Toshiba’s focus at CES was glasses free 3D displays, but it highlighted more conventional HDTVs today at an event in Rome. Its new TVs and laptops all tie in to Toshiba Places, which sorts out access to different types of apps for video, social networking, music and other areas and is ready to launch this month. Separating Toshiba from the competition is a slew of new technology and the top of the line 55ZL1 model checks all the boxes: Seven core CEVO CPU for image processing, a Pro-LED512 panel that is the world’s first with 512 zones of dimming among 3,072 LEDs, Personal-TV facial recognition that picks up on which user is watching then personalizes to their preferred settings and active shutter 3D glasses. The edge lit LED VL863 series will come in 47- and 42-inch versions featuring LG’s FPR passive glasses 3D and four pairs of glasses, while the 32- through 46-inch UL863 drops 3D for built-in WiFi and Personal-TV. The SL863 series is the final step down, nixing built-in WiFi.

Prices? Nope, not part of the story here, but we expect fairly competitive prices considering Toshiba isn’t usually any higher than most of the comparable technologies from other companies. The Pro-LED512 panel in particular excites us as leading edge LED technology that should bleed into other designs in the future.

Amazon has, for example, a really cool deal on a 40″ 1080p Toshiba HDTV with a USB connection and loads of good features, well-rated on the site as well: $440, brand new? Pretty amazing indeed, as our predictions of pricing sliding downwards is coming true pretty rapidly. We only hope this spurs slightly lagging sales into the new 2011 model year, as technology and TVs are looking better overall than they ever have.

It’ll be curious how many more deals like this will pop up as vendors seek to clear inventories following the big Super Bowl push.

The panacea of glasses-free 3D displays (or content) might not yet be upon us, but Toshiba’s doing its best by putting the two models in its Regza GL1 family up for sale in Japan. Tomorrow marks the debut of the smaller 12GL1, spanning a 12-inch diagonal and offering the unconventional resolution of 466 x 350. That’s expected to be priced at ¥120,000 ($1,431), exactly half of the ¥240,000 ($2,863) asking price of the 20GL1, which will follow it swiftly with retail availability on December 25th. The latter display has the decency to come equipped with a more civilized 720p resolution and 550:1 contrast ratio, although, as you can see above, neither panel can be accused of being unnecessarily thin or space-efficient. Still, this parallax barrier stuff is the best we’ve got for the moment — and as usual the best we’ve got resides in Japan only.

While not cheap, this could be where the future of 3D HDTV rests. We’ll keep an eye on it of course.

Toshiba just announced its new Power TV family of battery-powered LED TVs. Mind you, these aren’t tiny portables. Toshiba’s PC 1 sets are pushing 32- or 24-inches and are the world’s first (according to Toshiba) to integrate a rechargeable battery good for about two hours of power. Why? Because even people lacking clean, consistent power desire the mind-numbing escape afforded by a large televised football match. The sets feature “auto signal booster” tech to enhance viewing in areas with weak signal coverage and “auto view” to optimize the picture based on ambient lighting conditions.

Now these have many uses, including areas with spotty electric service, or even to take along on a very modern camping trip of some sort.

Just as we expected, Toshiba has come out with the US variants of its well-regarded LED-based Cinema Series, with the big-time WX800 models (46- and 55-inches) getting 3D Resolution+ technology, 240Hz processor, 802.11b/g/n WiFi included, the company’s own Enhanced NET TV service with the always fun Yahoo! widgets and a native 1080p panel too. We’re out of breath from all that, and you may be too when you get this in your living room.

The lower end VX700 models (again, 46- and 55-inches) is meant for those ok with 2D (read: most of us right now), but are fairly similar aside from that.

BuyDig.com – Here’s a Toshiba 55UX600U 55″ 1080p 120Hz LED HDTV with Net TV for $1499 with free shipping. Add to cart to see special price. Great specs and internet goodness too, how can you go wrong?

Best Buy – The LG 55LD520 55″ 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV for $1298 with free shipping is a heck of a deal, and here it is. We love us some LG, and this is a great price for a monster size.

Thanks for reading and join us tomorrow for more hi-res hijinks.

Walmart – Plasma is always a nice option, and here is the Panasonic Viera TC-P50S2 50″ 1080p S2 Series Plasma HDTV for $899, and with free shipping. WalMart is tough to beat for these mid-range deals, and this is just such a case. This HDTV would have been $2,000+ 2-3 years ago.

Adorama.com – The 40″ ranges are becoming more and more inexpensive we’ve noticed. This Toshiba 40XV645U REGZA 40” LCD HDTV for $599.95 with free shipping is a perfect point to accent this shift in pricing.

Feel free to click the links above. Happy HDTV shopping, and make sure to stop by and read us this weekend.

If you were contemplating a move to Japan (you know, because you’re sick of waiting for all those feature-packed REGZA HDTVs to make it stateside) the idea just got a little more compelling. The new REGZA R1 series (up to 42-inches) and REGZA H1 series (32 and 37-inch displays) sport USB ports for recording and external storage. All but the 32-inch models feature 1080p (the little guys make due with 720p) and the R1 line also feature IPS panels and an enhanced gaming mode. All of the above support DLNA streaming, four HDMI ports, analog inputs, and two 10W speakers. But that’s not all! In addition to USB, the H1 line throws in the 500GB hard drives that are becoming commonplace on other REGZA models lately.

Look for the sets to appear in stores in early to mid June, and estimated street prices will begin at ¥150,000 (about $1,600 USD), while the R1 line is due very soon and will start at ¥130,000 (about $1,400 USD), pretty reasonable prices for sets with this line of features.

It appears Toshiba is in the running as far as feature-packed HDTV sets these days. Hopefully, these will drop in the states sooner or later.

Newegg – Now here is a well-reviewed TV with 1080p for (almost) a song: The Toshiba Regza 40XV648U 40″ 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV for $750 – and we even provide you with a $100 off with coupon code “EMCYRZT57” (Expires 4/22), so this bad boy will only run you $650. Who loves you, baby?

ButterflyPhoto – Here’s the best offer on this monster unit we’ve seen: the Samsung PN63B550 63” 1080p 600Hz Plasma HDTV, and they even throw in a Free 5pc TV Hook Up Kit for $1969.00 with free shipping too? Yep, the price is not a misprint.

Thanks for reading and feel free to check out the offers on the page.

Toshiba’s 120Hz UX600 series is not just a huge TV, its the first official Microsoft certified unit, thanks in part to DLNA support over Ethernet or WiFi.

It even features the Win 7 logo on the unit, so there’s no guesswork as far as consumers go, which does much for confidence and streaming media to your TV. We’re hoping Toshiba does very good things with this going forward, but the jury’s out as to what sort of things will be supported by this one.