loewe AG, Kronach

Kronach – Germany is on the brink of a new era in television. High-definition television (HDTV) is being widely introduced onto the market to coincide with the beginning of the Winter Olympics on 12 February 2010, bringing with it picture and sound quality never experienced before.

Loewe played a role in shaping this trend early on and today counts 260, 000 customers in Germany alone who have HDTV reception and are best equipped for the new high-definition future. Loewe is the only manufacturer whose television sets (size 32-inch and above) all now come with full-HD 100 Hz technology and integrated HDTV reception. Many Loewe flat-screen TVs are also equipped with an integrated DR+ hard disk recorder, which allows easy recording of high-definition content without loss of quality – whether it’s a lightning fast bobsleigh descent or curling stones gliding over the ice. Thanks to the Loewe Movievision DR+ mobile archive, high-definition pictures can also be stored on the 500 GB external hard drive with space for up to 100 hours of film in HD quality and played on another Loewe television with no loss in quality. Loewe not only scores points in terms of high resolution image quality in recording live broadcasts. It also brings the personal film selection to the screen at home in the highest HD quality with the Loewe BluTech Vision Interactive BluRay player. Even the Loewe audio system, Loewe AudioVision, can play high-definition images on the TV with its integrated DVD player with the help of 1080p upscaling and HDMI connection to the TV set. Home entertainment is perfected with a range of optimally balanced speaker combinations, the versatile Individual Mediacenter and the Multiroom Receiver, which carries the sound into every room. With the Individual Rack System, Loewe is now offering exclusive set-up options. The perfect interplay of television, sound components and equipment guarantees perfection in home entertainment from Loewe.

In Germany today, a large number of HDTV channels are available unencrypted – making it unique within Europe. This range will grow further in February 2010, when the German public broadcasting services introduce two free HD channels (ARD HD, ZDF HD). The private channels from the RTL group already launched their own HD range in November 2009. From the end of January, HD channels from the ProSiebenSat. 1 group (Sat 1HD, ProSieben HD and Kabel Eins HD) will also be following hot on their heels. These new HD channels are sent via satellite over the HD+ platform. Due to child & copy protection regulations, this will be done in an encrypted form. HD+ uses the Common Interface Standard CI+ for this. Loewe flat screen TVs with CI+ interfaces and integrated HD receivers are prepared to receive these channels The relevant HD+ module will be available on the market from the end of March.

This means that, in addition to allowing free access to high-definition channels such as ARD HD and ZDF HD, all Loewe flat screen TVs with CI+ interfaces will also be able to receive other HDTV programmes from RTL HD, Vox HD, Sat1 HD, ProSieben HD and Kabel Eins HD, which will be broadcast via the HD+ platform of satellite broadcaster Astra. The new HD programmes can be easily programmed on your Loewe television by starting an automatic channel search.