Sony’s LCD TV Goes Portable

May 16th, 2007

A portable LCD TV unveiled here by Sony needs no tether to a
cable or antenna connection, and is so portable it even has a built-in
handle.

Sony introduced two models of its LocationFree Portable Broadband TV at
the Home Entertainment Expo here this week. The flagship 12.1-inch LF-X1 model,
weighing about 5 pounds with a screen resolution of 800 by 600, will sell for
$1500. Its 7-inch junior, the LF-X5, has a screen resolution of 800 by 480 and
will be priced at $1000, according to Sony representatives. Both models are
scheduled to ship this fall, each bundled with a required base station.

The base station has a built-in NTSC tuner, an ethernet port, two video
inputs, a USB port (for connecting to an optional analog modem), and an IR
Blaster for remote control use. Simply hook up your video source–the cable
from your cable box, for example, or an antenna–to the base station. The
LocationFree TV can access the signal using one of the three most common
flavors of
Wi-Fi (the kit supports all three).

The 802.11g standard offers high speed (up to 54 megabits per second)
and has good range, but is also subject to interference from other traffic on
the 2.4-GHz band that 802.11g uses–microwaves and cordless phones, for
example. The 802.11a standard offers similar high speed rates and is less
likely to run into interference, but its range is poor. Sony says in most cases
the TV will choose whichever of these Wi-Fi technologies produces the
best-quality image.

Finally, the 802.11b standard, while slow, can allow you to access
content from your base station remotely over the Internet–at a Wi-Fi hotspot,
for example. You can do this if you’ve connected your base station to your
broadband router by running an ethernet cable between the two.

Sony says your ISP must support upstream transfer rates of at least 300
kilobits per second. In Sony’s demonstration at the show of this type of setup,
the image was very small and the video quality was poor. But if you’re
determined to get content you have stored at home–a home video, for
example–you might be able to live with these limitations.

Meanwhile, video streamed directly from a base station to the sets was
of high quality, probably at least in part due to Sony’s proprietary QoS
(quality-of-service) technology. QoS is an industry term for technology
designed to make multimedia transmissions smooth so that they don’t skip or
stutter; the IEEE is completing work on an 802.11e standard for
QoS over
Wi-Fi, but it won’t be ready until at least the end of the year, and it
probably won’t be compatible with Sony’s technology.

TV programming isn’t all you can access on the LocationFree sets. You
can view photographs, since the 12.1-inch model has a built-in CompactFlash
slot and the 7-incher accepts Memory Stick. You can browse the Web using an
embedded browser, and send and receive e-mail using an on-screen software
keyboard. The 12.1-inch model also has picture-in-picture capability, and an
A/V input for connecting to a camcorder, PlayStation 2, DVD player, or other
component. Both units have stereo speakers; the 7-incher also has a headphone
jack.

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