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More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer" - Page 4

post #91 of 111
8/29/08 at 6:40am

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

ABC is still 720p (as is Fox, ESPN).

Enhanced Definition TVs were also CRTs.

-R
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post #92 of 111
8/29/08 at 9:57am

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

I regret the error re: ABC.

The ED sets I saw were LCD...one as recently on someone's wall this past winter. Truth be told, it's the only one I have ever seen in personal use.
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post #93 of 111
8/29/08 at 11:48am

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

Scooter,

I didn't mean to make a big deal about the ED CRTs. I was just mentioning it as a historical footnote. They were sort of a one year wonder in or around 2000. I seem to recall one of the HTF members (I won't name names) complaining about how awful his was.

-R
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post #94 of 111
8/29/08 at 1:19pm

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

No biggie...was just pointing out I only ever saw one in personal use.

No...back to our regularily scheduled debate....
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post #95 of 111
12/10/08 at 1:13am

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

So, has anyone here at HTF bought and reviewed this player? Someone must have but I can't find anything.
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post #96 of 111
12/10/08 at 7:45am

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

Quote:
Originally Posted by Inspector Hammer!
So, has anyone here at HTF bought and reviewed this player? Someone must have but I can't find anything.

I've been watching the price of this unit @ Amazon (Toshiba XD-E500
presently $84.95 w/FREE SH) which would become my main unit to play one of my 600+ SD DVD's and free-up the SD DVD duties from my Sony BDP-S350 & Toshiba HD-A35.

Here's a couple of reviews:

Toshiba XDE DVD Player: Better than Blu-Ray?

PCWorld - Toshiba's XD-E500 DVD Player

Hope this helps.
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post #97 of 111
12/10/08 at 8:27am

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

Just for the record, I own one of these and have been very satisfied.

However, I should state here that I have my Tosh XDE paired with my 720p native resolution Optoma HD65.

The way I use it:

1. For film-based DVDs I set the Tosh XDE-500 up to output 1080p, 24 Hz. (Yes; the HD65 accepts this source. and then downscales it to 720p. The advantage is less "judder". ) Very occasionally, a film-based DVD will be not be flagged correctly which will lead to some "stutter". (Macroblocking artifacts; plus the audio will go slightly out of sync.) When that happens, I drop the output on the Tosh down to 1080p, 60 Hz.

2. For video-based DVDs I use 1080p, 60 Hz.

3. For both types of DVDs I have the XDE set up for "SHARP+COLOR" which is probably the most controversial setting. The thing is, I calibrated a user setting around this setting and have been extremely pleased with the results. Most of my DVDs really do look at least as good as 1080i cable on my system.

Bottom line: The Toshiba XDE-500 works for me ... but don't expect DVDs to look as good as Blu-ray discs ....
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post #98 of 111
12/16/08 at 8:36am

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

I purchased one of these units from Amazon. I too was impressed with the performance. My set is only a 720p and I think the Toshiba is designed to deliver optimal performance at the 1080p resolution. That being said, I was still very impressed with this unit's performance.

It does make my regular DVD's look sharper than they did in my old DVD player. It is however difficult to really tell how much of an improvement without doing a side by side comparison.

I was able to perform the following test and was amazed at what I saw. I have Dish as my satellite provider with all the HD content they offer. I happened to catch a HD broadcast of Ratatouille .....I have the regular DVD version of the same movie....so I played the DVD through the Toshiba. I set playback of the DVD so the scenes of the DVD would be approx 30 seconds behind the HD broadcast. As I watched the HD broadcast and then switched to DVD playback to compare, I was amazed that the DVD scenes looked nearly identical to the HD Broadcast. In fact, as I flipped back an forth I actually lost track as to which source I was watching.

This is not to say the Toshiba delivers HD performamce to all DVD's...but in this case it was pretty close.

I have a The Dark Knight on DVD and played that title back on the Toshiba....it looked better, but in no way would you mistake it for HD.

Your mileage may vary..but for me, this is a very good upconverting DVD player and does improve the image of standard DVD's.
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post #99 of 111
12/16/08 at 10:14am

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

If I had not jumped into HD-DVD and BD this unit would have been the second unit for the RPTV downstairs. As for me the need for the XDE is pretty much not their now since both HD format players scale pretty well via HDMI.
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post #100 of 111
5/25/09 at 1:43pm

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

I was thinking about getting one of these (Toshiba XD-E500), but I see reviews at Amazon that state that 4x3 material is stretched to 16x9 with no way of getting around it. True?
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post #101 of 111
5/25/09 at 3:48pm

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg_S_H
I was thinking about getting one of these (Toshiba XD-E500), but I see reviews at Amazon that state that 4x3 material is stretched to 16x9 with no way of getting around it. True?

