There are numerous other reviews for the A2 floating around the Internet, but sometimes a new perspective is a good thing, especially when this will surely be at a great price point very soon (rumor has it at under $200 by Thanksgiving) when the new A3, A30, and A35 come out the door. The Toshiba HD-A2 is the second generation of Toshiba’s HD DVD players. It is the entry level player and provides output of up to 720p or 1080i. It does NOT however output 1080p. Then again, with 1080i no picture information or resolution is lost or missing from a 1080p/24 source.
Then again, with 1080i no picture information or resolution is lost or missing from a 1080p/24 source.
While this statement is true, the 1080p/24 video stream can be pulled out of a 1080i/60 video stream using the Inverse Telecine process, most televisions are not capable of Inverse Telecine with 1080i sources so you are left with 1080i/60 deinterlaced to 1080p/30 with 3:2 pulldown and some possible deinterlacing issues. There are only a few TVs that can do it, Cnet is a good place to find out with TVs are able to do Inverse Telecine on 1080i. The JVC LcOS TVs can and the new Pioneer Plasmas can, but all the Sony XBRs, the Samsung DLPs Plasmas and LCDs, the Mitubishis including the Diamond series, and many more cannot pull 1080p/24 from a 1080i/60 source.
If you have a set capable of 1080p/24 input, it is a good idea to get the Toshiba A20 if you want the best possible picture, or a 1080p/60 unit if you can't accept a 24fps input. However, the A20 does a crappy 1080p/24 -> 1080i/30 -> 1080p/60 conversion, and does it poorly, that makes it no better than the A2 unless you let it output 1080p/24 which it does correctly.
If you have a set capable of 1080p/24 input, it is a good idea to get the Toshiba A20 if you want the best possible picture, or a 1080p/60 unit if you can't accept a 24fps input. However, the A20 does a crappy 1080p/24 -> 1080i/30 -> 1080p/60 conversion, and does it poorly, that makes it no better than the A2 unless you let it output 1080p/24 which it does correctly.
where did you get the info on the A-20 doing a crappy job of converting 1080p/24 to 10809/60. that info would amazing and help me decide between the two, since my Panasonic(42PZ77U) does not accept 1080p/24
where did you get the info on the A-20 doing a crappy job of converting 1080p/24 to 10809/60. that info would amazing and help me decide between the two, since my Panasonic(42PZ77U) does not accept 1080p/24
I could not find IVTC data on your Panasonic plasma but judging from the price point and the fact that other panasonic plasmas do not do Inverse Telecine on 1080i/60 I would guess that it will also not be able to pull 1080p/24 out of 1080i/60. There is no reason to buy the A20 unless you can accept 1080p/24. Either go for the more expensive player, or just buy the A2 and forget about it until the prices come down on the true 1080p players and get two for the price of one. Really, watching 1080i is not too much different in most situations.
Quick question in terms of audio - can the A2 do the conversion to PCM and pass True HD (as PCM) via HDMI?
Yes, my HD-A2 passes DD+ and TrueHD to my RX-V2700 with no problems and the audio quality is amazing. The difference in sound quality between standard DVDs and HD-DVDs was truly surprising.
__________________ URC MX-900 Remote with MRF-350 RF Base Station / Yamaha RX-V2700 / Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-Ray / Panasonic VCR / Dish Network VIP722 HD DVR / Xbox 360 / Panasonic TH-42PZ77U 1080p Plasma / Mitsubishi HD-1000 Projector / DIY 70" Screen / DIY Speakers and Sub
The Following User Says Thank You to Hi Ho For This Useful Post:
where did you get the info on the A-20 doing a crappy job of converting 1080p/24 to 10809/60. that info would amazing and help me decide between the two, since my Panasonic(42PZ77U) does not accept 1080p/24
If you have the Panasonic, the new DMP-BD30K should be $399 or less this year and will be the first Blu-ray Disc player to be profile 1.1
It will support 1080p/24 and 1080p/60, have analogue outputs (either 5.1 or 7.1) and HDMI 1.3b and will at the very least bitstream both dts-MA and TrueHD, decode TrueHD and dts-MA and hopefully decode dts-MA as well.
Specs will be released later today.
If you have to have an HD DVD player, you're probably okay with the A2 as the Panny plasmas do have good deinterlacing and pass all HQV benchmark tests (at least the 50PZ750 does)
__________________ R.I.P. LeRoi Moore - 09.07.61 - 08.19.08 www.dmband.com
Thank you for the music
yeah, i am thinking of just going ahead and getting the A2 then. they will hit a good price point this holiday season. having analog outs would be preferred though due to my RXV-2500 not having HDMI, but i guess i will have to pick my battles.
1080p/24 1080i/60? holy cow, I think that I am gonna miss analogue tv more than I thought. I am new here, my first post in fact. I am going to wait till bd or hd has won the day before i buy anything. I work in IT for a living and I find all this stuff far to confusing, and i can only imagine ho the general public is going to embrase all this 1080/24 and whatnot. where cn I go to understand more about this color depth/numbers? I hve the resalution understood but the / and the new numbers i am seeing are screaming "imcompatability" so as Ricky recardo once said "lucy can you splan this to me"?
Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD Player Review
Linear Mode
