Toshiba Cell Regza 55X1 and Regza Next concepts hands-on (video)

Now that the Cell-powered cat's out the bag, we had a chance to get up close and personal with a number of its 55-inch Cell Regza 55X1 LCD TVs on hand at the CEATEC show floor. It's certainly not the thinnest flat-screen panel, but the screen was crisp and colors bright. The Cell and most of the heavy duty components were housed in a separate Cell Box -- frankly, it was disappointing just how large the box was, out-sizing even the original PlayStation 3. For reasons that weren't quite made clear to us, the 3TB of storage were divided among four separate drives, two 1TB and two 500GB. None of them are accessible, leaving you only an external USB drive as an expansion option. Frankly, the real draw here (at least the multitaskers inside of us) is eight-window display function and hyper-fast channel scrolling, which in our time with the TV worked great without a hitch.

Also on hand were the four Cell Regza Next concept models. There's not much to say about the entertainment server and the all-in-one, but we do have to give credit to the 4K2K TV for the expected visual quality. The 3D unit was showing off a hands-only motion-controlled user interface, demonstrated only by a Toshiba rep, that seemed to have a few technical hiccups. As we've said before (Natal, anyone?), waving your arms is a fun concept, but here we're not yet sold on the usefulness over novelty of it -- something Toshi can mull over between now and at whatever point in the future it plans on upgrading it beyond concept phase. Video of the 55X1 and the conceptual 3D UI after the break.

Toshiba Cell Regza hands-on

Toshiba Cell Regza Next future concepts hands-on

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[UnnDunn Posted Oct 5th 2009 8:03AM]

It's still an LCD set, which means it's still crap, in my view.

Pair this cell-powered tech with a non-backlit display technology such as OLED or Plasma, and I would bite (assuming I could afford it anyways.)

[DarKlar Posted Oct 5th 2009 8:04AM]

I just hope there will be an affordable version...

Prior to 2060.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 5th 2009 8:15AM]

I would imagine there are multiple hard drives to handle the data throughput involved in recording 8 channels simultaneously.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 5th 2009 8:50AM]

Cell powered tv?????

you're not doing it right Toshiba


Imagine what Pioneer could do with the Cell and their unbelievable concept tv from CES?

[Don Corleone Posted Oct 5th 2009 8:54AM]

I think Regza is a stupid name for a TV. Might as well call it Ronzoni.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 5th 2009 9:11AM]

possible the worst interface design since ... well...Microsoft Bob

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 5th 2009 9:11AM]

If the whole thing is housed in a separate box, couldn't they just do this by writing something for the PS3 and adding a tuner?

If demand, I see Sony just massively destroying this product by announcing some sort of add on that does the same thing on a PS3 for much cheaper.

[monkey with glasses Posted Oct 5th 2009 9:53AM]

Focus, first video was worst than a blurry cam pic.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 5th 2009 10:29AM]

it was in 3D dum'dum'

[mtkupp Posted Oct 5th 2009 11:18AM]

I don't see gesture navigation practical for TVs. Last thing I want is to change the channel every time I reach for my coffee, or flip off a referee :)

[Langdon Alger Posted Oct 5th 2009 2:50PM]

"None of them are accessible, leaving you only an external USB drive as an expansion option."

None of the IS accessible.

"Linguo IS dead!" ... *shuts down*

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 13th 2009 5:45AM]

"None of the IS accessible"

Tool. "None of THEM ARE accessible" is quite correct.

Crawl back in your hole.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 5th 2009 3:45PM]

I think the motion sensitive controls would be great if just a bit more subtle. Fantastic design of the remote though!

[gamedude360 Posted Oct 5th 2009 4:01PM]

why not just havea wiimote like remote. i would rather that than using hands, because what if someone is watching a football game or someones watching porn lol