Even with all the partnerships and plant expansions, Sony and Toshiba still think they can't meet demand and keep price down for their LCD HDTVs. Word from Japan's Nikkei over the weekend indicates Sony is upping the share of LCD TV production subcontracted out to Taiwan, Mexico and China-based manufacturers from less than 5% last year to 20% in fiscal '08, adding up to 3 million screens. Toshiba's cut a deal with a manufacturer in China to make 20% of its TVs this year, as it and Sony load up to do battle in the 30- to 40-inch size range. Of course, Sharp and Panasonic claim keeping things in-house give them an important tech edge, but the Vizios of the world would beg to differ and it looks like Sony and Toshiba have decided if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

[Via Trading Markets]

Yes, Toshiba seems resigned to some sort of HD disc-free existence, as it continues to mope about HD DVD's loss to Blu-ray and refrains from releasing a player for the once rival format, but let's set all aside for the moment. We got a look at Toshiba's new XD-E500 in action, and we must say: it does what it sets out to do. Most consumers will see a visible quality improvement when playing their DVDs, particularly in the realm of sharpness. Toshiba's new filters are "intelligent" enough to spice up the grass while leaving the sky and clouds free of noise, and while the contrast and color filters are less necessary, many consumers will enjoy their effect -- even if video purists would scoff at such alterations. As for usability, it couldn't really be much easier to flip on and off the three different enhancements, but there's also no customization of those modes to speak of. This $150 player isn't in any way Toshiba's Blu-ray killer, but thankfully the company actually seems to recognize that, and plans to market to Joe consumer who doesn't want to fork over the dough for a Blu-ray player or doesn't want to invest in a brand new video library, and won't be insulting videophiles' intelligence with claims to the contrary. If you're looking for something to magically make DVDs look like HD, this isn't it, but it bests Toshiba's best upconverter easily, and we'd venture to guess it's probably tops yours as well. All that said, Toshiba will have in store demos of the player at major retailers, and we'd highly recommend taking a gander for yourself before you take the plunge.

Oh Toshiba, has it really come to this? After a humiliating loss to Blu-ray, Tosh just unveiled its new $150 XD-E500 DVD player. It's no run o' the mill DVD player mind you, this unit touts Toshiba's new eXtended Detail Enhancement (XDE) technology -- that super-duper resolution upconverting tech meant to fill the void between ubiquitous upconverting players and Blu-ray. Unfortunately, the player demonstrated offered just "subtle but noticeable sharpening of the image" when compared side-by-side (in a controlled demonstration) with an unnamed $70 upscaler -- to its credit, Tosh did not try to compare its new player with an HD-capable Blu-ray machine. Still, more than twice the price for "subtle" hardly sounds like a compelling purchase to us.

Update: Official press release is now out which, oddly enough, helped us upconvert our 480i/p cynicism to full-blown 1080p/24fps skepticism.

Seems like the picture's getting clearer by the minute for paid mobile TV content, and it's a pretty bleak picture indeed. Over in Germany, DVB-H subscriptions are dying a slow, painful death (despite a healthy push by the European Union) thanks to free DVB-T content and a lineup of compatible phones to match, and now, Toshiba is shuttering its four-year-old Moba Ho satellite-based service thanks to the overwhelming availability and popularity of one-seg tuners, which like DVB-T in Germany, offer programming at no charge. Technical advantages, and to a large degree, entertainment value both tend to get overlooked when you've got a free product competing against a paid product -- it's frequently a disruptive economic force that takes profit right out of the equation, and Toshiba's learning that lesson the hard way. Keep your chins up, though, guys; at least you lost this battle for an entirely different reason than you did HD DVD, right? Guess that's not helping much. Anyway, expect the service to vaporize by March of next year, with Toshiba planning to take a one-time hit of $232 million for the shutdown.

Okay, so we really have no clue what's going on inside of Toshiba's labs, but one thing is for certain: it has upscaling on the brain. After hearing of an elusive super-resolution DVD player and seeing an all-too-curious new DVD logo, in flies word from Germany that the outfit is prepping an updated line of Picture Frame LCD HDTVs for release at IFA 2008. On the surface, there's not too much different about these REGZAs compared to any others, but internally, the newcomers are expected to tout Cell-based Resolution+ technology, which will upscale SD images in an attempt to make something (read: HD) out of nothing. Granted, Tosh has been talking up this stuff since CES, so it's not an entirely new concept, but we'll be interested to see if this has anything to do with those rumored DVD deck plans.

[Via Big-Screen, danke Joel]

Several Japanese tech giants are teaming together today in a quest to make 40-inch and larger OLED panels for televisions. Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, Sharp and others will participate under a joint development project initiated by the Japanese government. All of this is of course meant to help the Japanese companies compete with South Korea's chaebols, particularly Samsung and LG, as the industry giants maneuver for an advantage over the next, next-generation flat panel technology to dominate the living room.

[Via OLED-info]

We keep hoping that Toshiba will come to its senses and just let this whole thing die, but no. Apparently insistent on keeping the last-generation format alive for as long as it possibly can, it seems the outfit is getting ever-closer to a super-resolution DVD player that would reportedly upscale DVD content like nothing we've ever seen. The latest tidbit in this woefully depressing saga is a newly approved DVD Download DL logo, which was given the final thumbs-up by the DVD Forum Steering Committee last month. In reality, no one outside of Tosh's headquarters has any idea if this development is indeed intrinsically related, but at this point, we wouldn't be shocked one bit to find that it was. Then again, the June 11th meeting also saw specifications for CH-DVD approved, so here's to hoping Toshiba isn't jumping on that bandwagon fiery wreck.

