hi, want to buy a upscaling dvd player for my sd dvds, i know the toshiba is new in the market but is it any good than the oppo 981?

hi, want to buy a upscaling dvd player for my sd dvds, i know the toshiba is new in the market but is it any good than the oppo 981?From what I have read so far I would recommend the Oppo 981. The Toshiba XDE player apparently uses an old Zoran Vaddis 966 chip (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=14500362&postcount=230) and based on comparison screenshots (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1058997) I think the Oppo 980 looks better. Also the Oppo DVD players have more features (such as resume disc).

hi, want to buy a upscaling dvd player for my sd dvds, i know the toshiba is new in the market but is it any good than the oppo 981?

For the money it is a pretty good deal. It produces a sharper image than the XA2 and to my eye it produces pleasing PQ. Others have said it produces a sharper pic than the Oppos but some may find it unnatural.

On those pics the Toshiba looks sharper and cleaner than the Oppo. It looks like a heck of a value for $149.00. When it comes here I'm in.

From what I have read so far I would recommend the Oppo 981. The Toshiba XDE player apparently uses an old Zoran Vaddis 966 chip (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=14500362&postcount=230) and based on comparison screenshots (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1058997) I think the Oppo 980 looks better. Also the Oppo DVD players have more features (such as resume disc).

Two problems, Richard.

#1, those screen shots are from the Oppo 980, which doesn't have the DCDi chip and is considered better than the 980 chipset (MediaTek?) unless mated with a display on which it causes macroblocking. So, a 981 may look even better than what we see in these shots.
#2, These are paused screens. The way that I see it, the Tosh doesn't necessarily look as good paused. Not sure why, but somehting to do with the software they are processing the picture with. I did notice on movie credits that they look very crisp and clear on the Tosh as they roll, but if paused, they jagg a bit which probably means the deinterlacer is not as good as on the Oppo.

I have both and I prefer the XDE500, but I am keeping the Oppo instead for the SACD/DVD-A playback and since more and more of my viewing has shifted to HD discs.

hi, want to buy a upscaling dvd player for my sd dvds, i know the toshiba is new in the market but is it any good than the oppo 981?

The Toshiba is a more sophisticated implementation. While it is true, that the processor on the Toshiba is dated, it is the software that makes the difference here. Based on the screenshots, my personal take is that the Toshiba gives you more options to get the picture to look like what you prefer with one or two clicks and hence why you would be better off with it. But, depending upon your display quality and screen size the difference is going to be most likely subtle.

Two problems, Richard.

#1, those screen shots are from the Oppo 980, which doesn't have the DCDi chip and is considered better than the 980 chipset (MediaTek?) unless mated with a display which it causes macroblocking on. So, a 981 may look even better than what we see in these shots.
#2, These are paused screens. The way that I see it, the Tosh doesn't necessarily look as good paused. Not sure why, but somehting to do with the software they are processing the picture with. I did notice on movie credits that they look very crisp and clear on the Tosh as they roll, but if paused, they jagg a bit which probably means the deinterlacer is not as good as on the Oppo.

I have both and I prefer the XDE500, but I am keeping the Oppo instead for the SACD/DVD-A playback and since more and more of my viewing has shifted to HD discs.

The reason for #2 is because the Toshiba is processing the image dynamically where the enhancements will change as the scene changes so the overall impact is more pleasing to the senses.

Two problems, Richard.

#1, those screen shots are from the Oppo 980, which doesn't have the DCDi chip and is considered better than the 980 chipset (MediaTek?) unless mated with a display which it causes macroblocking on. So, a 981 may look even better than what we see in these shots.

DCDi is for VIDEO based material only. It does absolutely nothing with film-based material.

#2, These are paused screens. The way that I see it, the Tosh doesn't necessarily look as good paused. Not sure why, but somehting to do with the software they are processing the picture with. I did notice on movie credits that they look very crisp and clear on the Tosh as they roll, but if paused, they jagg a bit which probably means the deinterlacer is not as good as on the Oppo.
Some DVD players do not output a full and proper frame when paused. I suspect this Toshiba is one of them.

DCDi is for VIDEO based material only. It does absolutely nothing with film-based material.

Can you further explain what you mean by this. Is film based material Movies that come out on DVD and is video based Television shows?

I thought dcdi was designed for dvd movies or are dvd movies considered video based and not film based. I'm confused by the terminology.

Yes, film based material would generally be movies. Although a lot of prime-time TV is actually shot at 24p today, the bulk of it, especially live events and "reality" TV, is video based.

The disctinction is blurred today because "film" is often shot with 24p video equipment and no actually film is involved. So when you hear "film" these days think 24p, and when you hear "video", think 60i.

DCDi has absolutely no affect on 24p material as it's actually a deinterlacing technique for 60i video.

#1, those screen shots are from the Oppo 980, which doesn't have the DCDi chip and is considered better than the 980 chipset (MediaTek?) unless mated with a display which it causes macroblocking on. So, a 981 may look even better than what we see in these shots.Depending on the video chips that are used that is possible but so far I had only seen comparison screenshots between the Toshiba XD-E500 and the Oppo 980.


#2, These are paused screens. The way that I see it, the Tosh doesn't necessarily look as good paused. Not sure why, but somehting to do with the software they are processing the picture with. I did notice on movie credits that they look very crisp and clear on the Tosh as they roll, but if paused, they jagg a bit which probably means the deinterlacer is not as good as on the OppoThat doesn't necessarily mean that the paused image is worse than the video since it might be due to having more time to observe the flaws of the image.


