Having bid farewell to its HD DVD format earlier this year, Toshiba has been toying with various other Blu-ray beating technologies and has officially settled on eXtended Detail Enhancement.
eXtended Detail Enhancement, or XDE, is the latest upconverting technology from Toshiba and promises to "bring standard DVD quality closer to the HD experiences".
The technology made its debut today in Toshiba's $150 XD-E500 DVD player. The device, pictured below, takes your regular DVD and outputs an image at up to 1080p and 24 frames per second. In addition to the upconversion, the XD-E500 offers three user-selectable customisation settings; Sharp, Colour and Contrast. The modes are said to further enhance image quality, and provide a clearer viewing experience.
Despite the next-gen victory of Sony's Blu-ray format, strong DVD sales have highlighted the existing format as the preferred consumer choice. Though Toshiba is banking on continued DVD success, consumers may require convincing if they're to opt for the $150 XDE upgrade.
Louis Masses, director of product planning at Toshiba, said:
Consumers have embraced the DVD format like no other technology and invested in large libraries of their favourite movies. As the market moves toward 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 colours. Toshiba is delivering to consumers what they want - a high quality experience at an affordable price.
The XD-E500, of course, won't deliver true HD quality. However, those with an existing substantial DVD collection may welcome the upconversion on offer.
Official product page: toshibaxde.com
