CES 2007: LG reveals new plasmas, cuts price of flagship model by 80%

CES 2007, HDTV
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71PY1M.jpgNow THAT’S what I call a New Year sale. And it’s permanent, best of all. LG has cut the price of its flagship 71-inch plasma TV, the 71PY1M, to $14,999.95. That’s a whopping 80% less than when it originally went on sale in early 2006.

LG also announced 10 new plasma TVs for 2007, sized between 42 and 71 inches, in four separate product ranges. The PC5D series has 42 and 50-inch screens, the PB4D series includes 42, 50 and 60-inch models with integrated HD DVRs, the PY3D series has 50 and 60-inch HD 1080p resolution displays, and the PY1M is the telly above, which has seen the massive price cut.

All the premium TVs support full 1920 x 1080p resolution via HDMI and component inputs, while also featuring LG’s XD Engine tech that upscales analogue signals to “near high-definition” quality.

Connectivity is a big deal for the range too, with the entire range featuring LG’s Simple Link which works with selected other LG products, including DVD players and home cinema systems, to control them on-screen.

The PY3D series all have three HDMI inputs, as well as something called a USB Media Host (I think this may mean ‘USB port’), to make it easier to play back music and photos on the TV.

The three PB4D models sound most exciting to me though, with internal 160GB hard drives capable of storing up to 13 hours of HD shows, or 63 hours of standard digital programmes. They’ve got an automatic time-shift feature too, which continuously records in one-hour intervals, as well as having slow-motion rewind and fast-forward.

Check out the rest of our CES coverage.

Stuart Dredge
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