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Sharp, you introduced the world's first HDTV line with integrated Blu-ray players last year, what are you going to do next? Only naturally, the Japanese lineup of DX2 series one-ups the original DX by adding Blu-ray recording as well. It doesn't appear that these pack the LED backlighting of the new X-Gen based displays headed our way this fall, so for now buyers will have to make do with the 15,000:1 contrast ratio shared with the other D-series televisions. Still, the big deal here is that the 1080p (52-, 46- and 40-inch) and 720p (32- and 26-inch) displays will burn up to 30 hours of HD video on dual-layer Blu-ray discs, by way of transcoding and compressing to MPEG-4 format without any messy external boxes or wires. The price range from ¥170,000 ($1,740) at the low end to ¥480,000 for the largest size when these ship September 15 but don't count on seeing them on this side of the Pacific.

Sharp released DX Series of LCD TVs in Japan that boast to be the world’s first TV with integrated Blu-ray players. This means a user can insert a BD disc into the TV and enjoy the movie right away without the need to own an additional Blu-ray player for it. It sure is nifty but one thing that can damp your expectations is that this one’s HD ready, capable of playing at 1366×768 resolution. But if that’s not your concern, the TV could be a good buy when it comes out on June 20 in Black or White for 150,000 Yen (almost $1600).