Toshiba - HD-XA2

MPEG Maker: NEC MPEG Model: unknown Deinterlacer Maker: Silicon Optix Deinterlacer Model: Reon HQV     MSRP: $999.99 Website: http://www.toshiba.com

I got a lot of grief when I originally published my Benchmark review of Toshiba’s first HD DVD player, the HD-A1. At first people didn’t understand that the Benchmark tests only represent how the player did as an SD DVD playback device, plus they seemed like they wanted to completely overlook the functionality problems of the player because of the very nice HD playback. Being a reviewer, I can’t do that. This time around I am going to look at Toshiba’s newest flagship HD DVD offering, the HD-XA2. Just like the last time around, this Benchmark is based on its performance with standard definition material, because SD DVDs represent 99.999% of the available movies on disc right now. I will be following it up with a full review that goes over its performance as an HD DVD player with HD material, so keep a look out for that later.

The second generation HD DVD players from Toshiba are quite different than the first generation. The HD-A1 and HD-XA1 were on the larger side from a height standpoint and rather clunky from an operability standpoint. Their replacements have a smaller profile and are about half as tall. The HD-A2 and HD-XA2 are very similar in appearance, but the XA2 has some features you won’t find with the A2.

The XA2’s biggest asset is the ability to deliver a 1080p video signal from its HDMI output. This represents the first HD DVD player to have such an option. Remember that HD DVD (like Blu-ray) is encoded at 1080p24 on disc. Unfortunately, all of the first generation HD DVD players only offered a 1080i60 output from their decoders. This is very similar to most of the first generation Blu-ray players except they added a video processing chip after their decoder to de-interlace the 1080i60 signal to 1080p60. This is the same thing Toshiba is doing here except they are using a different video processing solution than we’ve seen on the Blu-ray side.

The XA2 uses an NEC decoder that outputs 1080i and feeds that to the Silicon Optix Reon video processing chip. I know of only one other DVD player on the market that uses this chip, the Denon DVD-2930. The Reon is a scaled down version of their flagship solution, the Realta. The Realta chip is the de-interlacing solution used in my reference DVD player, the Denon DVD-5910. I consider the Realta chip to be one of the best de-interlacing solutions on the market today.

The Reon is not much different than the Realta. Silicon Optix has scaled down its performance in some areas, but most of these areas will not impact the image quality much. The Realta was the first single chip video processing solution that I know of to handle mixed cadences that are rare, such as 8:8 and 3:2:2:3:2. While these cadences can appear in real world software, they are uncommon. The Reon drops support for these cadences but retains most of the other features of the Realta chip. This includes support for 3:2 and 2:2 cadences as well as the Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) video enhancement tools such as motion adaptive noise reduction and detail enhancement.

What this means for SD DVD playback is that you’ll get top of the line de-interlacing and scaling performance that is in line with some of the best DVD players on the market which cost a lot more. It also means that you can upscale DVDs to 720p, 1080i, and 1080p via HDMI.

The XA2 did extremely well with our DVD Benchmark tests for progressive scan performance. In its default mode, it passed all of tests with no issues at all, including 2-2 and our mixed modes. The recovery time of the Reon from video to film modes is also quite fast and better than what we’ve seen from Faroudja based solutions.

The NEC decoder does a fairly good job with our core video tests. The XA2 does not suffer from any signs of Y/C delay, and the chipset passed all of our CUE tests with standard DVD playback. I did see the slightest signs of CUE with HD DVD material, but it was extremely subtle. This decoder does fail our subtitles tests, so you will see combing with player generated subtitles. This is a decoder issue and cannot be fixed with firmware. Essentially the player is not generating the text to match the frames correctly, so you will see combing in the letters when they first come up or when they go away.

The XA2 is doing some minor pixel cropping with SD material. Four pixels were cropped from the left side of the image, and 1 was cropped from the top. We didn’t see any pixels cropped at 1080p with HD DVD.

