Toshiba HD - A2 problems

I got my HD - A2 when walmart gave them away for $99. Of course shortly there after Sony won the war and blue ray became the only choice ( sony you suck !!!! ). My player plays my HD dvd great but it seems that anytime I put a regular dvd in, I have problems. It either freezes during the movie or it will not recognise the disk at all. I have downloaded both updates but it still has this problem. Can anyone help me with this. thanks.

When you say both updates is your last numbered: UPDATE DISC 4.0 ? That is the latest they have sent me. How I got on their automatic send me the disc update list I haven't a clue, but I'm not complaining.
So I would check to see that your latest update is the 4.0 and go from there. Sorry you are having problems, so far my unit (also picked up at the Walmart sale) works like a champ :-) I've never had problems with it recognizing a SD DVD.
Wiley

Well when I hooked it up to the internet and it only updated twice and that was two weeks ago. How do I get a hold of the 4.0 update.

The 4.0 came out some time ago, definitely longer ago than two weeks. On the basis of that, one would think you are running the latest update.
Wiley

The only thing I can think of to check your DVDs and see if their dirty, if there is dirt, smudges on DVDs sometimes it will cause problems with playback on a HD DVD player.

If they're dirty just run them under warm water and wipe dry with a soft non-abrasive cloth.

You can go to the player's menu and check which version of the firmware is loaded on the player. If it is connected, just tell it to update-- it will either update to the latest available or tell you you already have the latest firmware.

I'd bet unotis has nailed the probable cause of the problems you are having.

hey guys, I posted yesturday and here is an update. I checked and my player does have the 4.0 update. I again tried to play my new clone wars dvd and it started, then froze, followed by the message
( cannot read disk, please check disk ). Its brand new so there nothing on it. I even use a cleaning disk to see if that would help..... no luck. I have tried other DVD's and it will get a little further but sooner or later they also freeze. sometimes it does not even see them as a disk it can read at the beginning. On the other hand all my HD DVDs work great and sound awesome. My best friend bought his player the same day and he has had no problems at all. Is there anything I can do? any suggestions. thanks. :banghead:

As I posted in the other thread, delete the persistent memory then shut down the player, unplug it from the wall for 1 hour. Plug it back in and see if that corrected the problem.

sorry did not see that yesterday! When I get home from work I will try it. Thanks for the help.

sorry did not see that yesterday! When I get home from work I will try it. Thanks for the help.

This is WHY you should only use the SAME thread for the same issue. ;)

I merged the threads in to one thread, but please keep this in mind in the future please.

BTW, welcome to the forum! :hithere:

Alright guys any other ideas! I actually had no persistent memory. I tried a couple more DVDs still freezes and quits, sometimes is locks and I have to reset the player. thanks for merging my threads. Why would it play the HD DVDs perfectly but not recognize SD.... its just weird.

Alright guys any other ideas! I actually had no persistent memory. I tried a couple more DVDs still freezes and quits, sometimes is locks and I have to reset the player. thanks for merging my threads. Why would it play the HD DVDs perfectly but not recognize SD.... its just weird.

If you have tried everything else that has been mentioned above that it is probably a bad laser lens or it could be the laser itself.

So if it is the laser is there anything I can do about it? also on the player it has something called twin format it can be dvd or HD does changing that make any difference? does toshiba even support tech wise anymore?

Try leaving it unplugged overnight and see if that helps first though. This sometimes helps with electronics that act strange like yours appears to be acting. Also try resetting the player to defaults and then setting it up again if unplugging it does not help.

Hope this helps!

How would I reset everything? also if it continues should I try to get another one or is there a better model you would suggest? just curious.

Hey I just read that the second update was only for XA2's..... do you think that I may have updated mine with this and that is messing with it?

First try unplugging it for at least 10 minutes. If that does not help then try overnight leaving it unplugged. Only then would i reset everything back to default.

I do not think you CAN update the A2 with the XA2 update even if you tried. ;)

If you get another model i recommend the A20 as the next step up that is worth it.

Thanks for all your help. one last question. If I do need to reset it how do I do that?

I have not looked in the player menus for a while but I believe it is under the maintenance section.

No luck, I guess I will look to get the A20 if I can find a good price. do you know any good places online to look. So I guessi have a good HD player just cant play anthing else LOL!!!! Thats the way it goes. thanks again for your help hey how did yall get all of yalls info to appear everytime yall post.

No luck, I guess I will look to get the A20 if I can find a good price. do you know any good places online to look. So I guessi have a good HD player just cant play anthing else LOL!!!! Thats the way it goes. thanks again for your help hey how did yall get all of yalls info to appear everytime yall post.

It is strange that you can play HD DVD discs but not SD DVD discs. I had the opposite problem with my HD-A2 and have bought 2 HD-A20 players with one of them on eBay, but be careful who you buy from there. Some/many have the same problem my A2 has and cannot play HD DVD discs but CAN play SD DVD discs. I think these units have separate optical Pick Up Units for each disc type and it sounds like your SD Pickup Unit is defective.

As for how to list your equipment in each post you just go here and enter it and save it:

http://www.highdefforum.com/profile.php?do=editsignature

Well Sd disks I can usually get to a menu sometimes but once I hit play i hear almost like a skip in the spinning. It does it multiple times then error appers. It never does this with HD. Just must be anti SD LOL!!!