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March 15 sees Sharp’s latest old-skool/new-skool DV-ARV22 3-in-1 recorder hit the streets. It records to VHS, DVD (DL) and has a 250Gb HDD. There are also tuners for both Japan’s public and private digital satellite channels and HDMI output.

The writing has been on the wall for some time for analog TV in Japan, and consumer giant Matsushita said earlier this week that it will stop developing new analog TVs for the domestic market this year.

Toshiba will put on sale Feb.1 two 1024 x 768 resolution DLP office projectors, the DP-T100 and the TDP-T95. At 300mm x 99mm x 218mm and 3kg for the T100 and 2.8kg for the T9 they’re about 20% smaller than the company’s T98 model that came out in April last year.

Though we received no confirmed sightings of Sharp’s mammoth 65in Aquos model at CES, the company’s other HDTVs caused quite a buzz, with the 57in LC-57D90U leading the way. Read on after the jump for Cathy Lu’s report on all the company’s big-screen doings.

After all the talk, we finally have a price for the first HD DVD player. Toshiba announced at CES this morning that it will start selling two players in the US from March this year from $500. The low-end player, called the HD-A1, will be priced at $500. A second player, called the HD-XA1, will cost $800, the company said.

Verbatim, which is owned by Mitsubishi Kagaku Media, has announced that it’s ready to mass produce and ship Blu-ray discs; all the company is waiting for is the players.

Bargain hunters in Tokyo will be pleased to discover that Dynaconnective is selling a range of LCD TVs with prices starting under ¥90,000.

Sega’s Homestar has been around for a while, so we’re pleased to see it discounted in several Tokyo stores in the run up to the holidays.

Plasma people have been telling us for years that the ability to show black is one of the main visual differences between PDPs and LCDs, which is probably why Pioneer is hyping its new PDP’s dark side so heavily. The 42in PDP-425CMX sports the all-new P.U.R.E. Black Panel, or “Plasma Ultimate Reference Exclusive.”

As was widely reported over the weekend, HP is jumping on the HD DVD bandwagon to join MS and Intel, making the groundswell of support for the Toshiba/NEC/Sanyo format even more formidable.

The MPA (or Motion Picture Association to its friends) has just kicked off a determined sweep designed to clear the Asia-Pacific region of movie pirates.

Sigma Designs is hooking up with Pioneer to develop Blu-ray DVD players using Sigma’s SMP8630 family of chips.

In what amounts to a second major delay for HD DVD, Toshiba has announced that it’s not going to launch its players in Japan by the end of the year, as licensing for their AACS copy protection technology — the draconian-sounding Advanced Access Content System — isn’t ready.

TDK has finally managed to liberate Blu-ray Discs from the shackles of their protective cartridges and has begun production of what it calls bare media.

The distinctive sheen that you may notice emanating from Aquos TVs next year has a really corny story behind it. Yes, Sharp is replacing the wicked petroleum-based paints that it now uses to prettify its lineup with an environmentally saintly corn-based lacquer.

Yesterday’s announcement by Panasonic that it has managed a dual-layer 50Gb Blu-ray disc (BD) is interesting for sure, but more intriguing, perhaps, is the fact that production yields of good discs are now at 80%, which is still 10% less than the HD DVD camp are managing.

Fearing the worst when we saw the company name, we were as relieved as a potential prairie oyster to find that Digital Cowboy’s latest HDD Network MPEG player, the DC-MC35UL/N, has relatively harmless styling and is actually quite capable.

Anyone else think Sony’s bigwigs should be thrown in the slammer for their part in the rootkit/XCP fiasco? Colleague Charl Bergkamp over at Computing SA seems to think so and spells out exactly why.

Fancy a cheap night in but can’t afford a Koyuki-endorsed Viera? Byd:sign’s latest 42in plasma is perfect for those who aren’t worried about HD, but who just want a good time with a big (and relatively) inexpensive TV.

(Via byd:sign [Japanese])

NEC has shone light on three DLP projectors that have just gone on sale both in Japan and internationally; the LT35J, 30J and the 25J.

(Via NEC [in Japanese])

Those bright people at Hitachi have come up with a cooler than usual projector. Literally.

(Via Hitachi [Japanese])

Looks like it’s Sony day here at DWT — now it appears to be hoping that the Brits will overlook the fact that the company’s new Anglo-American boss Sir Howard Stringer appears to want it both ways: cutting jobs over there with one hand while selling products with the other.

(Via Pocket-Lint)

Whatever happens to Blu-ray or HD DVD, there’s a new disc format coming in 2006 that’s going to make the storage capacities of both next-gen DVD contenders seem anemic to say the least.

(Via Softpedia)

Folk who really dig their home theater will already be HDMI-ed to their eyeballs, we’re sure, but for those big spenders who want to push that high-def goodness a little further, may we suggest splashing up to $2k on Ophit’s new HDMI booster?

(Via IDG News Service)

Not that anyone ever expected this tedious HD DVD Vs Blu-ray format battle to be simple or anything, but it now seems the copy-protection needed to keep the content providers at the likes of Disney happy is going to be yet another barrier to allowing consumers to do whatever they want with movies and such like they are willing to pay hard-earned cash for.

(Via IDG News Service)

Sure enough, the show floor was practically overrun by companies showing off their next-gen high-def Blu-ray and HD DVD players and recorders today,  with a clear feeling among industry watchers that HD DVD is edging ahead. Read on for the deets from Martyn Williams on our news team.

(Via IDG News Service)

Ahead of tomorrow’s opening day at CEATEC, Toshiba has unveiled a prototype of its new HD DVD player, the HD-XA1. The new player handles the 30Gb variety of HD discs and is set to be joined at the show by the Tosh laptop we mentioned last week. Read on for the full scoop from our News Service colleagues.

(Via IDG News Service)