Toshiba to Launch 2160p TV with Built-in BD and Cell Processor

Posted September 24, 2009 09:29 AM by Juan Calonge


Toshiba has confirmed that they are close to launching its flagship LED TV, which will uniquely include the 64-bit Cell processor used in Sony's PS3. The "Cell Regza" will have a panel resolution of 3840x2160 pixels. It will include a Blu-ray player and a 1TB recorder. Toshiba has confirmed that the Cell Regza will be on display at the CES show in January 2010. Masaaki Oosumi, president of Toshiba's Digital Media Network Company, said that this new TV "brings together Toshiba imaging, storage and network technologies". He added, "it will be Toshiba's flagship model in the true sense. It is the ultimate entertainment machine that brings more excitement than a movie in a theatre. I would like to let users experience the same sensation as they felt by watching a color TV for the first time." Toshiba will announce the specifications of the Cell TV within days, Oosumi said. It will be first available in Japan in December 2009. As for the pricing, he just said that it will be "fairly expensive".
Source: Smarthouse \| Permalink \| [Country settings]

News comments (56 comments)

Galley

Sep 24, 2009

That won't be cheap.

Top reviewer

celmeli

Sep 24, 2009

why 2160p tv?there is nothing on the market supports 2160p.

Top contributor

deado

Sep 24, 2009

There were 1080p screens out before Blu-ray came out... same thing.

@celmeli

Exactly. All it will do is introduce scaling artifacts to BD and make SD look even worse.

One example of marketing gone mad.

@deado
4K formats will not be available (if ever) to home users. Screen sizes over 100" are needed to see the benefit over 2K.

heinduplessis

Sep 24, 2009

Us projector folk would definately benefit from 2160! Can't wait...

AikonEnt

Sep 24, 2009

Think of it like this, you could have 4 PS3s connected to it and all be running at 1080p on the same screen!

Top reviewer

Bobby Henderson

Sep 24, 2009

I'm sure we'll eventually see 4K resolution movies in home theater, but not anytime very soon. My guess is around 10 years for it to happen.

Meanwhile, the TV set would make an excellent monitor for computer graphics, video authoring and gaming. I absolutely could use a 4K monitor for editing the "5.6K" 21 megapixel images from my D-SLR camera.

jimmybobo

Sep 24, 2009

Whats the resolution on the halogram discs coming out in a few years?

Top contributor

detective392

Sep 24, 2009

That sucks does that mean 2160p will be the new leader in a few years and I will have to rebuy all my blu's to get 2160p?

Top reviewer

McGarnigal

Sep 24, 2009

Combo players/tvs break easier no matter what technology it is...

brokenthumb

Sep 24, 2009

2160p tv with built in Blu-ray (1080p)
Wouldn't this be the same as buying a 1080p tv with built in DVD (480p)... doesn't make sense to me.

Top reviewer

nathanp

Sep 24, 2009

I wouldn't spend dime one on anything Toshiba makes, I'll just wait until a reputable company puts out a similar product before buying.

Top reviewer

ghebert

Sep 24, 2009

@Celmeli

...oh but there will be.

Just give it another 3-5 years and we'll see Blu-Ray players that "upconvert" to 2160p. Same as when they came out with upconverting dvd players.

GreatWhite83

Sep 24, 2009

HDMI 1.4 will support up to 4k lines of resolution so eventually hdtvs will support this and with blu ray having a 200gb prototype disc that should be enough space to support 4k. Movies filmed with HD cameras are up to 6k lines of resolution (planet earth for example) so eventually movies will move to 6k in the home cinema probably on holographic discs unless blu ray can support more gb in the future.

you will never keep up with technology and technology changes faster today than ever before.

rmainhammer

Sep 24, 2009

How much better does 2160p look compared to 1080p? Is there a huge difference?

4Dblu

Sep 24, 2009

Minority Report will b in 4k BD it comes out in March '10. info on this site....

photograph17

Sep 24, 2009

I think they should instead work on transmitting the main medium, TV signals, from the current 720p to 1080p first before they start selling 2160p televisions.

