Toshiba launch new DVD player with upconverting features

" Toshiba launch new DVD player with upconverting features.

Blu-ray and DVD news

By Henning Molbaek
First published Aug 18, 2008

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Toshiba launches a new DVD player with it's new xDE (Extended Detail Enhancement.)

Toshiba describes the player as "Toshiba's new xDE (Extended Detail Enhancement) DVD player aims to save your DVD collection. xDE uses a chipset with parameters specially developed for Toshiba and a combination of user-controlled picture improvement techniques including upconversion, edge enhancement, and color remapping to deliver a new level of Near HD video quality from Standard DVDs."

In addition to upconversion from 480i/p to 1080p, XDE technology offers consumers the ability to customize their viewing experience to their liking with its picture mode settings. With these three selectable settings -- Sharp, Color and Contrast -- users can get the most out of their DVD movie-viewing experience on their terms.

Sharp Mode offers improved detail enhancement that is one step closer to high definition. Edges are sharper and details in movies are more visible. Unlike traditional sharpness control, XDE technology analyzes the entire picture and adds edge enhancement precisely where it's needed.

Color Mode makes the colors of nature stand out with improved richness. Blues and greens are more vivid and lifelike. Color Mode combines the improvement in color with the detail enhancement of Sharp Mode and is ideal for outdoor scenes.

Contrast Mode is designed to make darker scenes or foregrounds more clearly visible without the typical "washing out" that can occur with traditional contrast adjustment. Recommended for dark scenes where detail may be difficult to notice, Contrast Mode is also combined with Sharp Mode to provide a clearer viewing experience.

The XD-E500 is shipping this month with an MSRP of $149.99 and can be found at authorized retailers nationwide.

You can read more about the technology and buy it on Amazon.com.

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Discuss

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William_f_Balle

Aug 18, 2008 - CDT 7:09 AM

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How is this supposed to save your dvd collection?. I mean it's not like blu-ray players eat and destroy dvds that are placed in them, infact when you put a dvd into a blu-ray player it upscales them to 1080p. But i suppose these will cater for people who cant afford a blu-ray player yet. Me personaly would not purchase one of these, when you can buy 1080p upscaling dvd players for considerably less than the asking price of this equipment.

[Post edited by William_f_Balle on Aug 18, 2008 - CDT 7:09 AM]

posters5

Aug 18, 2008 - CDT 7:10 AM

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we know it's you using two accounts.

ReaggieP

Aug 18, 2008 - CDT 8:21 AM

says... is thinking "Brick House"...

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or three, or four...

I'll try and pick one up later this week. OR as soon as I can find one. If it's retailing in the US at $149, it'll be $199 here. Minus my retail mark-up, it should be a about $125 to $150. It's worth a try...

[Post edited by ReaggieP on Aug 18, 2008 - CDT 8:25 AM]

William_f_Balle

Aug 18, 2008 - CDT 9:38 AM

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Quote:
After losing out in the battle to define the high-definition successor of the DVD, Toshiba Corp. has turned its attention to the next best thing: the DVD.

On Monday, the Japanese electronics company is releasing a new DVD player that it says does more than previous models to improve the look of DVDs on high-definition TVs.

The XD-E500 will sell for a suggested price of $149.99, twice as much as regular "upconverting" players, which also improve the look of a DVD, but it is less than half the price of a Blu-ray player.

The Blu-ray disc, championed by Sony Corp., early this year beat out Toshiba's HD DVD to become the dominant format for high-definition discs. Toshiba has stopped making HD DVD players.

In a demonstration to reporters last week, Toshiba played the same disc in an XDE player and a standard, $70 upscaling model on side-by-side LCD HDTVs. The new player produced a subtle but noticeable sharpening of the image.

Toshiba didn't demonstrate the XDE against a Blu-ray or HD DVD player, and Louis Masses, director of product planning for the audio and video group at Toshiba America Consumer Products, was careful to stress that it's not meant to compete with or replace Blu-ray.

"If you want Blu-ray, go get Blu-ray. This product is meant to improve playback of DVDs," Masses said.

Masses said the XDE technology, for eXtended Detail Enhancement, will be used in other players, and the brand will be promoted extensively in advertising, including on NBC's Olympics site.

