Sony new XBR8 LCD with LED technology.

[Smokey]

Sony will release three new XBR models (XBR6, XBR7, XBR8) this summer/fall. The buzz is about new XBR8 model which utilyze LED backlighting technology. Nicknamed TRILUMINOS, the feature will dramatically improve contrast ratios by allowing the TV to selectively shut off the backlight in darker parts of a scene, creating much deeper blacks without affecting the rest of the picture.

It also dramatically improves the overall color accuracy by using an array of red, green, and blue LEDs instead of a [single] white pixel with three tiny filters, one red, one green, and one blue. With three different LEDs representing a pixel, you get the pure, saturated primary colors. And these purer primary colors yield better-looking mixtures, as well.

Sony's new TVs are supposed to deliver a color gamut equivalent to 105 percent of the NTSC color space. By comparison, most LCDs manage only 65 to 75 percent, and even CRT monitors generally provide around 80 percent.

The XBR8 is expected to launch at first with just one 46-inch model, the KDL-46XBR8, that will ship in August. A 52-inch XBR8 model will follow sometime between September and October.