Name: Panasonic TH-50PZR900
Category: Hi-Def TV
Price: About JPY540,000
Release date in Japan: September 10, 2008

Panasonic Corporation's latest Viera Hi-Def TV further narrows the gap between TV sets and PCs: it boasts a 1-terabyte drive for recording shows and a LAN Ethernet port to access Internet content, particularly YouTube.

What will a terabyte of storage hold? Not quite as much as you might expect, given the heavy storage needs of digital broadcast: about 86 hours of BS digital TV, or 121 hours of terrestrial digital TV. (That same 1 TB drive could store several hundred hours of current analog broadcast TV; alas, that's what's being phased out in Japan by mid-2011, and the Viera won't even deign to record such old-timey signals.)

There's no dual-recording capability, so you can record only one channel at a time; there's also no external DVD player/recorder. So while the built-in hard drive is a nice feature, you'll probably end up getting a dedicated HDD/DVD recorder to go with the Viera. (Panasonic suggests its own line of DIGA BluRay DVD recorders.)

The flat-panel wide-screen plasma display with "Dynamic Black Layer" technology has an impressive contrast ratio of 30,000:1. Supporting that is a huge laundry list of color management technologies that Panasonic says provide the best picture you've seen in a plasma screen that size.  

On the network side, a custom built-in YouTube player (like that on the iPhone) brings funny cat videos and the like to your Viera starting September 30. (What does YouTube video, which is grainy even on an iPod screen, look like at 50 inches? One shudders to imagine.) The Internet connection also brings in expected features such as electronic program guide and viewing recommendations, though there's no general web browser, video/music store, etc.

Other specs: Full-HD (1920x1080) resolution, digital and analog TV tuners, 36W speakers, and connection ports for HDMI, i.Link (FireWire), composite video, S-video, analog audio, monitor, optical audio, analog RGB, and headphones.  

Panasonic introduced two smaller models at the same time: the 46-inch TH-46PZR900 and the 42-inch TH-42PZR900, with key tech specs the same as the 50-incher. The former is available from September 10 for JPY480,000; the latter, from September 20 for JPY420,000. (And if none of that impresses you, ask your Panasonic dealer about the new special-order TH-103PZ800: 103 inches (!) of plasma goodness for about JPY5.6 million, before considerable shipping and set-up fees.)

More info: http://panasonic.co.jp/corp/news/official.data/data.dir/jn080826-3/jn080... (Japanese)

(Incidentally, if you're still using the name Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, you've got just one month left. From October 1, it's officially Panasonic, with both the Matsushita company name and the National home appliances brand disappearing under the Panasonic nameplate.)

Name: TEAC Reference380
Category: home audio system
Price: see below
Release date in Japan: August 25, 2008

Tokyo-based TEAC, a maker of professional and high-end consumer audio equipment, is renewing its presence in the consumer component stereo system market in Japan with a new "hi-component system", the Reference380. TEAC says the Reference series, already available overseas, incorporates the expertise of top European sound designers, and marks the first new TEAC consumer brand sold in Japan since the 10-year-old high-end ESOTERIC consumer line.

The black aluminum-paneled system has four main components:

* Analog amplifier (A-H380): 45W+45W, Signal-Noise Ratio 100dB (IHF-A), frequency response 10Hz-65kHz, Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) 0.1%. JPY47,250.

* CD player (PD-H380): Also plays MP3 and WMA files on CD/CD-RW discs or USB drive. JPY42,000.

* Digital AM/FM tuner (TH-380): 30 AM/FM presets. JPY26,250.

* 2-way speakers (LS-H250): 2.5-cm silk dome tweeters, 13-cm carbon cone woofers, 50W. JPY31,500.

Included with the amp component are an iPod docking station to play your Pod tunes through the system, and a remote to control the amp, CD player, and docked iPod. 

The Reference line will appear at general electronics retailers and specialty audio shops. TEAC plans to introduce additional higher- and lower-end Reference branded components by the end of the year.

More info: http://www.teac.co.jp/audio/teac/ref380/ (Japanese)

Name: Niro Spherical Surround System NS-600
Category: home theater speakers
Price: JPY88,000
Release date in Japan: July 10, 2008

The new "Spherical Surround System NS-600" home theater speakers from niro1.com KK ("Niro") aren't spheres themselves, but they are indeed round. The system's components are a top speaker, bottom ("base") speaker, subwoofer, full digital surround amp, and remote control; no "left" and "right" speakers in this system. The 0.6-kg top speaker projects L/R channels to the rear, while the 1.4-kg base speaker projects L/R and center channels to the front.

Niro explains that conventional front-speaker surround systems project a flat "circle" of surround sound with limited vertical reach, while the NS-600's vertically-separated speakers envelop listeners in a "sphere" of "dramatic" ceiling-high surround sound. The sound cocoon fills a room as large as 60 square meters, says the company.