The reason for #2 is because the Toshiba is processing the image dynamically where the enhancements will change as the scene changes so the overall impact is more pleasing to the senses.Well that is definitely how Toshiba is trying to market it but I have seen an owner state (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=14496720&postcount=6) that they have seen pixelation with the Toshiba XD-E500 while the video was in motion. I have also seen an owner state (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=14514619&postcount=101) that the Toshiba XD-E500 gave only a slightly better picture than a $60 DVD player and that they decided to stick with the $60 DVD player since it had resume play. Just my opinion but based on what I have read it sounds like the Oppo 980 would be a better choice for a DVD player.

Whty dont you buy both and decide for yourself? There are plenty of Happy xd-e500 owners (including myself) and like what the toshiba is doing to the picture. I also own the Opp 970 &971 and am personally happy with all three especially the toshiba enhanced definition picture. I am just telling it like I see it..

I keep hearing the Toshiba does not have a resume feature. Mine does. I hit stop, leave for a few minutes then hit play and magically the disc resumes where I had hit stop.

Whty dont you buy both and decide for yourself? There are plenty of Happy xd-e500 owners (including myself) and like what the toshiba is doing to the picture. I also own the Opp 970 &971 and am personally happy with all three especially the toshiba enhanced definition picture. I am just telling it like I see it..

I keep hearing the Toshiba does not have a resume feature. Mine does. I hit stop, leave for a few minutes then hit play and magically the disc resumes where I had hit stop.
Turn off the XD-E500 and see if resume works. Mine did not.

Turn off the XD-E500 and see if resume works. Mine did not.

It won't resume which is a deal killer for me. I really wanted to get one of these players so I emailed Toshiba to see if it is really true. Here is my question and their reply:

Question:
Does the resume feature on the new XD-E500 DVD player work when the player is turned off and then turned on again. I want to be able to watch part of a DVD one one night, turn off the player, and then on the next night, resume watching where I left off. I bought a Toshiba DVD player 9 years ago and it could do this. I have heard that the XD-E500 cannot do it.

Reply:
Dear Karl:

Thanks for writing!

I apologize for the inconvenience. The feature you are referring to is called "last memory". Unfortunately our current product line DVD players do not offer this feature.

For further assistance, please write back or call our Customer Solutions Department at 1-800-631-3811. They are available Mon-Fri, 8AM to 7PM Central time.

Brett
Toshiba Customer Service

Everytime I read about the lack of resume on this new Toshiba, I can't help but choke in disbelief. All the hoopla Toshiba has churned out about this wonderful new XDE technology, and here they've designed out of their first player one of the most useful and basic features. A breathtakingly stupid omission. As I recall, the A3 I had for about a month suffered from the same shortcoming, and it constantly drove me up the wall.

It won't resume which is a deal killer for me. I really wanted to get one of these players so I emailed Toshiba to see if it is really true. Here is my question and their reply:

Question:
Does the resume feature on the new XD-E500 DVD player work when the player is turned off and then turned on again. I want to be able to watch part of a DVD one one night, turn off the player, and then on the next night, resume watching where I left off. I bought a Toshiba DVD player 9 years ago and it could do this. I have heard that the XD-E500 cannot do it.

Reply:
Dear Karl:

Thanks for writing!

I apologize for the inconvenience. The feature you are referring to is called "last memory". Unfortunately our current product line DVD players do not offer this feature.

For further assistance, please write back or call our Customer Solutions Department at 1-800-631-3811. They are available Mon-Fri, 8AM to 7PM Central time.

Brett
Toshiba Customer Service

OMG this is the resume (or lack of) feature people are complaning about??? In all my years of watching dvd's I have never powered off a dvd player and then turned it back on the next day to resume the movie where I left it at. I guess for some people this is an improtant feature but for me it is an utterly useless feature.

Turn off the XD-E500 and see if resume works. Mine did not.

Yes now i know what type of resume feature people are complaining about. It does resume if you dont power off the player. I never would have noticed because this is a feature I have never or ever will use so for me its not a big deal.

As one who has fewer posts than most people posting here, I think I can add a dose of logic with the following suggestion:

Buy both players then keep you like most. I've read enough comments about chipsets to wonder if maybe I have a chip shoved up my a... anyway. What matters is what your eyes see....I think, but I only have about 50 posts, so what do I know.

...so what do I know.

it's 'what the f**k do i know'.:p

maybe more than many of us.

So you guys who "don't resume," you start the movie all over again if you get interrupted for whatever reason or fall asleep while watching the movie? Another really useful resume feature is that you don't have to watch the annoying FBI and forced previews again.

I e-mailed Toshiba a couple of questions I had, too, and the response started with the same apology:

"Thanks for writing!

I apologize for the inconvenience."

I have since deleted the e-mail but the response went on to answer:

1. Yes, all their current 2008 DVD players are compatable with DVD+R media (not just DVD-R).

2. No, there are no plans to produce a Blu-Ray player with or without XDE upconversion technology.

3. No, there are no plans to produce a multi-disc DVD player with or without XDE upconversion technology.

That last one is a deal killer for me and I told them so. Home Theater screams for multi-disc DVD playback, imo, and I'm more inclined to rid my audio/video rack of a couple of single disc players than add another one to it.

So you guys who "don't resume," you start the movie all over again if you get interrupted for whatever reason or fall asleep while watching the movie? Another really useful resume feature is that you don't have to watch the annoying FBI and forced previews again.

Well if i ever fell asleep while watching a movie and then had to resume again I guess I would have to go through the great time consuming inconvenience of skipping and fast forwarding to where i had left off. I watch dvd-r's only so I dont have to deal with previews and that silly warning.

