It’s been a blue year for Toshiba. The company threw in the towel to end the so-called format wars last March, making the HD DVD obsolete
overnight. As of press time, the company hasn’t jumped on the blue bandwagon with its own Blu-ray Disc (BD) players, which play the winning high-def format from its erstwhile rival, Sony.
Instead, Toshiba is still swinging at Blu-ray, just with the other fist. Its new DVD player can up convert existing movie collections to HDTV resolutions so well, the company doesn’t quite say, that it makes Blu-ray disc irrelevant. The new player is totally unrelated to HD DVD’s downfall.
The XDE in the XD-E500’s name stands for eXtended Detail Enhancement. When it’s connected to an HDTV using an HDMI cable, the player can upconvert DVDs to 720p, 1080i, and 1080p resolutions.
In addition, the XD-E500 offers three optional picture modes. Sharp
is self-explanatory, adding definition to object edges. Color boosts blue and green hues. Contrast improves the level of detail in black
and dark parts of the picture. The Color and Contrast modes both include Sharp mode.
So is the XD-E500 a BD killer?
Not really. There’s no substitute for more pixels than DVD, which BD delivers along with DVD upconversion, but the player does supply picture quality that’s hard to tell from true HD.
From Lord of the Rings: Return of the King to fine details in a calibration disc to the landscapes in a Toshiba demo DVD, the XDE500 produced noticeably crisper detail than the Oppo. Fabric textures, tiled roofs, etc. looked very close to high-def. You would need true HD video to get any sharper.
It can’t automatically letterbox 4:3 full-screen video, so it only plays
it in screen-filling stretch mode. I had to manually adjust the TV’s aspect ratio every time I switched between fullscreen and widescreen DVDs. Also, the XD-E500 exhibited video artifacts during playback of SVCDs (Super Video CDs).
The audio situation was disappointing, too. The Toshiba’s analog audio outputs are limited to stereo (2-channel audio) Dolby Digital, albeit with an optional E.A.M. (Enhanced Audio Mode) 3D sound setting. If you want to listen to 5.1-channel surround sound and/or DTS (Digital Theater Systems) soundtracks, you have to hook up a suitable audio receiver to the XD-E500’s HDMI or coaxial or optical digital outputs.
The XD-E500’s video upconversion technology is great, but minor quibbles keep the player from getting my full endorsement.
Should you consider a DVD upconverter?
With prices just over $200, BD players that upconvert DVDs don’t cost much more than the XD-E500. Then again, those are low-end
players with limited audio format support, average DVD upscaling, and no Bonus View or BD-Live features. While relatively advanced BD players still cost $399 and up, a good $149 DVD upconverter makes sense.
For more, click Toshiba XD-E500 Upconverting 1080p Extended Detail DVD Player