I Bought the Toshiba (1 Viewer)

...even though I don't have HDMI and I won't have it any time soon. I've got a Fujitsu 50" plasma that's 4 years old, and I'll be using component inputs.

I'm just a sucker for all your good comments, I guess, though I hope I haven't made a mistake.

I bought it for a very good price at Amazon, and free shipping, so it won't be here for a week. I'd like to make The Searchers the very first thing I watch on it.

Congrats DeeF.

Welcome to the club? Where shall we mail your iron-on patch?

Grats. What batch of titles are you ordering first?

Unforgiven
Apollo 13
Blazing Saddles
GoodFellas
Animal House
Full Metal Jacket

plus

The Searchers

Caddyshack
Good Night and Good Luck

Dee,

Congrats and welcome to the club!

Be sure to post a review in our new HD-DVD review thread located
in the "sticky" thread area at the top of this forum.

Your impressions -- especially under the circumstances of owning
an older display -- will help others decide if HD-DVD is right for
them.

Of course, I *really* wish I could afford a new monitor, because it seems that one of the big advantages of the Toshiba is the upconversion of standard DVDs. I sure would like to see this in action.

Yes, I hear you. I am in the same boat as well. I've pretty much decided that I will purchase a new monitor before I buy a Blu-Ray player though. At least this way I can enjoy some pre-recorded HD content in the meantime, and I don't have to worry about my next major purchase being potentially obsoleted by a format war.

I figure by the time I have enough saved up for a new monitor (6-12 months), we should have a better indication of Blu-Ray and HD DVD's chances, as well as an opportunity to see if the Blu-Ray camp has release better quality discs.

I'm holding off on upgrading display and receiver until we get some that both handle HDMI 1.3 and the new audio formats properly. No sense upgrading now when I can see another major upgrade right around the corner. HD DVD looks gorgeous over component anyway, and DD+ sounds great as is so I don't feel like I'm hurting.

Mark,

Good point. I'm definitely waiting on upgrading my receiver until they can handle the new audio formats, but stuff I've read over on AVS seems to indicate that you don't have to have HDMI 1.3 to get the most out of your Toshiba HD-A1.

I am anxious to upgrade to a set with HDMI to upconvert, but I'm wondering how necessary it is to wait for 1.3. HDMI seems to be such a 'moving target', I could be waiting forever.

Bought my player last week, came with 1.4 firmware and have only one disc, "The Chronicles of Riddick" and it looks beautiful. Picking up "Aeon Flux" today.

Also, I'm using component to upscale SD's to 1080i and have been watching all my Anchor Bays and a few other small companies that way and they all have been great looking!

I can't wait until some more HD DVD titles are released, the pickings are slim right now.

I am watching my SDs that won't upscale on my Panny RP-82 because I think the picture looks better in 480p than on the A1 in 480p..

John,

You are able to "upscale" some DVDs using component inputs? This is a new one to me...

P.S. I too own the Panasonic RP-82, which has served me very well. It must be on its last legs, though -- 5 years old and it's gotten a *lot* of use.

DVD's that are not copyright protected will upscale to 1080i as well as backup DVD's.

DVDs that are not copyright-protected? Which ones are these? I assume that all my commercial DVDs are copyright-protected.

If the Macrovision flag is not set on a DVD, you can upscale it to 1080i.

- Steve

Can you all give me an example (of a DVD that is upscaleable on the Toshiba)? My Fujitsu 5001 does present 1080i.

It came today.



P.S. I see what I'll be doing this morning.

I'll post a longer review in the review thread. But after some finagling, I'm finally watching a movie on my new player, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and it does indeed look terrific. I'm slightly disappointed in the sound, but I don't have the greatest set for sound anyway (Boston Acoustics surround sound).

The machine itself is quite a pain, slow, and finicky. And I'm not overly impressed with the "upconversion" I'm trying to do using components only. I have gotten it to work on one disk, but it looks no better on the Toshiba than on my Panasonic RP-82.

The remote is terrible -- have we learned nothing over the years?

The Toshiba came loaded with firmware 1.4.

The upscaling only works on hdmi for copyrighted std DVD. Make sure you have the resolution of the player set to 1080i. Most use a universal remote for their HT systems so the remote becomes a none issue. For the best audio you need to use hdmi or analog outputs.