Questions about Toshiba HD-A2 and older equipment (1 Viewer)

[Keith Mickunas]

I have an older Mits HD TV without HDMI and my receiver is a Yamaha RX-V1 that also lacks HDMI. How much of the A2 can I actually use? Will I get HD-DVDs in 1080i? What about SD with the newest flash?

Also, what do I do with the audio? I currently use a Yamaha DVD player that supports SACD and DVD-Audio so it is using the 5.1 input on my receiver. Will the A2 provide either DD or DTS to my receiver through the digital output when playing HD-DVDs?

 

[Shane Martin]

Yes, it converts everything to DTS and outputs via the digital output. To get the full blown True HD lossless you need an hdmi input or buy the XA2 with analog outs.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

Well I can live with that for now. For the time being I'm sticking with my Yammie and I don't want to lose SACD and DVD-Audio so I can't free up the 5.1 input. So there's no reason to buy the more expensive version.

I'm tempted by this player because of the deals available now. I'd been ignoring HD-DVD because of the format war. But I don't want to continue buying new releases on SD when I know that at some point I'll be getting an HD player.I figure at the current price it's worth the plunge.

Is there anything missing in this player? Once I upgrade to a receiver that handles the full HDMI spec, will I be able to use all the audio options available on HD-DVD?

 

[Cees Alons]

It's "required" for a HD DVD and BD player to refuse upscaling of MacroVision-protected SDVDs. A bit weird. Some brands won't even upscale non MacroVision-protected content.

Upscaling by the A2 and A1 (the one I have experience with) is extremely good. Some people said here that it's at least equal to or even better than excellent machines they were using before, like the Oppos.

The A2 preserves your current SDVD collection! (Beware, though, that it won't play SDVDs from different regions. I don't know, of course, whether or not that affects you at all.)


Cees

 

[Keith Mickunas]

I've got a modded XBox for the region free stuff, what little of it I have.

Has anyone done a review of how well it does via the component output though? It'll be a long time before I replace my current display so for the time being HDMI is irrelevant to me. I guess the SD performance isn't to big of a deal for me since I can still use my Yamaha 2300 if it's better than the Toshiba for SD over component video.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

You bring up an interesting point that I was going to ask about. In the owner's manual for the A2 it mentions that Dolby Digital + gets downgraded to DTS and you should use HDMI even for DD+ to preserve quality. I would have thought that since they are both 1.5m per second that the quality would be fine. Has anyone compared a 1.5m DD+ track through both HDMI (or analog on the A1) and the DTS downconversion?

 

[Shane Martin]

Secrets has something I'm sure. The A2 is a nice HD player and worth it especially considering how cheap they are now.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

They've done the XA2, but not the A2. It's unbelievable to me that these players still have pauses on the layer change. I know some manufacturers got rid of those years ago. How can a thousand dollar player be like that?

They did say that otherwise the XA2 is an excellent SD player. If the A2 shares some similar components that could be a good sign.

 

[Dave H]

The A2 is very good for film-based DVDs; however, if you watch video-based material (certain TV shows, animation, etc.) it's not very good. You'll see more artifacts, jaggies, etc. than you would with other players/deinterlacers. The XA2 which uses the Reon chipset will be much, much better here.