Brian@BBY's HDDVD Impressions

[BTBuck1]

(Day one) september 13,2006

I'm going to log this and treat this as an experiment. Because the way I feal seems too reminisant of another user here and his original thoughts which have changed drastically from his early experiences. (JTK)

First off, I think Everyone by now knows my position up to me buying this player. I have been and continue to be a firm supporter of the Blu Ray format. I feel the Blu Ray format is by far supported by better companies and the Hardware has a definate edge, I also feel that they will eventually prove why they are the next gen format to watch for and put your ducks in (if you have to make a choice)

That said, Let me tell you I couldn't have been more wrong (So Far) about the HDDVD format. Not so much on the software side of things because i always knew they had good software but more so on the hardware side of things. Oh has this player grown up alot since i last played with her thouroughly back in april. back then it was slow, unresponsive and just irritating to use. Now the only real quirky thing that doesnt even really bother me, it just makes me feel weird is the HDMI hanshaking that causes my tv to do this green flickering dance about 2-3 times between welcome and loading.

I must say i spent the better part of the day playing with this thing and it did not once skip a beat. I never had an AV sync issue, no black screens or anything. And i'm hoping I don't because right now i'm very happy with it.

I never ran a disc in this player one time on the pre-installed (Version 1.4) firmware. I immediately upon opening the box brought it into my office, connected it via component to my sony LCD 17" computer moniter and setup everything and updated the firmware to 2.0 (a proccess which btw takes about 45 minutes)

After that i brought her downstairs to her new home, connected her analog inputs up and set the resolution, HDMI on and speaker size/distance.

First off, I don't have any Dolby Tru HD movies so i've been limited to dolby digital + I'll have to say it sounds great, but not really any better than the DTS that it converts it to atleast over my system here YMMV.
From what I can tell, Uncompressed audio on Blu Ray sounds considerably better than DD+ and I look forward to testing a Tru HD track to see what these analogs can really do! But it is definately better than standard DD & equal to DTS IMO.

PQ, well...here we are...Blu Ray vs. HDDVD what does Brian@BBY think?
Well, to be real Brian with ya, I'd have to say that not once did I see anything questionable on HDDVD. I never saw a Macroblock, Film grain was minimal and every film just popped off the screen. But heres the thing, 1st, I own mostley referance titles....2nd I have seen macroblocking on HDDVD titles and lastly the BR titles I have seen it on it only lasted a few seconds on one or two scenes.

SO I'd have to say based on what I've seen so far In no way do I call HDDVD A complete Owner> of Blu Ray but it does seem to be ever so slightly more consistant. The "eight below" disc I saw on BD was on par with everything I watched today and it's soundtrack blew everything I watched today away. I'm really glad to be a part of both sides now so I don't have to take sides. I can grab what I want, when I want it and how I want it.

I'll post back occassionally and let people know how my impressions are holding up, but so far so good.

If I considered Blu Ray a B- up to now, it'd only be fair to give HDDVD a B+/(A- if it stays running solid) right now this is with all things considered (not just codecs etc)

Thanks guys!
Brian

[JimPullan]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. I concur with your observations as well. I make enough income to afford both players and software if I want and it will most likely be that way. I too see the long term advantages of Blu-Ray over HD-DVD and it will be the future standard. So, if one can afford both, go for it and simply enjoy the eye-popping experience!

Jim

Now on to CEDIA today to see all the new toys !!!

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Brian@BBY

(Day one) september 13,2006

I'm going to log this and treat this as an experiment. Because the way I feal seems too reminisant of another user here and his original thoughts which have changed drastically from his early experiences. (JTK)

Hmmm... I don't know I feel like my thoughts have been the same pretty much the whole time.

Everything is great except HD-DVD's hardware is simply too unreliable for my tastes and confidence level. I just didn't feel the near $700 investment was even close to being worth it when I was running about 50 percent failure rate on discs, in terms of varying glitches and bugs.

If I had made it through all 22 of my HD-DVDs with perfection? I very likely would have kept the player and figured I was home free.

That was a nice feeling for the first eight discs I made it through with perfection. I really thought I was one of the lucky ones, with a June 06 build date.

I was wrong.

First off, I think Everyone by now knows my position up to me buying this player. I have been and continue to be a firm supporter of the Blu Ray format.

I'm amazed you did it, quite frankly.

