Re: Review: Toshiba XDE Upscaling 1080p DVD Player

Ok. So you turn off the sharpness, and this thing will equal the XA2 with movies with good transfers? I mean, even the XA2 can't turn sh*t into gold. A poorly mastered dvd will look like crap no matter what you do to it. I have an A2 which upconverts way better than my PS3. But like i mentioned before, the XA2 is the cats meow when it comes to upconversion of SD. (So the publications say...Home Theater..Sound and Vision..Widescreen Review).

If this player can match the XA2, then isnt it a bargain? It really shouldnt even be compared to the Toshiba HD-DVD players, because they don't make those anymore. Some people have wondered on here about the upconversion of Blu Ray players OTHER than the PS3. OK...so how does this thing compare to the upconversion of those? It seems to me that should have been the real test.

bladerunner1:

If you already have a decent SD upscaler (which the A2 certainly is), the XDE is not necessary.
But when it drops to $79-$99, it's certainly worth investigating. If you wish to try it, buy from a local retailer, that way you can return if not impressed.

It certainly is one fast lil machine (in terms of bootup time). One thing it does is kinda nice: while the movie is playing, you can hit setup button on the remote and change video and audio modes (pcm/bitsream/sharp/color/contrast/off/hdmi resolution) and when you exit it will take effect and continue where you left off. I just watched "Easy Rider" (1969) and compare with sharp feature on and off, and with my 47" 1080P Westy and 10ft couch distance, it made it nicer to watch.

In case you didn't see this yet, I have a rollover pic that shows standard upscaling (sharp mode off) and sharp mode on. This was taken 6ft handheld and no retouching, just scaled down.

http://www.gadgetpig.net/xde

You can see the slight sharpening and gamma/color correction effect to give it more "pop".
But again you have to be at least 6ft distance (maybe more) or you'll see SD limitations. This is a very basic unit, and not a lot of options to fiddle with. I just leave my unit at auto HDMI resolution, bitstream output, and SHARP enabled.

For my needs this will do until I can snag a cheap BD standalone or build a BD/HD-DVD combo HTPC.

cheers!

What blu-ray makers should do is have a good upscaler in their blu-ray players, so that we don't end up having yet another box to plug in our homes...

Agreed, and I think this would be the ultimate midrange BD machine:

Oppo BDP-83

http://tinyurl.com/3ja2eh

Tim you thought FRINGE was boring, wow. I thought it was pretty awesome, but that be because I have been thirsting for something to come around like the X Files. I mean the new movie was so dissapointing. But I liked FRINGE but hey I am weird . LOL

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Tim you thought FRINGE was boring, wow. I thought it was pretty awesome, but that be because I have been thirsting for something to come around like the X Files. I mean the new movie was so dissapointing. But I liked FRINGE but hey I am weird . LOL

Oh, I'm just teasing. I thought the first hour of Fringe was no more than your average FOX program -- then that last 30-minutes went into overdrive and hit the ball out of the park! Again, JJ Abrams delivers something to get hooked on and it appears it will be interesting to follow. For me the difference is LOST had me hooked in the first 10-minutes of the show, whereas Fringe took over an hour to spark my entertainment nerve. Nevertheless, and as I pointed out, that last 30-minutes was on the edge of your seat exciting.

I have to admit my favorite scene of the pilot episode was the old Doc, FBI assistant, a cow and the Doc's son eating Chinese food out of the cartons while watching Sponge Bob. For some reason that made me laugh my butt off!

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Ok. So you turn off the sharpness, and this thing will equal the XA2 with movies with good transfers? I mean, even the XA2 can't turn sh*t into gold

Of course not, but sh*t in the XA2 will look better than about anywhere else. I haven't done much comparison with the XA2 since I bought it, as I really need to have two copies of the same disc in order to go back and forth (the difference is too small to makes comparisons based on a two minute old memory of the PQ). I never compared it with the sharpness off, but in any case I have the XA2 sharpness setting maxed out at 2, so a fair comparison would be to have the XDE sharpness on.

Toshiba are launching three DVRs featuring XDE

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Flagshiping the range, the RD-X8 packs a 1TB hard drive and sports Deep Colour capable HDMI output - a feature the lesser two recorders can’t boast. The X8 also boasts superior video (12-bit/297MHz DACS) and audio (24-bit/192Khz DA converter) processing.

They don't appear to be cheap however

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in Japan estimated on-the-street pricing is ¥80,000 (~£413), ¥100,000 (~£512) and a stonking ¥140,000 (~£716) for the RD-S303, RD-S303 and RD-X8 respectively.

