Don't bug me (1 Viewer)

[Chris Moreau]

An interesting review from another magazine site

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/art...rticle_id=1473

BTW, the title of the review is "A Taste Of Heaven."

 

[Levesque]

Same thing here. Best PQ I have ever seen. HD-A1 with Sony Ruby and Gennum VXP de-interlacing.

I would have paid 5000$ for a real HD player less then 1 year ago (but there was none...), considering the quality of my video and audio chain... and they sold it to me for 600$ cdn! Best bargain I have ever made! Biggest improvement I ever got for 600$!

40 seconds to boot-up? For 2-3 hours of nirvana? Do I really care?

For example, the Denon 5910 and Onkyo SP1000 are both over 3000$ in Canada (both SD-DVD players!), and they could not even dream of giving me that kind of picture quality (if we compare SD on those with HD on the HD-A1)... And for me, there is only one important thing: picture and sound quality!

 

[Dave Moritz]

I would love to be able to watch some of the HD titles on HD-DVD but since I can at least watch HD material on cable. I am not in a huge rush to back Toshiba's HD format. I honestly believe Toshiba rushed there player to market and they where despreate to beat Sony in order to gain an advantage in the market. The facts are that Blu-ray has more flexability and more room for extras than HD-DVD does. Another fact is that having two HD formats is not good for ether format. This is not about the consumer its about royalties and Toshiba is so desperate to hold on to its royalties that they rushed there player to market.

Is the Toshiba format and player capible of offering high quality HD? Yes it is capible and I have seen a very nice picture while watching scences from Apollo 13 on HD-DVD. While Toshiba could have pushed it back and offered a better player free from bugs and problems. I still feel that Sony's offering will stay viable in the market place and be a better value in the long run. I do feel that Sony has there work cut out for them as more and more people have less money to spend on luxury items.

Sony's Blu-ray offers a product that overall is better than what Toshiba brings to the table. This format war is not good for the HD industry and is not going to help people want to rush out and invest in an HD player for there homes. While there are most likely plenty of people that are happy with there HD-DVD players and love there HD titles. And I don't doubt that these movies look great. What I ask myself when looking at this player at my local retailer is. Is it good to support this format until Blu-ray comes out? Is it good for the HD movement to support a format that has less flexibility? Does it help to create another DVD_A vs SACD situation where both formats exsist but nether one wins? I am willing to wait for the format that shows the most promise even though I really want to watch HD now! I someone has purchased a HD-DVD player and enjoys it I say, by all means enjoy your HD content. I just dont believe its good for HD in general, thats all I want to say about it.

 

[Mitch Kaufman]

Gaga? It's got nothing to do with gaga. It has to do with affordability.

MK

 

[patrickSo]

Wow, nice zombie thread.

How does everyone involved feel now?

 

[Steve Tannehill]

What a positive difference firmware updates have made.

- Steve

 

[AaronSCH]

First, the article linked in this thread is VERY OLD NEWS. The article was published way back in May and totally misrepresents the current situation since Toshiba's firmware updates de-bugged their players. I suggest reading and educating yourself with current information. The article is simply irrelevant at this point. It is true however, that there is a manufacturing problem with the Samsung Blu-Ray players that cannot be repaired by simple firmware updates and that the image quality so far, has not lived up to expectations. Correct me if I am wrong, but Samsung has not made an official announcement about what they plan to do in order to remedy the defect.

Umm and Dave…You make a number of claims and assumptions that are not supported by the facts. Maybe you should go buy a Blu-Ray Player and make broad judgements when you have first-hand experience with a $1000 investment that doesn't live up to all its claims. The absolutely incredible TOSHIBA HD-A1 has surpassed ALL my expectations …at a damn good price I might add. And personally, I think this war is fun and competition is a good thing. It will drive innovation, choice and lower costs in the short rather than long run. So on with the battle…and may the best format win: HD DVD that is.

 

[Paul Anthony]

As much as I love my Toshiba A-1 player, it still doesn't play HD-DVD discs correctly. I thought the firmware update 1.4 solved the problem, but it didn't. Strange that my Toshiba player has no problems playing regular DVD discs, but when I pop-in in a new HD-DVD disc, I experience some kind of a disc problem (skipping, freezing, etc.,). Btw, I just watched "Sky Captain" and experienced 2 audio drop-outs, and picture going fast-forward.

