LED Televsions with Hard Drives Built In

It's an interesting concept: create a television with a built-in hard drive. We've had displays that have packaged in VHS players, DVD players, and Blu-ray players, and there might have been a few that tried hard drives, but this seems to be a legitimate attempt to do it right. Sony is the first one to offer an LED display with a hard drive built in. Will anyone buy?

I'm not exactly sure what to call this move: is it an all-in-one television? How would it work? Will the television itself become the DVR? These are all questions that should intrigue consumers. Thankfully, Sony is shedding some light about their new displays.

Sony's new line of BRAVIA displays will have 500GB hard drives built right in and the capability to transfer digital content from an external USB drive as well, which will allow you to add even more space if 500GB isn't enough. Without additional storage, this will give the user up to 65 hours worth of high-definition television recording and playback. With additional storage, the sky is the limit.

The flagship model — the 40-inch KDL-40EX52H — features an edge-lit LED backlit display. It also features full 1080p resolution, a double digital television tuner, built-in ethernet, 10 -watt speakers, and 3 HDMI ports. It is priced at a resounding $1,800. And it also includes that built-in 500GB storage capacity to hold all of your digital media.

But the question is will this catch on? Nowadays consumers have computers and media PCs to stream their content to the television. It isn't difficult to have a digital file on your computer, connect to the the television via HDMI, and play it. Even some of the none-geeky people out there are beginning to do this on a regular basis. It is an expensive proposition.

And speaking of streaming, services like Netflix and Hulu have begun taking over the future of digital content, making us question whether the idea of owning a physical storing a digital copy in the future will be necessary. With services like UltraViolet coming out soon, the question of why a television with a built-in hard drive would even be necessary is apparent — Sony might be a few years too late with this.

But the most surprising thing about these displays is that Sony has decided not to include 3D functionality. Considering that it couldn't be too much of a hassle to add in the 3D components, we are unsure of why Sony went this route.

It could be that Sony wanted to pump up the fact that these displays have the hard drives, and not have to tout the fact that they are 3D, but that doesn't make much sense. There is also a possibility that adding in the 3D components would have made the displays even more expensive (and trust me, they are expensive). But it seems as if 3D should be standard these days, especially for LED HDTV displays such as these.

Either way, if you are hoping for 3D on these displays, you will be sorely disappointed.

One negative thing that could be said about these displays is that they will be expensive. The smallest 22-inch display — the KDL-22EX42H — is priced at around $1,100. The 32-inch display — KDL-32EX42H — is priced at around $1,340. And the 40-inch display — KDL-40EX52H — will come in at around $1,800.

This is pretty expensive for televisions that don't really stand out much except for the fact that they include hard drives. At that price, why not buy a $700 40-inch 1080p television, a $400 media PC, and a $100 1-terabyte hard drive? You'll save a few hundred and have the same features with more functionality.

Either way, these displays will be released in March 2011, and they will be for selling in Japan. No word yet on when they will make their way to the States, but hopefully they will be cheaper by the time when that happens.

In the end, if you want a television that packs in a hard drive without the 3D, the this line of Sony televisions might appeal to you. But at the current price, it doesn't make much financial sense to do so when you could build your own media center for much cheaper and still have the same functionality.