IFA 2008: Toshiba enhances the SD experience

After the sad demise of HD DVD at the beginning of this year, Toshiba has decided to focus its efforts on standard definition DVD and broadcasts, specifically in providing the best ways to watch both.

Two products have been unveiled at IFA in Berlin which aim to enhance SD content to such an extent that it almost rivals high definition footage in clarity, colour and contrast, making the most out of the 65,000-plus DVD releases and countless television shows already available to the home consumer.

The first is the ZF-series of Regza LCD TVs, which feature the company's proprietary Resolution+ technology. The 40 and 46inch TVs, with the designation ZF575D, include a cell processor, effectively allowing the screens to calculate 48 moving pictures at the same time or numerous picture processing functions. Therefore, the screen itself upscales standard definition images in much the same way as an intelligent upscaling DVD player.

The technology analyses details and edges, then sharpens them in milliseconds, providing crisp almost-HD 1080p pictures. It then eliminates all picture foibles and artefacts using proprietary software algorythms. Eastenders will never look the same again. Also, as the tech is primarily software-based, Toshiba promises that any future developments in features or processing functions will become available as easily-updatable firmware patches.

No price details are available at present, but UK customers can expect to see the TVs in electronic stores around October time.

The other piece of Toshiba kit that features a similar technology is the XD-E500 DVD player. While it doesn't feature the cell processing chip, it does feature the company's eXtended Detail Enhancement tech (XDE). This offers three separate video processes that enhance SD content to such an extent that it is similar to HD: Detail Enhancement sharpens edges while reducing noise; Intelligent Colour enhances blues and greens; And Contrast Enhancement vastly improves the contrast in dark areas of a picture, while keeping a tight control on the brightness.

The XD-E500 wil be available around the end of September 2008, for around £120.