Mirai LCD TVs: New kids on the block

Asian LCD manufacturer Mirai is better known for its computer monitors, but like many other companies it's getting bored of making displays for Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations, and is branching out into the television market. Why should you care? Because not only are its new TVs officially 'HD Ready', they're cheap as chips too. Not only that, but the range stretches from a bedroom-sized 27-inch model right up to a 47-inch monster -- something that not even the big boys of the AV world can boast yet.

The 27-inch model that Mirai showed us looked generic in the flesh, but the HD Ready badge and £499 price tag certainly piqued our interest. Indeed, the 32-inch Olympic model isn't much more at £699, and the internal processing has been slimmed so that the overall weight of the TV is a mere 13kg. While these TVs will launch here around April and May with an optional integrated Freeview tuner, the 37-inch, 42-inch and 47-inch versions will come slightly later and support full 1,920x1,080-pixel resolutions.

Mirai also hinted that it would have LCD TVs with integrated hard-drive recording in the near future, and we'll be keeping up with all the developments when it exhibits at the CeBIT trade show in March. Keep an eye on our Televisions review channel to see if they turn out to be LCD bargains. -GC