Toshiba rolls out automotive HD DVD player, improved LCD panel

Toshiba has shown off some auto-related products at the Automotive Engineering Expo 2007, including a mobile HD DVD player and a fresh take on touch panels. The high-definition in-dash player is under co-development with Alpine, and is planned for a 2008 release. The LCD is an improvement on traditional touchscreen technology, with no film coating -- which traditionally reduces contrast ratio and brightness -- to handle the user input, instead bundling optical sensors alongside each pixel. These sensors can then detect the shadow of a press during the day, and the reflection of the backlight at night. Toshiba also plans to upgrade that tech to use infrared instead of day/night sensors. Who cares if you can't see the difference between 1080 and 720 on a 7-inch screen, we just want our mobile touchscreen HD now!

[Gary King @ May 25th 2007 1:45PM]

Mobile touchscreen HD. Yikes. I'm *just* starting to get used to my first LCD TV! (It's a 32").

[dribller @ May 25th 2007 1:52PM]

That would be interesting to see... I want it now too!

[Jeremy K. @ May 25th 2007 1:58PM]

useless...

[TIMMAH! @ May 25th 2007 2:05PM]

Wow that's a throwback to the old HP "touchscreen" oscilloscope days. (They had a grid of XY beams in the scope's monitor bevel, and would detect touch by which beams were broken.)

[pagercam @ May 25th 2007 2:05PM]

Most of those 7" car LCDs are only 480x234 resolution (some are as high as 800x480 widescreen) so indeed 1080p or even 720p are overkill. The highest res are only about 480p.

[paloooz @ May 25th 2007 2:47PM]

But ridiculous resolution is what HD-DVD/Blu-Ray are all about. Why would you have an HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player displayed on a screen where the resolution is no greater than 480p? Just put a DVD player in and save a few hundred bucks for the same quality.

[pagercam @ May 25th 2007 2:07PM]

If its a touchscreen you'll have fingerprints all over the screen anyways so higher resolution won't help you see through the greasy smudges much

[Tyk @ May 25th 2007 2:09PM]

This will surely turn the tide against BD in the next gen optical disc wars.

[Caleb @ May 25th 2007 2:36PM]

I'm sure that since most people won't even buy an HD DVD player for there home, a car system will definitely make a huge impact on the war. lol

[Mario @ May 25th 2007 5:11PM]

I think EliasF has the right idea. No, you don't need an HD LCD in your car, but when HD LCD screens become stadard, they become cheaper.

[J @ May 25th 2007 7:25PM]

I just want to stick how ever many thousand MP3s I can get on there...

[Irfan @ May 25th 2007 9:55PM]

no one else here is certain that this is just so they can fit more detailed navigation maps onto one HDDVD vs a DVD? Thats my first guess.