Skip to main content

Digital Lifestyle > News

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 Toshiba's Cell TV on track for late 2009

TV will be able to perform real-time upscaling and other visual tricks

Martyn Williams

  • Email to a friend
  • Print this article
  • Bookmark this page
  • RSS feed

Toshiba's development of a TV based on the Cell processor is on schedule and due to be launched in about six months, the company said on Tuesday.

The Cell is the processor used in Sony's PlayStation 3 games console and was co-developed by Toshiba with Sony and IBM. Each chip contains a single Power PC core and eight co-processors to make heavy-duty processing of video a breeze.

Its use in the upcoming television stands to be the first in the consumer electronics space.

Announcing new models of LCD TVs for Japan, the company confirmed the Cell TV would be part of its product line going into the competitive year-end sales period in Japan.

No details of the TV are available yet but some clues as to what the set will offer can be seen in prototypes that Toshiba has been demonstrating at consumer electronics trade shows in the last year and a half.

The image processing power of the chip was shown by performing a real-time upscaling of standard-definition video to a quality that is closer to high-definition. If you're used to high-def TV then the upscaled picture is unlikely to fool you but it's probably better than watching an unprocessed picture.

The chip was also put to use streaming 48 chapters from a standard-definition video file (it would have been 16 chapters in high-def) to make navigating a file easy. Imagine the interactive menu that's found in many DVDs appearing on your TV for shows that you have recorded on the set's built-in hard-disk drive.

For people hoping the inclusion of the Cell chip will mean the ability to run PlayStation 3 games there's bad news. Toshiba has said several times that the TV won't have such capability.

MacVideo Focus Group

We are trying to improve the focus of our sister title MacVideo and to understand our readership a little better. We would like to speak to some video professionals, especially the techies among you, to get your views of the industry. We will pay £50 for participation in our focus group. Click here to volunteer to participate.

Follow Macworld UK on twitter: www.twitter.com/macworlduk

Email A Friend

Email this article to a friend or colleague:



PLEASE NOTE: Your name is used only to let the recipient know who sent the story, and in case of transmission error. Both your name and the recipient's name and address will not be used for any other purpose.

<<prev article | back to news index | next article>>

Question of the day!

Mark Hattersley
Editor in Chief

Do you share your creations online?

Question of the day!

Do you share your creations online?

% of Macworld readers agree with you

Yes
TBC
No
TBC

What do you create and how do you share it?

124 characters remaining

Follow the conversation at @TabletChat

paintings & illustrations, mostly, which i upload to flickr.RT @fragmentedm

I draw manga/anime characters. I also do graphic design and photography.RT @spialelo

Yes. I usually put them up on my #deviantart account for feedback on how to improve.RT @spialelo

Latest News


More news...