Today at the CES 2010 event, Toshiba showed off their ZX900 Cell TV, using the Cell processing engine found in the powerful PlayStation 3.
The player will come as either 46-inch, 55-inch or 65-inch models and the company says each will include a 3.2GHz Cell chip with eight cores. Each core will upscale SD content into 1080p HD content using “smart” pixel generation that Toshiba says will leave upscaled images almost “indistinguishable” from Blu-ray and other legitimate HD content. The same technology will reduce noise and remove artifacts, all on the fly.
The processor is so powerful that it can also convert 2D content into stereoscopic 3D, all on the fly as well.
Heading over to the actual display, the ZX900 will have 512 separate backlight zones, about five times the amount current top-end LED-backlit TVs have. The screen will also “adjust the picture’s color temperature to compensation for each environment it’s placed in, using a sensor to measure light and color levels around it,” says Reghardware.
The Cell TV has a contrast ratio of 9,000,000:1 and brightness of 1000cd/m².
Additionally, the TV has a 1TB HDD built-in to the set’s control box, which is linked to the Cell TV by Wireless HD technology. 802.11n Wi-Fi is standard. The TV has a built-in upscaling DVD player, and the screen has a built-in surround sound bar.
Although pricing was not made available, Scott Ramirez, Toshiba America Consumer Products marketing chief frankly said the price will not be cheap.
Result for: dvd player
Nintendo has updated the Wii console firmware to version 4.2 this week, promising the new menu “provides behind-the-scene fixes that will not affect features but will improve the overall system performance.”
Unfortunately for gamers currently using the Homebrew Channel, the update “will also check for and automatically remove such save data (unauthorized modifications to save data or program files) or program files.”
Nintendo’s meaning here is clear. Firmware 4.2 will completely delete the Homebrew Channel, and any file related to it, most notably the DVD Player, USB loader and the ability to make your Wii region-free.
If you are running the Homebrew Channel, it is safe to say you do not want to update to 4.2 just yet, as Nintendo seems to be tackling piracy head-on.
Result for: dvd player
A European Union investigation into online retailers that sell electronic goods has found that over half of the 369 websites checked were breaking European laws and regulations that exist to protect consumers. The sites sell mobile phones, DVD players and games consoles in 28 European countries (all EU member states except Slovakia - and also included Norway and Iceland).
“We know from the level of complaints coming into European Consumer Centres that this is a real problem area for consumers,” said EU consumer commissioner Meglena Kuneva. “We discovered that more than half of the retailers selling online electronic goods are letting consumers down.”
200 of the sites were chosen because of their size (largest 200), and the extras were chosen because they were subjects of past complaints. 203 of the 369 are now facing further investigation. Two-thirds (66 percent) failed to explain that consumers had the right to return a product within 7 days of receiving it without having to provide a reason, or that a faulty product must be repaired or replaced for at least two years after purchase - regardless of manufacturer warranty.
Other problems included difficulties in calculating total shipping before ordering a product, which was a problem in 45 percent of cases, and about 33 percent of the stores didn’t fully outline the trader’s name, address or e-mail details so that the can be contacted easily by a customer. The retailers will be contacted by authorities and asked to explain their position, and to correct the problems identified.
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