So you guys who "don't resume," you start the movie all over again if you get interrupted for whatever reason or fall asleep while watching the movie? Another really useful resume feature is that you don't have to watch the annoying FBI and forced previews again.

When you fall asleep during a movie how does the player know when you fell asleep and where the appropriate place is to resume?

When you fall asleep during a movie how does the player know when you fell asleep and where the appropriate place is to resume?

Good question...Maybe one day they will design a smart DVD player that can do this for me so I wont have to think. Actually if I fell asleep while watching the movie I probably wouldnt want to resume anyway..lol

OMG this is the resume (or lack of) feature people are complaning about??? In all my years of watching dvd's I have never powered off a dvd player and then turned it back on the next day to resume the movie where I left it at. I guess for some people this is an improtant feature but for me it is an utterly useless feature.
For me, it's an annoying feature. I'd rather go back a scene or two if I want to finish watching a movie just go get back into it a bit, but I suppose it could be a nice feature that you could enable in the menu, for those who absolutely just gotta have it.

As one who has fewer posts than most people posting here, I think I can add a dose of logic with the following suggestion:

Buy both players then keep you like most. I've read enough comments about chipsets to wonder if maybe I have a chip shoved up my a... anyway. What matters is what your eyes see....I think, but I only have about 50 posts, so what do I know.

Huh? This makes no sense at all. You do realize you are in the AVS forum? It is not only about chipsets but also involves test patterns, freeze framing and reviewing strands of hair looking for imperfections, etc. etc....lol

OMG this is the resume (or lack of) feature people are complaning about??? In all my years of watching dvd's I have never powered off a dvd player and then turned it back on the next day to resume the movie where I left it at. I guess for some people this is an improtant feature but for me it is an utterly useless feature.

Utterly useless to me also. I can't believe that anyone would think that this is a deal breaker. My goodness...just note the time and return to it if shutting down the player and restarting is that important to you.

I have watched tens of thousands of hours of DVD/HD video...have never used such a resume feature.

The E500 does not make toast or microwave dinner. Toasters have been around for 100 years. How dare they leave this feature off the unit???

resume mini-series and four hour epic movies

I've never used a resume feature either. It just doesn't seem like that big of a deal to skip chapters and get back to wherever you want to on a dvd. I would never let a feature like that keep me from buying something that improves the movie watching experience itself. Now if I were to try the player and find that it didn't improve the picture quality enough to put up with not having a feature that I really love, then that would be a different matter altogether.

I don't use resume much, but it does come up from time to time. Saturday, I had to stop a movie to run outside and turn off the sprinkler. Had I come back immediatley, the Tosh would have worked fine as the resume works unless you turn off the player.

However, I started talking to my neighbor and when I got back, the Tosh had turned itself off so I had to spend a minute or two getting back to where I left off. I think I can live with that.

Psychiatrists could have a field day at this site. Once you turn the Toshiba off you can't get back to where you were by pressing resume? Sounds like my wife - if I say something she doesn't like, which turns her off, I can't turn her back on and get back to where I was no matter how many times I press resume. :D

Psychiatrists could have a field day at this site. Once you turn the Toshiba off you can't get back to where you were by pressing resume? Sounds like my wife - if I say something she doesn't like, which turns her off, I can't turn her back on and get back to where I was no matter how many times I press resume. :D

LOL! So true. :D

well resume is important to me and probably some others. I watch tv shows alot and oppo can keep 5 disks in memory so I can always swap disks and start where I left off.

Yesterday, I bought the XDE-500 from circuit city and compared it with my new Oppo 980H on Samsung HL61A750 dlp tv. Video quality was very close among both dvd players. Audio is definitely better with Oppo 980H, something more important to me. The XDE-500 is good, but 980H works better for my needs and offers me more functionality.

Yesterday, I bought the XDE-500 from circuit city and compared it with my new Oppo 980H on Samsung HL61A750 dlp tv. Video quality was very close among both dvd players. Audio is definitely better with Oppo 980H, something more important to me. The XDE-500 is good, but 980H works better for my needs and offers me more functionality.


How is the audio better? Aren't you just bitstreaming regardless of the player? Just curious.

I am not an expert on the technicalities involved in this. My audio judgement is purely based on my listening of CDs and DVDs using Denon 2801 receiver and B&W 602 S2 speakers. In my opinion, Oppo 980H's audio quality is better than my old Panasonic Rp-91 dvd player and the XDE-500.

I am not an expert on the technicalities involved in this. My audio judgement is purely based on my listening of CDs and DVDs using Denon 2801 receiver and B&W 602 S2 speakers. In my opinion, Oppo 980H's audio quality is better than my old Panasonic Rp-91 dvd player and the XDE-500.

Ok, fair enough. However, if you are bitstreaming, it is the receiver that is decoding and the audio should be the same.

well resume is important to me and probably some others. I watch tv shows alot and oppo can keep 5 disks in memory so I can always swap disks and start where I left off.

:confused: I can't understand how Toshiba dropped the ball on this. The Toshiba I had 9 years ago did it. Like your oppo, the Panasonic S97 I am now using remembers 5 disks. Even the cheapo players you buy at discount stores do it.

:confused: I can't understand how Toshiba dropped the ball on this. The Toshiba I had 9 years ago did it. Like your oppo, the Panasonic S97 I am now using remembers 5 disks. Even the cheapo players you buy at discount stores do it.

well the whole build quality and interface is built very cheap. Like the OSD, and panel display. Looks like alot of corners were cut. Also the picture was unnaturally sharp, over all Oppo 980 I have was far better. I know alot of people like the XDE and said I can understand. DVDs don't have the resolution to be that sharp and when you sharpen low resolution, you will lose high frequency details.

