-shot TX200V will be priced at around $500.

Sony announced two other Cyber-shot cameras today, as well--both of them priced at around $200.

Sony Cyber-shot WX70The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX70 is a 3-inch-touchscreen-operated camera with a similar 5X-optical-zoom (25mm to 125mm)/10X-digital-zoom reach, 1080i video recording at 60 fps with the ability to simultaneously snap 12-megapixel stills, and a 16-megapixel backside-illuminated Exmor R CMOS sensor.

Sony Cyber-shot WX50A nontouchscreen version of the same camera, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX50, will also be available. The Cyber-shot WX70 will be priced at $230 starting in March, and the Cyber-shot WX50 will sell for $200 at the same time.

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