New firmware update version 3.0 for the 1G HD DVD players here

junehhan · 04-29-2008, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Gerhard

I only respond to posts like that and I believe my take is the truth. If he can explain what true to their word meant, I would have no problem. If true to their word means Toshiba set out to crap on the market for HD media and was able to do so for 2 years and accomplish nothing in terms of market except confuse the market, great, that would be the truth. The claims that HD DVD is so great or Blu-ray so awful will always be contradicted as long as I have the opportunity. As I have stated, I had nothing against HD DVD as a format, it was second best and had too little support to have done anything except be proposed and withdrawn after the industry rejected it. Moving forward with the format was wrong and there should no congratulatory parade for Toshiba.

My take began earlier than two years ago. Once the industry allegiances and format specifications were announced, I thought Toshiba would abort before launch and was unfortunately way off.

Chris

As a consumer, you should be happy that some firm out there offered enough of a threat to actually significantly impact the price of hardware. What do you think BDP's would be selling at right now, had HD-DVD not been aggressively pricing their players? Sony wouldn't have even rushed to introduce a BDP that was a lot more reasonably priced than the original 1st gen BDP's that were based on a format that was and is still rather incomplete. What do you call a player that offers far fewer features, and was yet selling for a much greater sum of money? There would have been no incentive to reduce the price of players, and arguably a smaller chance at mass adoption had the price of players not significantly dropped. When HD-DVD players were selling for $99-199, even J6P's were actually looking seriously into possibly getting into the HD player scene. J6P's are still not really looking at a $400-500 player let alone an incomplete earlier generation player if they were still selling for $1000. HD-DVD did you BD enthusiasts a favour because it was a big enough threat for BD manufacturers to start get serious about either decreasing prices, increasing features(like HD decoders), or a combination of both. I found it apalling how every HD-DVD player from the very beginning were complete with all needed HD audio decoders, were interactive, and priced at 50% of what a incomplete BDP was that did not have any HD and HD lossless audio decoders, along with not ever being able to support some of the new interactive stuff.

**PFC5** · 04-29-2008, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Gerhard

I only respond to posts like that and I believe my take is the truth. If he can explain what true to their word meant, I would have no problem. If true to their word means Toshiba set out to crap on the market for HD media and was able to do so for 2 years and accomplish nothing in terms of market except confuse the market, great, that would be the truth. The claims that HD DVD is so great or Blu-ray so awful will always be contradicted as long as I have the opportunity. As I have stated, I had nothing against HD DVD as a format, it was second best and had too little support to have done anything except be proposed and withdrawn after the industry rejected it. Moving forward with the format was wrong and there should no congratulatory parade for Toshiba.

My take began earlier than two years ago. Once the industry allegiances and format specifications were announced, I thought Toshiba would abort before launch and was unfortunately way off.

Chris

He was referring to the Toshiba announcement that they would continue to provide support and updates for HD DVD players despite discontinuing selling ANY hardware for the format. When have you EVER heard of a company doing this in the past? I know you read that statement by Toshiba in February when they dropped the HD DVD format so you should have been able to connect the dots. Your a smart guy and I think you just wanted to once again state your position that you must have already repeated in posts more than 100 times all ready.

I would say that this latest release AFTER killing off the HD DVD format IS keeping true to their word about continuing to support the players. Wouldn't you?

HD-X2A · 04-29-2008, 08:15 PM

Thanks for the heads up PFC5. Installed version 3 upgrade for the A1 via the net last night. As usual went without a hitch.

Hope this resolves the "freezing" that seemed to occur more frequently at startup after installing the v 2.4 firmware upgrade.

**PFC5** · 04-29-2008, 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HD-X2A

Thanks for the heads up PFC5. Installed version 3 upgrade for the A1 via the net last night. As usual went without a hitch.

Hope this resolves the "freezing" that seemed to occur more frequently at startup after installing the v 2.4 firmware upgrade.

Glad to help!