Yes, that is true, Greg. Personally, I could never accept a player that performs in such a manner. I much prefer my Oppo 980H, which does not distort 4x3 material.
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post #102 of 111
5/25/09 at 4:00pm

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

Quote:
but I see reviews at Amazon that state that 4x3 material is stretched to 16x9 with no way of getting around it. True?
How can that possibly be true, Greg?

These people apparently don't know how to set the aspect ratio of their TV set. You can always set a 16x9 image to 4x3 on your TV set.

(Some TV sets may have a setting called "auto". In that case one must choose manual 4x3. My Samsung TV has a simple setting on the remote to change the ratio between 16x9/4:3/zoom/4:3 big, cropped.)


Cees


Edit: Just looked it up on the Amazon site. Indeed a few reviewers state this incorrect information, but if you go to the discussion thread, you will notice how one poster explains what to do to avoid the problem - the same "solution" I gave, of course. Funny: that poster appears to have a Samsung TV, just like me.
Perhaps changing the ratio setting is more straight forward on a Samsung than on other TV sets?
C.
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post #103 of 111
5/25/09 at 4:10pm

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

I don't see a way on my Sony CRT, but I've never had an occasion to test it. I see two settings:

Screen Mode: Wide Zoom/Normal/Full/Zoom/H.Expand/Vert.Expand.

I have that on Full. Normal is grayed out.

4:3 Default: Wide Zoom/Normal/Full/Zoom/Off

I have that on Normal, but it doesn't seem to have any effect at all. At least, not with my cable box.

I can't really know if I'd be able to overcome the problem since the settings currently do nothing (well, the Screen Mode zooms work). I guess I could buy it at Best Buy and take it back if it's a problem. Like Scott said, stretched 4x3 is a dealbreaker.
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post #104 of 111
5/25/09 at 4:41pm

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

Quote:
I guess I could buy it at Best Buy and take it back if it's a problem. Like Scott said, stretched 4x3 is a dealbreaker.
That seems the wisest choice indeed.

Please let us know what you found!


Cees
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post #105 of 111
5/25/09 at 6:01pm

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

Quote:
I have that on Normal, but it doesn't seem to have any effect at all. At least, not with my cable box.

The options that are available from your TV's menu may depend on the input - both the connection type and the output settings of the cable box. You might want to try playing with those.

Regards,

Joe
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post #106 of 111
5/25/09 at 7:16pm

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

When you have a combo of a DVD player that doesn't pillarbox 4:3 discs, and a TV that always uses 16:9 mode when it sees a 720p/1080i signal, the usual solution is to change the DVD output to 480p (or 480i, necessary on some very old TVs). This will nearly always let you set the TV to a 4:3 mode that works.
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post #107 of 111
5/25/09 at 9:03pm

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

Yeah, but that defeats the purpose of having an upscaling DVD player, doesn't it?

I just tried the settings on the DVD input (component), and Normal was no longer grayed out. 4x3 Default still did nothing. I'll have to read up on it.
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post #108 of 111
5/26/09 at 7:05am

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

I own one of these, and *love* it; but I can tell you definitively that it will *not* pillarbox 4:3 material when upscaling to HDMI. Your display *must* be capable of handling this. This question was recently asked of Toshiba and they verified that they consider that to be a function of the display. The unit is already doing so much (upscaling *and* enhancing all the way to 1080p/24 for film-based DVDs) that adding the 4:3 pillarbox function would have made the unit too expensive to market.

Fortunately for me, the display I have it mated to (an Optoma HD65 projector) provides for a selectable aspect ratio of 4:3, 16:9, Letterbox, and Native via the HDMI input.
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post #109 of 111
5/31/09 at 1:29am

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

Right on, write on about whatever you feel best.
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post #110 of 111
6/2/09 at 9:29am

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

Not sure if it has been mentioned in this thread, but I see Toshiba is putting similar processing into some of their TVs now -- my in-laws just bought a 47" Toshiba Regza that touts its "Resolution+" feature. I spent this weekend helping them physically set up the TV and stand, but haven't yet had a chance to do detailed tweaks to their picture settings -- so too early to say how good Resolution+ is/isn't. Just based on watching a few minutes of a DVD (input via component video from an older Sony player), I'd say this TV's handling of SD looks quite good! But I'd be interested to toggle Resolution+ on/off and see what differences it might make.
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post #111 of 111
6/3/09 at 3:55pm

Re: More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

Not sure which model your parents got, but Kevin reviewed a 52" Toshiba with it a few months ago here and his obeservations could be helpful in setting up the display:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/toshiba/index.html
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