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.
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Toshiba UK announced the new Qosmio X500 intended to be used by gamers. The Qosmio X500 offers high performance processing power, combined with the latest graphics capabilities, to deliver a great mobile gaming experience. It is powered by Intel’s latest Quad Core processors and the latest nVIDIA GeForce graphics, and sports a large 18.4-inch TruBrite Full HD LCD screen with 16:9 aspect ratio at a resolution of 1920×1080.
It includes stereo speakers made by audio specialists Harman Kardon. The Qosmio X500 also features a rewritable Blu-ray drive (BD-RE) and Toshiba’s Resolution+ upscaling technology, enabling the standard definition DVDs and video files to be upconverted to near high definition quality. It also features an HD web camera, allowing users to record HD video and webchat in wide screen 16:9 format.
For quick and convenient logon, the Qosmio X500 comes with a finger print reader and Face Recognition via the embedded HD web cam.
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Toshiba Corp.’s first television to feature the Cell processor (also used with the PlayStation 3 console) is on track for its intended release this year. The product is to hit the Japanese market first in Q4 2009. The company first promised a Cell-based TV in 2007 and then showed off a prototype at CES 2008 in Las Vegas.
Toshiba said it uses the Cell processor to provide exceptionally high-quality video playback, picture upscaling and picture-in-picture (PIP) functionality capable to extend to dozens of channels simultaneously.
Masaaki Oosumi, President of Toshiba’s Digital Media Network Company, confirmed that the TV with market under the company’s Regza brand, and it will be the company’s flagship model. He likened the impact of the Cell telly’s appearance to the arrival of color television, but did admit it will be pricey.
The Cell Regza TV would have a native resolution of 3820×2160. Full specifications are expected to be released shortly.
