Toshiba brings WL and YL series 3D TVs into focus

JAPANESE ELECTRONICS MAKER Toshiba has tuned in its Regza WL and YL series, high-end HD 3D televisons that include its Cevo engine for upscaling content.

The TVs were dramatically unveiled yesterday with clouds of smoke and lasers to the theme music from Pirates of the Caribbean. Toshiba says that the new models are "The most advanced TV models [it] has ever brought to the UK". The Regza WL and Regza YL series will be available in 42-inch, 46-inch and 55-inch, it added.

The series is capable of displaying high definition 3D content and also converting 2D content to 3D, with depth control, using the Cevo engine.

An Intelligent 3D+ feature improves 3D viewing quality, it explained, and counters the colour dimming sometimes found in active shutter 3D technology. The Cevo Engine also does image analysis and adjusts picture levels to deliver optimal 3D brightness, colour and contrast.

The TVs have been designed in collaboration with Jacob Jesen Design and are among the first to feature Toshiba Places, a cloud based portal service for accessing various content such as video and music.

Features include built in WiFi, DLNA and Windows 7 compatibility, Freeview HD, Toshiba Places, Youtube, Personal TV via face detection, a light sensor, 2 USB ports and 4 HDMI ports. The USB ports can be used to watch from or record to an external hard drive.

The personal TV feature uses an integrated webcam to recognise users, who can setup up to four accounts on the TV to store picture settings, favourite channels and volume levels. The webcam can also detect when no one is watching the TV and therefore switch to standby.

The INQUIRER attended Toshiba's 3D workshop at Toshiba World 2011 in Rome yesterday where the firm said it had plans to release the same technology, but in larger panel sizes than the 20-inch currently on sale in Japan to the mass market, in the next 12 months.

Not only is the company's plan to remove the need for glasses but also to increase the range of viewing positions using pixel clusters and a 4k pixel panel.

Using view point overlapping, Toshiba also plans to remove the image loss from head movement, it added. µ