cobraman2008
Established Member
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- Sep 15, 2008
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Well, my latest addition to my home entertainment system and to compliment my LGPG3000 50" and Yamaha AV32 5.1 Surround Sound System is the brand new Toshiba XDE500 Upscaler.
Now I know people are buying Blu-Ray players as this is where the market is heading so you may wonder why I just spent £99.99 getting a DVD player from Comet last night? The simple answer is - I have a huge DVD collection and I have no intention to dispense with my collection and spend hundreds of pounds on upgrading to (in my opinion) fairly expensive Blu-Ray discs.
I already have a Playstation3 and have been using this for upscaling DVDs (and for playing a few Blu-Rays I had brought) for the past two months but this is now spending most of its time upstairs in my brother's room where we use his Samsung LCD for gaming. The hassle of moving the PS3 back and forth from upstairs to downstairs was getting on both our nerves so I bit the bullet and decided to purchase the XDE500 and this will live downstairs whilst the PS3 makes it self at home upstairs.
I'd like to start by saying having read the numerous expert reports and reviews on various AVS forums, sites and magazines - most of the reports recorded very good things for the XDE500. Negativity was mainly aimed at this not being a Blu-Ray player and the quality was not on the same level as Blu-Ray. Thus, most reviews have harshly marked this DVD upscaler comparing it to Blu-Ray players instead of comparing it to what it is - a DVD upscaler and nothing more. The fact that it the XDE500 is a Toshiba creation (and we know the history of HDDVD and BR) many people are saying Toshiba are calling this their "Blu-Ray" player. For me that simply isn't true and for people in the market for a fairly reasonably priced, high-end DVD upscaler - the XDE500 should tick all the boxes.
I decided to watch the football last night and didn't fancy playing with the machine as Liverpool had just lost 4-2 to Spurs so I called it an early night.
So I've just spent the last two hours or so messing around with the XDE500 and have to say it is AWESOME.
Firstly, lets begin with the dimensions and weight. It is small. Length and height wise it is fairly standard but the depth is half of what a DVD player is. And it weighs next to nothing. Lifting it out of the box and it felt like a shell with nothing in it. It is extremely light indeed. The remote control is similarly standard size and weighs next to nothing.
So without reading the instructions and jumping straight in, I connected a HDMI cable, plugged in the audio cable from my amp, plugged it into the mains and fired it up. A super cool 'Toshiba' sign lights up in white on the front fascia and we are greeted with a Toshiba wallpaper on the plasma.
I decided to stick in the nearest disc to hand with was LoTR 3 into the machine and it loaded up instantly. The graphics on the fascia are green LEDs and it basically showed we had reached the main menu of the film. So I immediately stuck it on play and the film's credits began. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. The colours were way too vivid and bright - until I realised my brother had left the plasma on Sport mode. This was quickly changed to my preferred Cinema mode and everything was good.
Now I have already emphasised this is not a Blu-Ray player but what is being called a damn good DVD upscaler but skipping chapters and watching bits of the film tells me this is very close to Blu-Ray quality. I've seen this particular film on a standard DVD player around 2 years ago, on my PS3 last month but on the XDE500 we are jumping to a completely new level. Basically, it is double the quality of what I was getting on the PS3 - it is very close to Blu-Ray quality for me. It is ultra sharp, colours are natural, blacks are deep and picture sound is non-existant.
Messing around with the remote control and clicking on the Set-Up button brings the main interface up for the DVD upscaler. Here we can select Colour Mode, Contrast Mode and Sharp Mode. I tried all three settings; colour mode was disappointing adding far too colour to the reds and greens which left skin tones unnatural, contrast mode seemlessly made the blacks deeper (I cannot wait to try this on Sin City) but sharpness mode is the best compromise between the two and this looks like the mode which is going to be used most often.
Then there is the option to play the movie in 720i, 720p, 1080i or 1080p. I simply selected Auto and it went straight to 1080i so that is where I left it. Another neat tool is you can view the bitrate of the movie whilst its playing - this figure always keeps moving as the scenes ebb and flow before your eyes.
So that's about it thus far. I will try a DIVX disc shortly and see how good it is at upscaling content from downloaded onto disc from my computer. Unfortunately and something I would have liked is a direct USB port so I could have plugged my portable hardrive into the upscaler. Some players come with this portability but the XDE500 doesn't - which stops me giving the player a 10/10 mark.
I am delighted so far with the purchase and for the money (which some may seem as expensive) - if you have a comprehensive DVD collection and don't wish to jump ship to Blu-Ray just yet then this player is a must. It's not as good as the Oppo but then that is £300; £200 more than this player.