One of my biggest complaints with the older HD-A1 was its user interface and extremely sluggish response times. Powering up the A1 took a long time, and loading a disc took even longer. While the HD performance made up for most of this, it is still an inconvenience. I am happy to report that this is not the case with the XA2. The power up time is still a bit longer than what you may be used to with a standard DVD player, but it is about half the time of the first generation Toshiba HD DVD players. Load times are very quick, with only a few seconds from the time a disc is inserted until it is playing. The layer change is quite slow though. Using our full bitrate layer change test, the XA2 was very close to a full two seconds of pause through the layer change. That is REALLY slow for a DVD player and can be distracting during a movie.

Conclusions

Well, I finally get to recommend an HD DVD player for standard DVD playback!! The previous HD-A1 was fine from a video processing standpoint, but its HDMI issues and tedious operability made it impossible to recommend for casual viewing or the average consumer. The XA2 is the opposite. The player operates like a standard DVD player, offers exceptional video processing performance, including 1080p support, and doesn’t have the operational quirks of its predecessor. For anyone looking to buy a great SD DVD and HD DVD player, this is definitely one to consider. Look for our full review, including HD DVD performance, very soon.

Video Frequency Response
Toshiba

Toshiba - SD-V592

MPEG Maker: Mediatek MPEG Model: MT1389FE Deinterlacer Maker: Genesis Deinterlacer Model: FLI-2310     MSRP: $249.99 Website: http://www.toshiba.com

The Toshiba SD-V592 is the very first DVD/VCR combo we’ve ever had in the Benchmark. Usually, combo players leave little to be desired, but this was a rare treat that really caught me by surprise.

The player is based on the Mediatek MPEG decoder, which is quickly becoming one of my favorites. The chip provides lightning fast access and seamless layer changes, as well as some of the best chroma performance on the market.

If you are using the component video outputs, the Mediatek chip does all of the video processing, including the de-interlacing duties. This chip varies in performance, and its ultimate levels depend greatly on the manufacturer’s implementation. This is one of the better ones. Thankfully, Toshiba has ensured that this player is motion adaptive, which is a rarity with this chip. The de-interlacing scores were quite good for not having a standalone solution. The player did fail our bad edit and 2-2 cadence tests, but this is pretty common, and even the big dogs like Faroudja and Silicon Image have trouble with these from time to time.

For our core tests, the analog side of the player did excellent. The only chroma issue I saw was the 4:2:0 ICP, but it was very slight. The Mediatek is one of the best chips out there in this regard. The video frequency response was extremely flat, with only a tiny bump down in the upper end. Y/C delay was perfect, and the player did pass a below black pluge. The biggest drawback I found via component was the white level of the player. It is quite low and measured in at 94 IRE.

Navigation was extremely fast and almost instantaneous. There are times that once the selection was made, the player would hang a tiny bit, but it was rare. Again, layer changes are absolutely seamless.

One of the bonus features of this player is the inclusion of an HDMI output. This output allows for resolutions of 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i, making it one of the few players that actually allows for 480i via a digital output. We have had reports though that some people’s players won’t output 480i. Realize that this is not a viable option if you are converting to DVI before you go into your display. Video processing via the HDMI output is handled by the Genesis FLI-2310 and is HDCP compliant. The HDMI output has some output problems that we are hoping Toshiba may be able to remedy with a firmware update. The Faroudja chip has several different video processing capabilities and one of these is a fine detail enhancer. Unfortunately this setting is maxed out on the chip and this results in blotching in colors. This can be easily fixed with software but until it does, the problem is quite obvious in solid colors. This only affects the HDMI output though.

Another issue is the white level of the player. This player is clipping some of the upper white information, but is retaining above white information. This is very odd and is the first time we’ve seen a player do this. It is quite apparent using the test patterns for contrast on AVIA. This player also exhibits the macroblocking problem that has become a staple of the Genesis FLI-23xx series chips. As we have stated many times now, this is always display dependant so be sure to test the player out on your own display before passing judgment.

