CrunchGear

If it does what they say I’ll buy 2.
I have hundreds of DVDs and if this player can do more than my oppo (which cost over 200 bucks) then damn right it’ll sell. If it sells well enough then next years model will have even more capabilities as well as more manufactures getting on board and prices getting cheaper.

i will buy to since irefuse to pay 500 dollars for blue ray just to see the old movies you have stored over the year or pay 34 dollars for the new ones at the store

It all depends on the display device… if you’ve got a good old 720p display, then you might as well play upconverted DVDs as the resolution is close enough (depending on TV standard and DVD format up to 2x on every axes) to make a bit of sharpening work well enough.
But if you’ve got a good 1080p device (in my case a beamer), then upconverting isn’t enough for anything but cartoons, and there’s no way around it… you simply see that stuff is missing and with far away objects you often wish the player would just blur them, instead of deriving a shape from it that just isn’t there.

Right now 720p devices are popular as 1080p still costs an arm and a leg and also because manufacturers, while hyping the term “HDTV”, are seemingly unable or not interested in selling 1080p. And as long as that’s the case, Toshiba may be able to sell this thing… but beware, as soon as 1080p has become mainstream, you’ll be standing in the rain, because not only you’re old DVDs will be unwatchable, but you’ll have a bunch of new DVDs that you’ve bought because the XD-E500 can’t play anything else.

Personally, my advice would be getting either a cheap upconverting DVD player or a PS3… nothing in between really makes sense. The PS3 is futureproof, with (updatable) BluRay and various streaming capabilities, as well as backwards compatible with DVD and good upscaling. The DVD player makes sense if you want to wait until prices are dropping and get the best device then.

I still have my Toshiba HD DVD player. I love it. It up converts noticeably. So, I won’t be going with a BluRay player. I’ve been ripped off too many times with companies changing software/hardware. I would change if I could find a BluRay player with a tuner.

hans you can tell tv to only display 720 instead 1080i or 1080p

Sure hope the sad folks that MIGHT initially take interest in this thing are steered towards a PROPER high def viewing experience. Is anyone ELSE tired of Toshiba’s “sour grapes”? Tosh, come on already, you LOST, just face the fact and get with the Blu-ray program and move on already.

maybe when they lower their price to 100

There’s still plenty of life left in the DVD market. Even though sales of HDTVs having been taking off during the past few years, they’re by no means ubiquitous. And speaking as somebody who’s purchased an HDTV (Samsung LN46A550) and XBox 360 within the past month, I’m leaning more towards getting a quality upconverting DVD player (the Oppo DV-981HD) than a BluRay player (PS3 or otherwise).

I think this article shows a certain lack of intelligence on the part of the author. To state:

“People who’d want to spend extra money on their home entertainment might as well go for Blu-ray. Like, who is investing in a DVD system in 2008?”

Well, “Like” those of us who would rather not spend $500 on a blu-ray player so that we can spend extra money on blu-ray discs when they are not as popular as dvd’s.

I personally do not care a whole lot for all of the “extras” they bundle with the blu-ray discs, and I have not purchased a 1080p display, so dvd works just fine for me. And probably around 90% of the consumers out there.

Ignorance in this article is overwhelming.

I don’t get why everyone keeps quoting the PS3 as $100 more than it actually costs. Its $399.

Since you haven’t purchased a 1080p TV, I think you’ve automatically disqualified yourself from determining if this player is of any value to you. It won’t “up convert” for your lower resolution TV (no need), therefore you might as well stick to the much lower cost players already on the market.

But when you finally do get an HDTV… I think you’ll really appreciate the much higher quality of BluRay as compared to “up converted DVD”. The difference isn’t just “subtle”, it’s huge!

Pff. Physical discs. How oldschool.

With DVD9 you still can get great quality out of the old DVD format, so its good that manufacturers will be able to squeeze more out of it and extend its lifespan.

After all, we still are using CDs after, what 27 years?

