Just got an A1 HD DVD :)

[Sonicus]

Hi all,

I just got an A1 HD DVD player, to start getting a feel for these new formats, since Bluray is not out yet.

Anyone want to know anything about it? I've had it about two days, so I haven't much of a chance to "grill" it yet, but I could write a little review or something. They're not that common around here in London, yet.

I'm going to be upgrading my Home Theatre for these High def formats, so I might also lean on some of the other threads for advice on Receivers and an upgrade for my projector.

 

[lonwa]

Any feedback you can provide regarding the unit would be great. The only reason I have not gone out and purchased one myself, is the lack of titles available. If Lord of the Rings came out on HD-DVD..., I think that would be enough for me (any many others) to make the leap to HD-DVD.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

One question - it would be nice to hear your impression of a two disc comparison - one standard 480i dvd versus the new HD dvd. The player should "upconvert" the signal on the 480i, so I'm wondering what your opinion is of piq quality difference. Here's a list of titles on HD-DVD (current of coming soon).

http://www.dvdtown.com/article/hd-dvdupdateandlistoftitles/1582/

 

[captain_tinker]

Just how is HD-DVD any better than DVD visually?

Sonicus,
I happened upon an Toshiba HD-A1 player last night while walking around Sears. It was attached to a very nice crisp clear Plasma screen, and had a disc in it. It was playing along and I walked by. At first I didn't realize it was an HD-DVD player. I was looking mainly at the screen. I watched for a moment, and didn't really think much of it, the quality wasn't really any better than a regular DVD on a decent player, and it wasn't until I actually looked at the player that I realized it was an HD-DVD. So I began wondering, just where is the benefit of an HD-DVD? I saw NO difference in quality, or sharpness. I can understand the technical benefits, of being able to look better on larger screens because of the simple difference in resolution size. You can typically tell this from having experience with computers. Stretching an 800x600 desktop to fill a large screen will look awful, whereas setting it to 1600x1200 will look much better. But on smaller screens like this plasma, which was probably only a 42 incher or so, I could really not tell the difference.

So perhaps I should ask it this way, Have you done an A/B comparison at all, like Buckeyfan was asking, and have you really seen any visual difference? I could not do an A/B comparison, as I was just mainly walking by for a second...

IMO, blu-ray and HD-DVD would serve me much better as high speed/high capacity backup for my computer.

-capT

 

[ht_addict]

Sonicus,
I happened upon an Toshiba HD-A1 player last night while walking around Sears. It was attached to a very nice crisp clear Plasma screen, and had a disc in it. It was playing along and I walked by. At first I didn't realize it was an HD-DVD player. I was looking mainly at the screen. I watched for a moment, and didn't really think much of it, the quality wasn't really any better than a regular DVD on a decent player, and it wasn't until I actually looked at the player that I realized it was an HD-DVD. So I began wondering, just where is the benefit of an HD-DVD? I saw NO difference in quality, or sharpness. I can understand the technical benefits, of being able to look better on larger screens because of the simple difference in resolution size. You can typically tell this from having experience with computers. Stretching an 800x600 desktop to fill a large screen will look awful, whereas setting it to 1600x1200 will look much better. But on smaller screens like this plasma, which was probably only a 42 incher or so, I could really not tell the difference.

So perhaps I should ask it this way, Have you done an A/B comparison at all, like Buckeyfan was asking, and have you really seen any visual difference? I could not do an A/B comparison, as I was just mainly walking by for a second...

IMO, blu-ray and HD-DVD would serve me much better as high speed/high capacity backup for my computer.

-capT

capT, any chance you can tell us what they were playing on the player? Was it an HD demo disc or one of the movies that have been released? From my sig you can see that I own the new Toshiba, before that I had a Denon 3910. I can honestly tell you that the difference between the two is there and noticeable. PQ on the Toshiba is sharper, more detailed, and utilizes a richer color pallete. You have to see one off the HD movies playing, not those crappy demo discs they have running in the players.

 

[captain_tinker]

ht_addict,
Well, as I said, I did not make an A/B comparison, so what I saw may not be very objective. Also, seeing that this was Sears, and not a high quality Home Theater type of store, they may or may not have had it hooked up correctly, and I don't really know if there was an HD-DVD even in it, since it refused to eject the dic I could not inspect it. I do believe it was probably a demo of sorts, it was going through some movie trailers. I also could not tell you what brand of monitor it was using. I only remember that it said Plasma, it could have been Sony, or Samsung, or something like that, I don't know.

It's just that my first impression was not very good. I had seen clearer pictures on my 10 year old RCA tube tv at home using an S-Video cable.

From what I can see from your setup, (which looks quite nice by the way! ) I am sure that you have taken the time to set things up properly, and configure them properly, so perhaps if one takes the time to do that, you may be able to see a difference. I guess I will just have to check it out at a REAL hi-fi shop, and not Sears.

