Toshiba XDE600

If you have an HDTV but are not ready to make the jump to Blu-ray, experts say you won't find a better performer or a better value than the Toshiba XDE600. The star of the show is Toshiba's Extended Detail Enhancement technology, which selectively boosts certain image characteristics to improve apparent picture detail. You still won't see all of the details available from Blu-ray Discs, but the image quality outpaces all other current and affordable DVD players according to reviews. Connectivity is extensive and sound quality with CDs is pretty good -- as long as you don't expect audiophile-level performance.

Our recommendation does come with two caveats, however. One is that the earlier Toshiba XDE500 racked up an unimpressive record with owners -- something the XDE600 seems to be avoiding thus far, though feedback is limited. The other is an inability to display 4:3-ratio DVDs correctly -- such DVDs are stretched to a widescreen (16:9) aspect ratio, which bothers some viewers. The XDE600 also makes little sense if you don't have an HDTV. Instead, the Sony DVP-SR200P/B (*Est. $35) is a good performer and is less expensive, though it can't upscale DVDs to HDTV resolutions.

Though professional reviewers on this side of the Atlantic don't review standard DVD players like the Toshiba XDE600 with any regularity anymore, we found a spate of thorough and useful reviews of the DVD player at British sites and publications, including TrustedReviews.com, What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision, ElectricPig.co.uk and AVForums.com. The player tested by those sites differs in some technical details from the version offered in the U.S., but performance should be identical. User reviews are still limited, but a small handful can be read at Amazon.com.