Blu-Ray is impressive but the costs can be too much for the average consumer to stomach.

chrisw i agree 100% with you not only that the price for blue ray is very high but also the blue ray disk is to high for movies that you already have and the new ones are way to pricey put the price of a technology that is not such a big deal down and you see people buying more

This article reads like it was written by a shill for Sony and BluRay. Upconverted DVD’s look awesome and bluray sucks.

for those that dont think, those tv shows you see in hd that you like so much they not use 1080p fully some time only 480p but you still like , with the upconverters you can get up to 1080i wich is very good for me

I love my Blue-ray! I just had to say that. I am running a 1080p Toshiba in 43″ and when I run a blue-ray through my PS3… OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love love my blue-ray…

I have a library of DVDs that would be perfect to watch on this DVD player. I have invested in a new flat screen TV, but am not falling for the hype of Blue Ray. An really good upconverting DVD, like this one from Toshiba, will do fine, thank you!

Wait until you actually try BluRay … you’ll sing a different tune. Promise.

Already purchase a PS3 for gaming.
It plays blue ray dvd and up converts dvd and is my media hub.
If there is such thing as a better upconvertion…won’t all companies comes up with their own version already?
it’s just a software…it could just be a PS3 patch down the road….So is it worth to pay a few hundred to get yet another dvd player? I already had a bunch of unused dvd player…
if you are OK with the low-res dvd disc and won’t spend 399 for a blue ray player…then you are just cheap…
and you won’t be buying yet another upconvert dvd player either.
save you money until blue ray comes down in price.

Upconverting DVDs, Yea! Now not only will they still look like crap compared to Blu-rays, but they will still have poor audio, you cant upconvert to lossless audio or DTS-MA. And you cant add in interactive features of the blu-ray discs, But I will buy one of these upconverters, so that my low-tech, low-def, outdated DVD collection might see some use again.

And anyone who thinks upconverting DVDs is as good as blu-ray should check out the Bigfoot that was recently found.

Blu-Ray is still too expensive. At even $25 per film, I would cost me thousands of $ to replace my modest dvd collection (less than 100).

In addition, they are asking $400+ for a technology that has been around for over 25 years. A laser that reads information from a disc. Great, thanks.

The real technology is in the televisions. I will upgrade later as prices fall, but now its just ridiculous.

Blue lasers have not been around for 25 years. They are still extremely expensive to make. Blu-Ray hasn’t come down in price because they are just that expensive for manufacturers to produce. There hasn’t been enough people buying them to get the price to come down due to greater mass production. PS3 would lower their prices if they could, but the blu-ray player is keeping its cost up. The Bluray discs however have started to come down in price a little bit. I’m not seeing many $30 blu-ray discs anymore. They’re more like $20-$25 nowadays, which is what DVD was when it first came out.

Wow! At first I was so amused that people were getting so riled up about their dvd player preferences. Then, suddenly, it hit me. These people are getting so excited and defensive because it is their right to live in the stone age that they are defending! “I’m going to rush out and buy this because rather than save my money for a better tv or a superior technology of the same type or just to be able to download my movies I am going to be the king of a backward technology!” Seriously, who BUYS dvds, anyway? Do you really need to watch the same movies over and over? Or, do those dvds actually never see any use except for when you try to seem cool as you offer to let people watch crappy movies on dvd? Does anyone ever accept? “Oh yeah! You have Terminator 2 special edition! Let’s watch it!”

Those that defend Blu-ray in this comment section should take note that you’re in the minority. Most of the comments here are about the high cost of Blu-ray technology or the perceived feeling that this latest format is another way to make us buy the same movies all over again. The average consumer does not see enough benefit to upgrade.

I have a 42in Pioneer Elite (720p) and I run standard definition through it, both DVD and satellite. I like the flatscreen nature of the TV because it fits my family room. But I’m not willing to shell out for the monthly cost of HD programming and box rental fees. And I still think Sony is extremely arrogant and they do not deserve any of my hard-earned cash, much-less an actual BD player.

