How about the Toshiba HD-XA2's improvements, anyone?

Re: How about the Toshiba HD-XA2's improvements, anyone?

I don't have an HD-AX2, but as I understand it, the 720P problem on the first-gen HD-DVD players was corrected with a firmware upgrade some time ago. I'd imagine the 2nd gen players would do 720 downconversion correctly right out of the box in this case.

Vincent

Re: How about the Toshiba HD-XA2's improvements, anyone?

Vincent, correct again as usual. Firmware 2.0 fixed a few items and upgraded a few more, one of which is the improved image quality to what it should be on 720p output.

Carl, here's a few answers to your questions:

Upon launch, which is 1/3/07 at my company, we will have 1080p at 60fps. By February the XA2 will have a firmware upgrade that will enable 1080p 24 or 60 Hz. The selectable frame rate for 1080p will be done in the set up menu. If you put a 1080p 60 signal into most 1080p 24 displays you will get no image and the same is true for the 1080 p 24 feed into a 60 Hz display.

I use Hz and fps interchangeably as it is correct to do so, fps stands for frames per second. Cinematography is shot at 24 fps so the native refresh rate of all content shot on film is 24 fps. Needless to say if we can keep the native 24 fps through the process and feed it into a 1080p 24 Hz display you will get the best results.

HDMI improves the image quality by providing "Deep Color", Deep Color is a greatly increased color pallet of over 16 million colors, far morte than we are seeing by our current HDTVs. However to get the benefit of Deep Color you would need to have a HDMI display and to date we have no HDTVs that accept HDMI 1.3. Epson will be the first front projector company to deliver a HDMI 1.3 display. CES will likely have more brands and models of HDMI 1.3 products on display, which are expected to be on the market in October 2007.

Although you did not ask, here's a few more major benefits of Toshiba's new flagship generation 2 HD DVD player:

1. Advanced Color Management Tools. You can easily set up and calibrate the HD DVD HDMI and Component video inputs of any HDTV with these advanced but easy to operate color management tools.

2. Silicon Optix Reon video processor. This process is one of the highest rated video processors and is used in high end stand alone video processors that sell for many thousands of dollars. Toshiba HD DVD product specialists have told me the image quality of HD and SD DVDs are very nicely improved by the is high end, built-in video processor.

-Robert

Re: How about the Toshiba HD-XA2's improvements, anyone?

I'm a relative newbie to this, and your post has me a little confused on the difference between 24 and 60 displays so can I ask a simple question? I'm going to be buying the Sony 46X2000 LCD TV soon (this is a native 1080 panel) to be used with the HD-XA2. Via the HDMI input, this TV accepts 1080p, 1080i and 720p as well as standard definition inputs (both progressive and interlaced). But the specification doesn't refer to frame rates at all. So can you explain whether it will accept 24 fps or 60 fps (or both?), as I'm not sure whether I will need the February firmware update that you mentioned.

Thanks in anticipation.

Re: How about the Toshiba HD-XA2's improvements, anyone?

Robert can confirm, but I'm pretty sure any consumer 1080p set out there right now accepts 1080p/60. There aren't many consumer displays that accept 1080p/24, from what I understand (I know the newer Sony front projectors do, though). Nobody should need the firmware update to get it to work with their existing display. It should just give those that can feed their display a 1080p/24 signal something to play with in February.

Re: How about the Toshiba HD-XA2's improvements, anyone?

Brandon, perfectly said. Bruce's new LCD HDTV is a 1080p 60 Hz display.

Carl, I believe the player will come back up in the same settings, but we'll see once we start shipping them tomorrow.

Toshiba will provide update to the firmware to fix any issues and upgrade the player and you can do so through it's build-in Ethernet RJ45 connection or by ordering a upgrade disc from Toshiba.

-Robert

Re: How about the Toshiba HD-XA2's improvements, anyone?

I guess I'll have to wait a bit, but are the A2 and XA2 based on the same main board design sans Reon vp? I bought a XA1 in Japan during launch, an A1 from you, and recently an A2 from another vendor. I've always had odd little glitches with all 3, every 4-5th title or so. Just wondering if I should expect improvements on this aspect. re the XA2. Maybe I should just order and find out!

Re: How about the Toshiba HD-XA2's improvements, anyone?

Anyone know where to find a nice large pic of the XA 2? Only ones I can find seem to be thumbnail size. Thanks.

Re: How about the Toshiba HD-XA2's improvements, anyone?

Thanks

And thanks for all that great in-depth tech info as well, I look forward to your ongoing contributions to this forum

Vincent

Re: How about the Toshiba HD-XA2's improvements, anyone?