Freekman

Sep 24, 2009

2160p movies will look ridiculous.

surfdude12

Sep 24, 2009

what???? no 4320p???? pmmff, pathetic.

Top HT gallery

Top contributor

Intamin

Sep 24, 2009

Well that's cool. Dunno how useful the extra resolution will be, but still cool nonetheless.

mushu1994

Sep 24, 2009

in ten years they are meant to be introducing Super Hi-Vision Which support 8k video obviously it was the japanese guyz that came up with it and BBC endorsing it these 2160p TVs will be short life technology like HD DVDs

Sonny

Sep 24, 2009

If it takes a new format , then I'm out....for awhile anyway. Its still kind of a joke, I can see apps where 2160p would be a benefit, but 97% of people would not....F-ing Toshiba... I'm more then happy with 9G kuro's along with BD banging out 1080p24Hz and DTS-HDMA,DolbyTrueHD and PCM on 50"-60"

Top reviewer

Danielle Ni Dhighe

Sep 24, 2009

The screen sizes needed to see this resolution will need to be much, much larger than are practical in the average home environment. This is for very high end home theaters only.

tlages

Sep 24, 2009

Oh great. 10 years from now we will up convert star wars blu rays.

abdielyireh

Sep 24, 2009

There's no 2160p content available to fill this screen. Same story of the 150" Panasonic 4K plasma. Is no going to look good. Blu-rays are going to look as standard DVDs.

Top reviewer

hardcorefrokid

Sep 24, 2009

Sweet Jesus, this is going to be expensive. 2160p was going to hit the scene sometime, Toshiba is just getting a head start.

Blu-Jawa

Sep 24, 2009

I think Toshiba is the Black Sheep of the Blu-Ray Family. And maybe they have not gotten over the loss of there "Hd-dvd".

trewbacha

Sep 24, 2009

I guess Toshiba has confirmed that the TV itself is capable upscaling the pixels from 1080p format on bluray discs to the new greater resolution that the set is native to. I honestly wonder skeptically about how that will actual look.
others thoughts?

Robmx

Sep 24, 2009

Why is upconversion always Toshibas plan?

TOSHIBA = UPCONVERSION

drtre81

Sep 24, 2009

lol... toshiba. dvds will look horrid on one of these.

copjosh1977

Sep 24, 2009

I'm just an "average joe" when it comes to some of this stuff. I know my way around the home theater better than most, but many know better than me. That being said, several people have made comments that were correct in their own way. Eventually, the market (people) will long for something bigger and better, and with more bells and whistles. Such is the way with our narcisistic selves. Also true, technology is moving at break-neck speeds, and we'll probably never be able to keep up again, and every time we think we can, the big-wigs will throw us a curveball. Right now, unless you have a huge projection screen or are editing photos on your HD screen, there's no need, but when DVD's came out, no one thought it could be beat. Same with LaserDisc before that. You can't stop the avalanche coming down the mountain and you shouldn't try.

With all that, I personally hope that it will in fact be at least 5-7 years out before the format and/or technology hits mainstream, b/c I'd like to get some more enjoyment out of my BD collection. I hope that Blu will be able to enhance an already great product into something better with more disc space, and faster read/transmission (not sure what that would be called exactly) rates so we can hold on to a good thing.

As for HD DVD, it's not the devil, or even necessarily the worst of the two formats, just that it didn't pick up enough momentum and couldn't keep up with the amount of storage as Blu. I still use my HD DVD player and watch my HD DVD's. I will until it craps out, or until I can find a $5 bin at Wal-Mart with the same title on BD. But, I imagine by then, we'll have seen a new format, so why bother?

Holographic discs? I've heard of them. First time was a couple of years ago when I was working P/T at Best Buy. From what I understand, there's a lot of R&D yet to be done, just like with the 3D Blu's. That's my opinion, for what it's worth. That and a couple of bucks will get you a coke.