-capT

 

[rgriffin25]

Perhaps the resolution on the HD-VD player was not set correctly. Maybe it was set to 480 instead of 720 or 1080. I've noticed exactly what you are talking about on several HD-cable boxes, once the resolution was set properly there was a night and day difference. Since you were at sears I bet that was the case.

 

[MAX661]

I went from a Pioneer Elite DV-79AVi to the HD-DVD player and there is a huge improvement if you ask me or the wife. pop in chronicles of riddick, training day or serenity and you will be seeing the cleanest HD images up to date.

I cant wait for more pristine transfers, and they most likely didn't change the player from the factory default of 720p to 1080i, makes a big improvement. for some reason the player doesn't do 720p all that great in comparison...

 

[mfabien]

I've had an HD-A1 for 17 days (tell you why I returned it at the end).

- I used an HDMI/DVI cable and it operated flawlessly
- The boot up time (about 1 minute) did not annoy me
- The player appearance I found appealing
- The setup menu is great
- The remote (no back-light in the case of the HD-A1) is a serious mistake. However, my Harmony 880 was capable of handling every command.

The Upconversion quality of standard DVD in my case did not improve my picture because my Toshiba CRT RPTV upconverts 480i to 540p. But many owners have stated the Upconversion quality to be as good or better than an Oppo player.

The HD picture quality of movies (films) is great because it has higher Video bitrate than you will ever get on TV. But the comparison between HD DVD and HD TV must be made for movies and not Video source data. As for SD DVD vs HD DVD, there is no question that HD DVD is the winner... but may I suggest that 50% to 75% of the improvement is because of sound.

In my case my viewing was limited to Serenity and Apollo 13 both of which had DD Plus 5.1 sound. With a digital connection to the a/v, DD Plus comes out as DTS with a 1.5 Mbps bitrate. With the 5.1 channel analog connections, you get the raw DD Plus codec. I would have liked to see and hear Phantom of the Opera with its DD TrueHD stereo codec (using 5.1 analog connections).

As for setting up the analog connections, my best results were by doing the following settings in the player:

For each speaker, setting the appropriate distance (same as in the a/v) and making all speakers SMALL and setting the SPL to -7 dB for each speaker but 0 dB for the subwoofer. I then needed to increase the sub Gain by 2 o'clock. The reason for this odd setup is that the player's sub volume, via the analogs, is 10 dB lower than via the digital connection to the a/v.

Those of you who do not have a DVD player capable of playing SACD and DVD-A will be amazed to listen to normal CDs or the DTS track of DVD-A (normally accessible with a digital connection) with this player's 5.1 analog connections. The sound is quite pleasant... smoother, more silky. And I was amazed on how much better the sound was in the case of the Diana Krall "Live on Paris" DVD.

Those of you with an a/v receiver which has an HDMI input will receive and play the following codecs: DD Plus, DD TrueHD in stereo and DTS-HD core. In other words, you will get the same as with 5.1 analog. As for DD TrueHD in 5.1 and DTS-HD lossless, it is not clear if this will become available via an update to the player by Toshiba or, like the Sony BD, if this will require HDMI version 1.3.

Why I returned the HD-A1:

- My interest is mainly DVD concerts and not movies. I will buy DVD concerts but have no intention of building up a movie library. There are no concerts available in HD DVD at this time and only old movies have been released in HD DVD with very slow service in HD DVD rentals from our Canadian online rental service.
- I will reevaluate my situation in approximately 12 months and will probably repurchase an HD-A1 at a lower price.

 

[Kai]

My local BB has the hd-dvd connected to a Panny plasma through a Yamaha rcvr via hdmi. They play a loop of hd dvd trailers and the picture quality is amazing compared to standard dvd format. The colors are richer and the details are dramatically improved.

The price is a bit high for me at the moment and the bugs/glitches in the player are enough to keep me away for a while. My tv is also an older crt based system that only plays 480i/p and 1080i via component or dvi. My rcvr also only has component so I would have to connect the dvd direct to the tv via a hdmi/dvi cable...no big deal, did this before and just let my Harmony handle the switching hehehe...

Saving for a new tv and will add a hd-dvd to it probably some time next year.

 

[Duffinator]

Wow

I just got back from my local Magnolia Hi-Fi where I spent a half hour watching The Last Samuri on the expensive Toshiba HD player on a Samsung 71" 1080P DLP. It was the best picture I've ever seen on a display plain and simple. I was amazed how clear and smooth the picture was. You could walk up to about 24" from the set before you saw any pixels or break up of the picture. From 10 to 12 feet away it looked like you were watching a movie at your local theater.

mfabien, I thought that you needed a receiver capable of decoding the new formats in order to hear them??? If the receiver is not capable of decoding DD TrueHD then what you are hearing is just a regular DD sound track. Does your Yamaha have a DD THD chip? Someone correct me on this if I'm wrong.

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

Someone correct me on this if I'm wrong.