I am not an expert on the technicalities involved in this. My audio judgement is purely based on my listening of CDs and DVDs using Denon 2801 receiver and B&W 602 S2 speakers. In my opinion, Oppo 980H's audio quality is better than my old Panasonic Rp-91 dvd player and the XDE-500.

I would expect the differences to be subtle. However, since the Toshiba applies the post processing selectively the benefits will probably be more noticeable in scenes with lots of objects. On a closeup of a single object you won't be able to see much difference. The sharpness works best on edges. I am talking based on playing around with video post processing software on a PC. My latest goal was to experiment with live streaming media :)

The Toshiba processing reminded me of the HTPC optimization results. But I am surprised they are getting these results on the chip that thy are using.

If you're outputting digital to your receiver, there just cannot be a difference between the Toshiba and the Oppo. If you're doing analog, then that's another matter and I won't be surprised if the Toshiba falls short. After all the Oppo is a DVD A and SACD player, right?

Huh? This makes no sense at all. You do realize you are in the AVS forum? It is not only about chipsets but also involves test patterns, freeze framing and reviewing strands of hair looking for imperfections, etc. etc....lol

Point of fact....it does make sense. I do realize this is AVSforum. What I also realize is that some people have a compulsive need to over-complicate things and use a bunch of technical jargon when it isn't necssary. When you ask me if I think a DVD player cranks out good PQ, I say "yes" or I say "no". What I don't do is get pissed or let my a$$hole pucker b/c it has an older chipset than Jimmy "the geek" Snyder thinks it should.

I dig tech as much as the next guy. When I get my GS-13 (you fed. employees know the meaning of this), I'll dig it even more. Peace.

Point of fact....it does make sense. I do realize this is AVSforum. What I also realize is that some people have a compulsive need to over-complicate things and use a bunch of technical jargon when it isn't necssary. When you ask me if I think a DVD player cranks out good PQ, I say "yes" or I say "no". What I don't do is get pissed or let my a$$hole pucker b/c it has an older chipset than Jimmy "the geek" Snyder thinks it should.

I dig tech as much as the next guy. When I get my GS-13 (you fed. employees know the meaning of this), I'll dig it even more. Peace.

Yes I know I was only kidding. I think sometimes we all get up in the technical aspect of things and just forget about common sense. Go with what makes you happy.

well the whole build quality and interface is built very cheap. Like the OSD, and panel display. Looks like alot of corners were cut. Also the picture was unnaturally sharp, over all Oppo 980 I have was far better. I know alot of people like the XDE and said I can understand. DVDs don't have the resolution to be that sharp and when you sharpen low resolution, you will lose high frequency details.

Someone on the owners thread did a mouse over of your comparison photos and it appears to me and many others that the XDE looks "better" than the Oppo, even with it dropping 1/2 its vertical resolution when paused. This technique is a great way to compare shots from different players and differences are immediately apparent. I'll be checking out the XDE for sure - wow!

All of my 7 dvd players-including the 983 have resume-it's a feature I love-I hate to go back and try to remember what point of an episode or part of a movie I stopped watching at.

hi, want to buy a upscaling dvd player for my sd dvds, i know the toshiba is new in the market but is it any good than the oppo 981?

The three selling points for the XDE are:

Sharpness
Contrast
Color

By default, the XDE is the better player compared to the DV-981HD. The DV-981HD will produce a more accurate image, but this will mean your picture will look soft, your colors may appear muted, and you will be limited to the contrast gaumet of DVD encoding.

Based off of the main selling points, the XDE is more aligned with the DV-980H than the DV-981HD.

Necromancer... i was considering the 980 on my pio6070 and was also considering the XDE. Just wondering why the XDE is more like the 980. Does the 980 make colors pop more than the 981?

As much as like to calibrate for a more accurate picture. It just seems I am the only one in the family that notices these accuracies while my guest at family party's are into the "WOW, Look at all the pretty colors" factor. Honestly speaking... i kind of like the pretty colors myself so I am wanting a player that will give me that effect.

The DV-980H out of box will produce a sharper more vibrant image than the DV-981HD. Even after calibrating to reference levels, the DV-980H has an edge over the DV-981HD in this regard.

If you are going for the "WOW" factor that a lot of people get when they go to electronic stores, then go with the XDE. Based on the comparison images, the XDE does a good job of adding edge and color enhancement without major visual errors.

Here's another review to confuse things a little more.

www.digitaltrends.com

I just purchased the Toshiba XDE500 and was really impressed! I guess you can call me a truly satisfied customer! I'm running out HDMI to the Samsung LNT4661F and with a Marantz 5.1 receiver. The image, while not true HD is still nonetheless truly impressive! I love the contrast mode...really gives the image a 3-D like quality! I know it's not perfect and the lack of resume feature when the DVD is stopped (mention in this thread) isn't all that important to me. There is some artifacts in the shadows but to me this is a massive improvement from my Samsung HD860 and step-up from the Sony DVP-NS700H which is also a truly nice machine. My friend has the Sony hooked up to a Samsung LN40A550 and the image is quite impressive.

I wanted to try the OPPO but the I couldn't justify the prices for an up-converting DVD player. This will suit me and in my opinion really lives up the hype! If Toshiba keeps on improving this tech, and keeping the prices reasonable, Blu-ray could see it's sales seriously cannibalized. I know plenty of people unwilling to give up on their DVD collections and convert everything to Blu-ray. There is a market here for SD DVD owners. Plus there are still plenty of people who are just plain satisfied with SD DVD tech and see no reason to up-grade to Blu-ray at prices 4 times the price of a SD DVD player.

