Toshiba XD-E500 Upscaling DVD Player Comments

I agree that Toshiba should look at producing Blu Ray players (inc budget models? though Sony licence will probably knobble that one)- they might as well make some cash whilst they can.

However, I can only hope, that they are working on the NextGen of high def content (maybe some sort of download alliance with the well established MS XBL?). If only to introduce a bit of competition & help drive down Blu Ray disc prices. Having said that the MS XBL service in UK (at least) is not great content-wise at the moment - but it could be so much more & having a stand alone upscaling DVD player (with Hard-Drive) may help somewhat. In fact what about a Toshiba Blu-ray player with 500 gig hard-drive & dowloadable XBL Movie content & Freeview thrown in for a laugh - nice & one in the eye for Sony at the same time :) Must go have a lie down now.

Please feel free to slag off the broadband speeds in the UK to point out how infeasible this is at the current time :)

I would have thought you would have compared it to the Oppo players. We all know that Toshiba are sulking in the corner and DVD is dying. But at least properly compare the product to it's competition.

Erm. It's an expensive DVD player, it's not a cheap HD player.

Anyway, it seems like the value rating is compared to DVD players and the performance rating is compared to Blu-ray players. Most of the text of the review seems to be complimentary about the performance. Knocking down the design for being too slim/shallow/light seems a tad odd. So they should've made it bigger and added some lead?

From another review that I read of this player, I noted that this box does not include the cell processor, and that upscaling product is to follow.

Before reading this review, I already had the prejudice that the TR review would be much more critical of this unit than the other review I read, and sadly that was indeed the case.

Not that I would buy this thing!

just a question, how would something like this compare to, say, connecting a pc directly via DVI/HDMI and playing dvds through that to a HD tv?

just interested

I usually swear by the reviews on this site but felt I had to register to comment on this one.

Riyad, I feel you're missing the point of this product and others like it (from Oppo, Denon and the like). The vast majority of people are happy with standard DVD quality and see no clear reason to spend a lot of money on new hardware and software to migrate to Blu-ray. For these people, quality upscaling decks like this allow them to squeeze more picture quality from their disks with a minimal outlay.

I've spent some cash on AV equipment in my time but there's no way I'm rebuying my entire DVD collection on an HD format. Therefore upscaling players are perfect - especially if, like me, you have a TV that isn't the size of the moon.

130 quid for a quality upscaling deck is a bargain.

errr 130 quid a bargain?

if Riyads right that 160 gets you blu ray which will also upscale dvds then thats blantantly rubbish.

if you see no clear reason to spend a lot on new hardware then you'd get a 50 quid upscaling dvd player.....actually you'd probably just let your fancy new tv do the upscaling.

A 160ukp blu-ray player will not upscale DVDs as well as this unit. Neither will your TV unless you have a very expensive recent model.

Now, if you want to buy blu-rays right now, obviously you need a blu-ray player. But if you don't, you are actually shooting yourself in the foot by getting one now (as anyone who recently bought the Panny BD30 or BD50 will tell you).

The longer people wait before making the jump, the better the hardware they will get for the same money when they eventually do it. That's just common sense.

I'm obviously not getting through so this will be my last post on the subject.

1. Yes, blu-ray players do a good job at upscaling DVDs. But dedicated DVD players do a better job, and that's what it's all about isn't it, from a DVD point of view? If not, are all of the reviews up til now of DVD upscalers by the popular magazines worthless?

2. I disagree that if one is serious about watching films, one must buy everything from now on in the blu-ray format. People are not made of money. Blu-rays are perhaps 3 times the cost of a standard DVD. Are they worth that price difference? After seeing the actual quality difference, I say no. If I won the lottery obviously I would invest heavily into blu-ray as that format contains the best possible picture and sound. It is likely that I will not win the lottery. It is likely I will stick with the hundreds of DVDs I currently own and will look for a way to make them look and sound better on my system.

For those with cash to burn, go for blu-ray, perhaps investing in one of Denon's high-quality players. For everyone else, stick with DVD and get some great upscaling from the Tosh XD-E500, Denon DVD-1940 or higher, Oppo DV-98x and so on.

DVD is not dead as long as it's possible to buy recent disks for less than a tenner. As soon as blu-ray can do that, it will be the new format of choice. Until then, it'll always be playing second fiddle. There is a recession going on you know?

Well maybe not recession yet, but I get the point.

Hence, avoid buying 120 quid of dvd upscaler AND another simlar amount in a few years when the price of blueray discs comes down to an affordable level for you.

Instead spend 30 quid now and save yourself 100. You get dvd upscaling at a decent quality level AND blue ray whenever you need it.

Or if you are struggling with recession issues spend 50 quid on an ok upscaler.

