"If there’s anything to dislike about the Cell Regza 55X1, then it’s the launch date: this December, and only in Japan. ®"

And the name. Regza. It sound like a cigar smoker honking up a lungful of phlegm.

Noise from the HDD

No Freesat mentioned (no point in recording time shifted SD Freeview)

Cost - not mentioned - I reckon £2000 for unclear Cell benefits...

Just wait for a new wave of Atom TVs next...

Great! Now I need a movie to watch - recorded with a 22-bit camera :-(

"No Freesat mentioned" - why would they include Freesat capability in a Japan-only TV?

There isn't a Freesat signal in Japan, nor does Freesat carry any Japanese channels. It's a UK platform.

of TVs then will also mean we will have a future of having to buy bigger houses with wider doorways (Yeah I know, don't even point out the obvious OK) to get a monster TV like that in our living rooms.

I swear my local flea pit cinema has a smaller screen than this TV, you know that cinema, the one with the flashing 12 o'clock under the screen.

Its one thing that annoys me about PVRs. Record something in one room and you have to watch it in that room. So if the other half wants to watch Eastenders, I cant watch the recording of Mock the Week in the bedroom TV as I recorded it on the livingroom one. I'd have to set it to record on all the TVs I use and remember to delete from the ones I didn't use to watch it.

Any good streaming TVs out there?

Well, the eight tuner capability's good. Here I was thinking I was posh with three USB tuners on GB-PVR.

Many hard drives are almost inaudible these days. They don't mention if it gets channel BT tho? I guess not.

I still watch a CRT tv which plays my old 'Bottom' videos on VHS just fine.

The VCR just works as does the TV. If it dies or malfunctions and it is something trivial I can usually fix it, else there is someone else I know that can, usually not for much.

Sometimes... simple is enough.

Of course, my life is full of anachronisms and contradictions so YMMV.

But I still prefer to do my upscaling using that fancy thing called Media Centre. Also I can put more HDDs inside if I wish, and a Bittorent client. Sorry, I shouldn't mention that part...

There is that fancy stuff called Firefox preinstalled that allows me to browse 'Net on 50" with wireless keyboard... So slightly more enjoyable experience all way round.

Can't the just make a nice TV with integrated, low power PC, running Linux (so we don't need to pay €100 extra for pleasure of having viruses on TV)? Is it so hard?

"1333 x 966 x 400mm" Please tell me that this is a typo and the TV is not over a foot deep!!!

If Irans nucleur program matched the rate of advancement seen in the TV industry we'd be rightly worried.

Theres no other area of the consumer market where you can spuff so much money on a gadget and it end up so technically out of date in 6 months.

You don't need a 22-bit camera, just watch some analogue TV through a good roof aerial. It'll make full use of the dynamic range ;-)

That spec is more relevant to black level than anything else. If it says 5 milion to one, it might actually DELIVER fifty thousand to one - which, if you're watching in a dark room, might actually deliver perceived black instead of darkish gray, as happens now. You have to take the stated contrast specs with a grain of salt - but in this case, the multi-zone LED backlight probably does substantially improve things, particularly if they kill the backlight entirely during full-fade-to-black.

By 'Bottom' videos I assume you mean the amusing comedy series with Rik Mayall as opposed to videos of lady's derrieres?

You don't say if it does 1080p

I'll assume it's just 720 then?

Knowing Toshiba's past attempts at TVs of the future, - anyone remember the SED technology that went under the mothballs pretty sharpish, after 2 - 3 years of development?

Deja vu, I tell ya!

Analogue TV?

Ahh yeah, I remember that, we don't have that anymore down here in the South West (Beacon Hill transmitter).

Rob

i would not be too surprised to discover linux as the engine inside their TV. I have a couple Toshiba HD-DVD players which are, in fact, PC's running Linux and BUSYBOX.

The HD-DVD did a fantastic job of upscaling regular DVD's., and i would also expect Toshiba to have very good handle on image processing.

As far as boot-up time, even my dang light bulbs (tose curly ones) have to boot up these days.

Sounds great and I want one but will have to wait for the Beko with the same spec in a few years time.

Who buys these things anyway? the only people I can think of are footballers and the russians who have made of with some collective asset or other.

"""Its one thing that annoys me about PVRs. Record something in one room and you have to watch it in that room."""

That's why I let some nice fellows on the Internet do the recording part of my PVR - once the content hits my fileserver I can watch it pretty much anywhere I want. With the right hardware (Popcorn Hour or similar,) you get the full HD everything with no moving/noisy components, assuming you have enough rooms to keep a fileserver or NAS box in one that you don't need to use for TV watching.

Plus that's pretty much the only way I can watch Top Gear on this side of the pond.

If they improve the number of zones, they can display video directly with the backlight! Eliminate the LCD entirely.

Can I patent that idea?

> Great! Now I need a movie to watch - recorded with a 22-bit camera :-(

And you think that what you see on the TV is exactly what the camera recorded? Ever heard of post-processing?

I also bet you have a 486 in the cupboard running a server and are using Debian with Flubox that you customized on a Pentium II.

Do we need an additional generator to power the thing - like with the PS3? (okay, the slim reduces your power costs to just a small country's GDP)

Although the specs sound nice. Will it have Tetris/Pong to play?

Actually Canon are still researching SED:

http://www.canon.com/technology/canon_tech/category/future.html