Blu-ray players have six times the image detail of a DVD, and upscaling players, even those using XDE technology, can't overcome that. But they can sharpen edges to overcome the blurriness of a DVD when displayed on a large screen

http://news.theage.com.au/technology/forget-hd-dvd-toshiba-focuses-on-plain-old-dvd-20080818-3xg5.html

Obviously even with this tech, the level of detail must be nowhere near hd levels, now im not saying the picture wont be sharpish, but the detail will surely lack or else they would have showed it next to blu or hd-dvd, which makes one wonder about this products advertising and product branding extended detail enhancement?. Where does it get this extended detail?.

[Post edited by William_f_Balle on Aug 18, 2008 - CDT 10:25 AM]

CroweDawg1121

Aug 18, 2008 - CDT 10:10 AM

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Maaan...sharpness, color AND contrast controls? Wow! Toshiba's really going high-tech in the wake of the format war, aren't they? Watch your a**, Blu-ray! Any word on whether the next generation of this player will have a TINT option?! LMAO

[Post edited by CroweDawg1121 on Aug 18, 2008 - CDT 10:15 AM]

ReaggieP

Aug 18, 2008 - CDT 11:26 AM

says... is thinking "Brick House"...

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I see nothing wrong with trying to improve current upconversion techinques. If this product can do what my $2000 ATI scaler can do, then I look like the dumbass in the end. To this point no Blu-Ray player can do a decent job of upconversion. Maybe the Panasonic 30 or 50 could do better, but nothing that I have seen to this point has come close. The only Toshiba peice that could do a decent job was the HD XA2. There is also the OPPO player, so looking back that makes 2 players worth buying for DVD upconversion. When the Panasonic S97 came out it was touted at that time as the best scaling machine. Looking at that player now, it looks like ass to even the Toshiba HD A3. So, for those to tout this player as a pile of garbage, I'm intersted to see how well it does against your PS3's. By the way, I'm almost done with my review of the PS3, I have it for a few more days yet. Games are great, Blu-Ray playback is good(I think its the long load times that drive me nuts), but upconversion needs some help.

Tim Raynor

Aug 18, 2008 - CDT 12:11 PM

says... It looks fake . . . very fake!

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CroweDawg1121

Aug 18, 2008 - CDT 12:21 PM

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Quote:
If this product can do what my $2000 ATI scaler can do, then I look like the dumbass in the end.

Point taken. But then, I'm speaking about the vast majority of us out there. The ones who would sooner spend a few hundred dollars on a Blu-ray player and just watch true 1080p content as opposed to spending a couple thousand on a scaler simply to upconvert what is, any way you try and improve upon it, a native 480p signal. My issue here is with Toshiba's preposterous claim that this brings standard DVD video up to "near-HD quality". Well, I'm sorry, but DVD, as with any format, has a native resolution. That resolution is 480 lines, no more and no less. You can throw all the sharpness, color, and contrast controls you want at that 480p signal and in the end you have...a 480p signal. Even if you upcale the video to 1080p, you're still seeing 1080 lines *derived from* the original 480 lines. The source video is merely tinkered with, it is not (and, to be fair, cannot be) improved. You can tweak an image all you like, but you can't create video information that isn't there. Well...not unless you're working at CTU on "24" anyway.

[Post edited by CroweDawg1121 on Aug 18, 2008 - CDT 1:29 PM]

Skyhawk

Aug 18, 2008 - CDT 4:06 PM

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A cnet editor has a little (pre)review up:

http://reviews.cnet.com/video-players-and-recorders/toshiba-xd-e500/4505-6463_7-33224998.html?tag=dvdtown-20

Keep in mind, this isn't the "e-resolution/super-resolution" SUC device with the Spurs Engine. This is just another upconverting player that uses EE in real time after scaling in an attempt to provide additional "preceived" sharpness. The big change here compared to your average $70 upconverting player is that it's supposed to do selective sharpening, leaving areas subject to digital noise (shadows) untouched - which is a good thing.

We should see some comparisons with this player and other upconverters like the Oppo DV-983H on AVSForum soon. If it's as nearly good as the Oppo for that cheaper price, it might outsell the Oppo among AVS enthusiasts who have a use for marginally better upscaling performance than what they already have.

I'm sure someone will take it apart within the next few weeks and we'll learn what scaling/deinterlacing chip Toshiba settled on as well.

mvckalel

Aug 18, 2008 - CDT 4:24 PM

says... PIxar got it...3D is about depth...

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Quote:
not unless you're working at CTU on "24" anyway.

Or any other crime show for that matter, where suddenly license plates appear in crystal clear quality...now, why can't we get them to do our upconverters??