This is the first player that has used the Faroudja chip and managed a seamless layer change, a feat that even Denon has not been able to pull off despite it being one of their trademark features. This is no doubt due to the Mediatek MPEG decoder which has been extremely fast in all of its implementations.

The player passes a below-black pluge via its HDMI output and conforms to the Studio RGB black levels (black = 16/ white = 235). I was not able to connect it to a DVI display input, so I don’t know if it correctly maps the RGB levels when converted to DVI. Since the HDMI output uses an entirely different de-interlacing solution, the results were a bit different. The Faroudja chip was employed well, and the only test that tripped up the player was the 2-2 mastering. Toshiba did not include a mode to support it, even though the Genesis chip can support that cadence.

This player really has the potential to be a great one. A simple firmware fix could put this player way up there in terms of performance via HDMI. As it stands now, this is a solid offering for supplying 480i digitally to an outboard scaler. I will be following up with Toshiba on this player’s drawbacks and update the site with any news on this player as we get it.

Toshiba - HD-A1

MPEG Maker: Broadcomm MPEG Model: Unknown Deinterlacer Maker: Unknown Deinterlacer Model: Unknown     MSRP: $499.99 Website: http://www.toshiba.com

DVD has been around now for nearly a decade. During this time, I must admit that I’ve owned my fair share of DVD players. Looking back, I realized that Toshiba has normally been a front runner in bringing a completely new technology to light. The very first DVD player I owned (and that most of the early adopters owned) was a Toshiba, and the very first progressive DVD player ever released was a Toshiba as well.

The Toshiba HD-A1 represents the next step in DVD: high definition, and is the first player for an entirely new DVD format, HD DVD. HD DVD uses blue laser technology (and red laser if needed) to encode more data on a disc. HD DVD can contain 30GB of data, which is more than three times the amount of data of a dual layer DVD!! That space is needed for the high definition video (1080p) and high definition audio (seven channels of 24/96 lossless). This is the first consumer medium to offer pre-recorded 1080p material.

Blu-ray, Sony/Philips competition to HD DVD, will be in some players later this year. We will report more on both of these formats as they come to market and settle out.

The Toshiba HD-A1 will play back HD DVDs at several different resolutions including 1080i, 720p, and 480p, despite the discs being authored at 1080p. It does not output at 1080p right now, but that might change if a software update becomes available later on. The HD-A1 supports standard DVDs, with upscaling support via HDMI at the same resolutions. For this Benchmark, I tested the performance of the HD-A1 with standard definition DVDs (Since HD DVD is a natively progressive format, there are no benchmark tests for progressive performance required). For comments on the player’s performance with HD DVD playback, see our full review!

I configured the player to output 480p via HDMI and component video. De-interlacing performance was identical with both outputs. The HDMI transmitter chip in the player performs a color space conversion from the discs intended YCbCr 4:2:0 output. This has become a common issue with DVD players that we don’t understand. The HD-A1 outputs 4:4:4 YCbCr via HDMI. It retains the full video signal using both the HDMI and component video outputs. This was not the case with the early run. Initially the player clipped head and toe room via HDMI but this has been addressed with a new firmware update. If your player still clips, contact Toshiba for a firmware CD.

I wasn’t able to figure out what de-interlacer the HD-A1 is using, but I will say it is better than any other Toshiba player I’ve tested in the past. In fact, the only test it couldn’t pass was our Bad Edits test. I use the “Making of the Big Lebowski” intro for this test, and combing was quite evident throughout the clip. I also used a test clip from Faroudja, and I saw the same thing there. Otherwise, the player did extremely well with all of our cadence tests, including 2-2. The recovery time of the player when transitioning between film and video is a tad slow but not any slower than the Faroudja-based players I’ve tested.