If you are me, worry more about affording a new tele first :)

You've got to laugh. If I was cynical I'd say all these bluray bashers are pissed off HDDVD owners.
A blind man can clearly see that Toshiba are aiming this player directly at bluray players.
After the failure of HDHVD, which Toshiba desperately wanted to succeed, toshiba are now proclaiming that HD is no longer necessary and DVD is 'good enough'. Let me ask you, if DVD is 'good enough' then why bother upscaling to 'try' and match HD??
I don't understand how many times Riyad has to reply for you thickos to understand. If you're going to spend an £x amount on an upscaling player and spending another £30 or £40 gets an HD bluray player which can also upscale just as well then doesn't it make more sense to buy a future proof player? He's not saying to you replace all your DVDs with bluray versions, but at least you now have a choice to buy new movies in either format.
Someone said a DVD player upscales better than a bluray player. erm I think that depends on the components in the player ...

@Fistynuts I agree with you on this; I too am a bit sick of being told to buy a Blu Ray player rather than a decent DVD upscaler. Whatever Toshiba's marketing department may say - surely the R&D dept are not stupid and do not, IMHO, really intend this to compete direct with BluRay players. Another plus for a DVD upscaler versus BluRay player is the speed of the unit; early generation BluRay (& HD-DVD players for that matter) are pig-slow compared to a decent DVD player (no offence intended to our friends in the Sus family). Personally I therefore play all DVDs on my (non) upscaling DVD player & all my HD-DVDs on the (very cheap when I got it) Tosh HD-DVD player (i.e. the speed of the unit is worth thw wait for HD-DVD but not for upscaled DVD - however a FAST upscaler would tip the balance for me).

@Shaka Equally we could label all upscaling/HD-DVD bashing posters as Blu-Ray/Sony Fanboys - but I am sure you are not one of those now are you?! ;^)

@Riyad Are you guys at TR *always* right? I think I have only seen a back-down once in the comments sections (with a corresponding +1 point on the features of some phone or other :)) Sheesh - remember we commenters (don't think that is a word - ho hum) are also your readers - so taking our POV on board (whilst not saying that you have to agree with it) would at least be favourite! :^)

@Matt G Baish - you can and you have. You've also proved my point.

Thanks Matt for adding some sense to the argument.

I noticed today that this month's What Hi-Fi? gives this player 5 out of 5.

Following Riyad's review guidelines £1000 turntables should be marked down as CDs are out now. It's a nonsense.

And no, I am not a "pissed off HD-DVD owner". As I said, I reckon hi-def isn't yet worth it.

@Shaka - look I don't want to get into a slagging match here but how exactly did I prove your point?! I actually bought into HD-DVD *AFTER* Toshiba announced it was dead since it is a cheap interim solution between DVD and whatever comes next (could be Blu Ray - IMHO however the software is too expensive at the moment) & I plan to rip them all (for backup purposes obviously) once I can get a cheap enough huge RAID NAS Device on which to do so. I am *NOT* slagging off Blu Ray - I would equally defend someone if they were `really` unjustly being called a `Blu ray fanboy`. Note that I didn't actually call *you* one; I was just pointing out that your conclusion did not follow from the fact that some of us `thickos`, as you so eloquently put it, think that pitching this upscaling player versus a Blu Ray is an unfair contest; `apples versus oranges` to paraphrase an overused, but apt, idiom on this site ;).

Rant over :)

about bluray vs HD...toshiba is not given the same playing field..it is kill by the sony gang with big bucks..sony know that he is loosing ground...hence the conspiracy to kill tosiba...hype on 1080p and 50g...ask sony to sell the trilogy in one disk..no way..3disc to make 3x $ than 1x.. 1080p how may monitors in the household has this feature. moreover no much difference in picture quality..now sony call the shot..and the consumers must pay the price...it just show how the consumers can be conned..we can get out of it...just dont buy..dont be cornered and force down the throat by BD..

