Toshiba's XDE technology aims to get a little more out of your DVDs
Almost six months ago to the day, Toshiba pulled the plug on HD DVD, conceding the high-definition format war to Blu-ray.
Since then, we've heard various rumors about Toshiba developing a super-upscaling DVD player using a Cell processor, and all other kinds of wild speculation. Monday morning, Toshiba officially announced its new DVD upconversion technology called XDE, as well as the first DVD player to feature the technology, the XD-E500, which is available now with a suggested retail price of $150.
The idea behind XDE, which stands for extended detail enhancement, isn't that it will compete with Blu-ray, but rather that it will get a little extra performance out of your existing DVD collection and serve as a bridge to high definition--without you having to spend a bundle on new discs.
So what's Toshiba's secret sauce to "breathe new life" into DVDs, as the company likes to say? Brace yourself videophiles: edge enhancement.
One of the technologies behind XDE is Sharp Mode, which is supposed to make edges sharp and get "one step closer to high definition." The problem with edge enhancement, as the CNET Glossary page notes, is that it actually obscures detail and increases noise with high-quality sources like DVD.
Now, Toshiba's implementation of edge enhancement is supposedly "smart"--meaning it only adds edge enhancement to certain parts of the image--but in our opinion generally the best kind of edge enhancement is no edge enhancement. In the demonstration we saw--which was far from an ideal home theater environment--the XDE image did look marginally sharper at first glance, but that's usually the case with edge enhancement--the flaws are revealed in a more controlled home theater setting. We're hoping to get a review sample sometime this week, so we'll be able to run it through its paces.
In addition to Sharp Mode, there are two other settings affecting image quality: Color Mode and Contrast Mode. Again, when we saw the demonstration, the conditions were less than ideal, but our early impression was that the two modes tended to blow out the image, similar to what an HDTV looks like in "vivid" mode. It's worth noting that both Color Mode and Contrast Mode cannot be activated at the same time, although either one can be used in conjunction with Sharp Mode.
The one feature that could be a boon for videophiles is that the XD-E500 can output in 24 frames per second mode. We'll have to compare it side-by-side with other DVDs player, but it's possible that the mode could reduce some of the 2:3 pull-down judder that's visible essentially every time you watch a DVD. We've seen some slight improvement using 1080p/24 mode on Blu-ray discs, although only with HDTVs that handle the format correctly.
While we're skeptical that XDE will impress home theater enthusiasts, it's possible that other buyers will prefer the image enhancement of XDE technology. Like the showroom floor "torch" mode on TVs, it makes an image appear to have more punch in a brightly lit room, although videophiles will find the effect unnatural.
Still, with $150 list price, we're betting Toshiba will have a hard time convincing buyers to pay significantly more for a technology that isn't true HD and--at least at our first glance--offers very little in the way of image quality improvements.
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Most feature films are shot at 24fps and then sped up to 30fps using 3:2 pulldown to render the video in NTSC format. CRT TVs have a fixed refresh rate of 60hz where as LCDs and other newer formats do not. For progressive scan video, the video can be displayed at its native frame rate. 24fps is also what you're seeing in the theater. TV broadcasts on the other hand are still shot at a native 30fps.
They are probably going to take their sweet time in making their first Blu-Ray player, as the corporate ego is still a little tender.
1. 8-track tape players
2. Laserdisc players
3. Audiocassette players
Save yourselves the embarassment, please. You've already lost the high-definition war and you show your stubborness by not willing to embrace the victor in that war: Blu-Ray. Geez
And a couple of million BluRau and PS3 sales are suppose to scare Toshiba into running to BluRay before it's too late?
Too late for what? They can take their sweet time cause 99% of all movie sales are still on regular DVD format and they see that. They also seen trying to win HD war was a waste of money cause it wasn't backwards compatible. BluRay discs can NEVER play on those current Billion sold dvd players, almost one in every room of the house for most homes. So i think Toshiba is smart, cash in on dvd sales as long as possible, why not?
They don't gain by selling BluRay format, they make royalties on current DVD format, don't you guys even know that?
And then maybe Toshiba might eventually make a BluRay player if and when DVD is really dead and they are forced to, but I suspect that won't be for a long time and then thumb drive movies will exist.
Still waiting for a reasonably priced BD-Live (profile 2.0) player before buying in to blu-ray? The Gen 1 HDDVD players were already internet capable. HDDVD was a finished spec out of the box, putting out the exact same quality as blu-ray but with more features enabled and required as part of the spec. So it's really hard to make the argument that HDDVD was "inferior." And if this new player is also "inferior," then isn't Oppo also since it does the same thing?
However, HDDVD was definitely the "loser" in the format battle. No arguments there.
This is Toshiba throwing good money after bad. While DVD won't die off anytime soon, like VHS and audiocassettes, it will fade eventually as blu-ray matures and comes down in price. I just don't see the rationale here, except as iamwho said, they just want to try to make $120 on a player instead of $50 on one.
While they're at it, why NOT make it hddvd compatible? It's just another format stamp to put on the outside of the case, like DivX, MP3, JPEG, WMA, etc.
As for whether it's better at Oppo at upscaling? Well it would need to be tested first before that result is in. I'd still choose Oppo though because they play SACDs and DVDA too. If this Toshiba is DVD only, even if its scaling *is* marginally superior to an Oppo, I'd still stay away from it.
Try using your brain next time, it helps.
I'm a custom installer and calibrator, so I regularly deal with larger screens, so I'm guessing that on smaller HD screens, the differences are diminished significantly. With that in mind I can understand why many see little difference. If you're sitting 12 feet back from a 32-inch HDTV you'll likely notice little difference between high quality SD and HD. Make no mistake though, on an average HDTV 1080p native looks much better than upscaled 480i any day of the week.
I'd be interested in the players, discs, and general setup of your system to see if there were any mistakes made along the way that might have contributed to you seeing minimal difference between the two.
- by February 8, 2009 12:43 PM PST
- Bought the Toshiba XDE 3 weeks ago and played about 9 or 10 dvd's thru it.
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(18 Comments)On the 11th dvd the screen went green and the XDE part of the machine quit playing.
It will play in progressive scan with component cables but not with HDMI cable.
It had a great picture in XDE and hdmi cable, but I would not buy another one due to
the problems with it!