Amazon has teamed up with Funai, a Japanese consumer electronics company, and Yamada Denki, one of the largest consumer electronics retailers in Japan, to release the first Fire TV Smart TVs in Japan. Predicted by the leak of a Japanese Fire TV Smart TV remote last year, the new TVs include the Funai F340 Series, which consists of three 4K models in 43, 50, and 55-inch sizes, as well as a Funai F140 Series, which will see the inclusion of a 720p 32-inch model. The arrival of these latest Fire TV Smart TVs in Japan marks the 6th country where Amazon now sells a total of over 100 different Fire TV Smart TV models, including the US, the UK, Germany, Canada, and India.
The Funai F340 Series will support 4K video in HDR10 and HLG high dynamic range formats. They have 3 HDMI ports, of which 1 is ARC compatible, and the usual assortment of connectivity options that you’d expect in a modern Smart TV. Unique to the Japanese market is the ability to connect up to a 6TB USB hard drive to the TV’s 2 USB ports in order to record programming from the TV’s built-in tuners.
The lower-end Funai F140 Series will have a 720p display panel and will, expectedly, not support any HDR formats. It will have the same array of ports and connectivity as the higher-end F340 Series TV. The F140 will have fewer built-in tuners but will support the same recording capabilities to a connected USB hard drive.
The 4K F340 Series Fire TV Smart TVs will be priced ¥99,800 ($867 USD) for the 43-in TV, ¥109,800 ($954 USD) for 50-in, and ¥129,800 ($1,127 USD) for 55-in. Those TVs will be released on March 5th but pre-orders made between now and March 4th will receive a discount of ¥30,000 ($260 USD). The lower-end 720p F140 Series TV in a 32-in size will be released later at the end of April for ¥49,800 ($432 USD).
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Built in Tuners? Do you mean there are more than one tuners in these TVs? If the user is able to record tv from the built in tuners, does that mean that a recast and a fire tv are both integrated into these new TVs?
Wildly enough, TVs with built-in, recording-capable tuners (using internal and/or USB storage) have actually become commonplace in Japan over the last decade! (The prices do tend to reflect these extra features, however…).
The images on Funai’s site seem to suggest to me that this functionality is based on Japanese domestic market tech, rather than Amazon’s Recast. The Recast has never been sold here & the vast majority of Japanese TVs & TV tuners require a special “B-CAS” Card for authentication in order to receive digital television signals.
Thanks for the insight!
The F340 4K TVs have 2 BS4K and 2 BS tuners, while the F140 has only the 2 BS tuners. It also says there are 2 “Digital terrestrial” tuners, but I’m not sure if that’s in addition to the BS tuners or not.
Product info page states “2 Terrestrial Tuners”.
Recording in 4k possible but not guaranteed. No 8k recording.
Interestingly, the Amazon (Japan) website implies shipment to USA is possible via courier, though that’s a long trip for a Flatscreen to make undamaged.