Correct, there are no AVRs on the market that decode Dolby TrueHD™

 

[mfabien]

...
mfabien, I thought that you needed a receiver capable of decoding the new formats in order to hear them??? If the receiver is not capable of decoding DD TrueHD then what you are hearing is just a regular DD sound track. Does your Yamaha have a DD THD chip? Someone correct me on this if I'm wrong.

The player has codecs for DD Plus, DD TrueHD and DTS-HD (core). By using 5.1 channel analogs, you get the sound already decoded. My Yamaha Passes Through decoded sounds when I select 6 Channel analogs.

If I select the digital connection, the player's DD Plus codec has a lot of bitrate and an a/v, such as mine, treats this is if it was DTS. Therefore, an a/v which cannot decode DTS will not get any sound with Dolby Digital Plus (as strange as it may sound).

Now a/v which have HDMI input can pass through sounds decoded by the HD DVD player. Even with HDMI version 1.0.

 

[ht_addict]

The price is a bit high for me at the moment and the bugs/glitches in the player are enough to keep me away for a while. My tv is also an older crt based system that only plays 480i/p and 1080i via component or dvi. My rcvr also only has component so I would have to connect the dvd direct to the tv via a hdmi/dvi cable...no big deal, did this before and just let my Harmony handle the switching hehehe...

Saving for a new tv and will add a hd-dvd to it probably some time next year.

I wouldn't say that $499 is expensive, when you look at what your getting. As far as glitches go there has been a couple of firmware upgrades to address these(upto ver 1.3)

 

[Duffinator]

The player has codecs for DD Plus, DD TrueHD and DTS-HD (core). By using 5.1 channel analogs, you get the sound already decoded. My Yamaha Passes Through decoded sounds when I select 6 Channel analogs.

If I select the digital connection, the player's DD Plus codec has a lot of bitrate and an a/v, such as mine, treats this is if it was DTS. Therefore, an a/v which cannot decode DTS will not get any sound with Dolby Digital Plus (as strange as it may sound).

Now a/v which have HDMI input can pass through sounds decoded by the HD DVD player. Even with HDMI version 1.0.

That makes sense, I didn't realize the player had the decoder already built in. Too bad it doesn't have DVD-A decoder as well since you have the option of connecting using the analog connections. I looked it up and here's the link.

HD-1A

 

[LEVESQUE]

The Toshiba HD-A1 is 499$. There is not a single high-end DVD-player (Meridian, SimAudio, Denon 5910, Onkyo SP1000... etc) all costing 2000$ and more (and sometimes even more then 10000$) that can give you a better picture quality with standard DVDs then the Toshiba with HD-DVD disks...

With HD-DVD disks, the Tosh blows away any high-end DVD player playing a DVD. All those high-end DVD players are FAR behind a 499$ Tosh player when this player is playing HD disks.

I would have paid 5000$ to play HD disks, but the Best Buy dude was insisting on selling it only 499$ to me. After paying countless thousand $ over the year for "high-end" DVD players with only 480i disks, CUE bugs, macroblocking and other bugs, I was running like hell on my way to the cash register. I was afraid they would change idea and charge me more for this true HD player...

Tosh HD-A1 to Gennum VXP scaler, true-inverse telecine to Sony Ruby at 1080p. Awesome. Not a SINGLE high-end DVD player can even get near that level of PQ.

499$ for that. Unbelievable. And my Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-Ray is coming next week (sample unit) for 999$. Crazy... 1080p for 999$. Wow.

 

[Duffinator]

The Toshiba HD-A1 is 499$. Not a SINGLE high-end DVD player can even get near that level of PQ. And my Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-Ray is coming next week (sample unit) for 999$. Crazy... 1080p for 999$. Wow.

That pretty much says it all. How does the player work with redbook CD? Now if we could just get a single HD format I'd buy one today.

BTW, nice HT!

 

[MACCA350]

Read the fine print:

Dolby® Digital Plus support for up to 5.1 channels, Dolby True HD support for up to 2 channels, and DTS-HD support for up to 5.1 channels of DTS® core only.

BTW, all HD-DVD's are stored at 1080p, it's only the player that limits output at 1080i for the moment, the next generation players should output the 1080p. I'm unsure if the current HD-DVD players can be firmware upgraded to output 1080p.

This is taken from the DVD Forum's Requirements Specification
for HD DVD Video Application, Functional & Performance
Requirements paper Page 32:

Support for video source resolutions up to 1920x1080 and frame rates up to 60p.

Taken from an interview(right here at Audioholics) with Sage Schreiner, HD DVD Program Manager at Microsoft:

Sage: Just to be clear, the content is all 1080p/24, not 1080i. As an FYI, while 720 is an HD format, I don't know of anyone encoding 1st generation movies at 720p

cheers

 

[Duffinator]

Bump

Any other owners out there want to share their experiences with their new HD DVD players?

Admin's we need a product review!

 

[Audioholics]

they may or may not have had it hooked up correctly, and I don't really know if there was an HD-DVD even in it

Heck, it could have been connected via composite video or RF like they love to do...