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Bronze Member Username: Cobra11Post Number: 36 Registered: Oct-06 | I have just noticed that the Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player is no longer the only game in town. RCA has begun shipping its new HD DVD player called the HDV5000 as well. I have not seen this player in person. However, at 24 pounds I do suspect, much like the Toshiba, there is a hard drive and a PC motherboard inside. One review on AMAZON stated that initial boot up is somewhat prolonged. Personally, not being in either the Blue-Ray or the HD-DVD camp at this time, I am somewhat reluctant to place such a complex device (a DVD player that is essentially a PC appliance) into my equipment rack. Am I overly concerned? Perhaps... I have to see both of these players display to my HDTV to prove to me that they are worth the price of admission. You thoughts are welcome... |
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Bronze Member Username: TommyvRowlett, Texas Post Number: 84 Registered: Aug-06 | i thought i remember RCA being the first one out with an HD DVD player. am i imagining this? i don't why you should be worried about placing one of those players in your equipment rack. the only thing i am reluctant about is to jump on board at this point. i figure in a year or so the prices will come down and they will work out all the bugs and will come out with better players. it is tempting though . . . have you seen the pioneer elite Blueray player coming out that is going to be list at $1500? ouch! |
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Gold Member Username: SamijubalPost Number: 3086 Registered: Jul-04 | Toshiba was the first with HD-DVD. There's a good chance the RCA is a rebagged Toshiba or some other brand. RCA/GE gets most of their consumer electronics from other manufacterers. |
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Bronze Member Username: Cobra11Post Number: 38 Registered: Oct-06 | News just in... Toshiba has just announced their new HD-DVD players which will be called the HD-A2 for late October and more likely November ($499), and the HD-XA2 for December ($999). (notice just in time for the Xmas holidays... what will this do to the A1 prices??) The XA2 will have HDMI 1.3 and 12 bit video DACs, and will apparently output 1080p. The A2 will output 720p and 1080i. Both are reported to support Dolby TruHD. |
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Bronze Member Username: TommyvRowlett, Texas Post Number: 86 Registered: Aug-06 | now i know what im getting myself for christmas! ;-) |
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Gold Member Username: SamijubalPost Number: 3093 Registered: Jul-04 | You can pick up a new HD-A1 on ebay for $330. |
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Bronze Member Username: TommyvRowlett, Texas Post Number: 87 Registered: Aug-06 | i wonder if the new players support 5.1 Dolby true HD and not 2 Ch like the current ones. its funny Toshiba kind of copied the look of the Samsung BlueRay player. |
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Gold Member Username: SamijubalPost Number: 3095 Registered: Jul-04 | Toshiba didn't copy Samtrash, it's the other way around, the Toshiba came first. |
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Bronze Member Username: TommyvRowlett, Texas Post Number: 88 Registered: Aug-06 | have you seen the new Toshiba players? they look alot like the Samsung BlueRay players. The current Toshiba players look nothing like the Samsung BlueRay so how could of Samsung copied the look of Toshiba? |
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Gold Member Username: SamijubalPost Number: 3097 Registered: Jul-04 | If the new Toshiba isn't out yet, how could they have copied Samsung? Toshiba has used Samtrash for electronics in the past, it may not be a Toshiba at all. |
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Bronze Member Username: TommyvRowlett, Texas Post Number: 90 Registered: Aug-06 | Because Toshiba has been displaying them at their booths, obviously you havnt seen it yet. here is a link. http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/blog2/20060914/Toshiba_HD-A2_blog-1158267857392-440 _330.jpg |
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Bronze Member Username: Cobra11Post Number: 40 Registered: Oct-06 | I was at my local "Hi-FI" audio shop yesterday and we were discussing the new 1080p Toshiba DVD. Based upon what I heard, I walked away a little abashed. It appears that 1080p signal delivery may depend upon HDMI-3 connections at both ends. In this case, the DVD Player as well as the HDTV monitor. This is due to the high bandwidth that 1080p signals and audio will consume so they need the 10Gb/s pipe of HDMI-3. It was pointed out to me that most if not all current 1080p "ready" displays do NOT have an implementation of HDMI-3 connections and chip sets and thus, even though the HDTV set is capable from a pixel perspective may not be able to achieve HDMI interoperability via tha connection. My long time trusted "guru" then stated that this is both the best time and the worst time to buy a HDTV... best because the prices are good but worst because we are on the cusp of the HMDI-3 introduction. He then pointed out that most AV Receivers with HDMI jacks (in and out) will also be affected by the introduction of HDMI-3. Such is life... eh? |