Buy the NS-600 now, and to celebrate its 10th anniversary Niro will drop a JPY9000 iTunes or Amazon gift certificate into your order.

More info: http://storejp.niro1.com/08shop/ns600/ (Japanese)

Attention, bloggers! Get off the sofa... and on the floor, with Thanko's new "Super Gorone (Snoozing) Cushion". Lie face-down with the Cushion below you, and its support will leave your arms free for comfortable laptop computing or reading. JPY7980.
http://thanko.jp/goronecushion/

Name: SONY Liblog Station VGF-HS1
Category: server
Price: Open price (about JPY60,000, or JPY80,000 for 1.5TB)
Release date in Japan: May 17, 2008

SONY is set to release a new home server with either 1TB (that's 1000 gigabytes) or 1.5TB of storage for your digital media. The "Liblog Station" falls under the "Extension Line by VAIO" line, and takes the flat, round white shape of recent SONY PCs.

As a home server, the VGF-HS1 acts as a big external hard drive for networked PCs in your home or accessed via the Internet. (Remote server access sounds mighty business-like, but SONY suggests personal uses as well, such as viewing your home-stored photos from a friend's home.) Naturally, it boasts extensive convergence with SONY products. One touch of a button on the server will download video from a SONY video or still cam. The DLNA-based "Sony Room Link" function connects the device to additional products, such as the BRAVIA TV and NETJUKE audio system. Finally, the server will accept SONY's MediaStick card media, as well as SD/SDHC and CompactFlash media.

Who's the target market for a home server? SONY notes that over 30% of PC-owning households have two or more machines, with 70% of those multi-PC owners connecting the machines by LAN; these are the prime users who can make use of a home server. Sharing PC files is only the start of the modern household's concerns, though; SONY touts the DNLA standard, found in over 700 electronic devices sold in Japan, as the key to getting all of your gadgets talking to each other under the convergence umbrella. (DLNA, or Digital Living Network Alliance, is an international industry effort toward interoperability among PCs, consumer electronics, and mobile devices.)

Other details: 3 USB ports, 10Base-T/100Base-TC/1000Base-T Ethernet, 27cm diameter x 7.1cm height, 3.1kg. Works with Windows XP/Vista PCs.

More info: http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Products/HS1/ (Japanese)

Spotted elsewhere in the news:

1) Osaka-based RUN'A is offering a new JPY9240 FM radio/CD-player combo from the end of May. Boring, you say? Not when the whole thing is shaped like the head of Disney's Stitch character. Push the nose to open the mouth, place a CD on the tongue, push the mouth closed again, and let the odd blue creature blare tunes from his purple ear speakers. You control playback, forward, etc. by pushing Stitch's teeth. Naturally.
http://www.runat.co.jp/runat/release41.htm (Japanese)

2) If you've got one of several Canon digital camera models, there's a free, open-source, and (reportedly) non-destructive firmware upgrade that'll grant your camera impressive new features: RAW image format handling, longer video times, more on-screen info, super-fast and -slow shutter speeds, scripting, and more. Learn more about, and get your hands on, the Canon Hacker's Developer Kit here:
http://lifehacker.com/387380/turn-your-point+and+shoot-into-a-super+came... (English)

3) From June, ever-creative GREEN HOUSE will offer the USB-based GH-USB-FAN desktop fan in a retro design evocative of the nostalgic mid-20th century Showa era. Drop JPY1980 and place a bit of good ol' "furuki yoki" Nippon next to your PC. Just in time for warm weather.
http://www.green-house.co.jp/news/2008/r0512a.html

Name: SONY PS-LX200USB
Category: Home audio/video
Price: ¥28,350
Release date in Japan: April 15, 2008

SONY will tempt platter-spinning old-school audiophiles with its own offering a few weeks after the ER-250 hits shelves, giving its device the SONY touch (and SONY price). The PS-LX200USB is a 3.1-kg LP/EP player that you can add to your component stereo system for vinyl record playback, or connect via USB to a PC for transfer to digital format.

The PS-LX200USB caters to the music fan wanting to move vinyl to digital without losing the warmth of the original format. While the unit includes a tool to reduce analog noise at the digital recording stage, SONY claims that its compression-less recording preserves the "soft sound quality" of vinyl. From there, you'll use the included Sound Forge Audio Studio LE music mastering software (Windows XP/Vista) to edit your recordings and then burn them to CD-R/RW or convert them to ATRAC or MP3 for playback on other devices (such as a Walkman, SONY helpfully suggests).

But SONY is pitching the player not just as a way to turn your recordings digital but as a way to keep enjoying the records themselves. Some key words for the LP-philes out there: phonoequalizer amplifier, fully automatic play, die-cast aluminum alloy turntable, diamond needle MM cartridge, dynamic balance straight-type tone arm, and more.

More info: http://www.sony.jp/CorporateCruise/Press/200803/08-0312/ (Japanese)