The point of the matter is, some of you were lucky to have a glitch free player, while some of us were not so lucky.

 

[AaronSCH]

Paul, are you having problems with all of your discs? You may want to consider an exchange of your unit if it is still possible. I have yet to experience any glitches but I am operating with firmware update 1.3. I have the disc for 1.4 but I'm not gonna fix something that ain't broken.

 

[Paul Anthony]

Aaron, pretty much half of the HD discs (only 5 play correctly out of the 13 I own), standard discs have been glitch free. I'm going to call Toshiba next Monday to see if I should get another update, or replace my player.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

Paul, you might want to go back to version 1.2, as it seemed to be more reliable in fixing the lockups and freezes than 1.4. I am one of the lucky ones who never had these problems, even with the original firmware, but I feel for you guys who have these issues.

 

[Paul Anthony]

I'll check up that, thanks Larry.

 

[TedD]

Try something just for grins. If your DHCP, internet, and timeserver options are enabled, disable them. Unplug the Ethernet cable. Then see if you have the same issues with stutters, freezes, and skips with the same frequency.

Ted

 

[Paul Anthony]

My player isn't connected to anything, I use the Firmware disc from Toshiba for upgrades. Perhaps the next upgrade will solve more of these disc issues...I hope.

 

[AaronSCH]

Any update Paul? I actually had my first glitch on my second viewing of Sky Captain. It was brief but made me cringe 'cause I thought my player was "anointed."

 

[Paul Anthony]

No update yet, Aaron. Haven't called Toshiba, because of my heavy work schedule. I have noticed on the www.avsforum.com that people are having problems with"Sky Captain" and other HD-DVD discs months later. I'm hoping the next Firmware update will finally solve this disc problem.

 

[David Ren]

I've had my Toshiba for about a month now and have not experienced any bugs. Sure, it's a bit slow and the remote isn't perfect (I ordered a Harmony 880 anyway), but if people can't wait 30 seconds for a movie, they should reduce their caffeine intake.

I use firmware v1.4 and every movie has played perfectly beginning to end. Picture/sound has been stunning on every HD-DVD I have viewed (I have a 34XBR960, btw). No HDMI errors. Warner titles has low audio but all I do is turn up the volume and problem solved. Analog subwoofer output is low but again, I just turn up the levels on my subwoofer. I don't understand why this is a problem for anyone. In case you didn't know, there are little knobs on your recievers and subwoofers, turn them and see what happens.

As far as clipping blacks/whites, what TedD said about NTSC standards sound right.

The way I see it, the only technical advantage Blu Ray has over HD-DVD is the "potential" for higher storage capacity but that's irrelevent. HD-DVD can just as easily come out with 2-disk sets like DVD has. No one on the face of the planet (to my knowledge) has complained about being required to change discs for special features. With triple layered discs coming, one disc can comfortably hold a 3 hour+ film like Titanic.

If there are any other potential advantages to Blu Ray, please enlighten me.

David

 

[Larry Sutliff]

I was demoing HD DVD to a friend last night, and sure enough, I had my first freeze up! It was during the "Masquerade" sequence of PHANTOM. I tried repeating it, but the error was just a freeze for one second, and it didn't happen again. I tried the scene a few times again this morning, and still no problem. It figures it would happen when doing a demo!

Except for the glitch, my buddy was blown away by the picture. He wanted to know how much a "big" HDTV and HD DVD would set him back.

 

[David Ren]

Oh and BTW, with the new firmware v1.4, the player doesn't clip blacks/whites anymore. With my calibration DVD, I can now see BTB.

David

 

[Harminder]

Well, if you just scroll down on THIS ARTICLE, from the HD-DVD promotion group, it states that a 30GB DL HD-DVD can "deliver THREE 150-minute movies" (in HD quality), which equals 7.5 hours. Hence, movies like King Kong: EE and especially the LOTR: EE movies can easily fit on a DL 30GB HD-DVD disc. It is possible that all the extras can fit on the same disc, but if they can't, the extras can be put on a 2nd disc.

However, if TL 45GB discs become a reality, the movie, all the audio and commentary, plus the extras should be able to all fit onto one HD-DVD.

Kinda proves that bigger isn't always better.