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]

[UnnDunn Posted Sep 14th 2008 12:23AM]

It doesn't carry the magical Blu-Ray logo!!

BURN IT WITH FIRE!!!!

[HC Posted Sep 14th 2008 3:51AM]

What a load of crap this is... I am a former HD-DVD fanboy and my television in the bedroom and hd-dvd player are toshiba but this is too much. My cousin purchased one of these before most stores got them. I asked him to bring it over to my house to see how it holds up to my LG BH200 blu-ray/hd-dvd combo which has Qdeo upscaling (rivals Reon HQV)...

I noticed little to virtually no difference in the upscaling of the Qdeo on my LG to the Toshiba XDE... Only difference was that it was a bit sharper with the sharp setting on. Otherwise it looked identical to my Qdeo upscaling. Those with HQV upscalers most likely won't notice much of a difference. I'd give my Qdeo the edge in some aspects and the XDE the edge in some aspects. But with blu-ray prices dropping pretty fast I'd be hard pressed to recommend anyone spend the $150+ plus on this. By the way I think Best Buy is clearing stock of their BH200's... Last time I checked it was down to 339.99 but its probably back up. If you want my advice, get the decent blu-ray player and forgo the XDE. Most decent upscalers such as Qdeo or Reon HQV will make this XDE seem worthless. But if you'd prefer to see for yourselves be my guest. In Canada, Blu-ray players are down to 299.99. The Sharp blu-ray player from last year is going for 199.99 at visions in canada today.

Heres hoping that Toshiba stops trying to get every drop of blood from its DVD cash cow and embrace the "blu" future. While this XDE is amazing, it would be better if Toshiba offered it in a blu-ray player. Or hell add another hd-dvd/blu-ray combo player. I know tons of people who would be happy toshiba supports its old formats just as SACD and DVD-A or VCD is still supported nowadays.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 15th 2008 6:25AM]

It's just a decent upscaling DVD player. Not the best, and not the worst. It certainly doesn't contain a cell processor. I expect it will find its place amongst the multitude of other DVD players but it will not affect sales of Blu Ray one way or the other.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 14th 2008 4:13AM]

I disagree, Harmin. Bring on the best DVD upscalers; I have no interest in BluRay Disc. It's just another standard that will go the way of the MiniDisc in far less than a decade.

Digital content distribution is king, as far as my needs go.

It looks like the studios may be planning something to give digital distribution a jumpstart:
http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/09/13/digital-entertainment-content-ecosystem-the-drm-of-the-future/

I purchased numerous television series on Amazon Unbox, but I purchase all my shows on XBOX Live Marketplace, now. The DRM hurts, but once the studios all get on the same page, I'm hoping they'll be able to work that out.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 15th 2008 2:21PM]

Digitial distribution is NOT king and will never be. All the ISP are starting to put caps on there customers downloads or making them pay more per data download. this is gonan make large HD movie downloads pointless. Not to mention downloadable HD movie still dont look as good as blu ray, and by no means will it ever have the amazing uncompressed audio blu ray does. If your a realy movie fan Digital downloads are crap. sorry.

[twister Posted Sep 14th 2008 12:30PM]

A friend of mine who was hot for one of these got one a few days ago and had me over. What a joke. Fine if you want a decent upscaling player, and there's nothing wrong with improving technology that is already available, and if you are into downloads, that's fine too, to each their own. I am enjoying pure 1080p on the my blu-rays with lots of special features now in HD and lossless audio on virtually every blu-ray disc. There is simply NO substitute!

[twister Posted Sep 14th 2008 12:33PM]

Oh and I forgot, I brought over my Denon 3930 player which has the Realta HQV cip, there's no comparison, the Realta beat Toshiba in every single aspect of the picture.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 14th 2008 12:56PM]

How much is the Denon 3930? And how much is the Toshiba?

[twister Posted Sep 14th 2008 1:09PM]

A HUGE difference in price. I wasn't talking about price though, but rather upconversion quality and what has come from Toshiba's own publicity department, that it beats "all upscalers and nears the quality of bluray disc." I am not going to search for that but it's right there on the Toshiba website. Fact is it does not come near the quality of a good blu-ray disc in picture (we compared 3 blu-rays with their newly remastered special edition counterparts), and it certainly does not come anyway close in sound.

If I didn't already own the Denon 3930 dvd player which has the Realta HQV, I would consider the Toshiba though provided I didn't have the money to spend. I am not anti-Toshiba in any way.I own several Toshiba pieces of electronics and they are very fine. I never did get into hd-dvd though.

[Spiza Posted Sep 14th 2008 8:34PM]

Maybe if this was a news site, they would post like they are journalist?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 15th 2008 4:07AM]

If something displays in like HD quality then information on the product is justified.

Now reviews may be pending so who knows if it does...but right now I don't see a problem informing the readers this is now out.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 15th 2008 6:31AM]

"Nfinity, TT and H4idol's behavior wasn't as bad as this!"

Yes it was. If Nfinity wasn't banned he would have used any Toshiba or Blu Ray story for several very long emails about either a) DVD being good enough and how he was going to buy an amazing super upscaling player / TV to watch it, or b) digital downloads are the future etc.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 15th 2008 9:22AM]

Nfinity was banned??? Thats too bad.. he had good info on the spurs engine and what not.

Wheres the free speech?

I hope he comes back..mayby Lexus or google plex

[orionzdrm Posted Sep 15th 2008 9:32AM]

Wow it looks like alot of you guys have "friends" that bought one of these..... Sure.... Bash away.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 15th 2008 9:50AM]

here is the display i saw at BBY

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sublimephoto1/2857348527/

and it seems they are in stock....and probably have been since I took this lol

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sublimephoto1/2857348275/

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 15th 2008 7:18PM]

$150???? ouch for that they should have just kept making the HD DVD player and just put in this upscaling chip in it...so you could a least by some HD movies if you want as well. These aren't going to sell well tell under about $80

[chodaboy19 Posted Sep 15th 2008 10:50AM]

Up-scaling in general is pretty much the same in 2008.