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Eyes-on: Sony's XBR10 LCD and its wireless video streaming box
We know, it's easy to be distracted by the sexy, slim BRAVIA LCD HDTV in front of you, but refocus your eyes for a moment on that unassuming box to the lower right. Given a distinct lack of (read: none) media inputs on the screen itself, that little devices is where all your HDMI, coax and other video sources will be going. With it's $5,000 pricetag the ability to hide DVR's, game consoles and whatever else well away from the television itself is a major selling point so feel free to peruse these pictures (no iPhone comparisons, we promise) and get familiar before this set hits shelves in October.%Gallery-72365%
Sony goes in a cheaper direction with wireless XBR10 BRAVIA LCDs
Proudly rocking the XBR10 nameplate, this is the latest Sony BRAVIA (peep the video from its Japanese launch), though the potential to be greatest is up for debate. These 52- and 42-inch models skip over the company's well received (but expensive) Triluminos LED technology for cheaper edge lit LEDs like Samsung. Sony is taking advantage of the tech's slim frames to include wireless HD streaming -- you'll be plugging set-top boxes, game consoles and other video sources into a separate media box, plugging in anything other than AC would ruin the style. Still, it's hard to see many people deciding that wireless HD, Internet powered TV Guide, BRAVIA Engine 3 processing, Motionflow 240Hz, video streaming from Amazon, YouTube and Netflix and Sony's version of Yahoo! Widgets is enough to overcome a serious case of sticker shock. The KDL-52XBR10 and KDL-46XBR10 arrive in October with $5,000 and $4,500 MSRPs, respectively; over a thousand bucks north of comparable, wireless-less Samsung models featuring the same backlighting tech. That Sony brand and experience worth the difference to you?