I feel the Blu Ray format is by far supported by better companies and the Hardware has a definate edge, I also feel that they will eventually prove why they are the next gen format to watch for and put your ducks in (if you have to make a choice)

I think the game has always been the BDA's to lose, and here in the early goings, if we didn't know any better, you'd almost think they'd wanted to.

By all rights, there's really no good reason for the BDA to finally come out in the 4th quarter of this year and fire off nukes and finish it, which I hope they do. I want this BS format war ASAP.

If the BDA wants to end it fast, they can. It's up to them.

90 percent studio support and just about every great CE manufacterer backing you up?

You can't get around it.

That said, Let me tell you I couldn't have been more wrong (So Far) about the HDDVD format. Not so much on the software side of things because i always knew they had good software but more so on the hardware side of things. Oh has this player grown up alot since i last played with her thouroughly back in april. back then it was slow, unresponsive and just irritating to use. Now the only real quirky thing that doesnt even really bother me, it just makes me feel weird is the HDMI hanshaking that causes my tv to do this green flickering dance about 2-3 times between welcome and loading.

Yeah, that can happen. I think if you upgrade your firmware to at least 1.3, that will go away.

Make sure the cables are secure and tight. We all know how fickle the HDMI connections can be.

I must say i spent the better part of the day playing with this thing and it did not once skip a beat. I never had an AV sync issue, no black screens or anything. And i'm hoping I don't because right now i'm very happy with it.

I made it through 8 discs of movie watching with perfection, thinking I was home free, before my problems started. You are very early in this game, my friend.

I never ran a disc in this player one time on the pre-installed (Version 1.4) firmware. I immediately upon opening the box brought it into my office, connected it via component to my sony LCD 17" computer moniter and setup everything and updated the firmware to 2.0 (a proccess which btw takes about 45 minutes)

With 2.0, there's a menu option now to increase the speed of the Internet on that player. Do that ASAP.

After that i brought her downstairs to her new home, connected her analog inputs up and set the resolution, HDMI on and speaker size/distance.

Keep dialogue enchancement off and any other extra BS like that.

First off, I don't have any Dolby Tru HD movies so i've been limited to dolby digital + I'll have to say it sounds great, but not really any better than the DTS that it converts it to atleast over my system here YMMV.

Probably not.

From what I can tell, Uncompressed audio on Blu Ray sounds considerably better than DD+ and I look forward to testing a Tru HD track to see what these analogs can really do!

Agreed. How the hell can anyone do better than UNCOMPRESSED PCM.

But it is definately better than standard DD & equal to DTS IMO.

Sure.

PQ, well...here we are...Blu Ray vs. HDDVD what does Brian@BBY think?
Well, to be real Brian with ya, I'd have to say that not once did I see anything questionable on HDDVD. I never saw a Macroblock, Film grain was minimal and every film just popped off the screen. But heres the thing, 1st, I own mostley referance titles....2nd I have seen macroblocking on HDDVD titles and lastly the BR titles I have seen it on it only lasted a few seconds on one or two scenes.

Which titles did you see macroblocking on? Isn't MB a MPEG weakness to begin with? I don't know how you can have MB with a VC-1 codec disc, but I'm hardly any expert on this, either.

How many movies have you watched on HD-DVD thus far, all the way through?

SO I'd have to say based on what I've seen so far In no way do I call HDDVD A complete Owner> of Blu Ray but it does seem to be ever so slightly more consistant.

I think that's pretty fair. As BD continuest to slowly and surely climb, that gap is going to get closed and, I believe, eventually start going the other way.

The "eight below" disc I saw on BD was on par with everything I watched today and it's soundtrack blew everything I watched today away.

Again, you can be more specific? What did you watch? How long? etc. etc.

I'm really glad to be a part of both sides now so I don't have to take sides. I can grab what I want, when I want it and how I want it.

That was my idea, too, but I just don't have any confidence in Toshiba in their hardware. That concept dies for me if I don't have stable and reliable hardware I can count on. YMMV.

I'll post back occassionally and let people know how my impressions are holding up, but so far so good.

If I considered Blu Ray a B- up to now, it'd only be fair to give HDDVD a B+/(A- if it stays running solid) right now this is with all things considered (not just codecs etc)

Thanks guys!
Brian

Fair enough. Good luck!

