HD DVD At IFA 2006 Round-up - European HD DVD Players

Toshiba (Europe) has announced the first line-up of HD DVD players due for the European market. The HD-E1 [available from Nov 15, 599 euro] and the HD-XE1 [available from Dec, 899 euro]. Both players will support on-board decoding of higher resolution audio formats: Dolby Digital-Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD (DTS Core stream as only the DTS Digital Surround decoder is built-in), and player supports audio output up to 5.1 channels for all 3 audio formats.

A UK consumer site for these Toshiba HD DVD players have been set up and can be accessed via the link www.toshibahddvd.co.uk

What's the main differences between the 2 models:

• SD Upscale to HD resolution via HDMI:
  - HD-E1 (up to 1080i)
  - HD-XE1 (up to 1080p)
• HD output resolutions:
  - HD-E1 (720p, 1080i)
  - HD-XE1 (720p, 1080i, 1080p)
• 297MHz/12bit Video DAC (HD-XE1 only)
• HDMI connection supported:
  - HD-E1 (HDMI 1.2)
  - HD-XE1 (HDMI 1.3: Deep Colour feature supported but requires compatible display compliant with this feature)
• Audio connections:
  - HD-E1 (2-ch analog, Digital Optical)
  - HD-XE1 (2-ch analog, 5.1-ch analog, Digital Coaxial, Digital Optical)

HD-E1

HD-XE1

Thanks to Finn, our European reader for HD-XE1 photo taken at the IFA 2006... Check out the forum thread he has created to post the images taken at the HD DVD booth at the IFA.