I am greatly disappointed with this review...the MOST important question when buying a DVD player, to me, is the quality of DVD playback. To compare SD to Blu-ray seems to completely missing the point; I don't yet have any Blu-ray material but I do have an enormous number of DVDs...and I want to play them on a nice big screen at the best quality I can afford. I'm looking for value for money here, I'm not able to afford the best possible equipment. Therefore it's vital that I can compare "like with like".
As I understand the situation, different players have different abilities at upscaling an SD image to 1080p...and, critically, a good DVD player will do a BETTER job at upscaling than a cheap Blu-ray player. It is simply misleading to suggest that upscaling is just some kind of 'feature' of players...that a cheap DVD supermarket player will do the same job as an expensive DVD player...and that all Blu-ray players will do exactly the same job of upscaling SD as each other, and as the cheap DVD players.
What I need to know is "How does the DVD playback quality of this player compare with the DVD playback of the other players, including any Blu-ray machines reviewed?"
I have read glowing reviews of the OPPO 983 DVD player...it is held up as the BEST player of DVD pictures, regardless of comparison with Blu-ray players, when talking about upscaled SD material. That machine is over £300. The question should be "how much do I have to pay to buy a future-proof Blu-ray player that gives me upscaled DVD pictures of equivalent, or better, quality to the OPPO?"...The answer is NOT going to be the £160 Samsung Blu-ray talked about above...and it's probably more than the £300 price of the OPPO...in fact it's probably a great deal more...if it's even available. That's what I need to know from a reviewer who compares a DVD machine with Blu-ray.
Having read this review I have to ask "Why is someone who thinks DVD is dead being asked to write a review of a DVD player?". It seems daft to suddenly start comparing DVD quality to Blu-ray and then giving the DVD player a 6/10 quality rating. Obviously the two are not alike, and doing this casts all previous quality ratings in a confusing way...and I, as the reader, cannot compare this review with any others in this website.
What are you going to do?...change all the other quality ratings of previous reviews to allow the new standard of visual quality based on Blu-ray pictures to accurately compare with this one? Without a "standard" of quality, across all reviews, there can't be comparison between products...and I can't trust these reviews.

I always thought of this site with high opinion...but the "Trusted Reviews" brand has just been damaged.

Guys i think you are all wrong in this, i will never buy blueray or dvd again, instead i now download all my films.
The future is solid state! get a player with usb and get a huge 500gb hard drive and download all your films. I have 900 films in my digital library at a click away, and they still get upscailed, spinning disc formats are the past, roll on Films for dowload service!!!!!!

I just went out to comet to buy a XDE500 purly to upscail my huge 900+ collection of divx movies.
I have currently been using my pc but wanted something that looked good and make the picture of the compresed file better.
OMFG!! This DVD player is the best thing ever created, took 2 min to copy 4 dix movies to a disc, wal-e indiana jones 4 and a few others, ive never seen riped divx movies look so good, tried finding nemo on a standard dvd in it...., Is there a need for blue ray??
Guys just to point out, i have sold my samsung BDP1500 (blueray player) as i will never justify spending £20 on a Blueray when i can download free or buy from asda for £3. BDP1500 upscail is poo compared to this, finding nemo is almost as good as blueray, i dont know how toshiba has done it but OMG is all i can say.
1 more thing, why do old films keep coming out on Blueray??? rambo 1?? was a hd cam even invented then, Sony are and always will be a Rip off merchant.
Hd solution? Buy a good upscailer, XDE500 is the best one currently on the market, wait till 2010 when we have a dedicated online movie download service where you can get everysingle film you want in HD, a bit like I tunes, Spinning format HD will not take over DVD, it will be downlaod services that im holding out on, Digital DVD colections, thats what microsft and Toshiba are working on, HOLD OUT !!

Ok 2 things, i dont download all my films, i have over 900 dvd's that i have backed up on my pc to watch anytime, number 2.
Holiwood make enough money from the cinimas alone to pay for the film and make plenty of margin, so dont give me this imploding crap, Downloads is the future, and im not talking ilegal im saying a service like virgin media or i tunes.

To say Ultimately, if you're serious about watching movies, it makes sense to be buying all your new films in an HD format is invalid, if you are interested in mainstream fodder and you don't venture beyond crap films like The Transformers it may be the case as they pump out on blu-ray mainly the meat head films first (Which is the case in Australia).
There is a larger catalogue of film out on standard DVD that most probably will not reach any High Def format and as I want to view and enjoy my collection now and not wait years for the transfer then a good quality upscaler regardless if it is incorporated with a blu-ray player or a stand alone DVD player what ever is the best is my choice.

It is often quoted that 1080p is "overkill" on a 32" screen and that 720p is sufficient and unless very close to the screen they will not look much different. Many people are using 32" LCD TVs so surely Blu-Ray will also be "overkill" so an upscaling DVD would be better value.

I know this is a bit late but; just got this dvd player and WOW!Most of my collection is SD, I have dipped my foot into Blu-Ray [via ps3]and can not find much difference between this player on SD DVD and Blu-Ray. Yes there is a difference but i can not warrant the extra cost of Blu-Ray films.+ This player upscales BETTER than the PS3 .This is now my main dvd player. Superb picture on [40"] and player only cost £60.00

Yes, i have read several other people comment about the upscaling ability of this player but the one single reason why I didn't buy one, even though it's street price is good value now, was the fact that there is no USB port for playing back xvid/divx etc.

Hence I bought a Pioneer DV-420V.