Ron's HD DVD Review (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Andy,

Well, join the club.

My Toshiba is 5-6 years old.

I saw a significant improvement through my component connections.

 

[Glen C]

PQ is mindboggling, menu is awesome and Netflix has a few dozen available with more coming each week. Overall this is the best DVD player i've ever owned and it also plays HD-DVDs

 

[Harminder]

Welcome to HD-DVD AaronSCH!

 

[John H Ross]

One of the things that Ron mentions in his review concerns me. Well quite a few things concern me but this particular one hasn't been discussed before to my knowledge so here goes:

When describing the new menu system on HD-DVD he says that the movie just starts when you insert the disc (i.e. no main menu as we currently know it) and that all video/sound options are altered by calling up a pop-up screen. You mean if you want to watch a film in, say, DTS, you can't select the DTS option until after the film has started playing? This would absolutely SUCK if true! Surely this can't be true...? Have I misinterpreted your description in some way?

John

 

[GeorgeM]

John, while I haven't read Ron's review I'll answer from experience. The audio options will vary from studio/HD-DVD title. Warner Bros. appears to prefer that the movie starts immediately. Universal appears to prefer to let the viewer decide what to do first which is the way you (and I) prefer. I hope this helps.

 

[John H Ross]

It does. Thanks. I guess that's like Warner's early DVDs which just start. Starting on the cuff if DD5.1 is the only option is fine, but with all these new-fangled sound formats coming out, plus regular old DTS5.1, I certainly won't appreciate having to interrupt the movie (and that includes the opening studio logos, etc) just to set the sound up.

John

 

[Glen C]

Ron's review is not really applicable to most titles.

but it's not that hard to press the MENU button as all the intro screens appear and change things. it's not like the "movie" starts immediately (ie. most laserdiscs).

 

[Steve Schaffer]

WB discs start as soon as the intro demo is over, but pressing the menu button automatically highlights "pause movie" at the left end of the menu bar across the bottom of the screen. Mash the "ok" button at this time (can be done while the WB logo is still on), then proceed to navigate the menu and make your selections.

Universal discs start with a menu that "grows" out of the left side of the screen, the movie does not start automatically. On the 25th we'll get to see what Paramount discs do!

 

[Dan M]

I've enjoyed my A1 thus far ...what little I've used it! Need more titles to choose from but I know they are coming (Blade Runner please!)...I've only experienced a few audio drop outs on one disc (Bourne Supremacy) but played fine the second time. Once I was rewinding and it wouldnt stop! Had to litterally unplug it. But the pic quality has been enough to forgive all that and I'm only watching on an Infocus 4805 via component. I'm here to tell ya that 1080i still looks gorgeous on a 480 projector even though its nowhere near up to its full potential. I just got the new IN76 though so so moving up to 720 soon...I just ordered the latest firmware update on CD over the phone last week but still hasnt arrived. Has anyone else ordered theirs and how long did it take to arrive?

 

[jim.vaccaro]

You'd think they could email the firmware to you with instructions to burn to CD...it can't be that large, right?

 

[RobertDW]

The latest firmware 1.4 is like 52MB. You can download versions 1.2 and 1.3 here http://www.1080x1920.net/index.php?o...gid=4&Itemid=5 then using Nero burn an image file to CDR.

 

[Robert James Clark]

My A1 starts up faster since loading firmware 1.4.

Cool.

 

[Ron-P]

I just got 1.4 in the mail, tomorrow she gets upgraded.

 

[Harminder]

Can you time the boot up time of your HD-DVD player after the 1.4 upgrade? So let's say, from turning the player on to when the player says "no disc" and from when you pop in a disc until you get the FBI warning from the movie.

I would like to know if boot up time is improved with v1.4.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Guys,

I apologize that my review lacks information on menus through
various studios.

To date, I only own WB titles. Have yet to see Universal title
and I'm curious to see what they do as far as a main menu.

It does seem pretty obvious to me that this new technology
lets you switch audio formats on the "fly" without having to
interrupt the movie or go to a main menu. Of course, I'll depend
on the members to correct me if I am wrong.

 

[mikey ra]

Dan:

I called and requested my 1.4 on June 30th from Tosiba. I called the customer support yesterday (7/11) and was told that the new allotment of discs had not yet arrived @ Toshiba, so mine had not been sent to me yet and they couldn't give me an ETA.

 

[John H Ross]

Well, unless I'm very much mistaken, SD-DVD already lets you change audio formats on the fly. You simply have to toggle through the options by clicking the "Audio" button repeatedly.

The idea of not being able to set up a movie the way you want it until AFTER the movie has actually started is really bad and TOTALLY unacceptable to me. It's like going back to the very early days of DVD, circa 1997 and 1998. I don't care if you can switch options while the opening WB pictures logo is still on the screen, that's still part of the movie (and often there's music over the logo which would have to be interrupted).

I thought all of these whizzy new features where supposed to ENHANCE the movie watching experience, not disrupt it!

John

 

[Walter Kittel]

EDIT: Nevermind. I believe I mis-interpreted John's post.

- Walter.

 

[Harminder]

Yes and no. Some SD-DVD's do not allow you change audio on the fly by pressing the "Audio" button on your remote. Example: Terminator 2, Spy Game, etc.
Where as in HD-DVD you can switch on the fly with ALL HD-DVD movies by either pressing the "Audio" button or going into the menu. So now you have 2 options LOL.

 

[John H Ross]

So everything except what most serious film watchers would actually want?

John