Toshiba Wants Back into the HD Game with XDE

[admin]

Toshiba just won’t let HD disc player technology go. Six months after being blown out of the HD-format war with Sony's Blu-ray, Toshiba has a new high definition trick up its sleeve… XDE – a new upscaling technology that promises to doll-up that frumpy old 480p video signal.

Discuss "Toshiba Wants Back into the HD Game with XDE" here. Read the article.

 

[Bluesmoke]

I think I'm going to simply avoid any Toshiba product from here on in.

Sounds like Sour grapes to me and it's going to fall flat on their faces - again.

Why not just release a HQV Blu-ray player based on the XA2 HD DVD machine for a cheaper price?

 

[JackT]

Oh lord not this again.

 

[GlocksRock]

They need to just give it up already... if I want a good toshiba upconverting player, I'll buy one of their HD DVD players for dirt cheap.

 

[timone]

Toshiba will market it as an upconverting DVD player utilizing XDE technology. But the market is already saturated with myriads of this type of players. Those of us who have HD DVD and/or Blu-ray players know that we already have an excellent upconverting machine, so whgy bother with this one. I for one very very seldom watch anything but in high def. so this won't appeal to me. I'll save my $150 and invest it in something else.

 

[Audioholics]

We saw this tech at CES and to be honest it was fine... the problem is that to the average consumer there's barely a difference between Blu-ray and DVD at 42-inches with a $200 player...

 

[mardelgo]

I don't think this is a bad idea at all, what if this tech work, I personally don't mine a player that can make my DVD's collection (around 150 movies/concerts) near HD for 150 bucks, and if I understand correctly, is more of a player upgrade that will work even with old DVD’s. I do not plan to buy my collection again and again every time a new format is born. I know that it will be no HD, but if this work it is like an upgrade to my system but with out the need of buy the media that is not widely available in my country (bluray) when DVD is.... of course I think that HD media is better, and in the future I plan to buy new movies/ concerts in HD,but in the mean time DVD’s are still live for me. And even when HD is better that SD, is no where near the diference like VHS-DVD was...

 

[Djizasse]

The XD-E500 is shipping this month with an manufacturer suggested retail price of $149.99 and can be found at authorized retailers in the USA.

I'll see how they stack against the DVD-HD EP30 and EP35 or even the XE1 (which can be had for less than $150, except for the XE1).

 

[dobyblue]

We saw this tech at CES and to be honest it was fine... the problem is that to the average consumer there's barely a difference between Blu-ray and DVD at 42-inches with a $200 player...

Wow, I don't recall Toshiba showing this technology at CES! I do recall them scurrying around frantically to deal with Warner's HD-optical-disc-market-saving decision to drop HD DVD.

Oh wait, you must have been the one guy standing at the Toshiba booth!

Most consumers I've run into notice the difference between Blu-ray and DVD at 32 inches, nevermind 42 inches. The difference is pretty huge on the majority of titles.

Toshiba just won’t let HD disc player technology go. Six months after being blown out of the HD-format war with Sony's Blu-ray, Toshiba has a new high definition trick up its sleeve… XDE – a new upscaling technology that promises to doll-up that frumpy old 480p video signal.

Ah, but that's not HD. It's a 480i source. Pretty poor reporting.

 

[dobyblue]

I don't think this is a bad idea at all, what if this tech work, I personally don't mine a player that can make my DVD's collection (around 150 movies/concerts) near HD for 150 bucks, and if I understand correctly, is more of a player upgrade that will work even with old DVD’s. I do not plan to buy my collection again and again every time a new format is born. I know that it will be no HD, but if this work it is like an upgrade to my system but with out the need of buy the media that is not widely available in my country (bluray) when DVD is.... of course I think that HD media is better, and in the future I plan to buy new movies/ concerts in HD,but in the mean time DVD’s are still live for me. And even when HD is better that SD, is no where near the diference like VHS-DVD was...

a) you don't have an upscaling DVD player yet?
b) numerous receivers these days use Reon, Faroudja or Realta processing and upscale for you (so does the HDTV)
c) you're not supposed to upgrade your entire collection - it's day and date titles and "the biggies" (Godfather) that matter. No-one's expecting you to re-purchase Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
d) look up "patsy" - because that's what Toshiba is hoping you are

 

[Djizasse]

Doby, you don't like Toshiba, right?

I don't understand why so many people keep going back to the HD format war. They tried and lost, but are they supposed to cease all audio/video activity?
If their players are really good at upscaling and have a competitive price (comparing with similar units) it's all good.

If there's anyone to blame it would be the blue side, people aren't still convinced and don't seem to need it. If the blue players and discs had a nice price the market penetration would be much bigger and there simply would not be any market left for this Toshiba gimmick. The way I see it, the blue side is taking too long to aggressively take the market. Unless they're preparing to get the industry to stop all DVD production.

 

[PeterWhite]

If the blue players and discs had a nice price the market penetration would be much bigger and there simply would not be any market left for this Toshiba gimmick.

I fail to see why this would be the case. I didn't stop playing vinyl phonograph records when I bought a CD player and started buying new music in CD format. I have plenty of DVDs that I'll continue to watch and have no need to "upgrade" to Blu Ray, even though I have a BR player and most new purchases are BR. If someone doesn't want to spend big bucks on a new monitor, why should they buy a BR player at all?

