Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

240 Respondents is a lot. I didn't know there were so many HD DVD owners on the AVS.

That's very interesting, given the very high score (97%) and also, I'm beginning to wonder what statements like "cobbled-together" etc. really mean. I suppose they are mainly FUD, and not originating from real owners of the machine.

Very good for Toshiba!
(My very first DVD-player, back in 1997, was a Toshiba. I still have a weak spot for that manufacturer and brand.)


Cees

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisified

If you check the id's of the 3% (it's a public poll) you'll find that most of them have very low post counts and recent forum enrollment dates. So I suspect that the returned category consists largely of non-owners (possibly a result of attempted damage control by the opposition).

Ted

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisified

Not only have there been an overwhelming amount of positive
remarks by owners of the Toshiba HD-DVD units, but the major
magazines are giving these models a big thumbs up as well.

I am very impressed with how well Toshiba launched this format.

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisified

Haven't tried a HD-DVD Movie yet but I'm so surprised on how well SD DVDs (Which is 75% of my Viewing) look on the Toshiba HD-A1.

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisified

Bravo for Toshiba and HD-DVD. They really got this one right. Sure there were a few hicups at first, but having free downloadable firmware upgrades or free firmware CD's in the mail which fixed most the problems, really made alot of us owners happy.

Cheers Toshiba and HD-DVD!

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisified

BruZZi,

Are you upconverting those DVDs or are you talking about the
quality at standard definition?

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisified

More and more positive reports are coming in about Toshibas player, they most certainly hit a home run with their player, out of the park. PC World rated it #14 out of the top 100 products of the year. HT Mag rates the player very high, gave the PQ a 98! Add to that their CS has been nothing but top notch. On the other hand, seems Sammy / Sony hit a foul ball.

Here's a couple of much earlier polls that went on over at AVS.

Toshibas:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...ight=thumbs+up


Blu-rays:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/poll....ts&pollid=3657

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisified

Yeah I dont understand this "cobbled" together comment either. I have seen it quite a few times, along with hack/rush job, gloried PC upgrade, when by all accounts, it is a well built, sturdy unit, made in Japan, and gets the job done and delivers excellent HD picture. You really cant ask for much more than this.

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisified

upconverted to 1080i.

I bought the player last night and didn't try other resolutions yet. I'm comparing the PQ against my Oppo 971H upconverted to 1080i and 720p.

I can't get a stable picture when I set the Oppo to output 480p (using the DVI input) with my Panasonic Commercial TH-50PHD8UK Plasma Display (This is a known issue and Oppo is working on a firmware fix).

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

Im in Japan and plan on keeping mine, I just ordered my A1 from etronics for 424.00. Cant wait to get it. www.etronics.com if anyone is interested in that price.

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

How did you manage to get it sent to Japan? I am in Germany, but they seem to be unable to sent it there.

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

I suspect that he is in the military or connected in some way. They will ship to American Armed Forces personnel who are oversea. If you knew someone in the US military it is possible that you could order one.

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

This is good news for HD-DVD. In a thread that was closed that I started, this is the thing I was talking about. HD-DVD is now 4 months old and still just as cheap as premium SD-DVD player and can upscale SD-DVD to 1080i, it's not a universal player but certainly the best out there for the buck. I hope BD manufacturers are reading this stuff especially Sony. I can see this growing even larger between now and October when Sony and Pioneer will release their players forcing them to really reconsider a dual format player. Heck Ricoh has got the hardware to read both formats and will be available at the end of the year, by then HD-DVD satisfaction rating may be well up there and to hard for BD to catch. Please note I'm not a BD player hater, I'm for what ever gives me HD content for the least amount of money. My temptation for HD-DVD is getting stronger and stronger.

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

That just sounds funny Jerome. Not a Player Hater, just too comedy. Guess I watch to many movies huh. As for getting a player shipped to Germany it may require some research but Im sure theres a company out there that will ship to Germany. I think etronics will, you may want to shoot them an email and see. Or you can try a freight forwarding company. I had to do this when getting my Polk Rti12s shipped out here, I went through Bax Global and the shipping prices are outstanding, its simple, you call the number arrange pickup from the vendor, prepay shipping and wait for delivery, I had my Rti12s in 4 days and paid 290 for shipping for the pair. A deal compared to UPS which wanted 1000 bucks and DHL wanted 700. Give Bax Global a shot.