I for one will up-grade to Blu-ray eventually when the prices are more reasonable. For now the Toshiba XDE500 is a excellent stop-gap!!! You know what?! It's just a damn fine player!

While I also agree that the XDE is quite impressive, I am wondering why people would limit themselves to a DVD only player at this time. Wouldn't you prefer to watch all the new titles on Blu Ray? Also, once you get a Blu ray player this will become redundant.

I am all for having a good DVD solution and agree that not all Blu Ray players are good DVD players. But the Samsungs are pretty good and so is the PS3 and BH 200 and perhaps the new Sonys. Think about the value of a DVD only solution.

My 2 cents

While I also agree that the XDE is quite impressive, I am wondering why people would limit themselves to a DVD only player at this time. Wouldn't you prefer to watch all the new titles on Blu Ray? Also, once you get a Blu ray player this will become redundant.

I am all for having a good DVD solution and agree that not all Blu Ray players are good DVD players. But the Samsungs are pretty good and so is the PS3 and BH 200 and perhaps the new Sonys. Think about the value of a DVD only solution.

My 2 cents

At $150 for an XDE, it's not a great deal when you can get the 80GB PS3 for about $275 (incl. tax) after the SonyStyle $150 credit card rebate (via Chase bank, see the SonyStyle website). I would pay $60-80 for superior upscaling in a DVD-only player, but at this point in the game, not $150.

Here's another review to confuse things a little more.

www.digitaltrends.com

Excellent review. They get it. The E500 is a great SD machine.

While I also agree that the XDE is quite impressive, I am wondering why people would limit themselves to a DVD only player at this time. Wouldn't you prefer to watch all the new titles on Blu Ray? Also, once you get a Blu ray player this will become redundant.

I am all for having a good DVD solution and agree that not all Blu Ray players are good DVD players. But the Samsungs are pretty good and so is the PS3 and BH 200 and perhaps the new Sonys. Think about the value of a DVD only solution.

My 2 cents

I have a PS3 and five HDDVD players. Several hundred Blu Ray and HDDVD disks.

The E500 is an excellent addition to my collection.

Sure, no problem, just sign me up for a credit card because I want to buy a bluray player at the price it probably should be selling at..

I'm sure the xde will drop faster in price than the PS3. Sony will probably give a bigger harddrive to justify the price staying up there in a few months again.

At $150 for an XDE, it's not a great deal when you can get the 80GB PS3 for about $275 (incl. tax) after the SonyStyle $150 credit card rebate (via Chase bank, see the SonyStyle website). I would pay $60-80 for superior upscaling in a DVD-only player, but at this point in the game, not $150.

If you want an upscaling player, the PS3 isnt a very good option. Its a fine BD player, but not for DVD upscaling(I dont use mine for upscaling).

So 150$ is not really much money if it is as good as some says.

If you want an upscaling player, the PS3 isnt a very good option. Its a fine BD player, but not for DVD upscaling(I dont use mine for upscaling).

For all intents and purposes, the XDE is not a great upscaling player either. What most people are excited about is the "wow" factor the XDE provides. It enhances the sharpness and colors of the DVD recordings to give an artificial, vibrant picture. For a lot of people, "wow" supersedes accuracy.

The PS3 is equal to if not a little more accurate when it comes to de-interlacing and scaling. But, unlike the XDE, it will give you the "wow" factor.

While I also agree that the XDE is quite impressive, I am wondering why people would limit themselves to a DVD only player at this time. Wouldn't you prefer to watch all the new titles on Blu Ray? Also, once you get a Blu ray player this will become redundant.

I am all for having a good DVD solution and agree that not all Blu Ray players are good DVD players. But the Samsungs are pretty good and so is the PS3 and BH 200 and perhaps the new Sonys. Think about the value of a DVD only solution.

My 2 cents

In my case with 800+ SD DVDs with many older movies and a mix of TV shows purchased in the last few months cheaply through sales. Also, looking to purchase a few PALs of movies I've never been able to find. So if a single BR player could offer:
- excellent upconversion
- region free hack
- PAL to NTSC support (projector only plays PAL through s-video)
- Video controls (brightness, color, contrast, tint) since projector does not handle these through digital connection
- handles 4:3 content properly
- decodes HD audio internally to support older receivers
- excellent BR output

If a single BR player could do all that I would get a single solution and work into BR. Since it can't I need two solutions and the SD solution is more important to me at this time. Personally, I am not watching that much new content and don't want to pay $25 for BR disks.

While I also agree that the XDE is quite impressive, I am wondering why people would limit themselves to a DVD only player at this time. Wouldn't you prefer to watch all the new titles on Blu Ray? Also, once you get a Blu ray player this will become redundant.

I am all for having a good DVD solution and agree that not all Blu Ray players are good DVD players. But the Samsungs are pretty good and so is the PS3 and BH 200 and perhaps the new Sonys. Think about the value of a DVD only solution.

My 2 cents


For me I would love to get a Blu-Ray player at this time but I just can't justify paying that much for the machine right now. $400.00 is still a lot more than a 150.00. I love the details in Bu-Ray and will eventually spring for either the Sony or Samsung but the cost of both the player and the discs are just to much. Not when you can get DVD's for 20.00, 15.00, 8.00 or 3.00.

When Blu-ray reaches those price points where discs are 20.00 and under and the players are 150.00 and under (And the all the firmware issues are updated so one can access all the special features of Blu-ray) I personally will be jumping on the bandwagon for I really love the quality of Blu-ray.

As for the PS3, I'm not interested. The design isn't attractive to me as compared to the standalone Blu-ray players which also match my home theater look. Plus I'm not a gamer anymore like I once was and having the PS3 and using only half it's features seems like a waste.

