Toshiba: Europeans to get specs-less 3D TV by year's end
55in, 3840 x 2160 telly inbound
IFA 2011 Toshiba's specs-less 3D TV, the 55ZL2, will be out in Europe by the end of the year.
The 55in set, a smaller version of which was demo'd in Rome earlier this year, packs in four times as many pixels as a 1920 x 1080p TV in order to present a 3D image to nine different but fixed viewing points simultaneously.
Lenses guide the right- and left-eye images to each viewing position. Built-in face-tracking tech adjusts the sweet-spot locations to handle folk who can't sit still by shifting the nine spots a little.
And, yes, it'll display a 2D image at 3840 x 2160.
All this is handled by the telly's Cevo Engine processor, a rather Cell-like chip but not - Toshiba insists - a Cell variant.
The 55ZL2 has DVB-T and DVB-T2 tuners for Freeview and Freeview HD. Programmes can be recorded to USB storage through the set's USB ports. It has Toshiba's IPTV platform, Places, on board too.
The 55ZL2 will be available from December 2011 in Germany with release dates to be confirmed in other European countries. Toshiba, not surprisingly given this is a flagship product, didn't say how much it'll cost. ®
COMMENTS
Sir
OMG, I want one!
I'm gonna rig it up to my PC at the full rez and get radiation burns from sitting 2 feet from it :D
If anything it paves the way for more specs-less TV's
55inch is a little too big for my room. And by little too big I mean about 15inches to big. Ah well. Still, if it works, doesn't make me feel like I'm out in the Atlantic on a rubber dingy and doesn't cost more than my car then it's hard not to get excited.
God I can't wait for 3D porn.
Nope.
So you'll pay a fortune for a shiny new giant screen with 3d, HD, surround sound and a built in popcorn maker.
And the programmes will still be the same old rubbish.
I haven't had one for decades, and this will make no difference.
I shall shortly be going away for a couple of weeks, and there will be a telly. I expect this to confirm my usual experience that I watch it a bit for a few days, and then start to forget that it's there.
The black helicopters will be round to check that I really don't have one.
MeP
Toshiba's "Cell like" processor architecture is called MeP ("Media Embedded Processor"). Last I heard it was composed of soft cores which ran on Altera FPGAs which would explain why the sets were so expensive. They will likely have taped it out by now though.
DVT
So now you'll be able to get Deep Vein Thrombosis just by watching telly from your fixed position...
