Toshiba Players?

[hendra]

When will Toshiba offer Blu-ray Players or Blu-ray Laptops?

[bluflu]

A day after never.

[andyman1970]

Probably not for a while since they still have open wounds from the defeat of HD-DVD.

[LordCrumb]

I'd be more interested in seeing 'Transonic' blu-ray players. they are pretty likely to be region free for BD and DVD.

[MountainBlu]

I've wondered about this question too. How long did it take Sony to make a VHS player when it lost the video cassette war? (Maybe a simular time frame for Toshiba.) I bet once the economy revives and Blu-ray sales really take off, then it will be Toshiba, as well as many other companies, jumping in for a piece of the pie. I'm ready for more players and lower prices on movies!

[BadAss]

Toshiba are still out to destroy Blu-ray with their SuC players (Super up Convert) which they say will give near as HD experience from DVD...

[gekke henkie]

Toshiba might launch them through a different brandname or trough one of their alliances...

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by gekke henkie

Toshiba might launch them through a different brandname or trough one of their alliances...

That's a very valid point. Fujitsu was one of the largest HDD manufacturers in the world (maybe still is, I don't know), but all you hear about is Western Digital and the like.

John

[shooter3295]

Toshiba makes very nice products,... I hope they get with it and get in the BD game. Anything they do will be on a par with the best. Their HD players were great,... and the up convert was awesome.

[Blu-ray Fanatic]

Toshiba still doesn't know how to swallow their pride.

[gonk]

Originally Posted by BadAss

Toshiba are still out to destroy Blu-ray with their SuC players (Super up Convert) which they say will give near as HD experience from DVD...

This is a course of action that will remain a hard sell, I expect. I've read reviews of their first such player, and it was about what it should be for the price: a solid but not revolutionary upscaling DVD player. There were already better upscaling players on the market. In addition, the suggestion that upscaling can truly match up with an HD source is so fundamentally insulting to many consumers that it really hurts their corporate credibility.

Originally Posted by shooter3295

Toshiba makes very nice products,... I hope they get with it and get in the BD game. Anything they do will be on a par with the best. Their HD players were great,... and the up convert was awesome.

The upconversion on my HD-A2 was pretty mediocre. The XA1 and XA2 made very good use of the Reon from all I've heard, and the A35 was a pretty decent performer, but otherwise they were solidly middle-of-the-road upscaling players burdened with painfully slow layer changes and otherwise sluggish player operation. Pulling the HD responsibilities out can fix the slowness, but that's about it. Toshiba doesn't have magicians on staff - you can't create true HD video from SD source material...

[shooter3295]

Originally Posted by gonk

The upconversion on my HD-A2 was pretty mediocre. The XA1 and XA2 made very good use of the Reon from all I've heard, and the A35 was a pretty decent performer, but otherwise they were solidly middle-of-the-road upscaling players burdened with painfully slow layer changes and otherwise sluggish player operation. Pulling the HD responsibilities out can fix the slowness, but that's about it. Toshiba doesn't have magicians on staff - you can't create true HD video from SD source material...

For it's time,... they did an excellent job. I used my HD player as an up convert for many months before finally selling it on Ebay. To be honest,... unless they know better,.... most people can not tell the difference between a great upscale and a BD unless they are side by side. Then the spark and image quality of the BD is noticeable. DVD has a long way to go before it is dead,....BD may be the future,... that remains to be seen,..... they still need to standardize the discs. There are too many ego's creating and tweaking the software,... that's why we need constant firmware updates. IMO,... they also need to bring the price down if they want greater market penetration. Adding more content,... like a digital copy,... does not justify $30 + US for each disc. Not all of us care or use a Digital copy,.. or the nonsense things like BD live.

Toshiba will finally get over their funk,.... just like Sony eventually did with VHS. When they do,.... they will market an excellent product.

[Blacklac]

Hopefully soon. Their HD DVD players were really well constructed, nice features and hardware.

