Hands-on with Toshiba's SRT REGZA HDTVs (and other old crap)

Man, what a toll the loss of HD DVD has taken on Toshiba. Judging by the vast expanse of floor space at Tosh's booth not covered with people (seriously, look for anyone in the gallery below) and the inclusion of CES-announced DVD / VHS recorders (yes, really) as premiere products, we'd say the outfit is still hurting from the outcome of the format war. In all honesty, we felt kind of sad sashaying through its installation while reading slogans like "See everything in HD (even the non-HD stuff)." We even viewed the Super Resolution Technology demonstration with an open mind, and while there's certainly a mild difference with SRT, these sets hardly make SD signals into high-def. Grab a tissue and wander through the gallery at Engadget HD.

Gallery: Hands-on with Toshiba's SRT REGZA HDTVs, other old crap

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[LondonConsultant @ Sep 4th 2008 7:40PM]

Kind of like watching your uncle trying to dance...

[Blackstar @ Sep 4th 2008 7:47PM]

Well I don't know about you but I SEE with my eyes, not FEEL with them. So, I'd much rather be SEEING a better HD picture than 'feeling' it.

Unless you have to rub your eyeballs all over this thing to get the effect they are talking about.

[phanbouy @ Sep 4th 2008 7:52PM]

Open up! It's the semantics police!

[tom @ Sep 4th 2008 8:08PM]

Toshiba can run, but they can't hide (That is, to bend over and get down to making a Toshiba Blu-Ray player)

Maybe...add in that HD-DVD compatibility feature for those die hard fans. (I know a lot of guys picked up plenty of bargain HD movies at wally)

[Verx @ Sep 4th 2008 7:45PM]

or engadget kissing apple's ass...

[Muhammed @ Sep 4th 2008 8:08PM]

@ Yay: And you're a proof of that.

[giuliop @ Sep 4th 2008 8:17PM]

I still have to figure out whether "Yay." is an incurable troll or he's exploiting his sarcasm skills to the point of being a sarcasm troll. I somewhat tend to think it's the latter, but I guess in the end it makes no difference; the outcome is the same.

[phanbouy @ Sep 4th 2008 8:20PM]

@giuliop i never figured that out with Steffen Jobbs either, maybe this is the new him?

but ya gotta admit, it's easy attention here. just say "iphone" and you get 7 replies; angry or otherwise.

[nathan.wong @ Sep 4th 2008 7:47PM]

Wow, I wonder if there was an echo anytime someone said anything in the Toshiba booth?

[ybd @ Sep 4th 2008 7:49PM]

in the Toshiba booth? booth? booth?

[giuliop @ Sep 4th 2008 8:05PM]

That's bashing for the sake of it: how are we supposed to see anything HD in 800x600 photos? I bet you couldn't tell the difference even if there was a real HD TV among them. Lousy Engadget.

[Fretted @ Sep 4th 2008 9:15PM]

I agree with giuliop wholeheartedly. When does the stabbing end Brute? While there certainly may be cause to question whether Toshiba has some learning to do in the areas of wordsmith marketing and the bling-bling message delivery needed today to positively sway the cynical pundits, but do you have to be quite so brutal about it all the time? Is there not also cause to consider that in spite of their well (over) published defeat in the HD media space, Toshiba has shown a great deal of honor and integrity in responding to the situation? BTW – that is a trait of Japanese culture to do so, with the exception being Sony of course. What is difficult about understanding the basic business idea of allowing users the ability to easily enhance their home entertainment setup without having to invest in a whole new library of HD media? These types of overly critical articles and posts only bring out the darker mob mentality of readers and turn away those who prefer more even tempered and less ranting thought processes. The end result of reading these types of articles is a feeling of wasted time and energy spent absorbing it. Perhaps trying to gather the upside to new consumer options is too hard for the engadget team these days? Please give the demagoguery and over-the-top bully pulpit tactics a rest and present the information more objectively for a change…

[Gored By bush @ Sep 4th 2008 9:50PM]

There have to be a loser in cases like this. But it is way too bad more people could not get a hold of both players and compair them. But who the hell can afford two thousand dollars to buy beta players and equally expensive movie media just to compare the - and +s, not to mention you actually need $5000 HDTV to view the 'blue' disks. Most of us can only wait on the sideline reading the reviews and news stories. How are we suppose to discriminantly compare the technology. Let's just say technology was defiantly was not on Toshiba's side.

[Alex D. @ Sep 4th 2008 10:34PM]

There was nothing wrong with Toshiba's technology. It was comparable to Blu-Ray. People keep on forgetting that HD-DVD was also blue laser format.

Where Toshiba got outgunned was "bribes". Sony literally paid some studios off to choose Blu-Ray. If it was a fair game, in technology to dollar proposition, then I certainly believe that HD-DVD would've won. HD-DVD was cheaper to manufacture, did not require as much of an overhaul for disk manufacturers and delivered as good of a HD video as Blu-Ray.

[Xenoterranos @ Sep 4th 2008 10:00PM]

I don't see what everyone is complaining about. I'd friggin LOVE an HDMI VHS player. That way, I can send everything through the same switch. If that thing also has SD inputs, it'd be like a built in analog to digital converter. I hope they release this for a decent price, i've got a TON of old-school anime to convert.

[omf @ Sep 5th 2008 1:43AM]

Oops... I'm sorry... I didn't realize this is where the HD-DVD support group meeting was being held tonight...

[Ronald Reagan @ Oct 19th 2008 11:13PM]

Engadgets writers are a bunch of Retards! Why people read their dribble is beyond comprehension!!! Unreal......

[Ronald Reagan @ Oct 19th 2008 11:22PM]

Funny, I was reading some detailed info between blu-ray and HD DVD tonight, and found out that LG is using the exact same laze specs for both formats. However the difference is that blu-ray lasers focus in on .1mm vs HD DVD's .6mm focus point. Funny thing, both formats use similar dyes to perform burning. So in general, the Blu-ray format is producing up to 30% more storage by using more compression. So why did they win again?