Toshiba XD-E500 Upscaling DVD Player

**The News Bot** · 09-06-2009, 10:15 PM

Reviewed by David Mackenzie
The XD-E500 is a good value, imperfect DVD player that's had a lot of weight piled onto its shoulders due to unfortunate timing. The only question left is whether or not it can still find an audience.
Read the full review...

Basil Plumley · 10-06-2009, 12:44 AM

David - thanks for the review. Would you say that this is a better machine for watching SD DVD's on than the Sony BD-P350 on a 92" screen?

I very rarely watch DVD's these days - most of my viewing is HD via Blu-ray or Sky HD and am wondering if I should invest in a better Blu-ray player with better SD playback or run one of these alongside it...

Many thanks

Brian

Pecker · 10-06-2009, 2:59 PM

David, thanks for yet another well-informed, well-written review.

This machine appears to have caused a lot of argument, and some reviewers appear to have felt the need to 'take sides', calling it the best thing since sliced bread and a BD-killer, right through to being worse than useless and ruining the SD picture.

In such an atmosphere it's nice to read a review that can be honest about both the pros and cons.

Steve W

David Mackenzie · 10-06-2009, 4:35 PM

Quote:

David - thanks for the review. Would you say that this is a better machine for watching SD DVD's on than the Sony BD-P350 on a 92" screen?

Can't answer I'm afraid - I've not seen the Sony 350. Sorry!

Thanks for the compliment, Steve. BD Killer - I wish! I would love to have an £85 machine that broke all laws of logic and mathematics and re-invented picture detail not present in the source

dodger65 · 10-06-2009, 7:17 PM

Don't suppose anyone knows how to reset this to default factory settings?
Was working fine and I started messing about with the HDMI settings and now it appears to be Kapput. Just getting HDMI "out of range" message I can hear sound but no pic and if I eject the tray and hold down the progressive button I can't get sound or pic. This is on a Sony KDL 22S5500 and a 32" Sony Bravia as well (if it makes any difference).

David Mackenzie · 11-06-2009, 11:59 AM

I did that too, but managed to get picture back by turning off the player and messing around with the HDMI and P.SCAN remote buttons. I'm sure there's a real reset code though.

kingfats · 11-06-2009, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dodger65

Don't suppose anyone knows how to reset this to default factory settings?
).

Usually tells you how in the back of the manual.

dodger65 · 11-06-2009, 1:08 PM

Yep figured it (doesn't seem to be a reset code in the manual), I did something which involved hooking it up via scart so I could get a pic, messing with the pscan/progressive button (when the drawer is open) and then using the Set Up menu to change the HDMI setting. Basically you need to get if off 1080P and onto auto or 1080I.
thanks

bornesen · 12-06-2009, 10:41 PM

Thanks for this excellent review. I agree, you can beat the laws and create something from nothing. Toshiba will have to admit that HD-DVD battle is lost and stop producing fake innovations like Pixel + and the like. Anyone who has had some experience with ffdshow for image post processing knows what the XD-E500 really is --- an old hat. The real shame is that Toshiba produced wonderful HD-DVD players which were also much better DVD players than the XD-E500. Buy an HD-XE1 secondhand somewhere to get some real DVD bang for your buck.

bertplucker · 15-06-2009, 9:56 AM

At the time the xde500 was released blu ray players were still overpriced.
Skip forward a year and the situation is different.
Cant see why it took so long to see this review except that now it makes the product look worse value.

PA28 · 02-09-2009, 11:13 AM

I too, missed this review until now. Spot on - particularly the comment suggesting variable sharpening modes. I tinkered with this for a couple of months before turning the XDE facility off - I have a large screen (3m width) and whatever the viewing distance the fuzzing was just too obtrusive. I now use this player for DVDs and a Sony Blu-Ray player for, well, BDs! At the price that I paid (just over £60) it is a perfectly competent upscaling DVD player, so I have no complaints. But turning off the XDE component provides a much better cinematic experience on large screen sizes in my opinion.

David Mackenzie · 02-09-2009, 9:17 PM

Quote:

Cant see why it took so long to see this review except that now it makes the product look worse value.

It's simply when we got the product to review and when the review was written. No deliberate timing.

Basil Plumley · 03-09-2009, 7:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bertplucker

At the time the xde500 was released blu ray players were still overpriced.
Skip forward a year and the situation is different.
Cant see why it took so long to see this review except that now it makes the product look worse value.

But there aren't any Blu-ray players the right side of £500 that can play back DVD's very well - on a large (2m or above) screen anyway. My LG BD370 is terrible...but brilliant with the Blu-ray.

David Mackenzie · 03-09-2009, 10:58 AM

The Panasonic players can handle the most common cadences well (although for PAL movies, you have to manually select Film Mode for the best results - same situation with many DVD players though).