Toshiba Announce XD-E500 XDE (eXtended Detail Enhancement) 1080p Upconverting DVD Player

Having lost the particularly drawn out HD format war with its HD DVD format, Toshiba have decided to hit back at the victorious Blu-ray format with what is undoubtedly somewhat of a gamble by offering a new technology – known as XDE (eXtended Detail Enhancement) – that promises to deliver HD quality imagery from standard definition DVDs and the newly announced XD-E500 XDE player is the first player to come complete with this new XDE ‘upconverting’ technology onboard.

Introducing the new Toshiba Announce XD-E500 XDE player, said Louis Masses, Director of Product Planning states, “Consumers have embraced the DVD format like no other technology and invested in large libraries of their favorite movies. As the market moves towards high definition, XDE lets them experience their existing DVD library and the tens of thousands of DVD titles in a whole new way…XDE offers consumers a simple solution to add on to their HDTV purchase. XDE works with existing DVDs to deliver a near HD experience with enhanced detail and richer colors. Toshiba is delivering to consumers what they want — a high quality experience at an affordable price.”

Billed as offering ‘upconversion from 480i/p to 1080p’, Toshiba’s XD-E500 XDE is billed as offering a ‘customised’ viewing experience, which basically boils down to three selectable settings – known simply as Sharp, Color and Contrast – which allow users to, again according to Toshiba, ‘get the most out of their DVD movie-viewing experience on their terms’.

The three settings on offer are detailed thus:

• Sharp Mode offers improved detail enhancement that is one step closer to high definition. Edges are sharper and details in movies are more visible. Unlike traditional sharpness control, XDE technology analyzes the entire picture and adds edge enhancement precisely where it’s needed.
• Color Mode makes the colors of nature stand out with improved richness. Blues and greens are more vivid and lifelike. Color Mode combines the improvement in color with the detail enhancement of Sharp Mode and is ideal for outdoor scenes.
• Contrast Mode is designed to make darker scenes or foregrounds more clearly visible without the typical “washing out” that can occur with traditional contrast adjustment. Recommended for dark scenes where detail may be difficult to notice, Contrast Mode is also combined with Sharp Mode to provide a clearer viewing experience.

Due to begin shipping this month, Toshiba’s XD-E500 XDE, which additionally offers HDMI-CEC, DivX certification, JPEG capability, MP3 and WMA playback, will retail for just shy of $150.

Needless to say, the jury is well and truly out as to quite whether Toshiba’s XDE technology will prove popular with consumers as there’s no doubt that it will serve to impact little (read as: probably not at all) up the continued uptake of Blu-ray. Time will tell.