Man, what a toll the loss of HD DVD has taken on Toshiba. Judging by the vast expanse of floor space at Tosh's booth not covered with people (seriously, look for anyone in the gallery below) and the inclusion of CES-announced DVD / VHS recorders (yes, really) as premiere products, we'd say the outfit is still hurting from the outcome of the format war. In all honesty, we felt kind of sad sashaying through its installation while reading slogans like "See everything in HD (even the non-HD stuff)." We even viewed the Super Resolution Technology demonstration with an open mind, and while there's certainly a mild difference with SRT, these sets hardly make SD signals into high-def. Grab a tissue and wander through the gallery at Engadget HD.

Toshiba got official with its new RV / XV REGZA families last week at IFA, but now Tosh is debuting 'em along with a smattering of other lines at CEDIA. The main news here is the US pricing and availability, but if you care to get neck-deep in marketing hoopla, we'd be happy to oblige. The company is trumpeting its Super Resolution Technology (now available in the REGZA RV535 and XV545), which purportedly uses a "proprietary processing system" to "improve image sharpness, brightness and color, [thereby] enhancing standard movies, TV shows, camcorder movies and most video games to near HD quality." For details on how much he AV500, RV525, AV502, RV535 and XV545 sets will cost here in America, head on past the break.

[Image courtesy of TWICE]

We're still pondering the difference between Toshiba's Cell-based Resolution+ technology and its "good enough for everybody else" XDE tech, but we got a look at Resolution+ today -- featured in Toshiba's new ZF575 Regza TVs -- and it seems to work well enough. Unlike XDE, which is designed with DVDs in mind to mess with contrast and colors, in addition to sharpness, Resolution+ just focuses on sharpness, for a multitude of SD inputs, and seems to do a decent job of it. Comparison shots up ahead, don't poke your eye on any jaggies!

As expected, Toshiba is offering a new (supposed) world's first here at IFA: a true upscaling TV, finally getting rid of the middle man for upconverting those SD sources. The new ZF Series LCDs include Cell processors and Toshiba's home grown Resolution+ technology, which does similar edge and detail enhancement to Toshiba's XDE upscaler -- sharpening detail, smoothing edges, and leaving the rest of the image alone -- but with the added fun of Cell power in the mix. As for the actual displays, Toshiba will be shipping the 40ZF575D (40-inch) and the 46ZF575D (46-inch), both offering 1080p, 30,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 6ms response times and Active Vision M100 HD 100Hz 5:5 pulldown processing, along with four HDMI plugs, component video, RGB and PC input. Right now this is just a Europe launch, and we don't have exact ship dates or pricing, but hopefully Toshiba will soon rectify that.

Apparently, DirecTV isn't looking to pay its lawyers any overtime over the holiday break, as it has been settling outstanding lawsuits recently like it's going out of style. Just over a week after it put aside its differences with Cox, the satellite provider has decided to make amends with Comcast over a suit filed in May. If you'll recall, DirecTV was quite flustered by Comcast's "survey," which allegedly found that two-thirds of respondents preferred Comcast's HD picture over that offered up by DISH Network / DirecTV. Notably, the actual terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but spokespeople from both outfits affirmed that they were satisfied with the outcome -- which, by the way, does allow Comcast to continue to cite the survey.

The constant battle between companies trying to shove the most megapixels into the smallest frame at all costs just might have some serious competition on the horizon, as researchers at UC San Diego have built an ultrathin, high resolution digicam by simply "folding up the telephoto lens." The aptly-named Origami lens hopes to "yield lightweight, slim, and powerful miniature cameras for unmanned surveillance aircraft, cellphones, and infrared night vision applications," and was constructed using the same basic principles found on the Cassegrain telescope that was crafted in 1672. On a disk of calcium fluoride, the engineers "cut a series of concentric, reflective surfaces that bend and focus the light as it is bounced to a facing flat reflector," creating an area where incoming light will follow a zigzag path until it reaches the CMOS light sensor. The biggest drawback, however, is the new camera's "limited depth of focus," but the folks behind the creation are already designing variable-focus folded optical systems to hopefully cure that nagging issue. Ideally, the team would like to see their work bring high resolution, respectful imagers to cellphones, doing away with the relatively antiquated sensors on most mainstream mobiles, but even under the best conditions it's probably a few years away.