Westinghouse Packs DVD into 40-inch HDTV

Westinghouse's new VK-40F580D offers a 40-inch LCD HDTV with a built-in slot-loading DVD player, and two auto-sensing HDMI inputs.

Westinghouse may not be the most-recognized name in the flat-panel television game, but they’re doggedly trying to appeal to consumers who want straightforward, multi-functional entertainment. The new VK-40F580D tries to appeal to folks who want things simple, combining a 40-inch 1080p LCD flat-panel television with an integrated slot-loading DVD player and two HDMI inputs that can automatically detect when an external video source is activated.

The VK-40F580D offers a 1,920 by 1,080-pixel resolution, an integrated NTSC/ATSC/ClearQAM tuner, and can function as a PC display at a variety of resolutions. The display touts an 1,800:1 contrast ratio, a 176° viewing angle, and an 8ms response time. The unit also features deep calibration capabilities and a series of preset video modes that customize the display to particular purposes like movies and gaming. The integrated slot-loading DVD player does not offer upscaling—so you’ll be seeing ordinary “DVD-quality”—but it does offer Westinghouse’s PixelDirect technology that puts DVD video to the display on a direct path, so you don’t have to worry about supposedly-intelligent video processing messing up your content. The unit also features two video inputs, antenna and component inputs, analog and S/PDIF audio output, all mounted using Westinghouse’s “SpineDesign” so users don’t have to muck around behind the unit: all ports are accessible on the sides.

The VK-40F580D is available now at a suggested retail price of $1,149.