A Detailed Comparison of Panasonic vs Toshiba

[mickmmd]

You have to spend time with BD and HD DVD to really get an idea of what is right for you. I spent 3 weeks with Hd DVD and two weeks with the new Panasonic . Evaluated both and updated the firmware on the Toshiba.
Yes the Tosh is cheaper, but that is about all it has going for it. For people looking for a seamless addition to a nice hometheatre the Tosh is NOT the answer.
The Panasonic has better build, seamless integration into a hometheatre and better picture than Hd. Some people think the HD is sharper, in reality that is a lot of vidoe noise you are viewing.
A little bit about my rig: I have dedicated power lines going to the outlets. These use industrial electrical wire. The audio part is powered by Shunyata, Synergistic Research and Transparent Ultra, I use Three Krell power amps for the Seven Speakers. They are all Dynaudio Contours. The Front main speakers weigh about 120 lbs each. All speakers are top of the Contour line. Rear four are wired with Analysis Plus oval nines
For video I go from electrical outlet to Equitech then Synergistic Research for DVD player . I have both Algolith devices Mosquito and Dragonfly with the new HQV processor. The TV is a Mits 65" Hi Def with 9" CRT caliberated by ISF.
Cabling is Wireworld Silver starlight 5 , Golden Eclipse 5 all round. The regular dvd player I use is a Krell DVD Standard. and the surround processor is the HTStandard, also by Krell. I like to use Component outputs and the Analog digital output.
The Panasonic outsmarted the Tosh in sheer sound presence and the REL Stadium sub deliverd more accurate bass on the Panasonic on all sound formats.
I was also impressed by the Panasonics internal image processor in that it rivalled the Dragonfly, infact I had to send the Dragonfly back to Algolith to properly caliberate it to the new Hi Def formats. The BD pic may appear softer to the untrained eye but it is definitely more accurate in rendition of depth than the Tosh. Much less noise in picture.
A major problem the Tosh has was with reading non Hd sources and HDMI out. Neither could be corrected by the upgrade. The Panasonic takes about 7-8 seconds to recognize non Hd sources and locks on to them perfectly.
I hope this brief review helps all of the undecided ones. I feel that Blu Ray will have more longevity and the Panasonic player is expensive but offers much much more than any HD DVD outing out there. If quality matters then the Panasonic is your answer.
Give me some feedback and your comments on what you think
Thanks

[jason]

what movies did you test? player settings? tv settings? anyone can say bd is better than hd when comparing ? vs ? and visa versa with bd playing the 5th element vs batman begins.... unless you tested two identical movies, imo shouldnt be making a judgement call on whats better.

[Deciazulado]

jason, and how do you conclude he didn't?
imo you're making a judgement call on somebody's judgement call.

[jason]

i didn't "conclude" just asking what he refrenced it by and gave examples why most reviews are completely useless....

[Josh]

Thanks for the brief review.

[hmurchison]

I'm not surprised the Panasonic functions better than the Toshiba it is after all a $1300 versus $500 or $800 for the Tosh.

I never take reports of audio quality all that seriously. Your ears are different than mine and if the Panny sounded better to your ears that doesn't mean it'll sound the same to mine. I think it's clear that both formats have made a large leap forward regarding audio.

As for video I'd love to be able to able to compare the two myself on a calibrated set that is familiar to me. I frankly don't believe that there is really any difference in the formats. They share the same codecs so any differences that will occur will be slight from engineering standpoints.

My opinion is Toshiba is not as skilled as say a Panasonic or a Pioneer or even Sony when it comes to developing optical players.

The good news is that in a couple of years we'll be talking about how poor the Panasonic 1st gen BD player is compared to the 3rd generation. That's what I love about this hobby. Perpetual motion and improvement.

[GTP]

Although I prefer my screen to be measured in feet...not inches.....very nice audio set up you have there.
Its a shame dynaudio quit selling drivers to us custom made speaker builders....but I get by with my Scan Speak revelators ok though

I agree with you that not just the Panasonic...but all BD players function better than the Toshiba and its clone RCA.

I also agree that BD is truer to what we actually saw in theaters....warts and all...than hd dvd.
But if you look at Tears of the Sun......there are zero other releases on either format that have facial detail like this disc does.
You have to compare to the top D-vhS titles to see facial detail like this.

Only MPeg-2 seems to be able to give this much facial detail.....and it makes VC-1 look like its been glazed over to hide the grain.....with a slight loss of facial details to show for it.