I see two possibilities, one near term and one more distant: 1) That BD players approach the sub-$100 mark with discs under $15. Only then will you begin to see mass-adoption. Until that point, BD will remain a niche item. 2) That broadband speeds increase fast enough to allow HD content via the internet thereby negating the idea of a physical medium. This interim idea of a disc is not the future. The far future is solid-state with last-mile fiber.

It’s amazing how “informed” some people can sound without actually having tried high definition TV.

It’s like I tell my kids who don’t want to eat their dinner … you can’t know if you’re going to like it until you try it.

And once you’ve tried high definition TV, there’s no going back.

I agree with Dale with one exception:

Kids and Teenagers watch the same movies over and over again. I know because I have both and at one point I was both. I watched Grease 2 over and over again just to see Michelle Pfeiffer in action.

What it comes down to for me is the size of the display. It would take a 60″+ Display running 1080p to finally notice a difference in picture from regular DVD.

Jeez, my Samsung DLP 1080p and Phillips upconverting DVD player displays a damn-good picture. Of course it’s not perfect but anyone that sees it is amazed by the picture.

“Who’s investing in a DVD system in 2008?”… I guess that is the difference between living in a bubble of tech bleeding edge, and not. If one were to live in reality one would see that there are an amazing amount of folks out here in reality that do not even know how to operate a computer on an elementary level… let alone worry about the ‘next big thing’. Sad isn’t it..? ‘Upconverting DVD’,.. hell I’m to busy cranking out webpages for clients on my box here to worry about the DVD wars… I still see DVD’s on the rack by the thousands… plain ol’ DVD’s… and the players to play them… WHO?.. the majority of Americans I would say.

To DavidT: I’m informed. I’ve seen plenty of HD content on HD displays. It’s nice. But in my home, it’s not worth the extra cost to me right now. When HD is a commodity, maybe I’ll buy a Walmart Blu-Ray player on sale for $30. But then there’s the extra cost of repurchasing all my beloved movies again…lame.

True, true.

What you say is true about the vast majority of people who are still watching DVDs on their old analog televisions.

But your argument falls flat for anyone who is tech savvy enough to have purchased a high resolution TV. For them, they are no longer interested in low resolution DVDs (why would they want to waste their newly spent money by purchasing an old DVD player)?

And soon … it won’t just be the tech savvy who are buying high resolution TVs. Soon, everyone will be buying HDTVs.

Why do you think you have to re-purchase your old movies???

You don’t have to do that … unless and until YOU decide that the higher resolution is SO MUCH better that you’d rather spend another $25 on a movie you already have.

I wouldn’t do it.

But man, I sure love the new videos I’m getting on BluRay. What a difference!

“It would take a 60″+ Display running 1080p to finally notice a difference in picture from regular DVD.”

REALLY??? How far away are you sitting (or how thick are your glasses)? Or maybe it’s a difference in the quality of the HDTV you are using?

I only have a 42″ HDTV and watch it from a medium sized living room and the difference in quality is *so* obvious. It’s like people’s eyes suddenly become “full of life” as you can now see the sparkle in their eyes.

I have a 53″ HDTV, Bluray and HDDVD and High Def TV and YES, I can see a very slight difference, but in my opinion, not enough of a difference to warrant the price. I am just as happy watching regular DVD and streaming Netflix movies.

If I were to invest in a larger display or a projector I would assume the difference would be start to become more noticeable.

The true test in my opinion is asking your family. they don’t know anything about tech and just see it for what it is. My wife and kids see Zero difference. It was disappointing, but after all my expensive upgrades, we were left with a pretty similar experience.

Sometimes us techies jut have to honest with ourselves and take off the “beer goggles”

Blu-Ray players are going down in price.. Why would you buy an XD-E500 when you could get a BluRay player that UPSCALES DVD content for $299..

