This a review of my findings with a HDMI cable and the XDE set to 1080p mode:

1)Compared to another Upconverter player;

XDE on sharp mode for this test.
I compared the movie Monster's Inc in a friend's PS3 to my XDE player. Verdict: The XDE perfomed MUCH better at upconverting than the PS3. I actually wouldn't recomend using a PS3 as an upconverter player. I guess Sony wanted to showcase Blue Ray better by showing a washed out image of DVD's while upconverting in their machine.



2)Compared to broadcast 1080i signal;

XDE on sharp mode for this test.
I played the movie The Incredibles on my XDE player while watching in on NBC.
Verdict: The colors and neatness of the image are identical on both. The only difference I could see was in the hair of the characters. It was a little bit more detailed on the 1080i broadcast. I estimate that my XDE displayed about 98%-99% of the quality of the 1080i picture, depending of the scene. Please note that the hair issue didn't affect the "fur motion" that Monster's Inc is famous for when I play that movie.

3)Compared to PS3 Blue ray Movie on a 720p 32" 60Hz LCD TV, to my 1080P 42" 120HZ LCD TV with the XDE;

XDE on sharp mode for this test.
The 2008 Incredible Hulk Movie.
Verdict: The DVD movie looked better on my XDE player and TV than the Blue Ray(BR) of The Incredible Hulk on the 32" TV.

XDE on normal mode for this test.
The BR movie of Speed Racer vs Speed Racer DVD.
Verdict: BR movie looked sharper than the DVD upconverted in my 42" TV. It seems that the DVD came with a shockingly bad transfer, specially since I love "The Matrix" upconverted on my TV set, which was directed by the same people. No XDE mode helped this movie at all.

4)Compared to PS3 BR movie in a 1080P 46" 60Hz LCD TV, to my 1080P 42" 120 HZ LCD TV with the XDE;

XDE on sharp mode for this test.
Movies: 08 Incredible Hulk and Iron Man.
Verdict: BR movies sharper, but not by much. I estimate that the XDE was giving about 95-97% of the quality of the BR picture depending of the scene.

Conlusion:
This was a personal test of my own experience using only my 2 eyes to compare differences. If you don't agree with me do your own tests and post the results, just be truthful about it. You see, In the BR(included in PS3) and HD DVD(optional on Xbox360) war a lot fanboys started having opinions and hate about the opposite formats, and now it has transfer to upconverting DVD vs BR. That's why you should be careful when reading comments and ratings of consumers about this type of products.

The Truth is that some people do want the best picture available, which in some cases is better, and in some other cases is about the same or a litlle worse. These people don't mind buying an expensive new player(BR players are coming down in price, but so are Upconverter players), and don't mind rebuying their movies again even if they cost more, because they see value in the sharper picture(Again, depending on the case). These are the people who are buying BR players and movies, and they are happy with ther purchase.

Other people are perfectly happy with what they have right now, and an upconverted player is just icing on the cake. It helps in the enjoyment of the brand new HDTV they just bought and they don't have to buy their movies again. I think that most adults with families and with limited income fits this category. A good upconverter on a good TV is truly good enough for them. Again, they will also be happy with their purchase.

Other people just like to have the newest gadgets. Some of them think something is better no matter what, just because is new. Sometimes this is true and sometimes is not, but they will also buy a BR player even if they don't buy or rent the BR movies much. Again, they will also be happy with their purchase.

So you see, it all depends on what you want. The truth is that the performance of the XDE is truly amazing for less than $85, which is what is running these days. It used to be more expensive because BR players were more expensive, but I think that Toshiba is doing the right thing in lowering the price to keep distance in betewen BR and their XDE player.

To finish, let me explain a little about the modes.

The best explanation I can give you about the Sharp mode is that it will bring your picture into focus, just like when you are using a manual 35 mm camera. When you rotate the lens, the image will look sharper. This mode works similar to that. That's why there was a huge difference in between the DVD played on the PS3 and XDE. It looked out of focus on the PS3.

The Contrast mode I don't use. Maybe it would work better on a black and white movie.

The color mode I use mainly in older movies to make the colors richer.

That's about it. Hope this helps anybody with questions about this fantastic player. Also no reliability or freezing issues with my unit. Have a good day, and thanks for reading.

PROS:
XDE detail enhancement is very effective, brings new life and detail to standard DVDs; excellent upconverting player even with XDE turned off

CONS:
Does not automatically show 4:3 material in pillarbox format

COMMENTS:
I've tried several upconverting DVD players (Philips DVP5990, Toshiba SD6100, and Sony NS700) but their performance improvement is negligible compared to my existing 4-year old Pioneer 220 progressive scan, non-upconverting player. Why? The reason is that my 32-inch LCD HDTV already has an equally good upconverting processor (all pixel-based TVs have built-in upconverters) and so the TV does a fine job no matter if I send it a standard 480i/p signal or an upconverted 720p/1080i signal. If you have a decent HD TV, the same is likely true for you, too. But everything changes when you plug in the Toshiba XDE upconverting player.

I was skeptical about the Toshiba XDE enhancement features and their promise to provide a better looking image for standard DVDs. After all, standard DVD video is fixed at 480i/p and there's no way to improve actual resolution if the information isn't there in the first place. To get more resolution, we can use HD content like that provided by Blu-ray (aka Sony) or HD DVD (aka Toshiba). With Blu-ray now the apparent HD standard, Toshiba's HD DVD technology lacks a bright future. But what if a company like Toshiba applied their HD DVD image processing expertise in order to breathe new life into the millions of standard DVD collections in existence? Well, inside each XDE player is a unique image processing chip developed by Toshiba (a derivative of their HD DVD development) that provides real-time, selective, image enhancements for sharpness, color, and contrast on regular DVDs. This unique processor/memory combination makes subtle enhancements to each frame in order to optimize the perceived clarity of the picture. And it works very well, especially with high-quality DVD transfers.

