Toshiba Adds Blu-ray Drives to REGZA TV Range

Despite being late-starters, Toshiba have firmly embraced Blu-ray in their range, a point proven with the introduction of two new REGZA televisions with Blu-ray drives built-in.  Initially for the Japanese market, there will be the choice between a 26" and a 32" screen size and they have a converted cost of $1200 and $1400 respectively.

Both models will have the side-loading Blu-ray drive and two USB slots, an HDMI socket, a digital tuner and an Ethernet port for data, with the differences being in the speaker and contrast levels.  The 32R1BDP will have a contrast ratio of 4000:1 and a pair of 10 watt speakers, while the 26R1BDP drops the contrast to 3000:1 and the speaker output to 5 watts from the pair.  Neither are full HD TVs and offer a WXGA resolution of 1366x768, good enough for 720p playback.

Toshiba have made a point of saying that the USB port can be used to record programs onto a hard drive, but only from the TV tuner and not from the Blu-ray itself.  If we hear anything concerning an international release, we'll let you know.