If anyone is going to spend this much money you’re almost to a Blu-Ray player… If not then there are plenty of $79 DVD players that will upscale just fine.

Point here is that it’s too expensive for a simply upscaling player when most upscaling 1080p players are indistinguishable from this one.

Nothing does more than the Oppo! If you want a great upconverter that does it all, get the Oppo. I have it and it does a great job of making my normal DVDs look much better.
OPPO is the one

Noiro

Just because I never been beaten with a cane doesn’t mean that I need to try it to see if I like it.

Oh Yeah, Jake I forgot to add, when you buy this new model, let me know and I will buy your Oppos. :)
Noiro

i have a 42 inch 1080p samsung, a ps3, and an upconverting dvd player.

i rate upconverted dvd’s played on either my upconvert dvd player or ps3 a 7 outta 10.

bluray on the ps3 10 outta 10.

so .. i do see the use for the upconverion players. definately breathes life into dvd’s.

but i will certainly plug the PS3 as an AWESOME media center. Music, video (divx, avi, mpg), pictures all played from the PS3 or thru the home network. If you wanna go BluRay, the PS3 is a beautiful thing. For bluray and various other downloadable video media, PS3 is the only way to go.

If you wanna save some $$$, yeah .. a nice 720p display and upconverting DVD player is pretty nice.
But you definitely have to give the visual and audio nod clearly to bluray.

I have a decent sized DVD collection (1,200 or so) and obviously I cant replace them all with Blu-ray, but there are points that are being left out here….

1) Audio…. Blu-ray is worth the improvement in audio alone.

2) Upconversion is adding detail THAT ISN’T THERE…. it’s just “coloring” inside the lines if you will. I have 2 Blu-ray players, an HD DVD player, and a dedicated DVD player, because I don’t like the way upconverted DVDs look. YOU CAN NOT upconvert source material that is 480p in any resolution other than “enhanced 480p” it doesn’t become 1080i/p no matter how much you want to believe it…. it’s artificial “filler” that’s added.

3)The Blu-ray players play standard Def. DVDs….. so why do you think buying an upconverting player is better since you “don’t have to replace your DVDs” that doesn’t make sense to me!

I’m in no way some fanatical lunatic here to tell you it’s Blu-ray or nothing…. but if you want the best, and are willing to pay for it, Blu-ray is tops. If you’re content with DVD quality (which is fine for most) just get a $30 DVD player, and be happy… why spend $50, let-alone $150 for an upconverting player?

I have a 1080P 52″ TV.
I have a Toshiba HD-DVD player. It does a great job scaling regular DVDs. And HD Cable with onDemand.

I find that most movies look just fine scaled up to 1080P and the cost for a HD version would not be worth it. Most movies are recorded with a high aperture so the focus is soft in the background (”the film effect”). These movies benefit the least in HD. But movies that are filmed in HD or have sharp focus of the background will look much better in HD.

I would prefer to have the movie in HD but I will not pay more for HD in most cases.

I agree if the street price is $150, I would pass.

It scales to 1080p…. hmm how do you figure?

Why stop here…. why don’t they make it combo-unit with Upconverting DVD and Upconverting VHS I suppose if they can take a source material with 480 lines of resolution encoded on it, and present it in 1080 lines, they can certainly take a VHS with 240 lines of resolution, and do the same right ???

For a budget conscious consumer that wants the best DVD quality without breaking the bank, this is a good option. If I were to build my home theater with HDTV today, I would buy the Toshiba player. I know I am not going to buy into Bluray for atleast 2 years, since it will take that much time for it to become mainstream and affordable. I have seen noticeable difference between regular DVD players and upconvert players. If Toshiba is offering me even better picture, I don’t mine buying one. It is possible that there may never be a mass adoption of Blueray, if broadband speeds are going to increase for better HD streaming. There sure is a BIG difference between standard-def and HD content, when I am watching TV. But in case of DVD players, I have found the Upconvert players do a pretty good job. If this $150 piece gives me significant jump in picture quality, I see no reason to buy Blueray player and discs

I have a PS3 & xbox elite + Dell XPS with ati 3870 on crossfire yet I NEED A Dedicated DVD PLAYER insted of just using PS3. I was looking @ Oppo products & Tosh came out at the wright time. $150 is an insignificant investment when you have a collection of 500 DVD. Love AnyDvd & Netflix.

i’ll rent a blueray disc from netflix but never buy one until it can be backed up like a regular dvd so my investment won’t be lost after a few scratches… so yeah… that xd-e500 sounds pretty good to me.

