Preview: new Regza TV line-up at Toshiba World in Rome
Lots of new TV and lots of new features
Next we come to Toshiba Places. This web portal for a wide variety of content has been available on Toshiba devices before, but this is the first time it has been seen on TVs. You can buy and listen to music and movies from here, and access social networking sites and popular online video sharing sites. You can share your account across multiple devices, so you’ll also be able to access everything through a web browser on your laptop.
Next down is the RL series, here the range drops to a 50Hz refresh rate and this is also the most basic model to feature a Freeview HD tuner, something that’s also included on all the more expensive models too. Below this are the DL and DB series, with built-in DVD and Blu-ray players respectively. Below this, the AV, LV, EL and HL series are the budget offerings, with two LCD and two LED sets respectively, each pair with or without a Full HD resolution.
THE THIRD OPTION
If you’re interested in 3D then Toshiba has all the bases covered it seems, both now and in the future. The YL/WL series supports active 3D with shutter glasses, while the VL sets have passive 3D with polarised glasses – which are far cheaper and so ideal for those who want to watch 3D in large groups. We really like the latter technology, you may lose picture resolution, but we find it less tiring to watch and the lighter glasses are far more comfortable to wear.
Toshiba has sensibly hedged its bets with the Passive-3D VL series
Toshiba was also very keen to show off and discuss its glasses-free 3D technology. They claim that this will be available in the UK in 2011, but at present no screen sizes or prices have been discussed. A 20in model in Japan costs around £2,500 though, so don’t expect the technology to be cheap. This is because it relies on a 4K pixel panel, to generate a 1,280×720 image for multiple viewers simultaneously. They had a demo unit running at Toshiba World, and frankly we weren’t that impressed, the depth was confused at times and we found it hard to track what was going on in a fast action scene. This technology might be the future, but we’re not yet convinced.
Well that sums up the Regza line-up for this year; plenty of interesting stuff, and we’ll get the Tvs in for full reviews as soon as Toshiba send them to us.