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

As I stated early this morning under the thread of Ron's Review, I happened to stumble into a Best Buy yesterday that had just received two HD-A1 units. After getting my feet wet in the wee hours of the morning I woke up and proceeded to give my new player a thorough workout. This afternoon I closed all the blinds and sat in my darkened living room to watch "Constantine." What happened during that viewing has me very worried. My wallet is about to experience deja-vu. I have this extreme need to go pick up a couple of additional HD-DVD titles to feed to my new Toshiba. What I thought were subtle differences as I compared the SD and HD versions are actually even more apparent after viewing the standard version on my Pioneer Elite DV-C36. Last night I was switching the discs in the HD-A1. So, all the comments I have been reading from the current owners of this unit regarding its capabilities in enhancing PQ are right on. I am downright giddy at this point. Again, my player has demonstrated absolutely no glitches during its first run. I called Toshiba customer service to order the firmware update disc this morning. I had a short wait time before a very pleasant person took my information and said the disc would be on its way. In addition, she asked me to fill out and mail the UPDATE REQUEST FORM that is packaged with the HD-A1. I guess they will automatically mail any future updates! This is my second purchase of a Toshiba product and my experience in the last 24 hours has been stellar. If you are lucky enough to locate a player before the holidays I suggest you buy it. This player will not be on shelves as the holidays approach. By the way, you may want to take the next day off since you will surely be up all night playing with your unit! (Get your minds out of the gutter!)

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

Yes, they do automatically mail all update discs, and will even notify you via e-mail when to expect new ones. Just received my 1.4 update disc yesterday for my player purchased back in April. This is the 2nd update disc released in less than 3 months--Toshiba is really on the ball with this thing.

As far as pq goes this thing is phenomenal. I've had HD since fall of '01 and was getting a little jaded, but HD-DVD has really brought back the wow factor, for the same price I paid for a 480i only basic player back in spring of
'98 (quite a bit less adjusting for inflation).

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

SherardP, glad you enjoyed the pun.

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

AaronSCH is right, get it while it's good guys. I just got an email from etronics and my player is on back order. If it wasnt for such a good price (424.00) is the cheapest I seen on the A1, I would order from elsewhere but I want this thing now. Geesh now I have to twirl my thumbs for a few more days.

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

A buddy of mine who recently purchased the Samsung Blu-Ray unit is coming over tonight to check out the quality of my HD-A1. He thinks my exhuberance is suspect since he is less than ecstatic about his purchase. I think I will pop in the "The Perfect Storm" tonight. It was jaw dropping to watch. No, I don't work for Toshiba. I am just in love.

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

Let us know the out come .

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

yep definitely let us know what you think about the Samsung Player, how does it measure to the A1. Is it worth the 1000 clams right now?

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

Wasn't that one of the bad titles? Or am I imagining? I remember people saying it had transfer problems. If you want to really impress your friend show him one of the better transfers.

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

Training Day is a good one to wow people with. Perfect Storm looks good if you A/B it with the standard DVD.

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

Perfect Storm looked great to me but all of the dark scenes might mitigate the wow factor. Bourne Supremacy looks fantastic, but Last Samuari takes the prize for me with the sprawling green Japanese countryside...absolutely breathtaking.

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

Perfect Storm is probably one of the worst looking of all the HD-DVD titles. It is one of the 3 that came from an interlaced master and WB screwed up the deinterlacing big time. Blazing Saddles, POTO, Swordfish, or any of the Universal discs are much better demo choices.

Ted

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

As a follow-up to my demo of the HD-A1 last night. I took the time to make sure everything on my TV was adjusted and turned it on about 30 minutes prior to my demo so that the set was operating optimally. Well, even though a couple of you said it isn't a great demo disc, the Perfect Storm looks incredible on my Hitachi Projection TV. I think the worst HD-DVD title is by far "The Fugitive." Last night, we took a trip over to Circuit City and I purchased Last Samurai, Cinderella Man, Doom, Serenity and U-571 (I need a second job). I also purchased Van Helsing and I don't even care much for the movie... Well his discomfort was pretty obvious. He isn't sure what he is gonna do and he thinks the Blue Ray issues are strictly Samsung's problems. If he returns the Samsung, I think he will be feverishly looking for an HD-DVD unit rather than taking another chance on a SONY or Pioneer.

Personally, I am so sold on HD-DVD that I currently have about 100 DVDs for sale on Ebay (including some of the standard DVD titles that I now own on HD-DVD).

Here is is an interesting article about an HD Poll at DVD Town you folks might wanna give a quick read.
DVD Town


My DVD and HD-DVD Collection

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

As I stated earlier in other threads, I think the Samsung player is taking the hit for the shortcomings of some of the released software. Sony ought to be ashamed of themselves for messing this rollout up further by not supplying the Samsung with some decent PQ media. A terrible job by them, thus, people are assuming the Samsung player isn't up to snuff.

I'm keeping my Samsung along with the Toshiba HD-XA1 because I think things will be getting better for both formats, though, the Blu-ray software hit might be slower improving due to Sony's obstinance.




Crawdaddy

Re: Toshiba/RCA HD-DVD owners very satisfied

The BD isssue is more so a software one then Samsung. The player has issues but it's only projecting what it's reading. Sony needs to get away from mpeg2. Once they do that hopefully their PQ will match that of HD-DVD, but until then, stay away.