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Bronze Member Username: TommyvRowlett, Texas Post Number: 91 Registered: Aug-06 | i believe the current 1080p sets will still look superior to 720p sets. it is probably best to stick with the HD-A2 unless your set has 1.3 (which i dont think exist yet). there seems to be alot of mis-information out there about all the new 1080p and HDMI. according to the official HDMI web site 1.3 will be bakwards compatable with all previous versions so who knows? does backwards compatable mean it will work but not get full 1080p or does it mean you will get it? i guess we will just have to wait and see. |
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Bronze Member Username: Cobra11Post Number: 44 Registered: Oct-06 | Hi Tommy; Backwards compatibility means that HDMI 1.3 will be able to interoperate with HDMI 1.2 and 1.1 systems... (at their rate and resolution 720p and 1080i), however it does not mean that 1.1 systems (the vast majority out now) and 1.2 systems will be able to interoperate at the faster and more robust 1.3 specification. That would be called upward or forward compatibility. Since 1080p requires 2,073600 bits per frame (1920x1080 + audio) vs 1,036,800 bits per frame for 1080i there could be a bandwidth shortfall. Like you said, we will have to wait and see. |
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Bronze Member Username: TommyvRowlett, Texas Post Number: 92 Registered: Aug-06 | Hey Arty, well i hope that doesn't apply to 1.1 and 1.2. I believe my new set has 1.1 but the new Toshiba HD-A2 has 1.2. I can't imagine they would put out a player that is not compatale with almost every TV in existence. are you gonna pick up an HD-A2 when they come out? i bet it will look sweet on that new Samsung! also i was up at Fry's and i saw a Panasonic Blue Ray player that was $1299! i don't know if this is new or not but damn they are not coming down in price but increasing! |
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Bronze Member Username: Cobra11Post Number: 46 Registered: Oct-06 | Tommy: For now I plan on staying on the sidelines with the HD-DVD/BlueRay decision. I use my trusty Samsung DVD-HD850 which up converts. There is some solice in the fact that the HD850 cost me less than the HDMI cable to which it is attached! Plays great DVDs and Music and is very dependable. So tell me about your HD-A2... are the settings persistant or do you have to go into settings prior to each new DVD that you play (assuming your player was in standby mode)? Can you visually see the difference on "normal" 480P DVDs that are upconverted to 720P / 1080i? How has the HD-DVD experience been? There are some on Netflix (where I get my DVDs) however they are in the minority at present. Have you had to deal with any glitches, etc? Firmware upgrades? How noisy is the unit? I see there is a fan in the back of it plus the hard drive... |
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Bronze Member Username: TommyvRowlett, Texas Post Number: 93 Registered: Aug-06 | Arty, i dont actually have one, i don't believe they are out until Nov or Dec but once i heard about the new players coming out i am very tempted to get one. in the end i will probably end up waiting. i am like you i just bought a new upconversion DVD player and the picture and sound quality is excellent. i own a Denon DVD-955. i picked it up new in the box on clearence at Fry's electronics for $263. this is quite a deal since it listed for $740 and usually sold for $600. i have done the comparison between progressive scan(480p) through the component outputs and upconversion through the HDMI and i deffinately see the difference. i did the comparison with a Lord of the Rings DVD and with the upconversion looked much more 3D and detailed while the progressive look just flat and normal. i use Netflix as well, i believe they carry all the HD DVD titles. there are more and more being released alll the time. noise really doesn't bother me because my equipment cabinet has a glass door on the front of it. i have an HD DVR from Direct TV which is pretty noisey though the HD DVR cable boxes i have heard are even noisier than that. you can pick up less expensive HDMI cables that perform just as good as the Monster and other expensive ones. i needed three 6ft HDMI cables and i got them for $50 each at Fry's. They are the brand Accell and are made of very good quality. didn't your Samsung DVD player come with an HDMI cable? have you compared it to your more expensive one? check out www.frys.com they have some pretty good prices on cables and other things. |
