Review: Toshiba XDE Upscaling 1080p DVD Player

Thanks for the review Henning. Also for clearing the air on the notion that Toshiba went with the cell chip on-board this player. That no makes me wonder if they have saved the cell for comerical types of products. Also, with CES coming, that gives them the big show to potentially lauch any DVD player with cell. That is what I would be interested in buying. My XA2 already does a great job with DVD. Now a question for you? Any chance of Toshiba doing Blu-Ray?

Thank you sir for the review, and I agree, depending on the quality of the DVD transfer, YMMV.

I also think, at $149.99 MSRP, it may be a lil much. But in perspective, when the Sony DVP-NS75H first came out, it was $129.99 MSRP. And already you can find the XD-E500 for $138 at "@mazon" with free shipping. To my eyes, the XD-E500 does a better job visually than both my Sony NS75H, and my HD-A2. It seems to add just enough sharpness and gamma/color correction to give my old movies a nice free "upgrade". And the more old SD movies I watch with it, the more it seems to grow on me.

I hope BD manufacturers take SD upconversion more seriously, and apply similar (and optional) effects. There will always be SD movies which may never come out on BD (just as some VHS movies never made it to DVD).

Henning, would you be so kind as to review the SD upconversion performance of some newer budget BD players?. Like the Insignia, Funai/Magnavox, Panny BD30 and Sony BD 350? I think this is a good time to see if any of those players are better at SD upconversion than the Sony DVP-NS75 or HD-A2 (use these as a baseline). If the performance of the SD upconversion is indeed better than the Sony NS75 or HD-A2, than it would be a nice thing to eventually have one machine that can do both very well. I know the upcoming Oppo BD player will do both well, but at $700.00 it's beyond my pricepoint.

cheers

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Getting ready...
To be sure I witnessed the performance of the player and not the screens, I tested the player using three different displays: A 42" 1080 24p Panasonic Plasma, a 42" 1080i Toshiba LCD, and a Sanyo 1080 24p projector on a 150" high-quality, wall-mounted movie canvas.

During the tests, I compared the results to the upscaling capabilities of the Toshiba XA2 HD DVD player and the Playstation 3, both with the latest firmware. I connected all of them using high-quality HDMI cables from Supra Sweden, with an Onkyo 805 AV receiver as the hub.

*Standing ovation*

Great setup to test the player on. Well done, and nice selection of movies also.

GadgetPig,

As Eddie can attest to this. Well maybe Ediie should have something to say as well. Sorry Eddie. The Magnavox upconversion is ok, and is best viewed at 1080i. The 1080p 24 selection is good as well, but the 1080p 60 setting is in dire need of help(jagged lines during playback). I found that the Magnavox has been stream lined to really do well at Blu-Ray playback, and doesn't quite do it as well as the Toshiba HD DVD players for SD DVD upconversion. However I love the coaxial digital out on the magnavox.

Reagan

Thanks for the input ReaggieP, I look forward to seeing how some of the newer budget BD players perform in the upcoming months.

I've recently noticed "budget" BD classics like Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Full Metal jacket, Black HawkDown for only $13-$15 on @mazon, which I think is a very fair price for a real HD experience.

This X-Mas is gonna be real interesting if more cheap BD movies show up

best regards,

GadgetPig

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[Post edited by GadgetPig on Sep 10, 2008 - CDT 10:03 AM]

I would be curious to hear what the XA2 settings were at when comparing.

I have the Magnavox clone, and my gf has the Insignia clone. Identical playback in every way (including the "blank screen" that doesn't even have any of the companies' names, lol).

As Reaggie already noted, the machines are optimized for Blu-ray playback. Upconversion is decent, but they're a little below what my HD-A35 could do.

Well, after the boredom of the new FOX show "Fringe" last night, I decided to keep boring myself and watched "Chronicles of Riddick" on my LG BH200. As far as upscaling goes, it was one of the best SD DVD's I've played. The picture was sharp, plenty of detail and eye-popping color. Now, as Henning mentioned about older DVD's and older films with bad transfer quality when compared to new films with great transfer quality, I'd have to say Chronicles obviously had great transfer quality to begin with. Personally, I could find very little to complain about and it was just a damn good picture no matter how you cut it.

Therefore, I'd probably agree with Henning that this XDE probably isn't worth the effort to worry about. I mean, if I already have a player that upconverts so well, then there's no need to invest in a player that only delivers a 5% to 10% difference -- and that's if you have the eyes of a hawk and can tell the difference.

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I would be curious to hear what the XA2 settings were at when comparing.

Yes. Me too. Ive read from many respected publications that the Toshiba XA2 is the best upscaling optical disc player..bar none. (Even though i have never seen one in action with my own eyes). Are you saying that this "thing" beats it

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[Post edited by bladerunner1 on Sep 11, 2008 - CDT 12:47 AM]

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Yes. Me too. Ive read from many respected publications that the Toshiba XA2 is the best upscaling optical disc player..bar none. (Even though i have never seen one in action with my own eyes). Are you saying that this "thing" beats it?

Conditionally the XDE beats the XA2, meaning depending on the disc and the setup. The optimal discs for the XDE are fairly clean anamorphic transfers, as unfortunately it doesn't pillarbox 4:3 material and as Henning says, the sharpness feature can make bad prints look worse by highlighting the artifacts and flaws. The optimal setup is a distance to viewing ratio of about 2:1, since under 1.5:1 one can notice the ringing caused by the sharpness feature.

So in essence, it improves the majority of my DVDs but not all of them. I'll still use the XA2 for non-anamorphic material but at least I can reduce the mileage on it by using the XDE for anamorphic material. Maybe it's possible they'll have a FW update to enable pillarboxing on 4:3 material, since there is an option in the menu (but it doesn't work) to display all content in the original aspect ratio.