Top HT gallery

Top contributor

prerich

Sep 24, 2009

Everybody - stop hatin' on Toshiba - as one user has already stated, computer lovers will enjoy using this as a monitor!!! Forget putting a BD player in it (one more thing to break) package it with your new BD player! Kudos Toshiba! Content will catch up with technology - the same way we had1080p TV's before we had 1080p content.

hAPPY

Sep 25, 2009

How would 4K res make a difference on a 52" screen? I don't see any difference between 1080p and 720p on a 40" screen.

On >100" screen then yeah, but a 2160p on a 52", to the human eye? I don't think it'll make a difference.

Top reviewer

LanSolo

Sep 25, 2009

Would it be possible to use existing Blu-ray technology, via a firmware update, to play 2160p? I understand that 100GB BDs are on the horizon, so is it just a matter of storage space for a 2160p movie or are current players just not capable of handling this much data?

sonnyworld85

Sep 25, 2009

Can the human eye even distinguish the difference between 1080p and 2160p? lol

Afrobean

Sep 25, 2009

"Blu-rays are going to look as standard DVDs."

No. Blu-rays upscaled to 1080p will look like Blu-rays at 1080p. Because a person's eyes cannot resolve the difference in resolution between 1080p and "QuadHD" at that "small" of a screen size.

4K screens have uses, but they're not home theater, not yet and not for the foreseeable future. Most movies shot digital are 2K and almost all DIs made from film are at 2K. Modern movie production needs to adapt to 4K as the standard for DIs and digital video before a new 4K format will have the slightest chance of cracking the market. And even then, it'll be relegated to niche because almost every American has a screen too small to be worth it.

Yes, there are some scans at 4K for archival purposes but they're actually rather rare. You've got things like Minority Report or Wizard of Oz, but almost everything is 2K. Even when presented in theaters it's "only" 2K. Theaters and DIs need to be the first ones to adapt to 4K.

bfellow

Sep 25, 2009

celmeli » Sep 24, 2009 09:58 AM
New Member

why 2160p tv?there is nothing on the market supports 2160p

Ummm games support resolutions higher than that now...

AMD just demoed Crysis in 5760x2160 with their latest video card.

Top reviewer

Top contributor

LordCrumb

Sep 25, 2009

well blu-ray didnt last long did it?

Top reviewer

kevinbr100

Sep 25, 2009

some day we will be sitting in the movie, or maybe even somehow participating in it. that is if we can keep up the advances at the current rate, and dont take a few steps backwards, like history and michael moore hint at (just watched capitalism a love story in LA

)

Top reviewer

Top contributor

Verbal

Sep 25, 2009

4Dblu: Not exactly right there, sport...Minority Report now has a 4k digital master, which will be down-converted to 2k (1080p, BD resolution) for release next year. Just as with the earliest 2k masters, which were then put on DVD at 480p.

HotRats

Sep 25, 2009

I don't think its anything more than a PR stunt. Its 55" with locally dimmed LED backlighting. The Cell processor should help with the upscaling but it'll need to work miracles not to introduce weird artifacts from Blu let alone DVDs and god knows what video tape would look like. I very much doubt it will look much better than any other HDTV at 55" as most people don't seem to be able to tell HD from SD at less than 32" and full HD from HD ready at less than 46". Toshiba claim it'll be on sale in Japan in December but there are lots of things that go on sale in Japan and never appear elsewhere. Affordable OLED TV is the thing I'm most interested in

Top contributor

Damage Inc.

Sep 25, 2009

LOL I told you that they were working on a format about 5 times as big.

I guess the standard turns out as 4 times as big then, but OK.
So I guess this is Toshiba's payback for being shot down with the HD-DVD?
Yeah, I know they of course also came along with the BD, but I'm just saying.

So, where's that BD²-format? :P

I was actually indeed wondering how the BDs of today would do on those higher-resolution-displays.
Who knows there will be a feature where you could switch (if not automatically) native resolutions though?
Would be a great solution to any issues with older releases and newer devices, etc.
Just like, for DVD, they used "upconverting" to at least make up a little bit for stretching them.

