We all know that Sony won — or, more precisely, bought — the blue-laser crown for Blu-ray, making it the undisputed king of next-generation DVD players and media. But Toshiba is not letting the kingly head rest easy on its pillow.

Ken Werner
Senior Analyst and Editor

Toshiba threw in the towel on HD DVD because it had to, but didn’t spend much time licking its wounds. (Incidentally, I recently received in the mail a firmware upgrade for my HD DVD player, an unexpected customer-service gesture for a discontinued product line.) Toshiba quickly pushed out a line of economical up-converting DVD players to convince people that traditional DVDs are good enough, especially given the continuing high prices of Blu-ray players and media. But the company didn’t stop there.

This week, Toshiba introduced its XD-E500, a DVD player with enhanced 1080p up-conversion at an MSRP of $149.99. The new product "not only upconverts standard DVD to 1080p resolution, but also enhances your viewing experience thanks to three user-selectable modes: Sharp for added edge detail, Color for richer blues and greens, and Contrast for enhancement of details in darker scenes." Up to two of these modes can be used simultaneously.

"In a side-by-side demonstration with a current generation $69 Toshiba upconverting player, reported Grant Clauser in Dealerscope, "the XD-E500 clearly won out. "

Toshiba representatives made a point of saying the XD-E500 is not a "Blu-ray killer." Product planning director Louis Masses said the product is targeted at users who want to maximize the value and enjoyment they receive from their existing collections of DVDs when viewed on HDTV sets. Expect a serious advertising campaign in September.

The fact is there’s lots of market space for conventional DVDs to play in. Early this month, Tim Meade, Asia Pacific VP for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, said sales of Blu-ray discs could surpass standard-def DVDs as early as 2011. Blu-ray penetration, he said, will increase from 9% in 2007 to 25% by the end of 2008 and 40% of overall worldwide sales by 2011.

Those projections are at least credible because they’re relatively modest. Saying discs made to the only global high-definition DVD standard will have less than half the total market in three years is not impossible — nor even very impressive. Even so, that won’t happen unless the prices of players and discs drop to more reasonable levels. It would take a certain amount of humility for Sony to help that happen, and humility is not one of the kingly virtues. Still, lots of people throughout the supply chain will be pushing hard to make it happen.

Toshiba, on the other hand, will be playing the "it’s-not-Blu-ray-but-it’s-really-very-good" card for all it’s worth — and they’ll do it with a certain amount of humility. Toshiba, after all, is not the king. But it’s feisty.