LG announces three new series of plasma TVs

LG announced three new series of plasma TVs at their press conference at CES 2007 yesterday: the PC5D series, the PB4D series, and the PY3D series. The press release lacks specifics and availability, but we were able to get a good outline of their upcoming plasma TV product lines.

The PY3D series is LG's 1080p line of plasma TVs, and consists of both a 50- and a 60-inch model. Along with their 1,920x1,080 native resolution, this series also has three HDMI inputs as well as a USB port. Models in the PY3D series--and all other LG plasma series--feature a built-in ATSC tuner. No pricing or availability was announced for this series.

LG also introduced the PB4D series, which includes a built-in HD digital video recorder. We've seen this feature previously from LG on the LG 42LB1DR, which we looked at in October and felt was a little lacking. The built-in DVR has a 160GB hard drive, which can handle 14 hours of HD programming or 63 hours of standard-definition programming. Although it doesn't state it explicitly, the press release implies that the sets have a built-in EPG, which might be the TV Guide EPG that was on the 42LB1DR. The PB4D series also offers the ability to display from external high-definition sources via component video inputs, but only in 480p. Unfortunately there's no indication that they've fixed our major beef with these integrated DVRs--it's only possible to record one show in HD at once. The PB4D series consists of three sets: the 42-inch 42PB4D, the 50-inch 50PB4D, and the 60-inch 60PB4D.

The PC5D series features two new models, the 42-inch 42PC5D and the 50-inch 50PC5D. Although the press release didn't specify the native resolution, we imagine this series will have a native resolution of 1,366x768 because it wasn't listed as a 1080p TV.

Along with these series, LG rolled out its flagship 71-inch plasma monitor, the 71PY1M. Of course, the big screen costs big bucks. The 71PY1M will retail for $15,000.