DVD Players

On February 19, 2008, Toshiba announced it would no longer develop, manufacture, or market HD DVD players due to the decision by Warner Brothers and several large retailers to stop supporting the format. Fresh from a bitter defeat to Blu-ray, Toshiba is now placing its energy behind better upscaling technology in lieu of a next-generation player. Its solution is called XDE, or "eXtended Detail Enhancement," which claims to be more than just DVD upconversion from 480i to 1080p.

Louis Masses, director of product planning for Toshiba, states that "consumers have embraced the DVD format like no other technology and invested in large libraries of their favorite movies," which is true. As a movie lover, I have a large collection of DVDs—and Blu-rays—and I want the best quality picture and sound when I pop in a disc. Toshiba claims it can deliver a "near HD experience at an affordable price." A bold claim for sure, but can it actually be true?

Features
Aesthetically, the XD-E500 isn't that impressive. With a weight of only 3.3 pounds and a depth of less than 8 inches, it looks like half the player is missing. Included in the shipping box is the standard fare of RCA cables and remote, but unfortunately no HDMI cable.

The XD-E500 can output resolutions of 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p/60, and 1080p/24 over HDMI. At the core of Toshiba's XDE upconversion technology are three user-selectable modes—Sharp, Color, and Contrast—which are only available with a 1080i or 1080p output, not 480p or even 720p.

The Sharp mode is said to offer improved detail enhancement that is one step closer to high definition. In theory, it doesn't act like the traditional sharpness control because it analyzes the entire picture and adds edge enhancement precisely where it's needed.

Color mode is supposed to make the colors of nature stand out with improved richness. It is said to expand the color gamut so it's closer to the HD standard. The Contrast mode is designed to make darker scenes more clearly visible without the typical washing out that can occur with traditional contrast adjustments.

As with most HDMI products these days, the XD-E500 includes CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) capabilities, which allow multiple devices connected via HDMI to be controlled as a unified system. Toshiba's moniker for this is REGZA-Link.