For me the XDE is a great intermediate machine. In fact I will likely have two machines in the future. If Toshiba keeps improving it's up-converting tech I will have that as well as a Blu-ray player since most Blu-ray up-converts only adequately. In that way I'll have my old collection of SD DVD's covered, while still enjoying the newer Blu-ray discs too!

I hope Toshiba keeps moving forward in improving Up-converting tech. I'm curious to see if it will affect Blu-ray sales. Because even thought I will most likely have two machines there are still plenty of people, (Non videophiles of which there are many), that will just cling to DVD forever.

For all intents and purposes, the XDE is not a great upscaling player either. What most people are excited about is the "wow" factor the XDE provides. It enhances the sharpness and colors of the DVD recordings to give an artificial, vibrant picture. For a lot of people, "wow" supersedes accuracy.

The PS3 is equal to if not a little more accurate when it comes to de-interlacing and scaling. But, unlike the XDE, it will give you the "wow" factor.

My experience is that the PS3 boost contrast and blows the highlights (clips) as a sideeffect.

I have no idea how accurate the XDE is, since I have no possibility to test it, but the PS3 is not something I recommend for DVD, but its a great BD player.

Psychiatrists could have a field day at this site. Once you turn the Toshiba off you can't get back to where you were by pressing resume?

Contrary to what you say, surveys show that 9 out of 10 psychiatrists want a resume feature. The 10th psychiatrist is an old guy who is still using his Betamax. :)

Coincidentally, a couple of weeks ago I heard Howard Stern and his gang on Sirius talking about the Last Memory/Resume feature on some DVD players. No kidding.

After years of using his DVD player, Howard had just discovered it would remember where he left off on a DVD he took out midway and set aside several weeks earlier and made it a momentary topic of his morning show discussion. He had no idea it could do that. Several other Stern show members didn't know anything about it either.

It doesn't surprise me that such a feature would get dropped by a manufacturer. I've seen this happen with really useful features on other products time and time again. A great feature is often widely understood and appreciated by industry insiders but never receives the attention it deserves at the point of sale in your local Best Buy. The Best Buy employee never mentions it to the customer, never explains it to the customer, never utilizes it as a step-up feature from one player to another, never "sells" the feature to the customer.

Consequently, if and when any of those customers respond to marketing inquiries about the reason they bought brand/model ABC over brand/model XYZ, the Last Memory/Resume feature is never, ever mentioned. Eventually, the marketing department tells it's engineering department that their great Last Memory/Resume feature that had everyone so excited at the DVD player manufacturers convention 6 years ago isn't helping them sell any additional DVD players and they might as well cut the expense of including it from their bottom line.

Happens a lot in product sales.

OMG this is the resume (or lack of) feature people are complaning about??? In all my years of watching dvd's I have never powered off a dvd player and then turned it back on the next day to resume the movie where I left it at. I guess for some people this is an improtant feature but for me it is an utterly useless feature.

I agree, it sounds to me like those that just don't care for Toshiba and are looking for any reason to complain. I picked up one today and have been enjoying very much. Being more realistic of any new tech, I don't expect it to be perfect. I broke out some old movies and really enjoyed them. To each his on. If you know of a $60.00 player that can do a better job then get it, I am happy with what I have. I will be buying more regular DVDs. I only buy BlueRay for the extra sound features.

So you guys who "don't resume," you start the movie all over again if you get interrupted for whatever reason or fall asleep while watching the movie? Another really useful resume feature is that you don't have to watch the annoying FBI and forced previews again.

I don't mean to be rude, but are you serious? I you are falling asleep then you would need to rewind the movie to the last part you remember. So how would the resume help in that case? If falling asleep on a movie is it really worth resumming.

While I also agree that the XDE is quite impressive, I am wondering why people would limit themselves to a DVD only player at this time. Wouldn't you prefer to watch all the new titles on Blu Ray? Also, once you get a Blu ray player this will become redundant.

I am all for having a good DVD solution and agree that not all Blu Ray players are good DVD players. But the Samsungs are pretty good and so is the PS3 and BH 200 and perhaps the new Sonys. Think about the value of a DVD only solution.

My 2 cents

For me, regular DVDs are cheaper and when new as low as 14.00 (base exchange) when BlueRays are 29.00 maybe 25.00. I don't know how dvds look on the blueray because I only used my HD DVD to play them. But I do like the way they look on this Toshiba. I also have a combo LG drive in my computer that looks great on both formats.

Picked up one of these Toshibas today at BB, very light and cheap but the navigation is lightening fast and the menus are nice. The Toshiba certainly extracts as much detail as possible from a DVD, more so than the Oppo I had, perhaps at the expense of not doing as well on test patterns. Nevertheless, I prefer the Toshiba.

Have just bought Toshiba xde 500 from CC. It's amazing what it does for SD. I have a Mts 4900 front projector and about 10x9 ft screen. Just spent the last couple of nights viewing about 50 different scenes from my favorite sd dvd's.
Almost all looked like HD, played Where Eagles Dare and Dances with Wolves - awesome picture. I have PS3 and Toshiba X2A players. The xde 500 does a better job upconverting sd dvd's. Made a believer out of me, am going to really cut back on buying Blu ray discs. Am still upset from all the money I spent on LD. don't want to make that mistake again, so bless you Toshiba. Its a GREAT DVD player and am recommending it to all my friends.
:)

Here's another review to confuse things a little more.

www.digitaltrends.com

This review, and some of the discussion here in this thread, is based on very out-of-date assumptions about the prices of Blu-ray players.

