New UT series just 35mm thick comes in three sizes but comes with its tuner electronics in a separate box.

LCD TV manufacturer Hitachi has fired up the fanfare to announce what it calls the world’s thinnest LCD TV. The new UT series to go on sale in Japan in December is just 35mm thick and will be available in three panel sizes – 32-inch, 37-inch and 42-inch.

The UT32-HV700B will be the first to arrive, featuring a 32-inch panel with 1366x768-pixel native resolution. The UT37-XV700 will arrive in February 2008 with a 37-inch panel size and full HD 1920x1080-pixel resolution while the larger 42-inch UT42-XV700 won’t make an appearance until April 2008 but will also include full HD resolution.

While Hitachi is claiming this as the world’s thinnest LCD TV, footnotes to the Hitachi release say the 35mm thickness is measured at the thinnest point. That said, the thickness only moves out to 39mm at its widest point.

But in an unusual move, Hitachi is the first TV manufacturer to offer its new sets in different colours. The UT32-HV700 will appear in typical home HiFi black but will also be seen in white plus “limited edition” red and blue.

The 32- and 42-inch models will be available in black only.

Another feature that has enabled Hitachi to claim the flag for thinnest TV is the inclusion of its digital TV tuner inside and external “media station”. The company claims the media station however will support an optional wireless connection as well as the option for recording HD free-to-air broadcasts to a removable hard drive called the iVDR3-S.

The media station connects to the monitor via HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) while the wireless option would allow video and audio to be transmitted to the monitor using the 4.2-4.8GHz ultra-wide band segment of the wireless spectrum at a distance of up to nine metres.

Viewing angles for the sets are said to be 178-degrees both horizontally and vertically while the light output is also claimed as a “world’s best” figure of 500 candelas per square centimetre (cd/cm2) for the 32- and 37-inch models and 450cd/cm2 for the 42-inch version.

The wide viewing angle means you should be able to see a decent image without having to sit directly in front of the monitor. The sets also support deep 30- and 36-bit colour depth for improved colour accuracy and performance.

Power consumption for the 32-inch unit is expected to be 118-watts in normal operation and 0.5-watts in standby mode. The 37-inch model pushes the operational power requirements out to 155-watts but maintains the same standby power mode.

The accompanying media station adds another 15-watts power consumption on top of the panel consumption.

Weight for the units is claimed to be 10.9kgs for the 32-inch unit, 14.6kgs for the 37-inch and 18kgs for the 42-inch set.

All models support HDMI as well as RGB input via a Mini-DB-15 connection.

At this stage, no pricing details have been released however Hitachi will be hoping the ability to place these TVs almost anywhere in the home will be one of the driving factors for sales into next year.

No details were announced about when the sets would be available in the US or other parts of the world.