Toshiba unveils the ‘Smarter DVD’ Player - the NEW Blu-ray killer!

For far too many months, us the general public, had to sit back and watch the mega companies fight like old women to get their new high-definition DVD brand and make to be the excepted version. On one side there was Sony with their Blu-Ray, and on the other was Toshiba with the HD-DVD.

As the months pasted, nasty tactics by Sony finally meant that their version won - even through the Blu-Ray is no way a superior product compared to the HD-DVD - almost exactly like the VHS vs Beta-Max wars in the late 1970s, where the better product looses out to the back room deals and secret handshakes.

It now seems that Toshiba had a secret back up plan all along - and this week the first glimpses are now filtering through. Toshiba showed a DVD player with advanced up-converting capabilities last week, following through on an idea mentioned by its CEO five months ago in the wake of HD DVD’s demise.

The XDE-E500 DVD player “is not a Blu-ray killer,” said the Toshiba executive who ran the demo. (Oh of course not!) The XDE stands for eXtended Definition Enhancement and consists of three circuits. Their names are familiar, because they resemble ordinary TV controls, but that is misleading, because they are more sophisticated than ordinary TV controls.

The “sharp” mode intelligently analyzes the scene and applies edge enhancement only where needed, so you might see more detail in a garment, but no additional noise in clouds. The press release describes it as “one step closer to high definition.”

“Contrast” takes a similar approach to improving detail in dark scenes. In the example I was shown it worked on foreground objects while leaving backgrounds untouched. The “colour” mode pumps blue and green and is intended for outdoor scenes — it was the one I found least convincing.

Do home movie buffs need this product? It’s certainly no substitute for the true high-def picture of Blu-ray (or HD DVD, for that matter). But if you’ve got a small high-def-capable bedroom set, say a 32-inch, and don’t want to shell out for a Blu-ray player in every room of the house (and then have the horrid task of repurchasing your favoutie films all over again!), this product might be a viable option. The price is $149.99—more than a cheap DVD player, but a lot less than entry-level Blu-ray models at $399—and the product will ship this week in the USA.

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