The MPEG decoder also seems to be quite good. The player passed all of our chroma tests with the exception of the normal 4:2:0 ICP test which requires chroma filtering to pass. There wasn’t even the slightest hint of the Chroma Bug (CUE) in our rather grueling Fish Test patterns. The rest of the core section was pretty good as well, I only saw two pixels cropped on the left side of the image, and there was no Y/C delay at all. It is really too bad, if the player allowed for 480i out via HDMI, the HD-A1 would actually make a nice transport.

My biggest complaint with standard definition playback is the player’s responsiveness and overall usability. This player is SLOW, and I don’t think I can emphasize this enough. For example, we decided to clock how long it took to put a disc in and have it start playing. Forty seconds later we started seeing a picture. Ouch. Heck the initial turn-on seems to take forever as well. Once you actually have a disc loaded and running, things get a bit better. Menu navigation is swift but not real fast. It is also extremely inconsistent. For example, I could not get the player to function correctly when navigating the menus in AVIA. Once I would get to about three menus deep, the player would no longer highlight the selections as I toggled through, so I would have to start counting and guessing based on what I pressed. This was consistent no matter how many times I tried it. How these things get past quality control just baffles me sometimes. The remote doesn’t help much either. It is very large and awkward, and the buttons are tiny and impossible to read in even moderate light. Toshiba is releasing a slightly more expensive version of this player that has a remote that lights up, so that may be a better option for anyone with anything less than perfect vision.

The layer change for this player turned out better than I expected. Using our Full Bit Rate Test, the player stopped for about 1 second through the layer change which isn’t too bad.

Conclusions

Be sure to read our full review of this player as it goes in depth on the A1’s performance as an HD DVD player and talks more about the main focus of the player; HD DVD playback. As an SD-DVD player, the HD-A1 could be a lot better. I’ve said it too many times now; the operability of the player is a big part of the whole experience, and the HD-A1 has a long way to go in this regard. While I don’t expect a first generation player to be perfect, I do expect better than this. The HD-A1 just feels rushed, and I haven’t even gone into the issues I’ve found on the HD DVD side. While I am excited about the future of video in our homes, due to the horrible operability of this player and other issues that I will go into further in the full review, I can’t recommend the HD-A1 as a SD or HD DVD player right now. I can't help but think this would be a very short term investment and this format will see better players long before this format really takes off. As a standard DVD player it is the best yet from Toshiba from a video processing standpoint, but its a big step back in every other department.

Video Frequency Response
Toshiba

Toshiba - SD-5980

MPEG Maker: Zoran MPEG Model: Vaddis 778 Deinterlacer Maker: Zoran Deinterlacer Model: Vaddis 778     MSRP: $149.99 Website: http://www.toshiba.com

Like the Samsung HD-850, the Toshiba SD-5980 is an OEM-based DVD player (meaning that a different company builds it for Samsung) that revolves around the new Zoran video processing. This includes the Zoran Vaddis 778 and the HD Extreme chip for scaling. These players are priced identically, and both provide an HDMI output, and even include an HDMI cable. The Toshiba adds a few more features, including some slots for different media cards (digital camera memory cards) for slide shows.

The Vaddis 778 handles the MPEG decoding and the de-interlacing, and does an average job with both. I was happy to see that Zoran has made strides with their chroma performance since the Vaddis 5 chip. This new chip doesn’t have any signs of the chroma bug and even does surprisingly well with 4:2:0 test material. This test normally requires special chroma filters that are usually found on high end video processors, but Zoran has done a remarkable job with their all-in-one solution.

Toshiba has included three different progressive modes for the end user to choose from. These include Auto, Film, and Video. The Auto and Film modes performed exactly the same, while the Video mode dropped the film cadence processing and didn’t improve on the video processing a bit. Because of this, we only suggest using the Auto mode, as it handles all material equally well. This player is not on par with the better de-interlacers out there, but it will handle the majority of DVDs just fine.

