Toshiba Symbio BDX6400 3D Blu-ray Player (Sound and Vision magazine review)

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Toshiba Symbio BDX6400 3D Blu-ray Player

(Sound and Vision magazine review)

The Toshiba BDX6400 list price is $350, however at the time of this post Amazon is selling it for only $195.00 plus free shipping. One positive feature of the Toshiba Symbio BDX6400 3D Blu-ray player is that it passed all the video test bench tests. Also the Toshiba Symbio BDX6400 appears to offer a sharper picture quality when upscaling 1080P material to 4K QUAD HD when compared to the older $499 OPPO BDP-103. However most likely, the new OPPO BDP-103D for $599 will offer a better 4K QUAD HD upscaling picture quality when compared to the Toshiba BDX6400, but the BDP-103D was not used in the comparison. One negative feature of the Toshiba BDX6400 is that it can only upscale 1080P material to 4K QUAD HD. Playing 480i and 720P material on the Toshiba BDX6400 will result in the Blu-ray player upscaling to 1080P, and then ones 4K QUAD HD display will then upscale the 1080P signal to 4K QUAD HD. The resolution limitation on the Toshiba BDX6400 is not normal. All 4K QUAD HDTV’s and modern OPPO Blu-ray players have the ability to upscale all resolutions to 4K QUAD HD. As far as I am aware the Toshiba BDX6400 is the only Blu-ray player with this 4K QUAD HD resolution limitation.

There are many other negatives of the Toshiba BDX6400 that has a list price of $350. The Toshiba BDX6400 has no front panel LCD display, has no analog audio outputs at all, no DVD audio or SACD support, only one HDMI output instead of two HDMI outputs, and only has one USB port for BD-LIVE.

The OPPO BDP-103D for $599 has 3 USB ports, two HDMI outputs, 7.1 analog audio outputs, DVD-Audio and SACD support, a front panel LCD display, and an overall better quality 4K QUAD HD upscaling for all resolutions.

The following are select word for word quotes from the Sound and Vision magazine review

“The Toshiba sailed through our video test bench cycle without a hitch, nor did it hiccup in any way on any video material I watched.”

“But the Toshiba does a good job at this, and some may even prefer its illusion of added detail to the more prosaic 4K upconversion in the Oppo.”

“It’s getting harder these days for a manufacturer to build and sell a high-end Blu-ray player simply as a Blu-ray player. The market is saturated, and the latecomers, who finally realize that DVD is not high definition and a Blu-ray Disc offers the best quality video currently available to the consumer, seem content to pop for the $49.99 Blu-ray special on aisle 5.”

“The Symbio will play CDs, standard-definition DVDs, Blu-rays, and 3D Blu-rays. It will not play either DVD-Audio recordings or the SACD layer of hybrid SACD discs.”

“The Toshiba, like many other players these days, is also said to be compatible with Deep Color and xvColor (x.v.YCC). But no consumer sources or displays we know of currently use Deep Color, and the only sources that use xvColor are a limited range of Blu-ray Discs from Sony that also require a set specifically designed to make use of this feature (to our knowledge, that currently includes only a few Sony sets).”

“The player will not upconvert other resolutions, including 480i SD or 720p HD, to 4K.”

“But YouTube on the Toshiba was an ergonomic flop; it was so slow in responding to commands as to be virtually unusable.”

“My main reservation about the Toshiba for music playback is its lack of a front-panel display.”

** Click here to read the complete review at the Sound and Vision magazine website **