But, you know, whatever... if you have your BDs, just stick with 1080p-screens.
They can be huge enough to look great in about any situation.
Cause home-video is close becoming big enough and affordable too for about anyone.
I think this next resolution is just for the high-end-cases, the ones that want/need it really large.
If you really necessarily need that, you might have to upgrade everything.
Unless they'd create some "resolution" to any issues. lol

will_ares

Sep 25, 2009

Coming soon - HD DVD 2.0 @ 2160p

Top contributor

Damage Inc.

Sep 25, 2009

LOL Yeah, HD-DVD 2 instead of BD 2. XD
Geez, that would be a stab in the back from Toshiba.
The market would freak out.

Eric Cartman: *runs around* "FORMATWAAAR! YUGAIS! FORMATWAAAR!"

Dr. Manhattan

Sep 25, 2009

WTF device supports 2160p??? 1080p is not even mainstream or standard yet. Don't go around making higher resolutions! That'll just be more money and more confusion for consumers who don't know jack about high definition (which is the majority of consumers).

Titanicfave

Sep 25, 2009

Huh? Double 1080p in one picture sounds great, but what in the world supports 2160p??? When you put your blu-ray in, it's not gonna be displayed in 2160p, it's going to be displayed in 1080p. Owell If they'd make movies that support 2160p then maybe i'l give this tv a look.

Top reviewer

Top contributor

Kirsty_Mc

Sep 25, 2009

There are a lot of comments about what's the point of 2160P

Well, if 2160 supporting graphics cards arrive on the market, such a display will be excellent for displaying digital photos. Bear in mind that digital SLRs are way above the resolution of HDTV. The Canon EOD5D Mk. II outputs at 5616 x 3744. Such a display will really improve showing digital images as a slideshow.

I just hope that when screens like this arrive, they don't forget the CF / CS / MS card reader!!!

Mr. Joshua

Sep 25, 2009

I'm gonna wait for 6480p to come out.... That's 1080p X 6....

Top contributor

Damage Inc.

Sep 25, 2009

SLRs?... I have a "compact camera" that surpasses that resolution. XD

Tru 2 Blu

Sep 26, 2009

I agree with you Blu-Jawa. With Toshiba talking about bring out a 2160p LED TV. It sounds like there trying to replace blu ray to me (at least thats my thoughs on it). Its because blu ray only does 1080p native resolution. In order to see the 2160p you've got to have a different player.

Top reviewer

BluMood

Sep 27, 2009

You can't even see the full resolution of Blu-ray unless you have a 50 inch plus screen. These added pixels would require a LARGE screen.

Top reviewer

franklinpross

Sep 27, 2009

I'm gonna cut my wrists with a spoon . . . . . is this the NEW THING?

I give up . . . . can we even perceive 2160p? this is awful to read about . .!!!!

Top contributor

4K2K

Sep 30, 2009

Sounds like a rubbish resolution for a TV to me

BluMood said "You can't even see the full resolution of Blu-ray unless you have a 50 inch plus screen." It depends on viewing distance. With the right viewing distance you can see all 1920x1080 pixels on a lot smaller screens than that.

Chevypower

Sep 30, 2009

Most of all of what you're saying is speculation - how you won't notice the difference unless it is over a
certain size. I have seen a 2160p TV about 50'' - I was very surprised at how it makes Blu-ray look
very ordinary. Now I don't know what a 35mm or 70mm film transfer would look like at that
resolution. But a 4K digital recording shown at 2160x3840p looked incredible!

People ask why such high resolutions, but in digital photography we call these resolutuions 2
megapixels for HD, and 8 megapixels for 4K. Who would honestly buy a 2 megapixel camera?

ender21

Sep 30, 2009

DI rooms could definitely use this, as well as dustbust departments, in addition to the aforementioned gaming and photography possibilities.

Incidentally, the Muvico complex in Thousand Oaks has all Sony 4Ks which means they're all upscaling 2k to 4k, except for the rare 4k dcp which occasionally floats into the market.