Well to be honest with you guys I picked on of these up on the weekend and gave it a whirl. Similar movie selections were made, that Henning used and all I can say is that I was disappointed for the most part. In some cases the player looked amazing, and other cases, I turned off the settings and lived with the fuzzier DVD picture, because the up conversion with the sharpness made me so distracted with noise I couldn't stand it. Now to be perfectly honest, I tried it both on the Panasonic 50" 800 series plasma, and secondly on the Projector downstairs. While most of the testing on the projo didn't look that bad, it's when I hit the plasma that I noticed more defects. Weird but true.

Star Wars Empire Strikes Back. First scene I used was the cloud city. When the Falcon first flies up, I was really disappointed, Neither Sharpness, sharpness colour, or sharpness contrast, could satisfy me. All three setting looked awful. If I had to settle on one it would be the sharpness contrast setting. Way too much CGI looked like bad computer graphics. Once in the cloud city, the scene where the gang meets up with Darth Vader, had improved greatly with the sharpness mode, but less desire to be had with the colour and contrast on though. The space battle scenes looked great with sharpness and contrast on. The stars were plentiful and really distinguishable. Couldn't really see unwanted CGI and model drawbacks from the old film, so this feature passed with colours. That pretty much wrapped that disc up and on I went to the next movie.

A River Runs Though It. Well almost instantly the player liked this disk. A complete turn around from Star Wars. Maybe due to all of the nature shots in this one. The first test was one of the fly fishing shots in the river. I was really worried how badly that River was going to pixelize. Believe it or not, it turned out ok. The sharpness setting more was more than ample for this feature. With colour on, it made everything almost neon blue or green. Yikes, it was not attractive. The contrast setting does help with night time or fire pit scenes, but for the most part the sharpness on alone is good enough. I really didn't notice excessive pixel noise created around characters, like I did with Star Wars, the film was in better shape for this feature. On to the last test.

Well I decided to pull out a HD DVD, and DVD that I had two of the same. I was torn between any of the Bourne Movies, American Gangster, Miami Vice, or Terminator 3. I chose American Gangster. When this movie first launched, the gripe about it was all that film grain. I wanted to catch the grain in the act. I started up the XA2, and the XDE at the same time points in the movie. The XDE was set to just sharpness. As both movies played I flipped back and forth on the projo directly and the plasma directly as well. NO Surround sound receiver switcher. The sharpness mode look good, and saw little pixelization around characters, until I reverted back and forth to the HD DVD version. Then I noticed the defects. Not so much the pixelization from the DVD background noise but the film grain became a little more prominent like a cheaper LCD would show difference between light and dark. This was distracting but manageable. The night club scenes did look ok through the sharpness / contrast setting. I think a lot of it had to do with the neon lighting used. The HD version looked perfect. The scene at grandma’s new house was a great indication of Toshiba’s development. With the HD looking flawless, the XDE matched up against it HD counterpart. No need to add the colour or contrast to this shot. The dinner scene in the home shows promise. Not a bad $150 investment too make a lot of your movies better, but not the best.

Realistically, you are better off buying an A3 at a clearance table for $99 and getting a better scaler. Toshiba has made great strides to improve DVD playback. This play however does a nicer job than my Magnavox Blu-Ray. So if you look at it from that standpoint, it worth the money. But putting this player up against another Toshiba HD DVD player, HD content or not. Stick with your HD DVD player. I'm going to. I did try to play these same three movies in the in the XA2, and did use 1080i, 720p, and 1080p 24fps also along with the XDE. The XDE performed exceptionally well in 1080i mode, and also the 1080p 24fps. 720p almost looked beamy. That could be my equipment though. Yeah, when it all comes down to it. It's just another DVD player. Is it worth $150? Nope. Is it worth $150 if you were upgrading from an old progressive scan ten years ago. Sure in a heartbeat! Is it worth buying if you are not happy with your Blu-Ray up conversion playback? That is to be debated. Every Blu machine has different chipsets. Anyways I know I'm sticking with the XA2 and A3 for HD DVD and DVD playback. I am sticking with my Magnavox for Blu playback. Sorry Toshiba this player didn't do it for me. Maybe a second gen with the Cell will.

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[Post edited by ReaggieP on Sep 22, 2008 - CDT 8:49 AM]

Thanks, Reaggie, for another great report back. Very thorough, too.

John