Awesome deal on the Toshiba HD-A2 at Crutchfield, also get the 5 free HD-DVD's from Toshiba by mail. Link:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-NVwbsaT...87&pfxid=k1971
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Awesome deal on the Toshiba HD-A2 at Crutchfield, also get the 5 free HD-DVD's from Toshiba by mail. Link:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-NVwbsaT...87&pfxid=k1971
Looks like they're making room for the new HD-A20. Excellent price for entry into HD-DVD if you don't need 1080p.
Damn, deal's already dead.
Yeah, wonder if it was a price mistake.
i don't really get the point of getting an hd-dvd player that isnt 1080p... but that's just me.
Why is that?Quote:
Originally Posted by steveklein
1080P TVS deinterlace 1080i to 1080P anyway, probably better than some players.
CircuitCity has the A2 for $249 and the A20 for $330. The HD DVD 5 free discs deal runs until 7/31.
I must resist. I must resist. I must resist.
Amazon has the A2 for around $250 right now too. What does the A20 add? Just 1080p? I'm very tempted to go for the A2. I wonder if the price will drop again once the free DVD deal phases out?Quote:
Originally Posted by Quinn
I doubt it will. I think the studios are forking over the free movies to generate interest, so it doesn't have an impact on the cost of the player or the profit for the player manufacturer or reseller.Quote:
Originally Posted by ebh
In addition to 1080p it has (more of?) the new audio formats I believe. You have to have a HDMI 1.3 receiver to use them though.
I don't think it does myself, I think 1080P is about it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Quinn
That's my understanding as well - the A20 just adds 1080p.
And, from what I've read, it's not worth the extra money. If not getting an XA2 (the top of the line) get the A2 run it at 1080i and let the TV do the de-interlacing.
FWIW, I have the A2 and really enjoy it.
Mitch
The A2 is also supposed to be a really good upscaling regular DVD player, right? That's how I'm trying to justify a purchase... it's not that much more than a decent Oppo, and you get HD-DVD to boot (and 40 second start-up times, but whatever...)
My Oppo 971 is super slow too. As far your question, I'd call it even with Oppo for upscaling since most things I read have one or the other of the two just edging out the other. I have not experienced HD DVD for myself.Quote:
Originally Posted by ebh
HD DVD looks awesome on a decent HDTV, especially a large one, or front projector.
The better the transfer, the better it looks.
Just like DVD, NOT EVERY HD DVD is ultimate PQ, it all depends on condition of the master, and corrections made before press.
SQ is much better on most things as well.
I wanted the Analog outs, so I got the Hd-A1 (1st generation), the only thing that sux is it is slow to boot, and a bit slow to load(you'll lose a total of about 30 seconds to 1 minute to gen2 players... big deal!!)..
It works fine, I use it for CDS, DVDs, and obviously HD DVD.
BTW, from what I've been reading, the A20 doesn't even do proper 1080P (at least at this time), so considering it doesn't have analogs(like the A2), to ME it isn't worth the $ over the A2.
I THINK it has a different chip than the A2, but from what I've read, they are very comparable... if ya want the best HD DVD player, ya HAVE to buy the XA2- it has the best processor for upscaling quality, AND it has the analog outs.... as well as some user controls that the others don't have.
Considering ya can get the XA2 for about 5 beans or so nowadays, thats a pretty good deal I think.
This deal got me. I should have an A2 in a couple of weeks. http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...8&postcount=81
I am going to wait out this format tug-of-war a bit longer. There will only be more price drops as people adopt this technology. Hopefully there will either be a clear victor, or the two formats will co-exist with equal support.Quote:
Originally Posted by Quinn
Besides, I have really strained the credit card with a few purchases(Sierra-1's, new receiver, LCD tv......) I need some recovery time.
I justified it as with free HDMI cable and the 5 free disc offer, from Toshiba, the player itself is less than $99. If the HD DVD format fails I'll still have a second quality upconverting player, for all the SD discs I already own, and this is supposed to be neck and neck with Oppo for that. I think HD DVD would do better at $99 and no movies than $199-240 with 5 movies.
Someone above said you have to have an HDMI 1.3 receiver to take advantage of the new audio codecs, such as DD+ and Dolby TrueHD. This is not the case. There are HDMI 1.3 receivers that will decode the new formats, but the players are fully able to convert the bitstream to PCM and send it to an HDMI 1.1 or better receiver. Also, for those lacking HDMI, you can get the signal over analog inputs, as well. Just wanted to clarify this a little.
My Aquos has HDMI, but not my receiver. It has the direct inputs for analog though. If I had a player that supported DD+/Dolby true-HD etc. would it still sound as good as a new receiver with HDMI 1.3? Do the new receivers take a digital stream and do the D/A conversion internally for these new lossless formats, or are they receiving a decoded analog signal from the HD/Blu-ray players?
You have to get the higher end players like the HD XA2 to get one that will send the new lossless formats decoded over analog. The PS3 doesn't have analog outs either.
I'm not replacing my Marantz SR7200 just to get the new audio formats. I will be using a toslink and the "older" audio formats.
Actually, my Toshiba D1 that I bought in April of '06 will send DD+ and TrueHD over analog and it sounds great. I have a Yamaha HTR-5790 that doesn't do HDMI.
Ed, the new receivers take the bitstream and do the D/A conversion. Older, 1.1 or 1.2 receivers, or those with analog inputs take the signal after the D/A conversion is done in the player.
I've actually built a pc and will connect the xbox 360 hd drive to it. I have a 7.1 sound card with analog outs....and will run that to my receiver. As it's been stated, this will give my system the ability to play the new audio formats. But as I understand the main difference between running the sound over analog and having a receiver that accepts the sound of over hdmi, is that with analog I won't be able to manage the bass effectively. It will pass through and deliver bass to each speaker equally, but may be lacking as it relates to the real low frequency on the dvd soundtrack that is intended for the sub.
I'm sure it will sound exquisite, and I've set my system up intentionally this way. But without having heard it yet, this is my input based on research.
From my experiences, that's the main advantage of HDMI as it relates to these players and AVR's.......bass management. In my setup, using analog, the bass management is done in the player. Fortunately, my AVR will remember different speaker and sub level settings for analog inputs and digital inputs, or it would be a pain to level match everything since the sub level is low out of the D1. It took some tweaking and turning the sub up to compensate for the analog level out of the D1 and cutting the sub level in the AVR for all my digital sources so all inputs were still level matched. HDMI makes this much easier. I'm thinking of picking up a Yammy RX-V661 for pre-pro use. It's getting great reviews, has tons of bells and whistles, and will layer 7.1 on top of 5.1 HDMI sources from my D1, and all for under 400 bucks. The only drawback is that it will not transcode component to HDMI and it only has 2 HDMI inputs, but nothing's perfect.
Everyone is making a BIG DEAL of this HDMI CRAP, listen, HDMI WASN'T created for YOU, it was created for THEM....... CONTROl......
HDMI is NO better than 6 analogs,show me proof it is, I'll give ya a gold star!!:p
Muzz, totally agree. You can do anything with analog that you can with HDMI. It just takes more cables.
Errr...you can transfer video digitally to a digital display without ever doing D/A/D conversions. Can't do that with analog. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by muzz
Yeah, but then you get into the debate of whether those D/A/D conversions are detrimental or noticeable. I'd guess that on 90% plus of displays, that the conversions aren't noticeable, and that on the remaining 10%, about 90% of most people see what they want to see. Wow, that's a lot of percentages.
This is true, they could do that with DVI as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by BradJudy
Which has the exact same copy protection as HDMI, which is what I thought you were complaining about.Quote:
Originally Posted by muzz