As a potential UK-based user of the HD-XA2, it would be helpful if someone (Robert?) could confirm the power rating of the player, as I will need to use a suitably robust voltage transformer. Thanks for any info.

Bruce

Re: How about the Toshiba HD-XA2's improvements, anyone?

Bruce, sorry I do not know, but like most set top boxes it draws very little.

I hope to have the owners manual on-line soon so we can get the exact answer.

-Robert

Re: How about the Toshiba HD-XA2's improvements, anyone?

I assume 1080p is better then 1080i since 1080p draws the image in one pass? A friend told me that some movies such as animations will have artifacting in 1080p. I didn't think this was correct but could someone clearify this for me?

Tim

Re: How about the Toshiba HD-XA2's improvements, anyone?

Tim,

Both are 1080 vertical lines of resolution (the process just places them at their position in a different way: one after each other or all odd lines first, followed by the even lines). But most modern screens (LCD, Plasma) make no difference when displaying the result.

Only if the original recording source (e.g. TV- or home camera) has a "timing" inside the picture (e.g. all odd lines stem from a picture that was there just a bit earlier than the picture of all even lines), there could be a possible (slight) problem.
But film frames are fixed already and it doesn't matter in which order they were scanned, as long as the lines get at their proper places.

More important is the way the display (TV set, or projector, or monitor) processes both options: if it's done well, there is no difference whatsoever between the two!


Cees

Re: How about the Toshiba HD-XA2's improvements, anyone?

A question about audio on the 2nd generation Toshibas, specifically TrueHD and other lossless codecs. Do the new generation Toshibas correct what I consider to be a serious flaw in the playback of TrueHD audio on my XA1? My current unit plays back TrueHD at a much lower volume than "regular" 5.1 audio (something like 10+ clicks lower on my Denon's 3806 volume!). In some cases I have to crank up the receiver to maximum volume to hear the quietest passages. I don't have a similar problem with my PS3's Blu-ray titles that also offer TrueHD audio. The volume of both TrueHD and regular 5.1 sound is comparable and I have some headroom when playing TrueHD tracks. Since both players are connected to the same receiver via HDMI and are, therefore, being processed in the same fashion I can only conclude that the fault lies with my XA1 and is not some problem with TrueHD or my other equipment. (Yes, I've tried switching cables and even HDMI input jacks. And, for the record, my XA1 has the latest firmware loaded.)

If I upgrade to a 2nd generation Toshiba player will TrueHD audio be presented properly? This is important to me.

Re: How about the Toshiba HD-XA2's improvements, anyone?

RAF,
Did you see my post in that other thread about turning the dialog enhancement off? Also, I assume you're talking about spoken dialog being lowered and not any other audio effects? Which HD DVD titles are you having problems with so I can try them out in my setup?




Crawdaddy

Re: How about the Toshiba HD-XA2's improvements, anyone?

Yes, I did and I've amended my prior comments to reflect the fact that you have single-handedly solved my problem with HD-DVD/TrueHD entirely. I can now happily report that all my HD-DVD discs with TrueHD capabilities are playing at relatively normal volumes (comparable to all the other codecs) and, as you know, TrueHD sound fantastic.

Normally I would be kicking myself but in this case my manual (at least the XA-1 one) didn't really help things by mentioning that Dialog Enhancement's function is to "increase dialog volume of a DVD video disc playback" and neglecting to add: "Don't use this enhancement during TrueHD playback or it will cause significant audio output dropoff." If you hadn't stepped forward I would still be thinking that there was an inherent flaw in the HD-DVD spec but I'm happy to report that it's a set-up issue, not an HD-DVD issue. As I said in the other thread, I can now heartily endorse TrueHD on both HD-DVD and Blu-ray. It significantly improves the audio experience in all the discs I've A/B'ed with both Lossless TrueHD and "regular" 5.1. I can't wait for 7.1 lossless material to become widely available (the PS3 intro and some of the games appear to offer this feature but no movies I've found so far).

Once again, you've made my day, CD!

Re: How about the Toshiba HD-XA2's improvements, anyone?

I was just about to order the A2 and see it has nothing but digital audio out... why to analog out??? I'm not about to buy a new receiver just to use this player. Sad, I was really looking forward to getting the A2.

Re: How about the Toshiba HD-XA2's improvements, anyone?

WEt1,

I know what you mean. My receiver only accepts analog. This shuts me out on the a2. The xa2 which has analog is simply way to much. I was ready to pay 500.00 but 800.00-1000.00 for a dvd player? Nope. WE'll just have to wait for the price drops. I want to see HD on my projector bad too.

Tim

Re: How about the Toshiba HD-XA2's improvements, anyone?

Thanks for that information, Robert.
I plan on purchasing this player very soon. Will upgraded players be available to purchase around the time the firmware is available?