The writer says that there will be sub-$300 machines at Walmart by the holidays. In fact, the Magnavox has been under $300 for months at Walmart.

As of the last two weeks, you can get the Sony 300 for $229 and the new Sony 350 for under $340 at Amazon. Samsung and Panasonic prices have also fallen. And this happened in August.

There is going to be a price war on Blu-ray players this holiday season.

Any rational view of Toshiba's XDE strategy (as well as the other unconverts like the Oppo machines) must take into account what is happening in Blu-ray player prices.

The XDE is aimed at a very questionable segment of the market: someone who is discerning enough to seek out and pay extra for a good upconverter, but who is not discerning enough to be willing to pay more for the vastly better quality of Blu-ray.

I expect Oppo to be moving forward soon with a Blu-ray player, and frankly, I expect next January's CES to see the same action from Toshiba. After all, the best place to put an excellent upconverter is along with Blu-ray, where customers will appreciate both capabilities.

The XDE is aimed at a very questionable segment of the market: someone who is discerning enough to seek out and pay extra for a good upconverter, but who is not discerning enough to be willing to pay more for the vastly better quality of Blu-ray.

Its a very different price with upgrading your DVD-player, or upgrading your DVD-player and your DVD collection.

Bluray isnt just a hardware player, its also software, and the software cost money.

Whatever it cost them to give us this solution for better SD dvds is minimal in outlay for toshiba, relatively speaking. With The relative prices of bluray so much more than SD, it will be tough for people to lay pout the cash - other than the ones that are really dedicated to do so by shopping online.

Even if you have no problem spending money on audio gear or video gear, the recent failure of HD dvd just pointed out the sinkhole ($$$ and time) that investing in a whole new library can be. Yeah, bluray is significantly better in quality, but not on the price basis for the majority of people. When I watch HD movie over cablevision the resolution for movie is nice, but if the bitarte isn't high enough the picture often breaks up and pixelates when things get a little more intense on screen. Whatever you can say about DVD, sd as watched through a decent dvd upconvert doesn't do this for me. I can handle trading the resolution for for something whose flaws a re a little less. Once I came to this realization, I decided that I'm not going bluray for a few years at a minimum.

It's like the trap that audiophiles fall into when they get into test tones and minutiae instead of looking for good music and performances. But, it seems the tweakers and techies are more more prevalent now than they used to be due to the impressive snakes-nest worth of rapidly changing and developing technologies. Anyway, I decided that I'll just try to enjoy movies like I did for the 1st year or so after I got my plasma instead of continuing the continual pursuit of the best - which changes way too fast for me (even though I am willing to spend money).

So stop complaining about the XDE, it'll die if it really doesn't make any sense. I kinda doubt it though The software really need to be much cheaper for mass adoption to happen. Note: I've Owned a Oppo 970, 980, XA2 and, currently, a 983. I applaud the XDE since I have a bit of a letdown after learning the 983 won't be implemented to the full ability of its chip. I think of Oppo as a mass-market tweak company - this jibes well with my audiophile roots. So I'll be happy to spend less and get pretty close to the same thing..

Well I am on the fence. I bought an Oppo 981 a few weeks back but haven't hooked it up (we've been away a lot of the summer). I was excited to try it out, but know I am considering the XDE and selling the 981. I have a 4 port HDMI switcher, so I am considering hooking the 3 up (I also have a upconverting Pioneer) and burning 3 copies of the same movie and doing a side by side by side blind test. I like the resume feature of the Oppo, but it's not a deal breaker. Why can't we be normal and just buy a darn player and be done? It drives my wife crazy, and I am starting to get on my own nerves. :rolleyes:

Well I am on the fence. I bought an Oppo 981 a few weeks back but haven't hooked it up (we've been away a lot of the summer). I was excited to try it out, but know I am considering the XDE and selling the 981. I have a 4 port HDMI switcher, so I am considering hooking the 3 up (I also have a upconverting Pioneer) and burning 3 copies of the same movie and doing a side by side by side blind test. I like the resume feature of the Oppo, but it's not a deal breaker. Why can't we be normal and just buy a darn player and be done? It drives my wife crazy, and I am starting to get on my own nerves. :rolleyes:

For me it is the lack of support for showing 4:3 material in OAR that makes it a deal breaker. But it will still be interesting to hear your findings after performing a comparison across players. I agree, it would be nice if we could just get one solution. I'd be happy to move up to BR if I could find a player that could do all I need but it's not looking good. So it's separate SD and BR players for me. Even in that respect it's not easy finding the perfect SD player.

Read this:

http://reviews.cnet.com/video-players-and-recorders/toshiba-xd-e500/4505-6463_7-33224998.html?tag=mncol;lst

My experience was the same. I'm returning the Toshiba and keeping the Oppo.

It might be noted that the reviewer, Matthew Moskovciak, was the same person who reviewed the 4 Star DV-980H (http://reviews.cnet.com/video-players-and-recorders/oppo-dv-980h-dvd/4505-6463_7-32577127.html?tag=mncol;lst)

That review was comparing the 983 at one point, that seemed drastic given it mentioned 980h at the beginning. It's like calling the 980's bigger brother in an attempt to step on the toshiba machine.

The DV-980H out of box will produce a sharper more vibrant image than the DV-981HD. Even after calibrating to reference levels, the DV-980H has an edge over the DV-981HD in this regard.

If you are going for the "WOW" factor that a lot of people get when they go to electronic stores, then go with the XDE. Based on the comparison images, the XDE does a good job of adding edge and color enhancement without major visual errors.

Why would you say the 980 is sharper and more vibrant than the 981?

Does the 980 have some sort of EE and Color enhancer that cannot be turned off?

