Toshiba showcases CEVO 4K TV technology

MANILA, Philippines - Seeing is believing: Toshiba’s state-of-the-art TV technology delivers “true image.”

“True image” is what Toshiba promises to bring to Filipino homes through television as it recently showcased the capabilities of the CEVO 4K, the second-generation 4K video processing engine that it pioneered.

Toshiba Philippines president Tomoyasu Yamamoto said the superior technology that Toshiba developed is a product of the company’s commitment to manufacture each TV unit with the highest engineering and technological capability.

“Toshiba strives to inspire everyone with our dedication to TV technology,” he said. “We pursue the real high picture quality for our users. Through the years we have established and perfected hardware in semiconductor technology. We combined it with software grounded on Toshiba’s skill and thought to provide outstanding reality to the images in every Toshiba TV.”

CEVO 4K is Toshiba’s core technology for TV that upgrades TV image quality and restores precision, enabling superior picture for contents like Blu-ray, HD TV and 4K video. It is an enhancement of the 4K video format first introduced by Toshiba in 2011. The big deal about 4K is a resolution that’s four times the pixels of Full HD. To the regular viewer, this means onscreen images appearing closest to the way they look in real life.

According to engineer Yuji Motomura, Toshiba Japan’s TV brand manager, their unique philosophy is about bringing out the natural look and feel of real life. “Televisions are being made to create a wow feeling, the bigger the screen, the more excitement,” he said. The problem though is that with bigger screens, even images shot in Full HD can look pixelized. “It is not enough that the TV screen is big — it also has to be equipped with the technology that maintains the high picture quality to enhance the viewing experience.”

Most content currently available for the general public, such as commercial TV broadcast by global media outfits and movies distributed internationally, are shot in Full HD and 4K has begun to catch on. In the Philippines, local TV networks still broadcast in standard definition but are expected to go into Full HD in the next couple of years.

These developments signal a shift, if not a mass migration, to more advanced TV models that will give justice to the hi-tech formats that they are produced in. “If the programs you are watching are in Blu-ray or HD, the CEVO 4K technology improves the images and makes it possible to watch them in near 4K level picture quality. That’s the wonder of the technology,” Motomura said. “If you see very detailed pictures or images you somehow get excited. The ultimate excitement is delivered when the picture is so good and the screen is so wide.”

Motomura gave media guests a preview of the power of the CEVO 4K through Toshiba’s Ultra HD 84-inch LED. A movie clip from an animation film available in Blu-ray was shown. It was demonstrated how CEVO 4K gave a near 4K level picture quality to the movie. It can improve precision up to 90 percent of the original content, which provides a sense of reality that is unmatched in terms of viewing experience.

New in Toshiba’s CEVO 4K

Fine Texture Restoration is an algorithm that extracts three components of an input image: texture, edge, and flat portions. The texture of the image is optimized in the process to achieve the near 4K level precision.

Brilliance Restoration divides and restores brilliance by reproducing brightness that approximates real sight.

Scene Adaptive Resolution dynamically analyzes and determines the appropriate precision of each part of an image. This restores both the natural depth and precision to the image, bringing out the reality and atmosphere of a scene.

Dynamic Gamma automatically analyzes the image and corrects luminance and colors. Digital Noise Reduction detects and reduces linking noises on a flat portion around edges, common in animated movies, and corrects them for cleaner images.

Dejudder addresses the juddering effect on active scenes, often found in Blu-ray content. The result is smoother and cleaner images. Clear Frame enables a double speed circuit that generates up to 120 frames per second. This reduces image lag and greatly improves the resolution in action scenes.

Toshiba’s CEVO 4K gets the nod of technophiles

One of the most in-demand advertising directors in Manila, Paul Soriano, has experienced first-hand the power of Toshiba’s core technology. He has shot over a hundred TV advertisements since he got his first commercial break in 2007. In his line of work, he does not compromise on visual quality. “It isn’t easy to show true images on a television screen that best match real life color and consistency,” he said.

“Toshiba’s CEVO 4K technology is topnotch in terms of precision. The sense of detail and sharpness is excellent and the way it captures natural light and skin tones. If you’re the type who likes to watch videos in Blu Ray and TV programs that are broadcast in HD, it’s definitely something you’d want your TV to be equipped with. It will be a waste not to enjoy the full benefits of HD broadcast if your TV set is not optimum. Most certainly, it makes for pleasurable viewing,” Soriano added.

Abe Olandres of YugaTech, one of the most widely read technology websites in the country, is impressed with the capability of the CEVO 4K to enhance image quality. “Where Toshiba has taken TV technology is quite remarkable, you can tell they are very serious about perfecting the technology. I can see how the CEVO 4K models will appeal to a set of consumers who expect a lot from their TV sets and enjoy the reality feel when watching. Those who have a strong appreciation of video technology will definitely want to get a hold of this.”

To know more at Toshiba power TV, log on to www.toshiba.ph.