Basic question about firmware upgrades (1 Viewer)

[Bruce Morrison]

Hello, I live in the UK but I'm planning to import the second-generation Toshiba HD-AX2 player from the US early next year, after allowing a bit of time for any immediate firmware upgrades to be incorporated. I hope there will then be less need for subsequent firmware upgrades with this player than we've seen with the first-generation players, but I guess they will still arise from time to time. The reason I need the US player is that almost all my standard DVDs of movies are Region 1 (as I don't like PAL speedup) and I will also want my HD-DVDs of movies to play at 24 fps.

My computer setup and home theatre setup are in different parts of the house, so I assume I'll have to connect my player up to the cable modem and to my computer LCD monitor when doing a firmware upgrade. The monitor has a DVI connection, but, as far as I know, the player will have an HDMI connection (and no DVI connection). So will I need to use a DVI/HDMI adapter cable? Or is there any other way I can connect the player to the monitor for doing a firmware upgrade?

Of course the alternative approach is to request Toshiba to send an upgrade disc. But I'm wondering whether Toshiba in the US would be willing to mail upgrade discs to me in the UK? Has anyone in the UK been through this?

 

[ppltd]

Bruce, not knowing the layout of your house, but it would seem it would be cheaper to buy a long ethernet cable to temporaily connect you Toshiba to your home network to do your upgrade. Just a thought.

Then again. maybe by then Toshiba will allow us to download the update to a pc and cut our own update DVD.

Thomas Eisenmann

 

[dkny75]

There are people over on AVS that live in the Philippines that have received firmware discs so I would assume the UK would be fine although it might take a while longer.

 

[Stevepro1]

Bruce,

Hopefully, Toshioba will begin posting the upgrades for download. They have certainly had enough requests for it. I have the same issue, my computer is 100 feet away from my entertainment center and on a different floor. But I'm pretty sure they will mail you the upgrade disks.

If you have a wireless network in your home, I have heard that it is possible to attach a wireless adapter to the Toshiba Ethernet port. I am corrently looking for someone who can give me some direction on that one. Toshiba currently cannot.

Regarding your connection cable: I have the same setup. Originally I ran a 4 meter HDMI > HDMI > DVI adapter to the TV. With that, I occasionally got some video dropouts [shooting horizontal blue lines], most likely orginating at the adapter connection. I changed it to a 10 foot high end HDMI > dedicated DVI connection and the drop out problem disappeared. Bottom line: Use the shortest cable you can with the fewest connections [no adapter]. I bought mine from Ram Electronics who I think advertises on this forum.

Steve

 

[Bruce Morrison]

Thanks for the response Steve. My home theatre TV will soon be the Sony 46x2000, which has HDMI connections, so it won't be an issue as far as that's concerned. I was concerned only about how to temporarily connect the player to my computer monitor when doing a firmware upgrade.

In fact, assuming Toshiba will post upgrade discs to me across the pond, I'll probably settle for using that way of applying any firmware upgrades. Although I might have to wait for a week or two, it will be simpler than moving the player between rooms.