Toshiba soups up traditional DVDs

What would you do if you lost the high-def DVD format war? If you're Toshiba you soup up the good ol' DVD to toss a speed bump in the way of Blu-ray.

Toshiba, which if you recall backed the HD-DVD format and lost to Sony's Blu-ray, on Monday announced a video enhancement technology called XDE--short for eXtended Detail Enhancement. The promise of XDE: It takes DVD picture quality from 480i/p up to 1080p, which is closer to high-definition video.

The company (statement) is pitching its technology as a way to allow consumers to continue to enjoy their DVD library (although I know no one that was tossing all DVDs for Blu-ray anyway).

XDE will allow consumers to customize viewing based on sharpness, color and contrast. XDE examines the picture and makes the changes to boost the details of a scene. XDE will be available on a new DVD player dubbed the XD-E500 1080p/24fps (rolls off the tongue eh?). Toshiba will back the new technology up with a media blitz.

Is this HD-DVD's revenge?