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Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Glasgow, UK
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Thanks: Gave 871, Got 1,115 | IFA 2009: Toshiba Press Conference
4:03:
Conference is about to get underway.
Today we're going to see a lot of new products, and apparently, a lot of exciting products as well.
The Toshiba vision: interconnected devices in a modern digital lifestyle. We've heard it all before...
Three screen concept:
Toshiba want small screens (PDAs, phones), medium screens (laptops) and large screens (TVs) to work together, To acheive this, Toshiba will pursue:
Interaction, Connectivity, Synchronization.
Toshiba has done a survey - which of these devices do you use or own today, vs 10 years ago, in 1999? The results: today, people have more devices which didn't exist back then (MIDs and mini notebooks) and they have more of them.
Toshiba is one of the few global players which has products in so many categories: mobile phones, smart phones, MIDs, mini notebooks, laptops, TVs...
4:08:
Toshiba has the world's first high-speed 64gb SD chip.
Toshiba is part of the DLNA committee. Many certified devices.
Toshiba asked people, what are you transferring data (eg music, photos, videos) to and from? He says the results are quite disappointing: most people are transmitting from mobile phones to laptops, or laptops to mobiles. No mention of TV screens. Perhaps, he says, people are just not interested in sending to a TV screen?
Most people were transmitting via USB cable (73%) and 19% using Bluetooth. Most importantly, 70% people agreed that they would be very interested in an easy, one-click, wireless data transfer.
So, they've created Toshiba Media Controller. A UI which allows content to be sent around between different devices. A bullet point in the presentation seems to indicate that the software is exclusive to Toshiba laptops: in other words, they've sabotaged the very point that they were trying to make (easy, borderless sending)? Real people do not buy products entirely from one manufacturer!
A video plays showing how annoying it is to share media. I agree wholeheartedly. "This is media sharing the easy way!"
4:15pm:
And now we're onto "making greener products".
People are buying more and more devices, which equals more energy consumption. Toshiba is concerned about sustainability and corporate social responsibility.
Toshiba's vision is targeted out to 2050! Their vision: "A world with all people leading rich lifestyles in harmony with the earth". They want a 10-fold increase in eco-efficiency.
And Toshiba wants to reduce 120million tonnes of CO2 by 2025. Bold words which are nice to see.
Solutions for greener products:
New LED technology,
Eco Utility for Laptops,
TVs with Auto Dmming and AutoView (hey, why not push calibration if you want to save energy?)
TVs with an aenergy saving power switch
Reduction of raw materials
Easy disaposable materials
Products that are built to last.
4:20pm:
Finally, a product. It's a laptop. It's the flagship multimedia Satellite P500. It's for true multimedia enthusiasts, and it's "To enjoy HD to the max". OK, then it has a BD-ROM drive, right? No mention so far. "No compromises on prevailing standards" either.
Better yet: it has a BD-RE/DVD writer, a TV tuner, an 18.4" 1920x1080 panel, and the Resolution+ algorithm.
"We now want to offer the full availiabilty to all the content out there, also to our technology enthusiast customers" is the official reasoning for including BD. Well done, Toshiba.
It also has Harmon Kardon stereo speakers, so the sound should be better than the usual laptop tinniness.
4:24pm:
Handing over to Sascha Lange, head of marketing of consumer visual products. TVs: Lowest mobility, biggest picture. He's working with the other divisions with the "3 screen concept".
Toshiba Media Controller is important, because tehre are many products which connect devices, but they are too complicated, and "nobody will use it if it is too complicated".
2010 REGZA TVs will be Toshiba Media Controller compatible.
"You know HDMI CEC for a long time now, but it didn't really work in the past". Whew, I thought it was just me. Apparently now Toshiba's TVs will have HDMI-CEC that works! Wireless HD will be supported in the future, too.
There's also going to be an "Auto Setup TV". "You have to set up sharpness, contrast, brightness, colour - who is doing it?" (I raise my hand). "Of course some of you are doing it, but you are specialists. Nobody else is doing this".
Supposedly, "AUTOVIEW" will deliver the optimum settings. Hmmm - "Optimum" according to Toshiba's engineers, or according to the content providers? It's based on a light sensor, which guages the colour and intensity of the ambient light. It promises more comfortable, more natural images.
Dolby Volume will do the same thing for audio and normalize the audio.
Toshiba want to offer best picture quality: sharpnes, colors, contrast, and moving picture.
Sharpness is taken care of by Resolution+, the detail enhancement algorithm. Colours: Toshiba says that colour reproduction should be kept in accordance with production standards, so you see movies the way they were intended. Colour me surprised and impressed (get it?)
LED Local dimming is being discussed with relatin to Contrast. "REGZA Accurate Dimming" claims to increase accuracy of LED local dimming backlighting.
And, Active Vision M200 HD technology scans the backlight with 800 positions of accuracy.
4:32:
Flagship model of TV, SV-Series. Toshiba's first LED TV. It has everything in it.
4:35:
We have to run to make it to the BDA conference. See you in the funny papers!
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