Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD Player - HiDeffjeff's review

[HiDeffjeff]

chuckken, good to see you back...Yeah if you have the patience, go ahead and wait for the new flagship which should be out the 4th quarter of this year and it most likely will have the new 1.3 HDMI otherwise, BUY THE 74TXVi!!!! It is just as powerful as the 59TXi as far as I can tell...I can tell no difference between it and my old 59TXi. It really sounds sweet with the new Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD player. You get the DD+ not to mention switching ability built right in the receiver for the HDMI...(It inabled me to use my Gefen HDMI switcher in another location)....

[Richard]

From what I understand the difference between the HDMI specs relates only to the original data stream; either you are geting digital multichannel or the stream which will be decoded by the receiver into multichannel.

Either way don't you still have full control over multichannel processing just like any other source such as distance, delay, size and such unlike most analog multichannel inputs? If so then what are the benefits of being able to get the data stream?

[HiDeffjeff]

Richard...From what I've gleaned from my web surfing travels it appears that without 1.3 cabable HDMI on the receiver, you cannot receive the TrueHD feeds that will be showing up on the new HD-DVDs...At this time, it appears that just the DD+ is being offered on the HD discs so for now the Pioneer Elite VSX-74TXVi will do the trick...

[chuckken2]

chuckken, good to see you back...Yeah if you have the patience, go ahead and wait for the new flagship which should be out the 4th quarter of this year and it most likely will have the new 1.3 HDMI otherwise, BUY THE 74TXVi!!!! It is just as powerful as the 59TXi as far as I can tell...I can tell no difference between it and my old 59TXi. It really sounds sweet with the new Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD player. You get the DD+ not to mention switching ability built right in the receiver for the HDMI...(It inabled me to use my Gefen HDMI switcher in another location)....

HiDeffjeff, thanks for the reply. You,ve twisted my arm, I went ahead and ordered 2 of the VSX-74TXVis. I am gonna sell my 59TXi. With 2 units I can do an awesome multiroom setup to my bedroom and get video and audio both through that one cable and still have the individual switching abilities of both units (Tivo/DVD). Thanks, BTW, as Richard said in another post, "You are a good/bad influence! Now, to decide on whether to wait for Blu-ray??? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

[HiDeffjeff]

chuckken....yeah, thats what I want to do I think. Pick up another 74TXvi or maybe a 72TXVi (a little cheaper) for my bedroom. I'm always glad to hear that I'm a good/bad influence Home theater is so cool these days...As far as waiting for Blu-ray?...Well I was really hoping for one format, but i'll probably go both till it pans out. So you'll just have to make your mind up about waiting or not. Heck, for 499.00 you can't go wrong on the HD-DVD, plus there are more and more movies coming out. I love my new Toshiba HD-A1...The picture quality is superb!...BTW, I don't know if you read it already, but make sure you try 1080i even if your display is native 720P...(BIG DIFFERENCE!)... ...Good luck with your decision!...OH, forgot to mention that RCA is coming out with a clone of the Toshiba player any day now, so, who knows? it may be a little cheaper.

[HiDeffjeff]

New firmware upgrade for Toshiba and RCA HD-DVD Players...

http://www.dvdtown.com/announcement/fir ... -dvd/3491/

[raff]

You can download the firmware here.

http://www.savefile.com/files.php?fid=7678296

You can use NERO to burn it as a disk image.

[HiDeffjeff]

Raff, that link doesn't appear to be working...

[raff]

Looks like they pulled it down. Sorry about that.

[chuckken2]

chuckken....yeah, thats what I want to do I think. Pick up another 74TXvi or maybe a 72TXVi (a little cheaper) for my bedroom. I'm always glad to hear that I'm a good/bad influence Home theater is so cool these days...As far as waiting for Blu-ray?...Well I was really hoping for one format, but i'll probably go both till it pans out. So you'll just have to make your mind up about waiting or not. Heck, for 499.00 you can't go wrong on the HD-DVD, plus there are more and more movies coming out. I love my new Toshiba HD-A1...The picture quality is superb!...BTW, I don't know if you read it already, but make sure you try 1080i even if your display is native 720P...(BIG DIFFERENCE!)... ...Good luck with your decision!...OH, forgot to mention that RCA is coming out with a clone of the Toshiba player any day now, so, who knows? it may be a little cheaper.

Jeff, I went ahead and bought the RCA clone at Walmart and I'm glad you twisted my arm! It and the Pioneer Elite VSX-74TXi are a perfect marriage. The lossless DDplus sounds incredible!...I have Atlantic Technology speakers (around 2000.00) and the dd+ makes them sound like 10,000.00 speakers! Yeah, when you play a HD-DVD the receiver says "THX MUSICMODE" instead of THX Ultra2 Cinema which it displays for standard upscaled dvd's. Thanks again for twisting my arm. Oh, BTW, After reading reviews of projectors on www.projectorcentral.com I've decided to go with the same panny900u that you have. They have extended the warranty till the end of June so I get 400 bucks knocked off of 1799.00 making the cost only 1399.00 My projector should be hitting my door tomorrow. I am looking forward to it. My wife and I just moved into a brand new home so I now have the space for a big 133" screen. I will eventually move on up to the new Optoma 1080P projector when the prices level out. I just felt the Panny would be a great starter projector, and you seem to love yours so,,, well, thanks again for twisting my arm--

Oh, forgot to mention...."The Fugitive" is incredible on the DD+ especially the scene in the sewer under the bridge just before he jumps off.....The sound of the water in the sewer is incredible!...check it out, if you haven't already.