The core side is a bit of a hit or miss for this player. The HDMI output will not output proper RGB levels when converted to DVI which results in a loss of below-black and above-white information. If your display has an HDMI input, you should be fine though. Via component video output, this player’s video frequency response is a bit rolled off in the upper end, but not as much as the Samsung HD-850. It does have a smidgen of Y/C delay, and the player is a bit slower then the Samsung HD-850. The layer change clocked in at 1.25 seconds which isn’t bad, but it is a full second slower then the 850.

Overall, I don’t know which of these two I would pick personally. Neither has the video processing that would fit my needs, but I think either would be fine for most consumers. I wish there were a fusion of the two players out there since both have their highs and lows. If you are considering either of these two players, you should probably make sure you test both of them in the store before making a decision.

Video Frequency Response
Toshiba

Toshiba - SD-K860

MPEG Maker: Zoran MPEG Model: Vaddis 888 Deinterlacer Maker: Zoran Deinterlacer Model: Vaddis 888     MSRP: $79.99 Website: http://www.toshiba.com

The SD-K860 is Toshiba’s newest budget entry into the digital DVD player category. It is the least expensive HDMI based DVD player I’ve seen from Toshiba to date, and it offers commensurate performance to its price point. It is exciting to see HDMI based DVD players coming in under $100, but so far my experience with them hasn’t been very good. For our Benchmark, two big manufacturers have really let me down with their offerings and it all comes down to the core performance of the player, which is crucial. The SD-K860 definitely has some issues in this department.

The K860 is based on Zoran’s newest all-in-one MPEG decoder/video processing chip, the Vaddis 888. I have evaluated a lot of players that use Zoran chips and their performance is never consistent between models for some reason, so I was interested in seeing how this new chip would fare compared to their older models.

Immediately I was impressed with the chip’s chroma performance in our CUE tests. The last few Zoran chips have done well here, and this one seems to improve even more on their performance. The K860 passed all of our CUE tests, including the 4:2:0 ICP test, which is VERY rare. This MPEG decoder also handles layer changes very well with a near seamless layer change delivered with our difficult full bitrate test.

The MPEG decoder only outputs 4:4:4 YCbCr with no other selections available. The HDMI output supports 480p, 720p, and 1080i, and the component output supports 480i and 480p. There are quite a few differences in terms of performance between the two outputs, with the component output fairing a bit better in our core video tests.

The HDMI output suffers from over a full pixel of Y/C delay. This lends to a softer picture, as the two fields of the image are not converged properly, so there are some slight outlines on objects. The HDMI output is also clipping head and toe room. Video is encoded with black and white at digital 16 and 235 respectfully in an 8 bit system (255 levels). This player is truncating the information that falls after those points. Some don’t see this as a big deal, but it does not preserve the intended dynamic range of DVD, and it also creates issues for calibration.

There is absolutely no pixel cropping via HDMI at any resolution. This was nice, and a rarity in player testing lately.

The component output retains the full dynamic range of video and does not clip below black or above white information. The white level measured in at a respectable 99 IRE, which is close to the reference 100 IRE it should be. The analog video frequency response was also quite flat, with no artificial ringing or smearing in the upper frequencies. There is some slight pixel cropping via component, with a combined 5 pixels being clipped from the sides of the image, and 2 pixels cropped from the bottom. I don’t know why the component output has pixel cropping, but the HDMI output does not. They should match each other.

From a usability standpoint, the K860 could use some work. Load times - when you insert a disc - are a bit sluggish, and operability - once a disc is loaded - is slower than I would expect from a later generation DVD player. Menu navigation was tedious at times, with a lot of lagging in between selections. Chapter skips were pretty fast though, once a feature was started. The overall user interface and set-up was easy, if not a bit limited.

Moving on to our de-interlacing tests, the Zoran chip did pretty well for this price point. The player passed the majority of our tests, with the exception of our Bad Flagging tests. The player failed our 3-2 Mixed Flags and 3-2 Video Flags tests along with our Incorrect Progressive Flags test. So the player isn’t really cadence based, though it did perform cadence detections in some of our other tests. The K860 does handle a 2-2 cadence for video based material but its diagonal line processing is terrible, with severe jaggies using the HQV test disc material.