The XDE player allows you to choose from four XDE modes: Sharp, Color, Contrast, and off. Sharp mode provides the HD-like clarity in that it discretely adds subtle edge enhancement (for lack of a better term) to only certain areas of the video image that the XDE processor has determined will improve the clarity of the picture you see. Contrary to some internet reviews, the XDE sharpening method is nothing at all like turning up the sharpness control on your TV. If you crank up the sharpness on the TV, the TV applies sharpness (edge enhancement) to the entire picture regardless of content (just like it would if you cranked up color or contrast) and this brings undesirable visual effects. The XDE, on the other hand, analyzes individual portions of the image such as facial features, background details, eyes, fabric textures, etc. and then applies very discrete enhancement that, at a normal viewing distance, really do make the picture very HD-like in clarity. If you get very close to the TV and toggle XDE Sharp mode on and off, you'll be able to see the specific areas of the image where XDE has been applied -it is not applied everywhere and it changes from moment to moment. Similarly, the color enhancement mode in turn enhances blue and green colors to give some DVD material more vibrance (like trees, foliage, blue skies, animation, etc.) without negatively affecting skin tones and other colors. Finally, the Contrast mode selectively enhances contrast in various parts of the image to improve image quality in dark scenes and to bring out background detail. Both the Color and Contrast modes always include the Sharp enhancement by default. The Off mode simply turns off the XDE enhancements and sends out the standard upconverted image like any other DVD player. Switching between XDE modes is easy via the remote control and there is no delay between modes.

With a good HDTV using an HDMI connection (the XDE features are only available using HDMI) and a good quality DVD transfer, the results are immediate and remarkable when using XDE. I have tested many DVDs from my collection including The Shawshank Redemption, Amadeus, Lord of the Rings, Alien Quadrilogy, Blade Runner, A Beautiful Mind, etc. and each film looks much more crisp and clear when viewed at a normal distance from the screen. As a true test, I watched an HD recording of Shawshank Redemption that I Tivo'd off HBO HD and compared it scene-by-scene to my Shawshank DVD in the XDE player. The results were amazing and I could barely tell the difference between the actual HD recording and the DVD played back with XDE sharpness enhancements. If you watch your TV at a normal viewing distance (proportional to your screen size), all you will perceive is an increased clarity of the picture. The better the DVD quality, the better XDE works. Some lesser quality DVD transfers (and they are a dime a dozen) use a lot of image compression and edge enhancement -in some cases, XDE will only make these defects more apparent. However, the fact is that Toshiba has really taken standard DVD viewing to another level beyond typical upconversion hype. In addition, if the XDE enhancements don't provide the quality boost you want (say, on poor quality DVDs or some home-burned DVD-Rs) you can always turn XDE off. With XDE off, you still have what is arguably the best upconverting DVD player on the market.

Of course, now that I've watched so many DVDs from my collection on the Toshiba XDE, I can no longer switch back to standard DVD playback. The difference in picture quality is simply too dramatic now that XDE has set a higher standard for what can be achieved beyond good upconversion. If you have a decent HDTV setup and want to enjoy your standard DVDs at the highest possible image quality for years to come, the Toshiba may be the ideal solution. Even the best Blu-ray players available cannot upconvert and improve standard DVD playback like the Toshiba XDE.

Finally, the icing on the cake is that the Toshiba XDE has been smartly priced at under $100 and so it's hardly a gamble to see if it works for you. If you're looking for an upconverting DVD player that provides noticeable improvements in image clarity using cutting-edge image processing technology, the XDE is a perfect fit.

After purchasing a Toshiba 37" HDTV, I thought about replacing my Sony upcomverting DVD player with a Toshiba XD-E500. WHAT A MISTAKE!!!! I purchased the XD-E500 a ended up returning it to Best-Buy because the product did NOT even come close to the quality or options that my current Sony upconverting player has. I read all of the comments on the XD player, and thought that it was going to be the best component to enhance my HDTV. Without a doubt, Sony still has a better quality machine, plus works well with the REGZA link...the XD did not! The last straw that made up my mind to return the product was the high-pitched whining sound the XD made when it was turned off. Also, another low was the flimsy tray when it opened. I pride myself in making my living room truly a "movie" experience...sad to say that the Toshiba XD-E500 will never meet my standards. Check out the Sony DVD upconverting model DVP-NS700H...you will NOT be disappointed! I'm sticking with Sony, until Toshiba comes out with a product that can beat or match it.

I purchased this dvd player from Amazon on 10/03/08 and it died on me last night, less than 90 days later. The manual states the player carries a 90-day warranty, so I'm hopeful to get a replacement unit or have it serviced free. Still, it's a pain in the butt to have to go through this aggravation so soon. Before the player crapped out on me, it had a nice picture and I was pleased with it. However, I'm now skeptical of the reliability of this dvd player and Toshiba products in general.

I was very excited after reading the reviews on this upconverter. However, it did not come close to comparing to my Samsung upconverter. The picture almost seemed grainy to me. I watched a total of two movies before the drive belt for the tray broke. Not a big deal though, I opened it up and fixed it with a quality replacement band. I would recommend going with a BluRay player, but if you are like me, you have too many DVDs to start over with BluRay. This unit has been moved to the bedroom and my old Samsung has been put back in the family room. This unit was a major letdown and a waste of money in my opinion, when you could spend half the money on a better unit.