[Via TG Daily]

Read - DVD Forum approval
Read - Discussion / rumors

Ah, the onset of InfoComm. Getting the presumed onslaught of new projectors rolling is Toshiba, which has just dished out its 4.8-pound, filter-free TDP-XP1U and TDP-XP2U. As for the former, you'll find 2,200 ANSI lumens, a 700:1 contrast ratio, XGA (1,024 x 768) resolution, VGA / S-Video / composite inputs, DLP BrilliantColor technology, an integrated speaker and a three-year warranty. As for the eerily similar XP2U, it steps things up ever-so-slightly with 2,500 ANSI lumens and a 2,000:1 contrast ratio. Both beamers are expected to offer up whisper quiet operation (30bD in low mode) and see store shelves this July for $779 and $899, respectively.

For the attentive in attendance, you likely noticed that none of Toshiba's newly announced laptops (yes, even the absurdly powerful Qosmio rigs) have built-in Blu-ray drives. Like, there's not even an option. When questioned about the obvious oversight (ahem), Tosh's Europe CEO Alan Thompson noted that "Blu-ray was just one of the many ways that you can get HD content and is not required for accessing HD content." Furthermore, it seems as if the outfit is continuing on in its pursuit to develop the best DVD upconverting technology in the whole wide world, as it explained to the press in London that its forthcoming technology would "fill in the gaps" and "add resolution." Company representatives even remarked that "Blu-ray was only a storage medium," and reiterated that BD "wasn't the only way to view high-def content." It's one thing to bow out gracefully, pick up the pieces and get on with life. It's another thing to douse yourself in ignorance and pretend that Blu-ray (let alone HD DVD) never happened.

Read - Toshiba's London press event
Read - Toshiba Europe CEO comments

We know, CES 2008 seems like it took place ages ago, but it was the springboard for a slew of new Toshiba LCD HDTVs. The flagship line (Cinema Series REGZA XF550) just so happened to include a luscious 52-inch flagship named 52XF550U, and the lucky souls over at Sound & Vision managed to get one in for review. The long of short of it is this: the set ain't cheap, but it delivers. Critics found the ultrathin design incredibly desirable, and the crisp, beautiful imagery was smiled upon as well. They did gripe momentarily about its subpar out-of-box color and "soft" picture when using component inputs, but all in all, it performed well enough to earn the coveted "Certified and Recommended" badge. Check the read link for the full writeup and even a few benchmarks.

Nothing too notable here -- just that Toshiba is apparently fixing to unveil a brand new DVD player in the age of Blu-ray that will be "capable of producing high-resolution images from regular DVDs." As you're laughing heartily, ponder this: are we looking at a simple upconverting DVD player? Or will that Cell-based SpursEngine chip bring "super-resolution" to a standalone deck? According to unnamed sources cited by Daily Yomiuri Online, the planned release "signifies an effort to recover from a humiliating setback suffered in March after announcing its decision to withdraw from its HD DVD business." We really cannot fathom why Tosh would even dream of fighting BD with souped-up DVD, but reportedly, it plans on marketing the unit "as a device with which consumers can enjoy a broader array of content than is available in the Blu-ray format." Congratulations Toshiba -- we thought it couldn't get any lamer than HD VMD, and you handily proved us wrong.

[Via VNU Net / Yahoo, image courtesy of DangerousIntersection]

Time to bust open the memory vault. Aw, don't kvetch too much, we're only talkin' last month. Toshiba Imaging's diminutive IK-HD1 3CCD HDTV camera, which was showcased at NAB Show 2008, has found its way into Olympus' new Synergy-HD Microscope Imaging System. The two have partnered up in order to deliver a clinical microscope for pathology and teaching that transmits 1,920 x 1,080 resolution imagery onto a bundled 42- or 47-inch 1080p LCD monitor. Folks interested in the system can also snag an additional PC with an HD-SDI frame grabber for showing off captures in front of a group -- and making everyone in attendance unquestionably nauseous.

Here recently, we've seen a number of 40-inches or larger panels get reviewed, but what about those looking for something a touch smaller? Enter Toshiba's REGZA 32CV510U, which is one of Tosh's least expensive LCD TVs for 2008. According to CNET reviewers, the set exemplified the phrase "good enough," but didn't do much to wow 'em. They found "respectable black-level performance" and "less-than-accurate color," and while design is surely objective, they weren't exactly keen on it. Everything else, including features, resolution and inputs, were said to be about average, providing enough to likely satisfy more mainstream HDTV shoppers. Still, those looking for a notch above in terms of performance aren't likely to be completely satisfied with what the 32CV510U is packin', but give the read link a little love before passing judgment.

All those still hanging onto your obsolete vintage first generation HD DVD players have a reason to plug in the network cable and turn them on one more time, as Toshiba has issued a version 3.0 firmware update for the HD-A1, HD-XA1 and HD-D1. Similar to an earlier update for the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on, the patch tweaks network connectivity a bit as well as clearing up some HDMI handshaking issues. The update quietly came online April 26, and of course can be issued by burning it to a CD or calling Toshiba and requesting a disc by mail. So go ahead, pour a glass of wine, dim the lights and celebrate a little quality time with a two year-old box that still offers features some new players can't match.

[Via DVD Town]