[BTBuck1]

HDDVD's I've seen all the way through:

Pitch Black
Ray
Sea Biscuit


watched over 50%

Van Helsing
The Rundown

Watched 30%

The Perfect Storm* (macroblock/mesquitonoise mania)
U571

__________________________________________________ ___________

Blu Ray Discs I've watched

T1
T2
HOFD* (some kinda uglee going on)
SAW*
Training Day
Into The Blue
Eight Below
Underworld evo
STEALTH

__________________________________________________ ____________

Everything (video quality wise) impressed me except the movies with * next to them,

[BTBuck1]

Originally Posted by JTK

I made it through 8 discs of movie watching with perfection, thinking I was home free, before my problems started. You are very early in this game, my friend.

I wonder if the players RAM gets full or something and thats why after 8 discs it starts losing it's mind? and if there is a way to clear it's cache occassionally so that this doesn't occur.

Just because i've seen these symptoms on other products in the past and thats what it was, hold down a button for a certain length of time and it clears the cache etc.

A feature I noticed and did some homework on:
Persistant Storage...it's basically the memory card of the HD-A1, maybe by clearing it occassionally helps? (its not in the manual)

[hmurchison]

Nice report Brian.

I'm growing more and more envious reading these reports. Even with the glitches here and there HD makes movie watching a more enjoyable experience. I hope I'm ready to go next year.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by hmurchison

Nice report Brian.

I'm growing more and more envious reading these reports. Even with the glitches here and there HD makes movie watching a more enjoyable experience. I hope I'm ready to go next year.

As much as you've supported HD-DVD since January at least, well documented here and especially on AVS, I really can't believe you haven't at least gone done to Wal Mart by now and bought one of these things on clearance sale. Put your money where your mouth is, so to speak.

It seems strange that fence sitters like me would have taken a shot before folks like yourself.

Originally Posted by Brian@BBY

I wonder if the players RAM gets full or something and thats why after 8 discs it starts losing it's mind? and if there is a way to clear it's cache occassionally so that this doesn't occur.

Just because i've seen these symptoms on other products in the past and thats what it was, hold down a button for a certain length of time and it clears the cache etc.

A feature I noticed and did some homework on:
Persistant Storage...it's basically the memory card of the HD-A1, maybe by clearing it occassionally helps? (its not in the manual)

Every few days, I unplugged the unit for 5 minutes under this theory. Didn't do me a damned bit of good.

And no one should have to do that sort of thing, even with a PC.

[zombie]

I'm happy to hear that you're happy with your player Brian. The majority of HD DVD discs look terrific. I have a long history of buying bad A1s but my latest was near perfect when I bought it. With firmware 1.3 is was oustanding. Then came 1.4 which gave me audio dropouts and audio synch problems. It's gotten very annoying. I understand that 2.0 is giving some people problems as well but I'm hoping I'll be lucky and it'll cure my player. I want to be happy with my purchase just as I was a few weeks ago and as you are clearly now. I sincerely wish you the best with your player. I too was a diehard BD supporter, then I switched sides. Now that BD is improving I'll be supporting both formats. And I agree with you, BD will definitely come out on top when all is said and done. It's taken awhile but Sony has finally started to realize people won't put up with crappy PQ. So people like us will finally be able to enjoy glorious HD content from both formats. That's going to make our hobby more expensive but more fun as well.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by nyg

I'm happy to hear that you're happy with your player Brian. The majority of HD DVD discs look terrific. I have a long history of buying bad A1s but my latest was near perfect when I bought it. With firmware 1.3 is was oustanding. Then came 1.4 which gave me audio dropouts and audio synch problems. It's gotten very annoying. I understand that 2.0 is giving some people problems as well but I'm hoping I'll be lucky and it'll cure my player. I want to be happy with my purchase just as I was a few weeks ago and as you are clearly now. I sincerely wish you the best with your player. I too was a diehard BD supporter, then I switched sides. Now that BD is improving I'll be supporting both formats. And I agree with you, BD will definitely come out on top when all is said and done. It's taken awhile but Sony has finally started to realize people won't put up with crappy PQ. So people like us will finally be able to enjoy glorious HD content from both formats. That's going to make our hobby more expensive but more fun as well.

Why not simply roll back to 1.3? You can't do that once you go to 2.0. If you go to FW 2, you're stuck there.

There's threads all over AVS about people rolling back. Someone can hook you up if you don't have the disc.

[zombie]

Originally Posted by JTK

Why not simply roll back to 1.3? You can't do that once you go to 2.0. If you go to FW 2, you're stuck there.

