Toshiba showing off 56-inch Cell-based 4k x 2k HDTV, prototype MIDs

Unlike most everyone else at CES, Toshiba has decided to out all of its expo materials in one single PR. Unfortunately, we were already well aware of most things mentioned, but we felt it prudent to pass along a few unique mentions. First off, it'll be demonstrating a Cell-based prototype HDTV with a 56-inch 4k x 2k panel; said set can upconvert full 1080p to 3,840 x 2,160p thanks to its Resolution+ technology, which frankly has our mouths watering profusely. Additionally, we'll supposedly see a 55-inch LED-backlit panel that's also controlled by the Cell platform, which will seek to demonstrate "high-speed control of all picture parameters, including an innovative local dimming function." In somewhat related news (but not at all, really), we're also told of a few conceptual MIDs that'll make it to the show floor, including an internet notepad, a water-resistant viewer and a 5-millimeter card-sized device. For the full spill, give that read link a gentle tap.

[youngstunna @ Jan 7th 2009 3:47AM]

just creamed my shorts

[SITEiNK @ Jan 7th 2009 4:31AM]

now this is actually pretty sweet. perhaps they should come out with an optical disc format that can handle this size on-disc. err - perhaps not...

[IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII (BarCODE) @ Jan 7th 2009 2:00PM]

Only you would think something like that tastes sweet....

[NiL^ @ Jan 7th 2009 3:55AM]

4 times Full HD.. CooL!

[anthony @ Jan 7th 2009 4:14AM]

Is this toshiba trying to prove that you can create pixels from stuff that is not there... kinda like their standard DVD player that up-converts the video to full HD by filling in the missing information or something funny like that. Maybe I'm wrong but I doubt it's any better than 1080p.

[Nth3nSum @ Jan 7th 2009 11:37AM]

1080 up-scaled dvd looks better than standard 480 - no contest, it does look better. So it stands to reason that up-scaled blue-ray content will look better at 2160p. Bonus-you now also have a monitor that can take a 3,840 x 2,160 input. Which gives us a reason to upgrade our video cards and consoles for the next generation.

1080p is not the limit of your eyes.

[Blastar @ Jan 7th 2009 5:08AM]

They finaly did it.
I 've been hearing to this kind of story (cell installed on TVs) even before PS3 released on the market.
It took them quite long time to do this.. but better late than never.
Another win for the Cell !! Yaaayyyy!!!

[Adam Zey @ Jan 7th 2009 5:11AM]

All that monkeying around with the image will only induce even MORE latency making TVs less and less useful for gaming.

They'd better darned well put a "gaming" mode on these things that minimizes image processing latency.

[tijs @ Jan 7th 2009 5:37AM]

Yep, you're wrong.

the RED One records videos in 4K resolution, that means you don't need to upscale those videos to display them on this tv.

because you just simply can't get 4K material from anywhere, this means you can only watch your own home videos (specially that kind of home videos..) in 4K resolution:)

[Pretol @ Jan 7th 2009 6:07AM]

Toshiba DVD players will have to do much more upconverting..... (silly toshiba)...

there's no media for this, so as far as tv is concerned, there's no use for the extra schmixels. It'll make a cool computer monitor though.

[imonit @ Jan 7th 2009 6:40AM]

@anthony/Pretol - Are you actually serious? anthony doubts that this is better than 1080p? You are an absolute shmuck. The TV itself supports a higher resolution. How could it NOT be better than 1080p? The only reason upconverting is even mentioned is b/c there currently isn't any 4k material commercially available. But what you and Pretol are missing is that when 1080p TVs debuted it was the same thing. Even after a while, it was only HD DVD and BD which were ~1k for a player. You were probably the same morons saying "I doubt this is any better than 720p".

[Kinger @ Jan 7th 2009 10:16AM]

What Petrol is saying imonit is that the only real use for it AT THE MOMENT is for a computer monitor...a crazy one at that.

You are gonna be waiting a long time for 4k material to hit the shelves. And 4k tv? come on. No ones gonna be broadcasting 4k on this side of the planet for a very long time.

[imonit @ Jan 7th 2009 10:44AM]

@Kinger "at the moment" this is a prototype. "You are gonna be waiting a long time" for this TV to hit the shelves. The hardware is always going to precede the content. Calling Toshiba "silly" for looking to the future is just that. More and more movies are being shot at 4k with Delsa Digital cameras. I presume you would rather manufacturers wait until there is 4k content with nothing developed to display it. Oh, wait a minute - it might make more sense to have the display come first since it would have no problem handling current content. Silly Toshiba.

[anthony @ Jan 7th 2009 3:00PM]

I was kinda getting at what pretol said how their isnt really content to take full advantage of this.. so HD content won't look a whole lot different displayed on this monitor or a current top of the line 1080p monitor.. I actually never got into the whole HD thing when 720 was out and thought 1080 was really amazing and the thing to get. I watch standard DVD's in our home theater with the Sony vpl-vw100 sxrd projector and it looks amazing. Small monitors such as this Toshiba don't get me excited unless I want to use it as a picture frame.

