Gave away my HD-DVD player this morning and thought someone might enjoy this

[irtehyar]

My giveaway email:


Subject: The war is finally over, and now you can own a priceless piece of history... Free!

Body:

Now that the high definition format war is long over, I have some goodies to give away, so feel free to help yourself. Outside the conference room you will find several HD-DVD movies, and 1 Toshiba A30 full 1080p HD-DVD / Upconverting DVD player. The unit is only a few months old and less than 5 hours used.

Convenience features include:

-Intuitive startup. The machine automatically knows approximately how long it takes you to make popcorn. Hit the power button, go make some popcorn, and when you return it will probably be ready to play a movie of your choice.

-No more annoying "resume". This was a useless holdover from the VHS days. If you stop or remove a DVD, the player automatically forgets where you stopped and starts from the beginning next time, allowing you to more fully enjoy your favorite movies and piracy warnings.

-Surreal movie-watching experience. Extreme black crush when using the HDMI interface allows you to see movies like The Matrix in it's original "floating disembodied heads on a black sea" format.

-Non-invasive settings menu. When watching a movie, you couldn't possibly want to tweak any settings on the device, like playback format and black levels. For this reason, the settings menu is only available after you stop the movie. Then, you can tweak some settings and start the movie from the beginning again.

-Frequent confirmation of settings. A slight interruption in power results in the device reverting to factory settings, giving you the opportunity - the next time you turn the device on - to verify all of the previous settings you had made, including and not limited to date and time.


This little piece of history will make a fine addition to any home theatre collection. It is sure to be a true conversation piece, casting a shadow on both your MiniDisc and BetaMax players.


Many of you will undoubtedly have further questions. To assist, I've assembled a brief F.A.Q.

Q: Where is the HDMI cable to connect it?

A: It didn't come with one, and I'm keeping mine. It did come with the usual junk composite cable, but I couldn't find it. I think it's now a cat toy. Sorry!

Q: So which is better? HD-DVD or Blu-Ray?

A: Sorry, but I must refuse to answer this question, as the whole truth obviously cannot be reached by merely looking at the facts. If you like, you can ask questions on a less controversial and inflammatory topic; like religion, politics, or abortion.

Q: Why are some of the movies unopened?

A: After using the player I quickly realized that any further use could only serve to lessen its value. In fact, I even regretted taking the player out of the original packaging.

Q: If you had such a bad experience with it, why didn't you review it on Amazon and help others make an informed purchase?

A: Actually, I did. I posted a nice objective review and gave it 3 stars, showing a comprehensive list of pros and cons. Within a single day I had over 20 helpful comments on my review. These ranged from pointing out my obvious ineptness at using the device, lack of intelligence in general, or suggestions regarding what I might do instead to entertain myself... with myself, or possibly my family and/or people that may or may not be family, or farm animals. I promptly removed the unwanted review.

Q: Ok, so the internet doesn't like you. Did you at least tell your friends about it?

A: Yes, as often as I felt it warranted, and quite probably more often than they felt it warranted. Nevertheless, one decided that anything that wasn't made by Sony has to be the better choice, and since 500+ people rated it 5 stars, I am probably just too picky. He purchased the unit, and experienced much excitement, saying that it didn't bother him. Sadly, over the next few months I was forced to stand by and watch as his opinion changed from "it's awesome" to "it sucks". The light of hope slowly left his eyes, and I don't know if he will ever smile again. I hadn't the heart to say "I told you so".

Q: I can't believe you chose Blu-Ray over HD-DVD, when HD-DVD is clearly the better format. That's so stupid. Idiots like you are the reason the evil Sony Empire controls all of your feeble minds with its obviously inferior products, you Sony fanboy loser. I hate you!

A: Please question in the form of a question. Actually, I didn't choose a side in the format war. I bought my Toshiba A-20 and Sony PS3 both in July, along with several movies for each. The Tosh was proving difficult to configure to get a good picture, and was very unresponsive to commands (5 seconds after hitting pause it paused, and stuff like that), so I followed the advice of the manual and updated the bios. After sitting for 3 hours on the last phase of the update, it became obvious it wasn't going to complete. At this point the unit would no longer power on, but merely beep angrily at me. I returned it, and with generation 3 units only 2 months away, I waited and bought the A30 in October. The picture and usability were exactly the same. The unit was so incredibly annoying to use, I found myself not wanting to watch anything at all on it, just to save me the pain. On the other hand, I find the PS3 to be a joy to use, and my cat thoroughly enjoys the heat that it produces. Thus my eventual slide to the Blu-Ray camp. To sum it up: I didn't choose Blu-Ray - I chose anything but the Toshiba HD-DVD player.

Q: The HD-DVD group hasn't officially and publicly thrown in the towel yet. Don't you think you are giving up a little early? HD-DVD could still make a comeback. What if you woke up tomorrow and Amazon, Blockbuster, Netflix, Warner Bros, Fox, Wal-Mart, Sony, and Disney were all bankrupt and out of business? What then?

A: In the likely event that this happens, I'll buy a HD-DVD drive for my pc.

Q: Are you being sarcastic?

A: Obviously not.

Q: Instead of giving it away to anyone, why didn't you just ask a close friend if they want it?

A: I did have at least one ask me if they could have it. Sadly, I had to refuse. I spent nearly $500 altogether on Toshiba and HD-DVD, and writing this email was the most joy I have received from the experience. How could I pass possibly pass it up?

Q: What if I have further questions?

A: Toshiba is officially dropping support for this product in March. My support ends with this answer.