The Faroudja processing has been designed to adhere more to industry standards of brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness.

The DV-980H is slightly punchy out of box when connected to a display which has been calibrated with the DV-981HD.

The visual controls are the same on both players, but the scaling parameters of the Faroudja DCDi chipset will result in a picture which appears softer than that of the DV-980H. Having less scaling/de-interlacing accuracy enables more "detailed" image sharpening and color enhancing.

I have a PS3 and five HDDVD players. Several hundred Blu Ray and HDDVD disks.

The E500 is an excellent addition to my collection.

LOL...What are you doing with 5 hd-dvd players? They lost the war. I thought I was crazy for having 5 HD projectors, 2 PS3's, 2 xbox 360'3 and 5 dvd players (Opp0 970& 971, xd-e500, and two old panasonic's)..LOL

LOL...What are you doing with 5 hd-dvd players? They lost the war. I thought I was crazy for having 5 HD projectors, 2 PS3's, 2 xbox 360'3 and 5 dvd players (Opp0 970& 971, xd-e500, and two old panasonic's)..LOL

My guess is that he got them cheap and wants to makes sure he has a working player to use those HD DVDs in for an extended period of time. There's no reason the HD DVDs can't last a long time so it is the player that is the weak link and they will be harder to find as time goes on.

LOL...What are you doing with 5 hd-dvd players? They lost the war. I thought I was crazy for having 5 HD projectors, 2 PS3's, 2 xbox 360'3 and 5 dvd players (Opp0 970& 971, xd-e500, and two old panasonic's)..LOL

Why :) I author my 1080i TV recordings to HDDVD folders and burn them on DVD+R DL disks. I do the same with my 1080i camcorder files!

I need to have plenty of machines to cover my playback needs until I croak!

I also have a several DVHS machines. Hey...I think I have seven or eight minidisk player/recorders around here. I love dead formats!!

My experience is that the PS3 boost contrast and blows the highlights (clips) as a sideeffect.


Not sure how your PS3 is set up but with right combination of settings it doesn't clip and will pass below black/above white data without issue.

D

Not sure how your PS3 is set up but with right combination of settings it doesn't clip and will pass below black/above white data without issue.

D

Test Predator DVD, after they have extracted from the helicopters. While other players keeps a shade of grey of the sky, the PS3 blows the sky white.

EDIT

I will remake the same test myself tomorrow and se if I see the same stuff.

Here is also the the orginal thread were we discussed this among on other things
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1013480&page=7

I own an Oppo 980H. I bought it when I bought my 58" 1080p Panny plasma. This is my first HD tv, so I had nothing to compare the picture quality to. I have a HUGE DVD collection, so I wanted a player that would display DVDs as well as possible. At the time, that was the player people on this forum recommended for my setup. When I received it and hooked it up, I thought the picture, while good, was a little grainy compared to Blu Ray (I also have a Blu Ray player). Yes, I realize that it won't be as good as Blu Ray, however when you get used to 1080p, looking at DVDs, even good ones, is noticably poorer.

I have considered getting the Toshiba XD-E500, but the lack of a resume *IS* a deal breaker for me (and I'm not sure the picture quality would be enough better to warrant spending the money on yet another DVD player). I am very busy and rarely get to finish a DVD in a sitting. Besides that, I like being able to watch something else when I feel like it without being when I return to that DVD by penalized by having to wade through all the ads, menus, etc., to get to what I want to watch.

Hopefully the XD-E500 won't be the last attempt at making the picture quality of DVDs better and we'll get a play that has a full feature set plus even better picture quality.

I myself nearly bought a XD-E500 but without a resume / last memory feature I will not.

Granted I only use resume in certain cases.

e.g. Just watching Dead Zone final season with five or so episodes a disc and with resume I can just let the next episode start and power down the player.

Then when I want in the future e.g. next day, I can press play and start on the next episode without having to try and recall to which episode I have seen or watch the start up promos or disc menus.

I can not imagine it would have made much difference to the cost of the product to cater for us folks who use the resume feature.

Anyway Toshiba have lost sale....

Automan.

Hmmm. I was considering the DV 48 for $99 that also plays SACD and DVD-A. I may look into this Toshiba a bit more. My main reason is for upconversion of SD DVD. The price seems reasonable and B&M stores offer 30 day trial if it doesn't work out for me and I rather not own it. Price showing at Best Buy is $99, at least online.

It won't resume which is a deal killer for me. I really wanted to get one of these players so I emailed Toshiba to see if it is really true. Here is my question and their reply:

Question:
Does the resume feature on the new XD-E500 DVD player work when the player is turned off and then turned on again. I want to be able to watch part of a DVD one one night, turn off the player, and then on the next night, resume watching where I left off. I bought a Toshiba DVD player 9 years ago and it could do this. I have heard that the XD-E500 cannot do it.

Reply:
Dear Karl:

Thanks for writing!

I apologize for the inconvenience. The feature you are referring to is called "last memory". Unfortunately our current product line DVD players do not offer this feature.

For further assistance, please write back or call our Customer Solutions Department at 1-800-631-3811. They are available Mon-Fri, 8AM to 7PM Central time.

Brett
Toshiba Customer Service

Everytime I read about the lack of resume on this new Toshiba, I can't help but choke in disbelief. All the hoopla Toshiba has churned out about this wonderful new XDE technology, and here they've designed out of their first player one of the most useful and basic features. A breathtakingly stupid omission. As I recall, the A3 I had for about a month suffered from the same shortcoming, and it constantly drove me up the wall.

This missing feature on BD players like the BD30 that I have owned since January sometimes drives me nuts.