Toshiba Crams Supercomputer Guts Into 3-D, Web TV
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By Brian X. Chen
- January 6, 2010 |
- 2:28 pm |
- Categories: Home Audio and Video
LAS VEGAS — The future of television isn’t just 3-D. It’s getting content from the web, too, says Toshiba, who introduced its internet-connected Cell TV on Wednesday.
Powered by LED (KIRA2) backlighting, the 55- or 65-inch Cell TV features multiple eight-core 3.2-GHz processors. What does that mean? It’s 10 times faster than standard desktop computers and will have 143 times the processing power of today’s televisions, claims Toshiba.
“The possibilities of what we can do are really endless,” said Scott Ramirez, vice president of marketing for Toshiba’s TV group, during a press conference.
Mash-up of your reactions to Toshiba’s new 3D TV: “WHAT????” “OMG!”
“this is some telly” “I WANT IT” “I bet it will cost a lot” “owwww!!!”
Indeed, Toshiba is promising the Cell TV will deliver exciting new features. The Cell TV includes a converter to make everything that’s normally 2-D on your screen — football games, videogames, Blu-ray movies and so on — pop out in 3-D when viewed through active shutter glasses. That’s where the processing power comes into play — frame-rate conversions and rendering.
The Cell TV gets even more intense. It also features a video camera, microphone and software for video conferencing over an internet connection. (Hello, George Jetson.) To get on the web, there’s an ethernet port and 802.11N Wi-Fi connectivity. Also, the Cell TV will have a software menu called Net TV Channels to download streaming content from Netflix, Vudu and other web-based video services. On top of that, the TV uses a technology called Net Super Resolution+ to reduce compression artifacts seen in web video content.
A number of manufacturers are claiming 2010 will be the year of the 3-D TV, but Toshiba is the first we’ve seen announce a full-blown internet TV. The Cell TV underscores a trend we highlighted prior to CES — it’s not just a device; it’s also a platform that can be increasingly expanded with the power of the internet and downloaded applications. Other gadgets that operate with a similar idea include the Xbox 360, the iPhone and the PlayStation 3, which each also have online stores that enable consumers to add to the capabilities of the respective devices.
Sounds insane, right? Interestingly, Toshiba has not announced a price, though the company did say the Cell TV would debut “later this year.” (Don’t expect this to be anywhere near affordable to the average consumer.) We’ll post more details as we receive them.
See Also:
- 3-D TVs Grab Curious Eyes at CES 2009
- Wired Explains: How 3-D Television Works
- Philips’ 3-D HDTV Might Destroy Space-Time Continuum, Wallets
Photo: Toshiba
Rather wait for and OLED, this won’t sell
Announcements like this signal the coming end of cable TV.
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Tangentially, announcements like Ford’s recent Sync one signal the coming end of satellite radio.
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Good riddance to ‘em both.
a converter to make everything that’s normally 2-D on your screen (…) pop out in 3-D.
What the what? Do they mean this will convert 2D footage on-the-fly into 3D? Something that costs George Lucas years of work and 5 million dollars per Star Wars movie to do?
This needs some clarification, I think
Vaporware or Pure B.S. So I pop in a DVD Casa Blanca and suddenly Rick’s Café Américain appears in proper 3D? Yeah sure, and I’ve got a bridge in Alaska I’d like to sell ya…
“multiple eight-core 3.2-GHz processors” well except for the 2d-3d conversion
those suckers are all but one going to be idle for everything else it can do.
You can get a 3d effect that’s decent via interpolation, I’ve seen some demos. It ain’t Avatar, but it’s not bad. Takes a lot of horsepower to make it work, hence all them cells.
Os? This would be great for a photo editing machine with a little hacking.
But, can it run OS X??
PS. where’s the Google / Facebook connect on this site???? I had to sign up, seriously?
Just waiting for Apple to STEAL this in a few months/years and say they invented it or something. iTV
Just waiting for Apple to STEAL this in a few months/years and say they invented it like they do with everything else.
Just waiting for Apple to STEAL this in a few months/years and say they invented it like they do with everything else.
Just waiting for Apple to STEAL this in a few months/years and say they invented it like they do with everything else.
Just waiting for Apple to STEAL this in a few months/years and say they invented it like they do with everything else.
Just waiting for Apple to STEAL this in a few months/years and say they invented it like they do with everything else.
Just waiting for Apple to STEAL this in a few months/years and say they invented it like they do with everything else.
Sorry, this stupid comment system was just not doing anything all the times I pressed “Comment”