Toshiba debuts Extenders for REGZA TVs and a standalone Network Player at CES 2009

Posted by Katherine Hannaford on Wed 7 Jan 2009

Toshiba's going to help the online generation with their new built-in technology

At CES 2009, Toshiba announced that incoming TVs under the REGZA umbrella will contain Extenders with Windows Media Center functionality, as well as a standalone network player/set-top box.

The box will reportedly work as a HD server, streaming media to the TV across the network, "the box is the future of TV" according to Scott Ramirez, VP of Marketing at Toshiba. It will deliver content straight from the internet, as well as from PCs and also from its inbuilt DVD player.

As Toshiba is very unlikely to ever support Blu-ray after last year's HD DVD fail, they're boasting that the DVD player will upconvert to 1080p resolution.

An SD card slot and USB port have also been added for additional media inputs.

The new AV devices with Network Player capabilities will launch in REGZA LCD TVs and LCD TV/DVD combos as well as the standalone player. When working with Windows Media Center, users will be able to stream video, download music, movies and photos, record TV shows and internet TV, "rich content experience in one device", Ramirez commented.

A Widget Channel has been developed by Intel and Yahoo!, and will also support Toshiba's sudden interest in making TVs more media-friendly, with widgets giving "quick real time access to your favourite movies, news weather and much more".

All of this will drop in late 2009, claims Toshiba.

Link: Toshiba

| T3's CES coverage is powered by Canon

Buy from here: Toshiba | Amazon | Currys