Picked up my HD-DVD player today

Tour2ma · April 2006

Ron, forgive my ignorance, but what is "OPPO"?

Holydoc · April 2006

Tour2ma wrote:

Ron, forgive my ignorance, but what is "OPPO"?

Hottest discussed DVD player on the web.

http://www.oppodigital.com/

Ron-P · April 2006

We have people on the Martin Logan forum saying that for pure audio, the Toshiba isnt that great.... can you confirm?

As in what, CD playback? SD-DVD soundtracks sound excellent.

Musophile · April 2006

Fascinating. I wonder which one will win this time, VHS or Beta?

Ron-P · April 2006

Was able to pick up POTO and TLS last night. Spun POTO for about 1/2 hour skipping around the movie.

I have the A1 wired up to a Z3 with a 35' HDMI cable for video and a coax connection of the audio, I have an 85" DIY gray screen. I have the A1 set at 1080i

The Image
Outstanding, the image was awesome. Very crisp, clean and sharp, so much detail in everything, it's amazing. The colors were very accurate, and very vivid, flesh tones looked very natural as well, more so then with SD-DVD. Blacks were deep and dark with great detail. This machine puts out a seriously impressive image.

The Sound
Excellent as well. My Outlaw 950 does light up with the DTS logo with the dd track playing but the sound is no different from SD-DVDs, very dynamic, deep bass and no tinny sound. The ouput is a bit lower as I normally listen at about -18 and to achieve the same level I had to turn it up to -06. Other then that, it sounds fantastic.

All I can say is WOW! This HD-DVD is a keeper, I am very impressed. Once I get the player in the rack I will wire it up with the analog outputs and give that a try over the coax.

Tour2ma · April 2006

Need a new sign... "The Driftwood... Now in HD".

Nice read, Ron. How tempted are you going to be to start replacing standard DVD 's in your collection with HD releases as they come available?

Ron-P · April 2006

That's already happening.

Just replaced Phantom of the Opera and The Last Samurai, I'm picking up Serenity today and U-571 next week. It's a sickness I tell ya.

The HD image looks so good it's going to be very difficult to go back and watch SD-DVD even with the excellent upscaling this player does.

Tour2ma · April 2006

LOL... not sure if I was afraid that's what you'd say, or was hoping...

So when can we expect to see the first of your impending FM DVD listings?

polksda · April 2006

Well, I finally got everything hooked up last night. Oy, vatta pain!

Display: Mitsubishi WS-65613 (CRT). I use 1080i resolution.
Other HD: E*, OTA
Other DVD1: Pioneer Elite 79avi running 480i out to DVDO Iscan HD+
Other DVD2: Oppo Digital 971H

I'm running 5.1 analog outs from HD-A1 and my 79avi through a Radio Shack 15-1927 4-in 2-out leaning A/V switchbox. It works like a charm.

The HD-A1 definitely has a 1st-generation feel. The interface is clunky and slow. The player does not remember where you were in a movie after you press "Stop" or go the the "Setup" menu, so you end up starting the movie over again... a royal PITA when trying to experiment with settings and options.

I'm running the HDMI signal through an adapter to DVI. There is all sorts of flickering and flashing on my screen any time a movie starts to play or when going to/from the setup menu. A bit disconcerting.

The 5.1 analog output is roughly 20 decibels lower than my normal listening level on other sources. Weird and annoying. However, I made the mistake of raising the volume to my normal listening level, going into the audio setup and clicking on the Test Tone.... IT WAS THIS F*CKING LOUD!!! I thought I had damaged my speakers. I have no idea what the hell is going on with the audio levels on the A1, but something is wrong.

All that said, the picture is definitely HD. I only watched POO last night, but the quality increase over my 79avi/Iscan HD+ combo was definitely noticable.

Upscaling of SD is decent. Not as good as my 79avi, but as good as or slightly better than the Oppo. If I rate the 79avi/Iscan combo as a "10" on SD upconversion to 1080i, I would put the Toshiba at 7.5-8 and the Oppo at 7.