[PurpleAardvark]

When you did the test between the Panny and the toshiba did you notice that the panny played a little deeper. I noticed alot more depth for the sammy vs. the toshiba. From my observation I could see how you would think SQ is better. Just in case the question comes up I used trianing day for both formats and then I robot on DVD.
On a side note, I returned my HD A1 and unless it wins the format war I will never buy anthor HD DVD product again.

[Blackraven]

Originally Posted by hmurchison

The good news is that in a couple of years we'll be talking about how poor the Panasonic 1st gen BD player is compared to the 3rd generation. That's what I love about this hobby. Perpetual motion and improvement.

I agree with you on that statement, no doubt on that.

Common tests revealed that if DVD player launched in 2000, it was only after 5-6 years that I saw player for under USD$200 (or 50,000 Philippine pesos).

I hoping that Blu-ray and/or HD-DVD would reach that price point in under that timeframe (or under 5 years)

[dobyblue]

Don't waste your money on HDMI cables!
Other than that thanks for the news and thanks for listing all your equipment - sounds like you have very nice audio at your gaff.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

Don't waste your money on HDMI cables!
Other than that thanks for the news and thanks for listing all your equipment - sounds like you have very nice audio at your gaff.

www.monoprice.com
www.ramelectronics.net


Not surprised that anyone would prefer any BD machine over the Toshibas for this simple reason:

You're talking about real home theater equipment vs. 2002-2003 era laptop parts (and acting like one) patched together and masquerading as a home theater product.

Clearly the OP has high standards and tastes in equipment and probably could teach some of us a few things.

I couldn't be less surprised by his findings.


Great thread!

[mickmmd]

I totally agree ,the BD machines are more for people like us who are passionate about our pusuit. That is avery goodpoint about old laptops of years gone by.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by mickmmd

I totally agree ,the BD machines are more for people like us who are passionate about our pusuit. That is avery goodpoint about old laptops of years gone by.

I couldn't believe when I saw recent issues of WSR and Home Theater Magazine (among other sources) open up one of things and expose the 1 gig worth of slow 333MHZ ram and the rest of pitiful hardware. The CPU was some pitiful chip from Intel's refuse pile from several years ago and that's about it.

It's a real sham that HD-DVD zealots have been trying to pass off for months with hyperbole suggesting that these Toshibas are hi-fi video/audiophile equipment being sold at bargain basement prices.

They couldn't be more wrong.

It's a sham. The A2 and XA2 forthcoming are going to be more of the same, except I think we're bumping that laptop hardware up to maybe 2003 or 04 if we're lucky.

And that's all they've got.

I'm really starting to believe this might be one of the biggest cons I've ever seen in consumer electronics.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by JTK

I'm really starting to believe this might be one of the biggest cons I've ever seen in consumer electronics.

What is a shame is that good equipment is now being bad mouthed extensively and excessively for being priced fairly for its level of engineering.

What it leads to is people unwilling to buy the buggy and slow, but also unwilling to spend more for what works. Because they think it should only cost $500.

Keep in mind Toshiba have only shipped 70K units, mostly A1s. And even then those couldn't hold close to SRP, and can be easily obtained for well under $400. The XA1 was even worse. An $800 product that has fallen close to or under the A1 SRP.

And that is it for HD DVD through the end of the year. There won't be anything new on the shelves through the holidays except for the add-on. We'll see if BD is going to be equally incompetant, except for the PS/3.

Gary

[hmurchison]

I'm not surprised. I've never seen a Toshiba product where I've said "damn that's some impressive industrial design"

They make wonderful technology but they wrap it in the most pedestrian of clothes.

Now what excites me is seeing what some of the smaller outfits can do with Blu-ray and HD DVD. I'm thinking some mid tier stuff like Parasound, Rotel, NAD, Marantz and Denon amongst others.

Right now the current HD hardware pretty much measures up to its SD brethren.

Panasonic makes better DVD players so it's no surprise they have the best functioning player now.

Samsung makes capable DVD players that always have some sort of glitch.

Toshiba makes ordinary DVD players.

What that tells me is that once more vendors hop on board with better engineering chops the same discs I own today will look even better and that's encouraging.

[Blue]

Originally Posted by hmurchison

Now what excites me is seeing what some of the smaller outfits can do with Blu-ray and HD DVD. I'm thinking some mid tier stuff like Parasound, Rotel, NAD, Marantz and Denon amongst others.

Great to hear there are more supportes for HD-DVD, any chance of posting the references, as the HD-DVD site hasn't updated yet (not that means anything the Blu Ray site are still promoting the first blu ray machines that are not compatible with blu ray of today). I had a quick look and I couldn't find anything - then again I'm not the greatest surfer.