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Our TV loving friends from Japan will surely not run out of LCD TV choices thanks to Sharp, who has just unveiled not just one but twenty-two new LCD’s in their RX5, GX5 and DS5 series.

The RX5 series will be available in 65, 52 and 46-inches. These LCD’s tout a total contrast ratio of 20000:1 and 450cd/m2 brightness. They will come in full HD glory with 120GHz panel and 12bit BDE image processor. LCD’s falling under Sharp’s GX5 series will have full HD and HD ready panels with sizes ranging from 26-inches up to 52-inches, a 120Hz ASV panel and contrast ratio of 2000:1 with 450cd/m2 brightness. And finally we have the DS5 series which will come in three full HD models with 32-inch up to 42-inch sizes. These LCD’s will come with 2000:1 contrast ratio and a brightness of 450cd/m2, however the 120Mhz ASV panel will not be included in this series feature lineup.

And now for the biggest news of all? These Sharp LCD’s will be preloaded with a tuned Yahoo! page to give you quick access to Yahoo! right in your spanking new Sharp LCD. This is courtesy of Sharp and Yahoo! Japan’s partnership. Pricing information, release date and details of whether these LCD’s will be shipped internationally are not yet available.

Via [Akihabara News]

PLC or Powerline Communications is what Sharp believes is the easiest way to network your home.  This comes in comparison to what we saw from NETGEAR this morning, a wireless over the air network.  Sharps PLC relies on the electric wires already in your house to transmit data. 

It works like this, you plug in the TV to the adapter, then the adapter into the wall.  This connection offers fast data transfer at speeds of up to 85 Mbps.Sharp uses government-adopted AES 128 bit encryption for security.

“As the home becomes more connected, there is a pressing need for simplified and secure ways to build a reliable network,” said Bob Scaglione, senior vice president and group manager, Product and Marketing Group, Sharp.  “Using the most pervasive home wiring medium – power outlets – Sharp’s PLC adapters provide consumers with the best and safest solution for high-quality content distribution.”

The units are sold as a one port solution, a four port adapters and a bundle kit that includes the previous two for convenience.  Pricing is $149 for the single, $179 for the 4 port adapters and $279 for the bundle.

Company site [Sharp USA]

Sharp just unveiled their Aquos Net, a feature to come on all their LCD TVs to not only aid users in set up but also to introduce a new thinking in how you interact with your TV.  I walked away from the Sharp conference most impressed with this concept.

Aquos Net -which sounds to me like hairspray, but lets move on- brings online content as well as real-time customer support to your LCD TV.  Using an ethernet adapter, your TV not only becomes connected in a big way but it becomes content filled through customizable widgets.  Announced early partnerships for the widgets will be with WeatherBug, stock quotes from NASDAQ and Uclick - a collection of online comics and games, traffic.com, NBC Universal and finally an Aquos gallery of images that make you pat yourself on the back for making such a wise investment in technology. These widgets can be viewed full screen or half screen all with just the touch of a button.

The real-time customer support is pretty handy, especially if their call center if overseas.  Agents, with permission from you can access setting, make changes and make your TV work, well after you would have figured it out.  Other stand out features are a FAQ for scouting the problems before contacting Sharp as well as an onscreen owners manual and even access by the agent to set up your remote control.

Company site [Sharp USA]

The LCD is here to stay another year (and prices will drop!): Sharp has announced plans to boost LCD output at its number one Japanese plant by about 20 percent next spring. The move should cost about 15 billion yen and was inspired by strong sales in the 32- and 37-inch LCD TVs.

Read [Gizmodo]