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Toshiba's XDE 500, some thoughts....

post #1 of 9
8/29/08 at 11:38pm
Thread Starter 
So I pulled the trigger and picked this player up. You never know what to expect when you here claims like "best upconverting ever" or "near Hi-Def PQ from your sd dvds." I have a lot of sd dvds. Over 2500 titles. So when a player comes along that says it can make them look, at least somewhat better, I get excited. The upconvert players I've previously and currently own are Samsung DVD-HD850, Toshiba HD-DVD A20 and A35, Sony BDP-S300, Samsung BD-P1500, Denon DVD-1910 and the OPPO DV-983H. Now, to get to this players features. Everyone here knows about the 3 picture modes which are SHARP, COLOR and CONTRAST. As many here have no doubt figured these modes artificially enhance whats being displayed on screen. If you have your display properly calibrated, or even close to it, these modes will be of no use, since all they do is push the color and contrast. You could do as much with the settings of your own tv. Now, the SHARP feature has me scratching my head. Automatically you would think EE, right? Yet, that's not what it seems to do on the whole. What I noticed was an improvement in background detail rather than EE on everything in plain sight. That was nice, as it made some of my dvds come to life a little as I've never seen. Even without the XDE features, the upconverting of this player at least rivals the Oppo I mentioned and is superior to all the other players I've mentioned. Now, it's my understanding that this player is on par in its up-convert to Xa2. Those owning that player will probably not be as impressed, if at all. This player is PAL/NTSC and can be made region free. I was able to play some of my region 0 PAL discs with this player right out of the box. That was very cool. Bottom line, I'm very pleased with this player, since it's been the best up converter I've had. Just so I've said it, No, this does not make sd dvds look like hi-def blu-rays. However, it has delivered on the promise of making my sd dvd collection look better then it ever did before.
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post #2 of 9
10/1/08 at 11:02am

Re: Toshiba's XDE 500, some thoughts....

Thanks for the info on the XDE!

I have access to a Sony Bravia 32" 720p LCD HDTV. Would it make any sense to buy the XDE for this TV? Would Blu-Ray make any sense for a 720p TV?

In other words, does upconverting for a 720p TV make any sense? Would Blu-Ray make any sense for 720p or should I wait until I purchase a 1080p TV?

Note that I currently use a Toshiba DVD Combo with progressive scan (component cables).
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post #3 of 9
10/6/08 at 6:56pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Toshiba's XDE 500, some thoughts....

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony D
Thanks for the info on the XDE!

I have access to a Sony Bravia 32" 720p LCD HDTV. Would it make any sense to buy the XDE for this TV? Would Blu-Ray make any sense for a 720p TV?

In other words, does upconverting for a 720p TV make any sense? Would Blu-Ray make any sense for 720p or should I wait until I purchase a 1080p TV?

Note that I currently use a Toshiba DVD Combo with progressive scan (component cables).
Blu-rays look fantastic in 720p. Some have said at a distance of 8-9 feet on a screen no bigger than 50" it would be almost impossible to tell the difference in PQ between 720p or 1080p. As far as the upconverting of the XDE, I've seen no player, sd dvd or Blu-ray, that has better. That's solely based on what I've owned, which I listed in my first post.
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post #4 of 9
10/8/08 at 3:38pm

Re: Toshiba's XDE 500, some thoughts....

I am very glad to read your thoughts about this Troy. My Toshiba
SD-6100 just died last night after only 3 months and I just bought the XDE-500 at lunch as a replacement. Then I come here and read your thoughts and now I can't wait to get home from work and spin a disc or two to check it out.
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post #5 of 9
10/8/08 at 5:33pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Toshiba's XDE 500, some thoughts....

John, please post your thoughts after you've put the player through its paces. This is a fantastic player.
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post #6 of 9
10/17/08 at 10:04am

Re: Toshiba's XDE 500, some thoughts....

Troy - thanks for your reply. Hadn't checked back here 'til today.

John - I second the motion - do share your experiences with the X-DE - very interested in learning more about this player!
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post #7 of 9
10/30/08 at 7:39pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Toshiba's XDE 500, some thoughts....

Just a heads up. Circuit City is selling these players for $99 until 11/01/08.
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post #8 of 9
11/26/08 at 3:03pm

Re: Toshiba's XDE 500, some thoughts....

There was a full page ad in the front page section of the L.A. Times yesterday for the Toshiba XDE (although as I recall, there were no models specified). The ad also stated the players would be available at Best Buy and Fry's, likewise for $99.99.

The ad certainly caught my attention, and I thought it was interesting. Then I came to HTF, and found this thread.

As a consumer who remembers paying nearly $1,000 for a Pioneer combo LD/DVD player, it is amazing to see the $99.99 price for the Toshiba XDE player.
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post #9 of 9
2/16/09 at 2:56pm

Re: Toshiba's XDE 500, some thoughts....

Just for kicks I went out and picked up this player today to replace my Sony DVP-NS75H and I must say that after a quick swap out and very easy set-up process I am extremely impressed with this player!

I used Star Wars Ep III as reference and scrolled through the three special settings and I settled on the sharp setting. I was impressed with the color setting as well but I planned on calibrating with Avia so I knew that I could achieve the color spectrum with that.

I will say that when I did put in my Avia the sharp control adds much ringing around things however it is undeniable that it provides a very pleasing image when watching actual moving video, I softened the sharpness on my monitor down a few notches with the sharpness test pattern and have it at a nice compromise.

The one complaint I always had with my Sony was that DVD's looked much better when the player was set to 480p rather than 1080i (as high as that player was capable of going) but with the XDE 1080p looks great so that's very satisfying, i'm so glad too because when running HDMI the player will not allow you to select 480p.

One thing, though, the front display is very bright and there is no way to dim it, i'll just cover it with something when I view DVD's at night. But it has all the standard issue stuff you expect from a DVD player, zoom, A/B repeat etc and can play many different formats.

I played a picture CD on it and the cool thing is it automatically scales the pictures for 16x9 so there was no need to switch my monitor to 4x3 for pictures to look undistorted.

Considering I have over 1300 DVD's I need a great DVD player and as much as I love my BD player it just isn't up to snuff for DVD and in the XD-E500 I found a great one.

It may not be the rumored and much discussed "Blu-Ray Killer" lol but Toshiba has created one hell of a DVD player here.
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