Upconversion does not magically turn your DVDs into HD content. Upconversion simply stretches a lower resolution image so that it can physically occupy a the entirety of a higher resolution display.

Let’s say we have a 1080p LCD TV. The display consists of 1920×1080 pixels. Now let’s take a 480p, which has a resolution of 720×480 pixels. If we could display the image on our TV without any upconversion at all, it would appear as a small box in the middle of our TV, which physically occupies 720×480 out of the the 1920×1080 pixels. Of course, you don’t see this happen on any HDTV because the TV itself has a processor that performs upconversion. To see a concrete example of upconversion, just look at any youtube video. At 320×240, the youtube video is just fraction of your computer monitor’s resolution - and you can see that it physically occupies a small area. Click on the maximize button though, and it takes up the entire screen - however, this upconversion obviously didn’t give any increase in detail. There is simply no substitute for a true high resolution source.

“you don’t see this happen on any HDTV because the TV itself has a processor that performs upconversion”

It comes down to which scaler is better - the player or the tv? The tv will pass-through a 720/1080 signal - If the player is better at it, then your image is better that way. A better tv scaler will negate the benefit of an upconverting player.

Woopdeedoo, another upscaler. I paid less than $50 for an upscaling DVD player and another $8 for the required (annoying) HDMI cable. No matter how great Toshiba’s new sharpness/color/contrast enhancement algorithms are, there’s only so much you can do when making new fake pixels from a 480p source. I have a hard time believing this improvement is worth $100+ more than my cheap upscaler.

Now if someone would upscale DVDs to any sort of HD format (I’ll settle for 720p) on the YPbPr component outputs, then I’m interested. Oh, but the MPAA won’t allow manufacturers to do that. Since I was an early HD adopter, one of my old but perfectly good HDTVs has no HDMI, so that TV is stuck with YPbPr for its lifetime. HDMI is for suckers — consumers are being sold on the so-called quality improvement over analog connections, when the real purpose of HDMI is simply copy protection. If you have a 1080p display, you have no choice but to use HDMI. But if you have that display and you want to watch 1080p source material, you have no choice to buy Blu-ray.

If you want to extend the life of your DVD collection, just buy a cheap upscaling DVD player and you’ll get 95%+ of the benefits of this new Toshiba unit. If you want true HD from packaged media, you have to go Blu-ray and annoying HDMI. On the other hand, if you don’t need to “collect” movies and just want to watch once, nothing beats online delivery. As someone else said, physical discs are so old school. Before Blu-ray even has a chance to get off the ground, lots of people are asking “why do I even need an optical disc to watch HDTV?” And the answer is they don’t.

Which of you folks decrying physical discs as “old school” would like to buy me a receiver and dish and pay for satellite feeds for my one year old to watch movies on trips?

IMHO “all” upscaled dvd looks like crap on my 62″ display. And I have tried all the video download gizmo’s and they “all” suck for audio/video quality versus a physical Blu-ray disc.

Toshiba, Sony bit the bullet when they lost the last format war (VHS vs Beta), so stop crying and stop trying to fragment the market and go Blu! And everybody had to buy new media when dvd displaced tape, so that argument from you folks above is wonk. Stay on dvd (like others stayed on vhs) while the market passes you by.

Meh, had a ps3 and about 10 blu ray`s. I traded for an xbox 360 so i could actually play games, then my brother did exactly the same thing. as for blu ray to u