Mass market retailers such as Harvey Norman or JB Hi Fi may want to re think their TV vendor line up after Toshiba stole the CES TV limelight with a new Cell TV and a new line up of LCD TV’s that take TV technology to a new level.
In a smart move aimed at facilitating consumer concerns during the economic downturn Toshiba is pitching two ranges of televisions for consumers with different budgets over the next year. The Company also claims that sales of over 50″ HD TV’s will be slow and that the bulk of sales will be in sub 50″
Creating a sort of netbook range of televisions, the company will create a non-REGZA range and a spec-packed REGZA range. They are also launching new Dolby Volume technology which balances TV commercial and free to air sound eliminating sound fluctuation.
Questioning IFA’s “too thin” mentally, Toshiba asks whether people really are prepared to pay extra for thin TVs.
Toshiba has also said that it too now has a 240Hz mode. This in Australia will translate into a 200 MHz model.
The new REGZA range which will start appearing in Australia in the second quarter incorporate a new design, better resolution via Toshiba’s upscaling technology called Resolution plus, 200MHz motion blur, InstaPort for faster HDMI switching, the ability for it to automatically setup according to your living room lights and a “Deep Lagoon Design “.
On the networking front, Toshiba is launching networked AV products as well as REGZA LINK connectivity based on WirelessHD technology as well as high speed data transfers among digital products with TransferJet tech.
Toshiba is also launching “Spatial Motion Interface”, an interactive 3D GUI that integrates a 3D-capturing infrared sensor that allows users to use hand movements to search for and navigate recorded content on a digital TV.
However the big TV star of the show is Toshiba’s new “Cell TV” which is a combination of a set top box containing the cell processor and a Toshiba LCD TV. The device is capable of recording six HD TV channels at once while upscaling 1080p content to 3840 X 2160p.
This is the same processor that is found in the Sony Playstation and the Xbox 360. Toshiba also claim that with the Cell processor TV that 1080p resolution is dead and that the future will be 3820 X 2160 or even higher resolution.
Toshiba claim that the high performance of the Cell platform delivers “superb picture quality and networking interactivity to TVs”.
Cell TV also includes real-time super resolution imaging, using a 56-inch, 4k x 2k pixel panel to display images that the Cell platform upconverts from 1920x1080p to 3840x2160p, and also upconverting of content such as Internet video to high picture quality by application of “Resolution+” technology in combination with newly developed noise reduction technology. A 55-inch backlit LED panel controlled by the Cell platform is being showcased and demonstrate by Toshiba at the CES Expo.
Breaking story, more to follow.