That being said, who hasn't had a CD or DVD player stop working correctly? My very expensive Denon DVD player quit a few months back and I had to decide whether to spend big bucks to get it fixed or buy a new player. It so happened that BR had just won the format war so for me the decision was easy, I bought BR player and a bunch of discs. But if I didn't want to spend big money on BR discs and was just renting DVDs I'd have bought another DVD player. And if this Toshiba does a better job of upconverting low rez flicks than other players, why not?

People don't only buy new hardware because they want the latest and greatest. Sometimes it's just because getting the old hardware fixed is more expensive than buying a new player. And even if the price is close, if the new player works better than the old, why get the old one fixed?

 

[allargon]

Personally, I wish the war were still going on. We would see more BOGO's from the Blu camp. Disney and Fox would not have dared to release subpar catalog titles. (e.g., Patton and Gangs of New York) Of course, Iron Man would be probably released with DD+ rather than Dolby TrueHD.

 

[PENG]

Doby, you don't like Toshiba, right?

I bet you know the answer already. It seems that whenever someone reports anything new or good about Toshiba, someone would say "sour grapes". I would just continue to enjoy my cheap HD DVD discs and HD TV channels, then move on the blue stuff as soon as they become affordable (to me), as long as they remain being the best available HD alternatives at that time.

 

[Djizasse]

I fail to see why this would be the case. I didn't stop playing vinyl phonograph records when I bought a CD player

Vinyl is a special case

...
I have plenty of DVDs that I'll continue to watch and have no need to "upgrade" to Blu Ray
...
If someone doesn't want to spend big bucks on a new monitor, why should they buy a BR player at all?
...
if I didn't want to spend big money on BR discs and was just renting DVDs I'd have bought another DVD player. And if this Toshiba does a better job of upconverting low rez flicks than other players, why not?
...
Sometimes it's just because getting the old hardware fixed is more expensive than buying a new player. And even if the price is close, if the new player works better than the old, why get the old one fixed?

I agree with you. And if Toshiba can really make it work (which I really doubt) they could have a hit on their hands. Or not. 150$ is really not that attractive. My mom only bought a DVD player when they dropped to 40$. And I saw how the first sub 40$ units were a hit. Everybody started buying them.

Now imagine that you could get a BR player for 150$ or less. Would you buy the Toshiba unit or would you get the BR? The Toshiba would be DOA.

I wonder if most people would skip both and buy a 20$-30$ DVD player instead

 

[PeterWhite]

Now imagine that you could get a BR player for 150$ or less. Would you buy the Toshiba unit or would you get the BR? The Toshiba would be DOA.

If the user already has lots of DVDs, and if the BR player didn't do as good a job playing those DVDs as the Toshiba did, then there would be a reason to perhaps buy both. Heck, I'm about to spend another $150 on an Oppo player because it has the ability to output SACDs via HDMI, and that will allow my receiver to work its bass management magic on my SACDs. Perhaps I'm just a filthy rich elitist but $150 to get the best possible sound quality or image quality from disks I already own doesn't seem like a lot.

This means I'll have three disc players; a Panasonic Blu Ray, an Onkyp DVD-A / SACD player, and the Oppo. Once I have the Oppo the Onkyo will only be playing CDs on the assumption that it's perhaps better built and less use on the Oppo will help it last longer. Playing anything but BR discs on the Panasonic is rather frustrating since it takes so long to load a disc.

Now I'm looking forward to the expression on my wife's face while I try explaining all this to her. ;-)

"Three disc players? Uh, Huh?"

 

[Djizasse]

Perhaps I'm just a filthy rich elitist

lol

No not really, perhaps you're just a kid with a monthly paycheck.
I know I am

 

[dobyblue]

Doby, you don't like Toshiba, right?

I don't understand why so many people keep going back to the HD format war. They tried and lost, but are they supposed to cease all audio/video activity?
If their players are really good at upscaling and have a competitive price (comparing with similar units) it's all good.

If there's anyone to blame it would be the blue side, people aren't still convinced and don't seem to need it. If the blue players and discs had a nice price the market penetration would be much bigger and there simply would not be any market left for this Toshiba gimmick. The way I see it, the blue side is taking too long to aggressively take the market. Unless they're preparing to get the industry to stop all DVD production.

Why would "people" be convinced when the format is two months past its second birthday? What format has ever done that?

Despite being in a format war, BD is right where DVD was at 2y2m. Acheiving 8-12% market share on a weekly basis and heading into its third Christmas season.

DVD acheived over 50% total market penetration in 2003 when it finally outrented VHS at the rental locations. That means, in order to keep pace and be a format that will hit mass market, it needs to outrent DVD by 2012.

And who said Toshiba should stop all audio/video activity? Where on Earth are you getting that from? All I've said is that the wording on the article, talking about "HD", is incorrect. Upscaling DVD to 1080p is not "HD" anymore than 480p progressively scanned into a 1080p set which upscales it to the native panel resolution of 1920x1080 is. That's fact. You're saying it's "all good" doesn't sit well with me because it's not all good if you're claiming it's "near Blu-ray quality" or suggesting it's in any way, shape or form, high definition, because it most certainly is not.

 

[dobyblue]

Of course, Iron Man would be probably released with DD+ rather than Dolby TrueHD.

Ha, ha, ha!

 

[dobyblue]

I bet you know the answer already. It seems that whenever someone reports anything new or good about Toshiba, someone would say "sour grapes". I would just continue to enjoy my cheap HD DVD discs and HD TV channels, then move on the blue stuff as soon as they become affordable (to me), as long as they remain being the best available HD alternatives at that time.

Correcting an article that states this player is "HD" when it's not is sour grapes now?

Sheesh, that's a bit of a stretch.