[Russell @ Jan 7th 2009 9:38AM]

I here by petition engadget to cease posting on any TVs until one bests this beast. It makes for awfully boring reading now.

[GUNJAM @ Jan 7th 2009 11:05AM]

Pioneer might pull that off.

[Chad @ Jan 7th 2009 10:22AM]

did anyone else read the headline as Toshiba showing off 56" MID? I now have this picture in my head of trying to put one in my shirt pocket......and being crushed to death.

[Hotrod @ Jan 7th 2009 10:37AM]

Man this would be sweet if it could be connected to your PC. Do any video cards support that resolution? You'd probably need quad SLI to get a playable frame rate on some newer games at that res. Actually I'm not even sure if games are compatible at that res

[pfromg @ Jan 7th 2009 11:59AM]

can i use this as a computer monitor ?
Is there a gfx card on this planet that could drive it at full res ?

[decapitor @ Jan 7th 2009 12:48PM]

Whatever. Maybe I'll buy one of these TVs when the prices come down but I'll stick with my Blurays for now. I mean seriously I'm not gonna pay $20-30 for 4k downloads when I can get 5-10 dollar Bluray discs. And seriously I can barely tell the difference and I can upconvert anyways and it looks fine. God.

[Iridium @ Jan 7th 2009 1:27PM]

upscaling 1080p to 3,840 x 2,160p is simple. It is just a double scan and should look exactly the same from a distance. IN fact sitting 10 feet away you would never notice the resolution increase. If you put this set next to a 1920x1080 set playing a 1080p video you shouldn't even be able to tell a difference at all.

The only advantage of this set is as a giant computer monitor. You might be able to get 4k Bluray discs in the future but the bandwidth is barely there for 1080 broadcasts and DVD quality streaming barealy works over the internet.

[Daniel @ Jan 7th 2009 1:54PM]

i know who will get my money first now. one sweet dreams are made of these.

[RedDragan @ Jan 7th 2009 7:11PM]

Hi folks, is it possible that we already have the equipment needed to store 4k video? Last I heard Blu-Ray was already at either 400GB or 800GB and now they are finalising the process to make it compatible with current multi-layer (50GB) players.

I suppose PS3 could be updated for 4k playback...it has a more powerful cell than the TV at least so it must surely have the clock count, I saw a Cell-only simulation of a city and it was really impressive considering there was no video card at all. Could a 2.0 Blu-Ray player be updated to playback this format if the video was kept in the same format only at a higher resolution or would that be beyond their capabilties?

I would hope this is the case... cause 4k has been used in cinema for decades and you'll only need the to buy the TV. I saw the report on the BBC, 3 companies are now pushing for 7680 x 4320!! So that is another 25 years away, but maybe pretty soon in the cinema's.... :-)

[loosely_coupled @ Jan 8th 2009 2:10AM]

This is nice, but we've already seen more than one of these in the past. I'm sick of concepts, these should be on the market by now.
As I've bitched about on engadget before, its ridiculous that I could buy a 17" laptop with a 1600x1200 (4:3) screen more than 6-7 years ago, and all that was accomplished since then was a switch to a 17" widescreen (16:10) with basically the same resolution of
1920x1200. Even worse, we've actually REGRESSED with external displays. 7-8 years ago, many high quality 17-19" displays were 1600x1200. Today, the vast majority of people buy displays that are 1680x1050 or less, and you don't see many 1920x1200 panels that are smaller than 22". AHH! drives me crazy. I blame MS and Apple for not making true resolution independent interfaces and not even making DPI scaling work well. On my 17" 1920x1200 laptop with Windows XP DPI scaling turned on so I can actually read the screen, many applications interfaces get screwy where certain elements and buttons are hidden from view.

Also, while the 30" 2560x1600 panels are nice, and progress is progress, they really aren't a major engineering feat. For god sakes,
IBM released a 22" 3840 x 2400 display in 2001. Yes, It was bulky and really heavy, had poor contrast, a 48hz refresh rate, and sold for $25,000, but damn't it was awesome.

We have smartphones and media players with 3" 800x480 displays, and UMPCs/photo frames with 6-7" 1440x900 displays. I think it was Casio that just showed off a 2" panel with over 500DPI. So for god sakes, where are the Quad-HD 30" screens.
I would settle for a 22" 2560x1600 screen. Considering we've had the Dell/Apple 30 incher for years, the panel makers have had plenty of time to move DPI forward instead of just messing around with LED backlighting.

[sumsika @ Jan 23rd 2009 6:48AM]

can i use this as a computer monitor ? I want to play my games.
http://www.buycheapnow.co.uk/samsung-le26a457c-26-widescreen-lcd-tv-hd-ready-with-freeview/