Comments on: Toshiba’s Latest is Less Than “Perfect”

By: Charles "The Innovator" Atkins

Charles "The Innovator" Atkins — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 03:59:24 +0000

I guess that is where I have not understood things. I merely thought this was a upconverter. If it does better than a HD DVD upconverter then I might consider it.

By: inkling22

inkling22 — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 01:35:00 +0000

I have both HD DVD and Blu-Ray, but also almost 1700 SD DVDs in my collection. If it is actually beats what my Toshiba XA2 can do with upconversion, as many of the reviews seem to indicate, I’ll be looking at picking on of these up.

By: Charles "The Innovator" Atkins

Charles "The Innovator" Atkins — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:20:24 +0000

To be honest it would not matter to me one bit that Toshiba makes this. I think I am being less critical because of my endearing love for Toshiba. What irks me is that this being a supped up Upconvering player just makes me feel that Toshiba is hanging on to get back at Sony. I don’t see myself buying one because I have the HD DVD Players which are excellent at upconverting. I would have to see it for myself but I think this will collect dust on retailers racks even if they decide to even sell anything like this.

By: kdigital

kdigital — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:11:33 +0000

I don’t think this supposed to be a blu killer. I think it’s just supposed to make your DVDs much better looking than the current up-converting players are capable of doing. I agree with Pravin and think that if it were not from Toshiba we wouldn’t be wondeing if they were trying to compete with Blu. If this works better than my current up-converter, maybe I won’t need to buy all favorite titles again on Blu-Ray.

By: Pravin

Pravin — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:57:29 +0000

If another company announced this product, I’m sure we’d be able to see this as the latest up-converting DVD technology, instead of a move by a stubborn competitor.

By: ogscorpion

ogscorpion — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:27:56 +0000

There is no comparison between this XDE and Blu Ray. This is nothing but an upconverter DVD player, and it stops at that. It is not a true HD quality output, no live interactive menus, ethernet port, not lossless sound, etc. I think Toshiba has wasted another $$$$ on this one. It is a shame as I love their HD DVD players (and I still do as I own an A35) and I hate to see them pull something like this. Just like what Charles said, Toshiba needs to give it up and accept defeat.

By: Charles "The Innovator" Atkins

Charles "The Innovator" Atkins — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:53:07 +0000

You don’t think its going to cost them a lot more $$$$$ trying to create this product, create a marketing plan, creat advertising and at the same time get the average Joe consumer to see this as a better choice over soon to decline prices on Blu-ray players that go beyond this phase of smoother textures and clarity?? I think its fool hearty to think this new player will do more than confuse people already coming off the fence to Blu-ray only to have store sales associates to tell them well its better than a DVD player but not better than Blu-ray. Toshiba I loved you with your battle on the HD DVD format but give up to the dark side & go Blu already. You hurt me by giving up but you have to admit defeat.

By: kurtginter

kurtginter — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:46:51 +0000

Hey there folks! We’re having some really interesting reviews of this player over at: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/thebombshelter/ (mention my username “kurtginter” to gain access to the forum quicker. I highly recommend checking it out if you are interested in reading some killer ACTUAL user reviews on the new XDE technology or HD-DVD in general (as it is an HD-DVD Group). I know this is a shameless plug, but it’s really a great group and these preliminary reviews on the XDE Technology are well worth reading; some very exciting stuff! Check out posts number 12836 and any others in that thread. Sorry – but I don’t want to plagiarize their posts here.

I was really skeptical about the technology, but after reading some very in-depth reviews on it in the forum, I’m quite excied to check it out (I still need to see it for myself). I for one am very interested in the new technology as it seems it is putting current upconverters to great shame. I’d really like to see this tech go head-to-head with Blu-Ray, and maybe a good upconverter for a good comparison – there’s some folks over at thebombshelter doing these head-to-head tests and really do hae sme interesting things to say. I still need to see it for myself, but like I said, I’m actually kind of excited to check it out after reading these reviews.

Kurt

By: Jeff Bridgers

Jeff Bridgers — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:11:47 +0000

I agree with you Pravin,

It was reported that Toshiba lost millions of dollars, and was poised to loose millions more if they continued to support HD DVD.
The XDE ciruitry is probably good and based from the XA3 player. Maybe Toshiba is just not ready to jump into the Blue market just yet.
It did really cost them lot$$$$!

By: Pravin

Pravin — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:22:39 +0000

I thought the same thing about why didn’t they just slip in an HD DVD drive into these machines and keep some kind of “underground” HD DVD strategy going. I think the answer is cost. Toshiba can’t afford to sell a $149 player that does everything for HD DVD as well as all of this new XDE circuitry stuff. It would essentially be an HD-XA3, and it was only through heavy discounting that the XA2 and A35 players were ever cheaper than $300.