You personally told me that wouldn't work. Now you're saying it does?

There's threads all over AVS about people rolling back. Someone can hook you up if you don't have the disc.

Will check there since I can't find my 1.3 disc since the move. I've got 1.2 and 1.4 here. Damn!

[Longshot]

Brian,

How was Seabiscuit? This will be the first HD DVD disc I will buy.

I bought into the hype and purchased the XA1. While the end result is great getting there is annoying as hell. Most of my problems are with the remote. I should not be surprised as this is a Toshiba product. If any company ever screamed bland, run of the mill products and quality it's Toshiba. There's a reason why almost all high end stores don't carry the Toshiba line. It's junk.
I know I will never purchase another Toshiba product. No way.

They just announced their 2g XA2 player at CEDIA for $999. They're out of their fricking mnds if they think they will sell this piece in volume.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by nyg

You personally told me that wouldn't work. Now you're saying it does?

NEVER! I NEVER said you could roll back from 2.0! If you install 2.0, that's it. You're stuck with it.

I told you a long time ago I wasn't sure, in general, about rolling back firmware. I learned that you can over the last couple of weeks on AVS.

But again: If you install 2.0, that's it. No going back.

Will check there since I can't find my 1.3 disc since the move. I've got 1.2 and 1.4 here. Damn!

Go figure. You probably can get Toshiba to send you one, or again: Go to AVS and do a search for a thread or somethihng. I know I saw people putting up links for downloading ISO's, you name it.

Hell, make a thread requesting it if you have to. You download the image, burn to disc, voila.

Originally Posted by Longshot

Brian,

How was Seabiscuit? This will be the first HD DVD disc I will buy.

I bought into the hype and purchased the XA1. While the end result is great getting there is annoying as hell. Most of my problems are with the remote. I should not be surprised as this is a Toshiba product. If any company ever screamed bland, run of the mill products and quality it's Toshiba. There's a reason why almost all high end stores don't carry the Toshiba line. It's junk.
I know I will never purchase another Toshiba product. No way.

Couldn't have said it better myself, although I wish the remote had been my biggest problem.

They just announced their 2g XA2 player at CEDIA for $999. They're out of their fricking mnds if they think they will sell this piece in volume.

How about the cheapskate A2 not even having analog outputs? At all? LOL! Jeezuz I got out just in time. I really feel like a dodged a bullet.

I hope whoever bought these things truly has all the luck it the world. I wish you all THE best of luck with these things.




I love watching the fanboys trip on themselves in that one thread. The WalMart mentality of balking at a $999 MSRP is just making me LMAO.

And no other news about ANY other CE companies BESIDES Toshiba coming in for HD-DVD.

Tick tock, tick tock...4th quarter is almost here, kids.

Meanwhile, I'm already seeing sexy pictures of all the hot BD players coming out. Even the Sharp looks good!

[zombie]

Originally Posted by JTK

NEVER! I NEVER said you could roll back from 2.0! If you install 2.0, that's it. You're stuck with it.

I told you a long time ago I wasn't sure, in general, about rolling back firmware. I learned that you can over the last couple of weeks on AVS.

But again: If you install 2.0, that's it. No going back.

Settle down. My mistake then.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by nyg

Settle down. My mistake then.

People have to be on drugs to be any calmer than I am on a regular basis.

It's all good!

[zombie]

Originally Posted by JTK

People have to be on drugs to be any calmer than I am on a regular basis.

It's all good!

All caps is yelling is it not? You're right though, it's all good.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by nyg

All caps is yelling is it not? You're right though, it's all good.

Aw crap, that's right. I didn't even think about Caps = yelling "netiquette."

My bad.

[zombie]

I hate hijacking this thread but I wanted to give an update on the situation with my A1. I fed it the 1.2 firmware again and the problems got worse. I then fed it the 1.4 firmware disc and it appears perfect again, at least I had no problems whatsoever during my viewing of House Of Wax this evening. Will be keeping my fingers crossed for more success tomorrow evening when I watch Backdraft.

[Psiweaver]

Glad to here NYG. How was seabiscuit as that is a very good referance movie on dvd for showing off nice scaling and deinterlacing. So if it looks good on HD DVD that would be a very nice disc to show.

[BTBuck1]

Sea Biscuit looks Horrible!!!!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-

No just kidding

It looks flippin fantastic!

A+ title

[Psiweaver]

Good to know i'll have to pick it up to play as a demo disc.