I agree, they really need to swallow their pride. However, I would never buy one as a main player, as my PC owns all players available (minus it's audio limitations). Region free, much better PQ, etc...

[Blacklac]

Originally Posted by gonk

The upconversion on my HD-A2 was pretty mediocre. The XA1 and XA2 made very good use of the Reon from all I've heard, and the A35 was a pretty decent performer, but otherwise they were solidly middle-of-the-road upscaling players burdened with painfully slow layer changes and otherwise sluggish player operation. Pulling the HD responsibilities out can fix the slowness, but that's about it. Toshiba doesn't have magicians on staff - you can't create true HD video from SD source material...

To be accurate, the XA1 doesn't have Reon. Actually, it's pretty on par with the A2. I've personally owned XA1, A2, A35 and Onkyo 805 (XA2 clone).

[gonk]

I had forgotten that the XA2 was the only one with the Reon chip. Good point. My HD-A2 shared rack space with an OPPO 980H, 983H, Panasonic BD30, and finally an OPPO BDP-83. For standard DVD's, the 980H got used over the A2 and BD30 due to comparable upscaling and better speed/ease of use. The 983H and BDP-83 were a clear step up in standard DVD performance over the other three players.

[robertc88]

It doesn't matter how good an upconverting player is that they come up with, it will never be HD quality and it lacks an audio upgrade from conventional SD DVD.

[kefrank]

Originally Posted by robertc88

It doesn't matter how good an upconverting player is that they come up with, it will never be HD quality and it lacks an audio upgrade from conventional SD DVD.

While all of that is true, with the huge library of DVD titles available, upconverting technology is still very relevant. I wouldn't buy a DVD-only player now, but the quality of upconversion in a Blu-ray player is very important to me, with so many cinematic treasures on DVD that will take years to make it to BD, if they ever do.

Back on topic, I don't understand the purpose of this thread. There are plenty of great BD players from other manufacturers at reasonable prices, so I don't really care if Toshiba ever makes one. And I've been a very satisfied owner of other Toshiba products (yes, including an HD DVD player).

[robertc88]

Of course upconversion of SD DVD is relevant but what does Toshiba stand to gain with what they are doing now since BD player prices have come down and some of those offer very good upconversion for the buck? For what Toshiba has available regarding their supposedly high quality upconversion from those players they can keep. I'd rather take lots of reasonably priced BD players any day!

[ganthc]

I would like to see Toshiba jump into the bd market. I don't see them doing that until it is apparent they are losing money by missing out. However, if they wait too long they won't be able to gain as much market share. Oh well, they seem to rely on SUC to deliver their needed profit.

That said, there were a few complaints I had with my Toshiba players (HD-A2, HD-A35, HD-XA2). One complaint was the remote, especially the one for the HD-XA2, which looked like it had been designed from the early 80's. The A2 and A35 shared the same remote, and it was kind of clunky, but overall okay. The second complaint was that it was very slow. Hopefully Toshiba could deliver a fast player if/when they get into the game.

I will say that the upconversion for all the Toshiba players was good, with the XA2 being the best. However, I preface that with the fact that if you are used to seeing HD content, you will still not enjoy watching dvds as much. You start seeing all the artifacts, halos, and blurriness that is common with Peasant Disc, I mean DVD.

Personally, I hope Toshiba changes its mind and gets on board. Blu-ray needs to be a united front in order to ensure its market success.

[HotRats]

Toshiba's plan is to sit out Blu and go straight to HD download technology. Their strategy could work but (at least in the UK) download speeds won't be high enough for years, during which time Blu may become dominant. Toshiba's stopgap till/if downloading takes off is upscaling via technology derived from Sony's Cell processor and however good it is it can't put detail there that wasn't there in the first place. Hopefully Blu will establish itself so firmly Tosh can't ignore it as they've always made quality DVD players