Digital Trends

Toshiba XD-E500 August 28th, 2008 | by Dennis Barker

Features and Design

While other companies have been producing upconversion DVD players for awhile, Toshiba now brings its 10+ years expertise in DVD development to bear. It should also be noted up front that this product does not playback anything but DVDs and CDs. What it does do, however, is upconverts standard definition DVD content to 720p, 1080i, 1080p, and 1080p/24 frame to match the screen resolution of a viewer’s HD display. The end result is near-HD picture quality (in theory). To separate this DVD player from other upconverting DVD players, Toshiba has decided to further improve image quality by employing their new XDE chipset.

In addition to upconversion from 480i/p to 1080p, XDE technology offers viewers the ability to customize their viewing experience to their liking with its specific picture mode settings. With these three selectable settings – Sharp, Color and Contrast – users can get the most out of their DVD movie-viewing experience on their terms.

Image Courtesy of Toshiba

The Sharp mode offers improved detail enhancement that is one step closer to high definition. Edges appear to be sharper, and background details in movies are more visible and pronounced. Unlike traditional sharpness control, XDE technology analyzes the entire picture and adds edge enhancement precisely where it’s needed. The Color mode makes the colors of nature stand out with improved depth and richness. Blues and greens appear more vivid and lifelike. The Color mode further combines the improvement in color with the detail enhancement of the Sharp mode making the combination a good bet for outdoor scenes. To complete the visual improvement, the Contrast mode has been designed to make darker scenes or foregrounds appear more clearly visible without the typical “washing out” that can occur with traditional contrast adjustment. This mode is recommended for dark scenes where detail may be difficult to notice in films like Pan’s Labyrinth. When combined with the Sharp mode, the Contrast mode provides a clearer viewing experience overall especially, I found, with animated films adding additional punch.

The upconverting technology in the XD-E500 is similar to other upconverting DVD players such as the Toshiba's SD-6100. The difference in the processor is seen after the upconversion process, when the chip further analyzes the video content through artificial intelligence. For example, it intelligently sharpens edges where necessary, while leaving alone other images where sharpening is unnecessary. It analyzes the color, pumping up blues and greens where it's needed, while leaving the warmer colors alone. And it improves contrast in darker scenes where necessary, while seemingly leaving brighter areas of the picture untouched. And, if you don’t like it, you can turn it off. 

At the same time, this is a progressive scan DVD player featuring 3/2 pull-down (or what Toshiba calls Digital Cinema Progressive). Progressive scan does several things to improve the video image over a standard DVD player. While many standard DVD-Video players’ process digital video information at a rate of 4:2:2, progressive scan DVD players utilize digital video processing that is done at 4:4:4 that doubles horizontal color resolution. This provides greater, color detail and more brilliant colors. Progressive scan DVD players also use something called “a reversed 3-2 pull-down algorithm.” A 3-2 pull-down algorithm is used in transforming movies (shot at 24 frames/sec.) into NTSC videos that require 30 frames/sec. The bottom line – progressive scan further eliminates NTSC artifacts such as jagged edges, flickering lines, the visible scanning structure, and shaky images producing a much smoother-looking image. On the other hand, if you’re display accepts 24-frame playback, the 1080p/24 frame mode can be employed to offer the best possible picture from your standard definition DVD.

The model also plays back CD-Rs, CD-RWs, DVD-Rs, DVD-RWs, MP3 & WMA-encoded discs plus the JPEG Viewer (using Photo CDs) enabling the user to display digital photographs on your television in the JPEG digital format. Like most DVD players today, it plays back both Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks passing the signal via either digital coaxial, digital optical, or HDMI outputs. It comes with a 47-button remote with set-up, menu, and navigation. The XD-E500 further incorporates key features such as HDMI-CEC, DivX certification, and JPEG capability.

Connection is easy and straight-forward. In order to reap the benefits from this DVD player, however, you need to use the HDMI output. Otherwise, upconversion is not possible. If you utilize component video, the player will only output 480p. A Tributaries HDMI cable was used to tether the XD-E500 to the Onkyo TX-SR875 AV Receiver, which processed audio and video signals before passing the video imagery onto the LG’s 52LBX, which is a 52-in 1080p LCD HDTV (also using a Tributaries HDMI cable).

The back of the Toshiba XD-E500