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For those of you keeping up with the latest display technology, here’s one from Toshiba: Cell TV.

The fact is, manufacturers have crammed so many intensive functions into today’s televisions that high-end processors are a must. Gone are the days of a CRT blindly pushing out a picture one line at a time ad infinitum. These days, every pixel can be controlled on-the-fly to ensure the best picture is produced on our favourite LCD or plasma set.

Now, Cell TV is designed for the high-end TV market, boasting some 143 times more processing power than available in current TV models. It fits with an improved display panel with a Direct LED backlighting system featuring 4,608 LEDs and 512 distinct dimming areas (in other words, more control over light and dark areas in an overall picture and hence a better contrast ratio).

OK, that’s a lot of rhetoric, but one of the interesting applications, which builds on Toshiba’s existing technology, is that of improving the quality of low-res video content.

Yes, TV is going high definition and we have Blu-ray and HD/near-HD downloads, but the fact is that low-quality video, particularly from online sources, is still a reality, and an increasingly popular source of entertainment.

Toshiba’s Resolution+ system reduces the compression artefacts commonly seen when lo-res video is put on a large screen.

Oh, and just to add to the 3DTV mix, the Cell TV processor is powerful enough to handle that, too. Toshiba’s system will also convert 2D video into 3D in near real time. Interesting — if it’s any good it would increase the range of 3D quality material available as consumers wouldn’t have to wait and hope for films and games to be shot in 3D in the first place.

Obviously, how good these systems are remains to be seen. Upscaling and improving SD content is never as good as HD, and pseudo-3D isn’t going to be as good as material shot in 3D in the first place, but it still opens up a wealth of possibilities.

Oh, and just to finish off, Toshiba has promised that LED backlighting will feature in all of its LCD TVs, even the more entry-level ones. That makes sense, given the enormous benefits of LED.

This year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is definitely bringing up some interesting new display technologies, including Samsung’s transparent AMOLED and more. I just hope these systems, if and when they make it to the general consumer market, can play well together. Toshiba’s Cell TV is expected to arrive towards the end of 2010.