As all DD readers know, Toshiba’s HD DVD blue laser format was fatally wounded by the defection of Warner Home Entertainment days before CES 2008 opened. Even so, Toshiba hung in gamely there for a few more months before finally pulling the plug on its version of next-generation DVDs.

Toshiba kept a low profile until the middle of August, when they announced a new series of upconverting DVD players using XD (eXtended Definition) image processing technology to take conventional red laser (RL) DVDs to a whole new level. The company made it clear that XD technology would not compete head-to-head with Blu-ray Disc (BD), but instead offer consumers an affordable alternative to high-quality DVD playback while still having access to the widest catalog of movie titles.

BD player sales are still growing slowly, while upconverting RL players are very popular items these days. That’s primarily because of the still-substantial price premium BD players command over upconverting RL DVD technology, and secondarily due to the average consumer’s inability to perceive the advantages of the BD format.

I received one of the first review units of Toshiba’s XD-E500 a couple of weeks ago and put it through its paces. This player can scale red laser DVDs to 720p and 1080p resolution with a 60 Hz refresh rate. It also offers native 24p output, a first for upconverting DVD players.

The processing engine inside the XD-E500 doesn’t come from Silicon Optix or Anchor Bay, two companies that have previously provided silicon for Toshiba. Instead, Zoran Corporation is the supplier for the XD-E500. Its Vaddi 966 processor is doing all the heavy lifting while also handling Dolby Digital audio decoding chores on the side.

How does it work? Pretty darn good, although I can’t say it’s substantially better than OPPO Digital’s best upconverting DVD player, the DV-983H (that one uses Anchor Bay VRS processing). But at $150, the XD-E500 costs half as much, making it the least expensive (and only) RL player available today with 24p output.

There is one catch, and it’s a biggie: Progressive scan and upconverted video formats are only available through the XD-E500’s HDMI connector. The analog component video jacks are limited to 480i playback only, representing a major DVD paradigm shift. It would appear that the day isn’t far off when component video jacks on DVD players will be abandoned altogether; something OPPO first tried with their DV-981H a couple of years ago.

The fact is; the 11-year-old RL DVD format still has legs. An affordable 1080/24p upconverting player has strong appeal to the first-time buyer of a new 1080p LCD or plasma HDTV who is put off by the higher price of BD players and BD movies, not to mention the smaller number of BD titles compared to RL titles.

If Toshiba has any success with the XD-E500, you can bet there will more 24p-equipped upconverting RL players appearing right behind it. The likely sources of those players would be none other than Panasonic, Sony, LG, Pioneer, and Samsung - the "Big Five" in Blu-ray technology. And wouldn’t that be an interesting "turnabout is fair play" development, as we look forward to CES 2009!