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Bronze Member Username: Cobra11Post Number: 48 Registered: Oct-06 | Tommy: No my DVD player did not come with a HDMI cable. So far it seems that one out of 15 DVD titles in my Netflix queue is in HD/DVD or BlueRay (may just be my movie choices har har). Typically action movies or cartoon type movies are in HD/DVD. That ratio will probably increase as time goes on however. Glad to see your Denon DVD-955 is working well and that was a VG price. Are the upconvert settings on it persistant? By that I mean, prior to playing a standard DVD do you go into a DV Player setup menu and select up convert to say 720p/1080i? After playing the mover and turning the player off or to standby, the next time you play a DVD is that upconvert setting still selected or did it drop down to 480P? That is what I mean by persistant. My Samsung DVD-HD850 keeps dropping down to 480P after going to standby or off. All other settings seem persistant however. Please advise on how your Denon handles this. Thanks |
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Bronze Member Username: TommyvRowlett, Texas Post Number: 95 Registered: Aug-06 | Arty: ahh i see what you mean. my Denon stays on 720p and all other settings are kept as well when i power it down. i had a Sony dvd player in the past that had an annoying thing like that where i had to go in and set something everytime i turned it on ( i cant seem to remember what it was). it drove me nuts! the HD DVD selection is still limted but they seem to be coming out with more and more. i like the titles that are on HD DVD better than BlueRay. one HD-DVD i would love to watch on my set is the Chronicles of Riddick. |
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Bronze Member Username: Cobra11Post Number: 49 Registered: Oct-06 | Tommy: It is good to hear that your Denon player maintains those settings. My Samsung DVD-HD850 keeps all but the upconvert setting. I have just emailed SamSung support with a question regarding this. Perhaps I am using the menus wrong or whatever. I have asked them how to make that menu setting "sticky" or persistant. Fingers crossed. |
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Bronze Member Username: Cobra11Post Number: 55 Registered: Oct-06 | Tommy: Some things have changed here... just got in a new Oppo DV-970HD DVD player. Have it hooked up to the HDTV via HDMI. Nice unit and doing tests with the Avia and HQV benchmark DVD tests it outperforms my previous Samsung DVD-HD850. I had both units (one then the other) doing a near side by side test. I will be putting my Samsung up for sale on ebay soon. One thought about the Oppo, it does allow for quick and effortless HDMI output selection via a button on the remote. Come to find out... the Samsung has a HDMI button on the remote as well. Although rather undocumented, pressing that button on the Samsung's remote, while playing a DVD does allow one to easily switch output modes from 480P to 720P and 1080i (without going into the setup menu(which requires one to stop playing the DVD)). The other thing I have come to find out is that the Oppo's DVD tray has been called "flimsy" by some reviewers. I will be the first to admit that it is not BEEFY (no doing pull ups on this tray) however it is designed, IMHO to be very flexible and as such the flexibility may be a benefit in the long run. We'll see. The performance is quite good. Very quick start up too. About 10 seconds from power on to tray open and then about 10 seconds from tray close command to begin playing. It passed about 2 more tests than my Samsung did on the HQV benchmark DVD. BTW, this DVD really is a test of a particular HDTV and DVD combination from what I can see. So far so good. It took about 16 days to get the unit from the time I ordered it until it arrived I I chose the "free" shipping method (read SLOW) from Amazon. It comes with a slew of cables (HDMI and such) and a dandy black cover bag for the player. |
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Silver Member Username: TommyvRowlett, Texas Post Number: 106 Registered: Aug-06 | That it cool, I bet your movies will look better. I am curious to know how you like the player after owning it for a while and have had a chance to play with all the settings. I read a review of the Oppo DV-971HD where the guy said after owning it for a while he actually preffered the Component outputs to the DVI to HDMI upconversion because there was alot of noise in the picture. I had a similar thing on my Denon; the Denon player has both HDMI and DVI outputs. When i first got my TV all i had laying around was a DVI to HDMI cable and i hooked up the player and popped in a movie and was really dissapointed how noisey and grainy the picture was. I thought something was wrong with the TV! Then i went and bought some new HDMI cables to run my HD DVR and DVD player through my reciver. The picture looked abot better out of the HDMI output. Thats why I would be hesitant to go with that Oppo DV-971HD because it only has DVI. It seems weird that they put HDMI on your Oppo DV-970HD and not on the more expensive Oppo DV-971HD. |
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Bronze Member Username: Cobra11Post Number: 57 Registered: Oct-06 | Tommy: I do believe that Oppo has a new version of the DV-971HD in the wings. I have heard it is called the DV-978HD and it has HDMI output and the Farouja (sp?) chipset. This unit may be out on the market soon, but they are apparently doing testing on it now. I am hooked up with HDMI. Nice clear clean picture. No noticable noise in the HQV benchmark. I have noise reduction turned ON on the Samsung HDTV. Art |
