Toshiba on Wednesday unveiled its plans to introduce 3-D televisions this summer, pushing up the launch from autumn in light of earlier releases by major rivals.

Prior plans called for debuting high-end models with 3-D capabilities this fall. But the company was under pressure since Samsung and Panasonic are already selling 3-D TVs, while Sony and Sharp plan to enter the market by the summer.

In the Japanese market, the company plans to increase the ratio of 3D TVs among its TVs larger than 46 inches to 20% at the end of 2010, it said.

All new models unveiled Wednesday feature energy-saving LED backlights, with the first to hit stores next month.

The company plans to use the "2D-3D conversion" technology, which converts normal images into 3D images, and the "super-resolution" technology for 3D images for its products.

Toshiba anounced the "Z1" series of LED TVs, which will be available in sizes of 37"/42"/47"/52" . The company also unveiled the RE1 Series (55" - 19") and the HD-ready HE1 Series.

Toshiba will also make the Cell Regza LCD TVs equipped with the Cell Broadband Engine microprocessor support 3D images. At 2010 International CES, which took place in January 2010, Toshiba announced that it will release those LCD TVs in the European market. And it will commercialize them in the Japanese market in the second half of 2010.

In regard to recording functions, all of the three series are equipped with a hard disk drive (HDD) supporting USB connection. The HE1 series is mounted with a 500-Gbyte HDD. Also, it can show a program listing that uses five different colors for different genres of TV contents and has enhanced usability for checking TV programs and setting timer recording.

The Z1 series features the "Magic Chapter," a function to automatically divide TV programs from commercials based on the image and audio data of recorded contents.