Conclusions

Overall, I found the SD-K860 to be a sub-par DVD player. There were some highlights, but the player needs work in its core video performance. This has become an unsettling trend lately in our tests. While I don’t expect top of the line performance at this price point, the issues found here should just not be a problem regardless of the price. Limitations in video processing are expected, not limitations in core performance. While this is an attractive price point for a HDMI based DVD player, I would have to recommend looking elsewhere.

Video Frequency Response
Toshiba

Toshiba - SD-K760

MPEG Maker: Zoran MPEG Model: Vaddis 888 Deinterlacer Maker: Zoran Deinterlacer Model: Vaddis 888     MSRP: $59.99 Website: http://www.toshiba.com

The Toshiba SD-K760 is literally Toshiba’s entry-level progressive scan player (July, 2006). It is as light on features as it is on price. This player is sold at major wholesale outlets like Sam’s Club and Costco and provides a reasonable amount of performance for the money.

The SD-K760 is very similar to the SD-K860 but is missing the HDMI output of the more expensive counterpart. The analog video performance is almost identical though. The K760 has an extremely small profile and is not very deep. Opening the player revealed a very small video board, a DVD transport, and a small power supply board. If Toshiba really wanted to, they could have made this player a lot smaller than it is, but I am glad they stuck to the standard width.

Set-up is very simple, with selection for interlaced or progressive video being the only real selections needed. The K760 uses the new Zoran Vaddis 888 MPEG decoder, like the K860 also reviewed in a recent Benchmark. This is Zoran’s newest chip offering, and its performance is quite good for an obvious budget solution.

The player performed pretty well in our core video testing, with only a few shortcomings. The Zoran chip does a superb job with our CUE tests, showing no signs at all of the chroma bug, even with our 4:2:0 ICP test. This is extremely rare for a one-chip-based DVD player. The SD-K760 passed our below black tests and its white level was set at 100 IRE, which is perfect. There is some slight pixel cropping, with 5 pixels clipped from the right and left side combined and 2 from the bottom of the image.

The component output suffers from over a full pixel of Y/C delay. This results is a softer picture, with artificial haloing around some images, similar to what you see with convergence problems in certain displays. The video frequency response of the player is quite good, and near flat. I didn’t see any loss of resolution using a multi-burst test pattern on my display or with our digital oscilloscope.

Overall, operation of the player was a bit on the disappointing side, much like the K860. Load times were slow, and menu navigation was on the tedious side. Navigating the menus on our AVIA and WHQL test discs was slow enough to become on the bothersome side, which is a rarity nowadays. The layer change was really fast though and near seamless, which is always great to see (or rather not see!!).

Moving on to our de-interlacing tests, this player did about average for a one chip solution nowadays. The chip seems to be a flag-based de-interlacer, as it failed the majority of our bad flagging tests. This includes the 3-2 Mixed Flag, 3-2 Video Flag, and Incorrect Progressive Flag tests. The good thing about the flag-based design though is its recovery time when switching between film based and video based cadences. It is near instantaneous.

The Vaddis 888 MPEG decoder handled 3-2 cadences and 2-2 cadences very well, as long as there were no hiccups in the flags, so the SD-K760 should do well for the majority of normal DVD viewing.

Conclusions

The Toshiba SD-K760 has the same shortcomings as the K860, but since you can find this player for around $50, I think a lot of the issues could be overlooked. This would be a good fit for a bedroom or kid’s room where you’re not looking for great performance or operability, but rather just an extra player.

Video Frequency Response
Toshiba

Toshiba - SD-3960

MPEG Maker: Toshiba MPEG Model: TC90602FG Deinterlacer Maker: Toshiba Deinterlacer Model: TC90602FG     MSRP: $69.99 Website: http://www.toshiba.com

The Toshiba SD-3960 probably did the best of all of the players in the July, 2004 shootout. Overall I felt it was a decent player but not as solid as some other budget units out there.

