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RCA HD-DVD Player? (1 Viewer)

Matt Hough

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In Sunday's sale ads, I noticed a small ad (in Best Buy or Circuit City; I can't remember now which one) selling an RCA HD-DVD player!

Back at the beginning of the HD-DVD announcements, I remember that RCA was going to produce a player but then never read anything else about it.

Is there really such a machine and, if so, why hasn't the HD-DVD camp been making more noise about it?
 

Cees Alons

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It was given due attention in the HD DVD owners subforum. The HD DVD "camp", generally never makes very much "noise".

But as soon as it is mentioned somewhere, a BD-supporter will step in and stress the fact that it was manufactured by Toshiba, and thus "nothing but a rebatched HD-A1".


Cees
 

ppltd

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Does this mean, since Pioneer is manufacturing the Sony BD player, that the Sony is just a rebadged Pioneer?
 

Sami Kallio

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If Pioneer does the R&D work, makes their own player with the same design and then makes cosmetic changes with Sony badges, is it? How different is the RCA from HD-A1? What I have heard they are nearly identical machines.

I have the A1 and possibly have the RCA version coming my way. How much difference should I expect if you ignore the looks?
 

Jeremy Little

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I wasn't aware of this, where did this information come from?

I'd say that it would need to have the exact same internals to qualify as a "rebadged" player. The RCA machine and the A1 are identical units on the inside.
 

Dave W

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I am curious - Does anyone know if the RCA comes with the 2.0 firmware preinstalled since it is a rebadged Toshiba? If not would you be able to upgrade the firmware the same way as the Toshiba? I ask because my local WalMart (of all places) has several of these players for $448 on the shelf, with 3 free HD DVD movies (in-store I believe) and I have a $50 giftcard to WalMart so the "buy-in" price is substantially better for me on this unit than the Toshiba...
 

ppltd

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Actually, I think the RCA has a different feature set. At least the brouchre sates such.
 

Ron Z

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I'm seeing the Toshiba HD-A1 and RCA HD-DVD players for sale in my area. Seeing how the the HD-A1 is no longer in production, would it be safe getting the RCA player? If the RCA has essentially the same specs (5.1 audio outputs is what I'm looking for) and I can find it cheaper than the HD-A1, would this be a decent buy?
 

ppltd

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If it is a rebadged Toshiba as many are saying, it shouldn't be a problem. But I have heard that the updates are a lot slower getting to the user than the Toshiba.
 

Jeremy Little

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It is the same board as the A1 and XA1, the only difference is that they added the RS232 to the RCA and the Toshiba A1 doesn't have it.
 

Ron Z

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I guess that's my dilemma - not knowing if the HD-A1 updates are incorporated into the RCA player. And if not, then I'd prefer the HD-A1, especially if there might be issues getting updates from RCA.
 

Ron Z

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Maybe because these are different manufacturers, that the firmware updates don't specifically coincide version number wise, but still have the same functionality?
 

dpippel

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The RCA is a Toshiba in a different wrapper. The firmware is interchangeable. No maybe about it.
 

Ron Z

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Well, it seems like there's conflicting information on this, according to a posting in the HD-DVD forum.
 

dpippel

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Do a search on the subject at AVS Forum. Lots of info there. This is rather old news.
 

Dave W

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Thanks for the info all... Looks like you can use the Toshiba firmware updates on the RCA via CD-R and not via direct download but, thats fine by me. Also, Circuit City now has this player on sale for $379 AR so is an even better deal at WalMart (for me) with the price match :)

Just a note: Remember for price matches at WalMart they will need a copy of the ad so print out the webpage or whatever...
 

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