Remote sucks ****. Absolutely useless. First thing I will do tonight is program my learning remote so I can shove the Toshiba POS back into the box.

So does the format work? Jury's still out. Initial PQ results are quite promising, and I'm really looking forward to some of the other titles coming out. But Toshiba needs to fix some of the interface quirks... Joe Sixpack will never put up with some of the behavior this player exhibits.

Holydoc · April 2006

polksda wrote:

All that said, the picture is definitely HD. I only watched POO last night, but the quality increase over my 79avi/Iscan HD+ combo was definitely noticable.

This made me smile. So was that Winnie the POO or the fecal matter POO?

polkatese · April 2006

Ron,

I am curious, do you have HBO/Showtime HD? I wonder if you have comments on the PQ relative to, say, Sopranos HD. Thanks..

Loud & Clear · April 2006

Good stuff, guys. Very interesting.

Lsi9 · April 2006

polkatese wrote:

Ron,

I am curious, do you have HBO/Showtime HD? I wonder if you have comments on the PQ relative to, say, Sopranos HD. Thanks..

I am also curious about this considering it was said that Hd content on disc is an improvment on OTA Hd telecasts.

Shizelbs · April 2006

Article on this player from Tom's Hardware

http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/04/18/first_reviews_positive_for_toshiba_hddvd/

polksda · April 2006

I have HBOHD as well as the Voom originals on Dish (Actually Robots on HBOHD does look wonderful right now). The biggest advantage that I've seen to HD-DVD over satellite/broadcast HD is the lack of motion artifacts. On Dish HD channels especially, MPEG artifacting is very noticeable on motion scenes due to the Uber-compression that Dish does to the signal. None of that on HD-DVD...

I'd love to see some Pixar releases, but I believe Pixar is in the Blu-Ray camp.

polkatese · April 2006

It looks like Denzel Washington's Training Day will be released on HD-DVD this month...whoopee, this my friend, could be the needed reason for me, to acquire one. Who's that hot girl in it, again?

Holydoc · April 2006

polkatese wrote:

It looks like Denzel Washington's Training Day will be released on HD-DVD this month...whoopee, this my friend, could be the needed reason for me, to acquire one. Who's that hot girl in it, again?

There was a hot girl in Training Day? I am getting old.

DarqueKnight · April 2006

Eva Mendes played Denzel Washington's mistress in "Training Day". Whether she is hot or not is a matter of personal taste.;)

dorokusai · April 2006

If it wasn't for her giant, man-like head...she would be perfect.

millerman 3732 · April 2006

dorokusai wrote:

If it wasn't for her giant, man-like head...she would be perfect.

:eek: WTF!

Holydoc · April 2006

dorokusai wrote:

If it wasn't for her giant, man-like head...she would be perfect.

She has a head?

polkatese · April 2006

Holydoc wrote:

She has a head?

Good, I am not the only one dreamin' about her, and her naked body, and...oops, time to change the subject!

DarqueKnight, THANK YOU! you, my friend, have just earned my respects, above and beyond your vast SDAs knowledge.

polkatese · April 2006

polkatese wrote:

Good, I am not the only one dreamin' about her, and her naked body, and...oops, time to change the subject!

DarqueKnight, THANK YOU! you, my friend, have just earned my respects, above and beyond your vast SDAs knowledge.

btw, Mark, why do you care about her head size? there is other head-related that really more relevant than her actual head-size.

millerman 3732 · April 2006

Just picked up one of the hd dvd players for myself from best buy, I just couldn't take it any more I had to see for myself, really havn't had a chance to mess with it yet but I can already tell it will be a step-up from my old samsung I also made sure that I had 30 days to bring it back just in case

Ron-P · April 2006

How are you connecting to your display and what display to you have?

millerman 3732 · April 2006

I have Sony 60WE610 ( 60'' LCD RPTV ) I have it hooked up through the HDMI output, but my TV only has DVI so I had get one of those HDMI to DVI cables, don't know if there will be any issues there or not but it seems to be working properly, I don't have any HD DVD's yet so I can't comment on that yet.