wow...a blue-ray player strapped to the back of an LCD tv. that's intelligent design. have fun keeping that unit properly cooled and ventilated. (...morons)
It probably saves power (and thus reduced heat) over-all compared to separate boxes. Blu-ray and ATSC have some areas of overlap, it's probably save to say that all the video decoding circuitry can exist on the Blu-ray side, which can also handle the upscaling, reverse-pulldown, and other image manipulation features that would normally be done by the TV itself. To be a TV, it just needs the tuner (not the decoder, the tuner) and stuff to convert the various analog signals into digital.
Add that to the fact the entire box is mounted vertically, allowing air to easily flow over the circuits without the need for fans, and you probably have a much more efficient and clean design than you'd ever have otherwise.
And if you're trying to push Blu-ray, building the players into HDTVs strikes me as a good way to do it. I'm surprised Sony hasn't been doing this.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
wow...a blue-ray player strapped to the back of an LCD tv. that's intelligent design.
have fun keeping that unit properly cooled and ventilated. (...morons)
It probably saves power (and thus reduced heat) over-all compared to separate boxes. Blu-ray and ATSC have some areas of overlap, it's probably save to say that all the video decoding circuitry can exist on the Blu-ray side, which can also handle the upscaling, reverse-pulldown, and other image manipulation features that would normally be done by the TV itself. To be a TV, it just needs the tuner (not the decoder, the tuner) and stuff to convert the various analog signals into digital.
Add that to the fact the entire box is mounted vertically, allowing air to easily flow over the circuits without the need for fans, and you probably have a much more efficient and clean design than you'd ever have otherwise.
And if you're trying to push Blu-ray, building the players into HDTVs strikes me as a good way to do it. I'm surprised Sony hasn't been doing this.
Uh...then don't buy one...