The player is built on a Toshiba-based MPEG decoder that also seems to handle all of the de-interlacing functions. In the core tests, the player did pretty well, passing our blacker-than-black and video levels tests. White level came in at a respectable 101 IRE. Video frequency response was good for a budget player with only a slight dip in the upper frequency range.

The user interface is pretty good with some menus but a bit sluggish with others. This player does pass all of our chroma tests which is a first for a Toshiba player. Y/C delay is not a problem, and pixel cropping is only slight with 3 pixels clipped on each side.

As far as de-interlacing goes, Toshiba has three modes available with this player; Auto, Film, and Video. Auto and Film are identical in our tests and did a fair job. This player does okay with bad flagging but is not motion adaptive. It is also flag-based, so you will see quick recoveries during transitions from film to video.

The Video mode is completely forced and will not lock on to a Film flag at all. I wouldn’t suggest using Video mode, as the Auto mode handles video just as well.

Overall, this Toshiba is quite good as an entry player. I would have liked to have seen a motion adaptive de-interlacer but as a flag reader it did pretty well.

Video Frequency Response
Toshiba

Toshiba - SD-4960

MPEG Maker: Zoran MPEG Model: Vaddis 778 Deinterlacer Maker: Zoran Deinterlacer Model: Vaddis 778     MSRP: $129.99 Website: http://www.toshiba.com

Toshiba ventures into the Universal player market with their first single disc universal offering, the SD-4960. At only $129.99, this is one of the lowest priced universal offerings I’ve seen to date.

The 4960 is based on the Zoran Vaddis 778 MPEG decoder and uses this chip for all its video processing duties. There are plenty of players out there that use the Zoran chips, but we have found that their quality varies substantially with each different model. The 778 chip didn’t do near as well as the Vaddis 5 does, which is the preferred Zoran chip.

This player is not motion adaptive, which at this point in the game is a must for a progressive scan DVD player. This player will drops into video mode with any flag issue and combing is quite evident. If the DVD is flagged correctly (which most aren’t), artifacts will be few and far between and the image should look quite good.

This chip does have an advantage over the Vaddis 5 though, better chroma filtering. This player did a superb job with almost all of our chroma tests and even passed the 4:2:0 ICP test. With normal 3-2 based material, there was a slight amount of jaggedness around the edges, so I gave it a borderline score for that test. The MPEG decoder did an excellent job synching the subtitles to the video frames and didn’t show any signs of combing.

The analog stage of this player was pretty good. There was no Y/C delay at all using Video Essentials Bowtie pattern and the overall frequency response of the player was decent, with only a very slight roll off in the upper frequencies.

Navigating menus was quick and painless and chapter skips were decent. I clocked the layer change in at about 1 second, which is respectable.

This player does pass a below-black pluge pattern but its white level is set a tad high at 103 IRE. This gives the image a rather exaggerated look in contrast levels.

This player does support DVD Audio and SA-CD and offers a single crossover point and level adjustments for each channel. It does not offer time alignment though, which is crucial for proper multi-channel audio playback.

Overall this is a decent entry for Toshiba, especially given the price point. I wish they would have gone with a slightly better MPEG decoder and video processor though.

Video Frequency Response
Toshiba

Toshiba - SD-6915

MPEG Maker: Zoran MPEG Model: Vaddis 7 Deinterlacer Maker: Zoran Deinterlacer Model: Vaddis 7     MSRP: $179.99 Website: http://www.toshiba.com

Here is another first in the DVD market. Toshiba has launched a universal changer, something I know a lot of you have been waiting for. Unfortunately you may have to wait a bit longer to get one that really works well.

The SD-6915 is based on the Zoran Vaddis 7 MPEG decoder instead of Toshiba’s own solution. This chip seems to be a bit of a step down from the recently released Vaddis 6. The Vaddis 6 had eliminated the chroma problems associated with the Zoran line, but here they return. The MPEG decoder passes our 3-2 Film and 2-2 Film CUE tests but not the ICP or 3-2 alternating tests.

