Benchmark Performance

The XD-E500 had good performance in our core video tests. The player passed all of the Chroma tests, our Y/C delay test, and showed no issues with pixel cropping at standard and high def resolutions. The player's white level tested at a slightly hot but respectable 102 IRE and the XD-E500 does pass a below black signal. The frequency response showed a fairly even distribution with a gradual declining slope in the highest frequencies.

In our de-interlacing tests the XDE-500 exhibited drastically different results when outputting from the HDMI and component video outputs. When outputting from the HDMI outputs the XD-E500 passed all of the Secrets Benchmark tests and received a perfect score for that section of the benchmark. The player can correctly decode all 3-2 cadences, has a snappy recovery time, and is also motion adaptive. While I did observe some minor delays while locking onto the cadences it wasn't enough to fail the tests. Video based performance was equally good and the player passed all of tests.

When outputting from component video outputs the results were far from good and I couldn't get the player to lock onto any film or video cadences whatsoever. This will translate to a loss of detail when watching material that is not authored well. If your display or AV system doesn't have HDMI inputs then this player is not a recommended choice.