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Toshiba talks about its XDE future
Not everyone has been won over by Toshiba's XDE upscaling, but the company has no plans of abandoning its in-house developed tech; at least that's what key folks behind XDE said in an interview with Home Cinema Choice mag. Not surprisingly, there's a lack of specific sales figures or technical detail on how the adaptive processing works -- there's nothing wrong with holding on to the secret sauce, after all -- but the interview definitely shows that Toshiba is feeling pressure from falling Blu-ray player prices. We've got to wonder how the company is going to deliver a model cheaper than the $150 XD-E500, though -- the gap between standard DVD spinners and cheap Blu-ray players is getting awfully thin, even for pixie dust.
Toshiba's XD-E500 upscaling DVD player lands in Singapore
Toshiba's XD-E500 has already taken the US and UK (among other locales) by storm, but outside of Japan, no one in Asia has yet been able to bask in the glory of this unit's peerless upscaling technology. Until now, that is. Said deck has just made its way down to Singapore, and it's reportedly selling for S$199 (or about $133 in American greenbacks). Some may say that's a fair price to ask for something that makes vanilla DVDs look better than the director ever intended, but we're sort of dismayed that no free movie rentals are thrown in here. Spoiled, we know.
Toshiba's XD-E500 player: now with free 1-year Lovefilm subscription in UK
We won't even front: we questioned the value in Toshiba's super-upscaling XD-E500 DVD player, but the company is making the pill a lot easier to swallow for those on the opposite side of the pond. Starting now, those who purchase the player and register it within seven days are blessed with a full year of DVD rentals from Lovefilm (a British DVD rental company). The year of rentals is technically worth £100, thus making the net cost of the player itself just £20 (£120 minus £100) if you're keen on twisting your math. So, Tosh -- when can we Americans expect a similar deal with Netflix?[Via CNET]
Toshiba's XD-E500 upconverting DVD player caught in stores
We'll apologize on our tipster's behalf for the quality of this shot, but evidently, he wasn't able to pass it through Toshiba's completely mind-boggling XDE upscaling technology before forwarding it onto us. Anyway, we reckon you can get the point -- the XD-E500 upconverting DVD player is filtering into stores, so those looking to make their current DVD collection look its best should probably take notice. Or not, whatever.[Thanks, Philip]
Eyes-on Toshiba's new XD-E500 upconverting DVD player
Yes, Toshiba seems resigned to some sort of HD disc-free existence, as it continues to mope about HD DVD's loss to Blu-ray and refrains from releasing a player for the once rival format, but let's set all aside for the moment. We got a look at Toshiba's new XD-E500 in action, and we must say: it does what it sets out to do. Most consumers will see a visible quality improvement when playing their DVDs, particularly in the realm of sharpness. Toshiba's new filters are "intelligent" enough to spice up the grass while leaving the sky and clouds free of noise, and while the contrast and color filters are less necessary, many consumers will enjoy their effect -- even if video purists would scoff at such alterations. As for usability, it couldn't really be much easier to flip on and off the three different enhancements, but there's also no customization of those modes to speak of. This $150 player isn't in any way Toshiba's Blu-ray killer, but thankfully the company actually seems to recognize that, and plans to market to Joe consumer who doesn't want to fork over the dough for a Blu-ray player or doesn't want to invest in a brand new video library, and won't be insulting videophiles' intelligence with claims to the contrary. If you're looking for something to magically make DVDs look like HD, this isn't it, but it bests Toshiba's best upconverter easily, and we'd venture to guess it's probably tops yours as well. All that said, Toshiba will have in store demos of the player at major retailers, and we'd highly recommend taking a gander for yourself before you take the plunge.%Gallery-29974%
Toshiba stubbornly launches the un-Blu-ray, XD-E500 DVD player
Oh Toshiba, has it really come to this? After a humiliating loss to Blu-ray, Tosh just unveiled its new $150 XD-E500 DVD player. It's no run o' the mill DVD player mind you, this unit touts Toshiba's new eXtended Detail Enhancement (XDE) technology -- that super-duper resolution upconverting tech meant to fill the void between ubiquitous upconverting players and Blu-ray. Unfortunately, the player demonstrated offered just "subtle but noticeable sharpening of the image" when compared side-by-side (in a controlled demonstration) with an unnamed $70 upscaler -- to its credit, Tosh did not try to compare its new player with an HD-capable Blu-ray machine. Still, more than twice the price for "subtle" hardly sounds like a compelling purchase to us.Update: Official press release is now out which, oddly enough, helped us upconvert our 480i/p cynicism to full-blown 1080p/24fps skepticism.