As a de-interlacer, the chip did okay. Unfortunately, this solution is not motion adaptive and seems to be flagged based. On the core side, the player did pass a below black signal but has about 8ns of Y/C delay which is just short of our passing mark. Pixel cropping is not too bad, with 3 pixels being dropped from both the left and right side of the image.

From a user standpoint, this isn’t a very good player. The menus and chapter skips are quite sluggish and the remote is quite lame. There are a lot of shared buttons which makes navigation even more cumbersome then normal.

On the audio side, there doesn’t seem to be any adjustability for DVD-Audio or SACD. The time alignment and bass management settings seem to apply only to the built-in Dolby Digital decoder according to the manual. You also have to access the setup menus of the player to select which layer of the SACD you want to listen to.

While I am glad that someone has finally released a universal changer, this is a bit far from the level of performance I would have liked associated with it. It has quite a bit going against it both in the de-interlacing performance and core tests. Those looking for a universal changer might be better off holding out for something else down the line.

Video Frequency Response
Toshiba

Toshiba - SD-6200

MPEG Maker: Zoran MPEG Model: Vaddis IV Deinterlacer Maker: Genesis Deinterlacer Model: gmVLX1A and gmAMFC     MSRP: $999.00 Website: http://www.toshiba.com

These are all essentially the same, except that the 9200 and the Onkyo are heavier, and play DVD-Audio discs. Since we didn’t test DVD-Audio in this showdown, we’ll cover all three together. The 9200 and 939 had slightly different results on the de-interlacing tests, so it may be that Toshiba has tweaked the Genesis chip to optimize for different performance.

Toshiba - SD-9200

MPEG Maker: Zoran MPEG Model: Vaddis IV Deinterlacer Maker: Genesis Deinterlacer Model: gmVLX1A and gmAMFC     MSRP: $1299.95 Website: http://www.toshiba.com

These are all essentially the same, except that the 9200 and the Onkyo are heavier, and play DVD-Audio discs. Since we didn’t test DVD-Audio in this showdown, we’ll cover all three together. The 9200 and 939 had slightly different results on the de-interlacing tests, so it may be that Toshiba has tweaked the Genesis chip to optimize for different performance.

Toshiba - SD-3800

MPEG Maker: Zoran MPEG Model: Vaddis V Deinterlacer Maker: Zoran Deinterlacer Model: Vaddis V     MSRP: $299.00 Website: http://www.toshiba.com

The new Toshiba models use an all-in-one solution from Zoran, the Vaddis V. It includes deinterlacing, aspect ratio control, and video DACs all-in-one.

Video Frequency Response
Toshiba

Toshiba - SD-5700

The new Toshiba models use an all-in-one solution from Zoran, the Vaddis V. It includes deinterlacing, aspect ratio control, and video DACs all-in-one.

Video Frequency Response
Toshiba

Toshiba - SD-5109

MPEG Maker: Zoran MPEG Model: Vaddis III Deinterlacer Maker: Unknown Deinterlacer Model: Unknown     MSRP: $999.00 Website: http://www.toshiba.com

The 5109 was the very first progressive player released in the US, and it’s showing its age a bit. Its de-interlacing solution relies on an apparently simple detection algorithm involving looking at the flags on the disc. It seems to pretty much just use a film mode whenever the progressive_frame flag is set to “true,” and switches to a decent quality motion-adaptive video deinterlacer otherwise. It does handle the alternating progressive frame problem ("Titanic") reasonably well, but when it drops to video mode, it takes a long time before it switches back to film mode. The double-digit recovery times, almost 2 seconds, are not a misprint. Contrary to popular belief, we could not find any evidence of a Genesis chip in the player. As far as we can tell, this player (and the 9100), use a Toshiba de-interlacing solution.