Toshiba HD-A30 vs. OPPO DV-981HD - Which should I keep?

[SilverMK3]

Hopefully Media prices will come down too when the studios don't have to support two HD formats, though Sony isn't known for its altruism with pricing when they are not in desperate competition.

Let me be the first to say "I told me so!"

 

[allargon]

Yes, I returned the A30 over the weekend. If I hadn't seen the OPPO's 1080P performance prior to buying the A30 I don't think I would have had any issues with the way it upscales. Running the A30 at 1080i would have been a waste of money for me, I might as well have picked up the A3 for $150.

Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to be replacing my DVD collection any time soon and the only affordable HD format looks like its about to die on us. I think I can wait a few months for BD players to come down in price. No sense paying the "early adopter tax" this late in the game.

The A30 has an Anchor Bay scaling chip whereas the A3 does not. Guess who's using AnchorBay now? Yep. Oppo with the 983H.

No worries. HD DVD is dead. Enjoy your Oppo. Honestly, unless you want the audio upgrades (err... ), upscaling is good enough for displays less than 42" with normal viewing distances.

 

[Johnd]

My $0.02?

Sell everything like some of the others posted, and be prepared to shell out over $2k for a decent player and a small library of movies.

Or, keep the A30 and have a large library for under 1k...and it's not remotely "dead" as long as your discs are playable (both HD and SD...the A30 is a great upconverter).

Case in point? I have two A35's and an A3 (may sell one of them) and about 70 discs (including all the freebies)...and I have only spent about $880. And my library of about 150 SD movies is not "dead" either...they play just fine thank you, upscaled at 1080p/24Hz on a 120" glass bead screen.

Which brings me to my final point. A 42" screen is fine. But HD (imho) needs to be enjoyed on a large screen before one can make a truly well-informed decision. It's no wonder you detected no appreciable between the A30 and 981...a 42" screen is somewhat...limited. I'm not remotely suggesting you sell it, or even consider buying a larger display. A 42" screen at whatever distance you prefer is fine if you so decide. No wonder you can't detect an appreciable difference between upscaled SD and HD...no wonder.

Make no mistake: HD has a lot of information (bits) that are not present in SD. And 300 is not the best gauge (imho) for HD pq...at least not on a 42" screen. Either you like it or you don't. But watch 300 via an A35 at 1080p on a 120" glass bead screen, and compare it to an upconverted SD 300 on the same screen...absolutely no competition. Finally, as there are some 750 titles in HD (US and foreign), only you can decide if there is enough selection from which to choose.

One can make no excuses for lack of bits.

 

[SilverMK3]

Dude, I wasn't saying I couldn't tell the difference between SD and HD. I was saying that the 981's upscaling performance was better than the A-30's upscaling performance. I returned the A-30 in favor of a PS3, then later bought the HD-DVD attachment for my XBOX for $50.

Yes I'm now one of 'those guys' with consoles for HD movie players, but I still watch my large 700+ DVD library using the OPPO - its upscaling performance beats the PS3 and 360's upscaling as well.

 

[Johnd]

Dude, I wasn't saying I couldn't tell the difference between SD and HD. I was saying that the 981's upscaling performance was better than the A-30's upscaling performance. I returned the A-30 in favor of a PS3, then later bought the HD-DVD attachment for my XBOX for $50.

Yes I'm now one of 'those guys' with consoles for HD movie players, but I still watch my large 700+ DVD library using the OPPO - its upscaling performance beats the PS3 and 360's upscaling as well.

I understand that SilverMK3 (if you're referring to my post...and btw, I'm not a "dude" ).

What I wrote was I understand why "you detected no appreciable difference between the A30 and the 981...on a 42" screen" between upconverted SD and HD. Big difference between the two statements. That's all. There's absolutely no inference that you don't know what your seeing (or talking about) or that you have a crappy setup. None whatsoever. Cheers, John