Cheers - Cobraman2008
Now I know people are buying Blu-Ray players as this is where the market is heading so you may wonder why I just spent £99.99 getting a DVD player from Comet last night? The simple answer is - I have a huge DVD collection and I have no intention to dispense with my collection and spend hundreds of pounds on upgrading to (in my opinion) fairly expensive Blu-Ray discs.
I already have a Playstation3 and have been using this for upscaling DVDs (and for playing a few Blu-Rays I had brought) for the past two months but this is now spending most of its time upstairs in my brother's room where we use his Samsung LCD for gaming. The hassle of moving the PS3 back and forth from upstairs to downstairs was getting on both our nerves so I bit the bullet and decided to purchase the XDE500 and this will live downstairs whilst the PS3 makes it self at home upstairs.
I'd like to start by saying having read the numerous expert reports and reviews on various AVS forums, sites and magazines - most of the reports recorded very good things for the XDE500. Negativity was mainly aimed at this not being a Blu-Ray player and the quality was not on the same level as Blu-Ray. Thus, most reviews have harshly marked this DVD upscaler comparing it to Blu-Ray players instead of comparing it to what it is - a DVD upscaler and nothing more. The fact that it the XDE500 is a Toshiba creation (and we know the history of HDDVD and BR) many people are saying Toshiba are calling this their "Blu-Ray" player. For me that simply isn't true and for people in the market for a fairly reasonably priced, high-end DVD upscaler - the XDE500 should tick all the boxes.
I decided to watch the football last night and didn't fancy playing with the machine as Liverpool had just lost 4-2 to Spurs so I called it an early night.
So I've just spent the last two hours or so messing around with the XDE500 and have to say it is AWESOME.
Firstly, lets begin with the dimensions and weight. It is small. Length and height wise it is fairly standard but the depth is half of what a DVD player is. And it weighs next to nothing. Lifting it out of the box and it felt like a shell with nothing in it. It is extremely light indeed. The remote control is similarly standard size and weighs next to nothing.
So without reading the instructions and jumping straight in, I connected a HDMI cable, plugged in the audio cable from my amp, plugged it into the mains and fired it up. A super cool 'Toshiba' sign lights up in white on the front fascia and we are greeted with a Toshiba wallpaper on the plasma.
I decided to stick in the nearest disc to hand with was LoTR 3 into the machine and it loaded up instantly. The graphics on the fascia are green LEDs and it basically showed we had reached the main menu of the film. So I immediately stuck it on play and the film's credits began. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. The colours were way too vivid and bright - until I realised my brother had left the plasma on Sport mode. This was quickly changed to my preferred Cinema mode and everything was good.
Now I have already emphasised this is not a Blu-Ray player but what is being called a damn good DVD upscaler but skipping chapters and watching bits of the film tells me this is very close to Blu-Ray quality. I've seen this particular film on a standard DVD player around 2 years ago, on my PS3 last month but on the XDE500 we are jumping to a completely new level. Basically, it is double the quality of what I was getting on the PS3 - it is very close to Blu-Ray quality for me. It is ultra sharp, colours are natural, blacks are deep and picture sound is non-existant.
Messing around with the remote control and clicking on the Set-Up button brings the main interface up for the DVD upscaler. Here we can select Colour Mode, Contrast Mode and Sharp Mode. I tried all three settings; colour mode was disappointing adding far too colour to the reds and greens which left skin tones unnatural, contrast mode seemlessly made the blacks deeper (I cannot wait to try this on Sin City) but sharpness mode is the best compromise between the two and this looks like the mode which is going to be used most often.
Then there is the option to play the movie in 720i, 720p, 1080i or 1080p. I simply selected Auto and it went straight to 1080i so that is where I left it. Another neat tool is you can view the bitrate of the movie whilst its playing - this figure always keeps moving as the scenes ebb and flow before your eyes.
So that's about it thus far. I will try a DIVX disc shortly and see how good it is at upscaling content from downloaded onto disc from my computer. Unfortunately and something I would have liked is a direct USB port so I could have plugged my portable hardrive into the upscaler. Some players come with this portability but the XDE500 doesn't - which stops me giving the player a 10/10 mark.
I am delighted so far with the purchase and for the money (which some may seem as expensive) - if you have a comprehensive DVD collection and don't wish to jump ship to Blu-Ray just yet then this player is a must. It's not as good as the Oppo but then that is £300; £200 more than this player.
Cheers - Cobraman2008