Let us know if it helps with that issue.

Farout777 · 04-29-2008, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by junehhan

As a consumer, you should be happy that some firm out there offered enough of a threat to actually significantly impact the price of hardware. What do you think BDP's would be selling at right now, had HD-DVD not been aggressively pricing their players? Sony wouldn't have even rushed to introduce a BDP that was a lot more reasonably priced than the original 1st gen BDP's that were based on a format that was and is still rather incomplete. What do you call a player that offers far fewer features, and was yet selling for a much greater sum of money? There would have been no incentive to reduce the price of players, and arguably a smaller chance at mass adoption had the price of players not significantly dropped. When HD-DVD players were selling for $99-199, even J6P's were actually looking seriously into possibly getting into the HD player scene. J6P's are still not really looking at a $400-500 player let alone an incomplete earlier generation player if they were still selling for $1000. HD-DVD did you BD enthusiasts a favour because it was a big enough threat for BD manufacturers to start get serious about either decreasing prices, increasing features(like HD decoders), or a combination of both. I found it apalling how every HD-DVD player from the very beginning were complete with all needed HD audio decoders, were interactive, and priced at 50% of what a incomplete BDP was that did not have any HD and HD lossless audio decoders, along with not ever being able to support some of the new interactive stuff.

What he said!

Chris Gerhard · 04-30-2008, 04:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PFC5

He was referring to the Toshiba announcement that they would continue to provide support and updates for HD DVD players despite discontinuing selling ANY hardware for the format. When have you EVER heard of a company doing this in the past? I know you read that statement by Toshiba in February when they dropped the HD DVD format so you should have been able to connect the dots. Your a smart guy and I think you just wanted to once again state your position that you must have already repeated in posts more than 100 times all ready.

I would say that this latest release AFTER killing off the HD DVD format IS keeping true to their word about continuing to support the players. Wouldn't you?

I am delighted with my Toshiba HD DVD hardware and it does appear that Toshiba will continue to support the hardware. Home Theater Forum does have a thread that discusses some issues getting an HD-XA1 repaired and the report initially was that Toshiba had indicated it couldn't be repaired but ultimately he received a refurbished HD-XA1 which I think is fine but the OP didn't.

I continually see the same nonsense posted here about how great it is that we had two formats and I disagree strongly. I believe Blu-ray would be much better today, with a much larger market if not for two years of the format war. The opinions that HD DVD was necessary for competition are absurd and all HD DVD meant to me was the need to own two formats at greater cost to have access to software from all companies. The congratulatory tone towards Toshiba is what I dispute, that has nothing to do with the product itself since I believe HD DVD was fine but clearly second best.

I did download this firmware update but haven't installed it. My history with Toshiba firmware updates has been good and the HD-A1 continually improved throughout the process with a couple of minor setbacks that Toshiba acknowledged and fixed with the next update. My player choked on some HD DVD/DVD combo releases and I haven't seen a glitch with combo playback since the last update.

I am happy to talk about the product and how to make it work since many here own it, but I am not happy to allow the how great art Toshiba praises for making Blu-ray competitive to go unchallenged. If Toshiba had competed by offering great Blu-ray hardware at low prices, now that would have helped the market and the product.

Chris

mfabien · 04-30-2008, 06:02 AM

I beg to differ with Chris Gerhard's position on Toshiba's bid with HDM.

My position: If Warner would have elected to become exclusive with HD DVD, instead of BD, chances are that Disney would have followed shortly thereafter. And that may have been the end for BD.

Therefore, the war was decided by Warner and not by the notion that a BD piece of hardware was better than an HD DVD piece of hardware. In fact all HD DVD players were more advanced than all BD players for interactivity and for lossless audio decoding in most instances.

How much money was Warner paid to decide on who would win the war? This third party, Warner, was the cause of the HD DVD demise. It would have been interesting to see Toshiba do two things:

1. Apply for an injunction in court against Warner's planned exclusivity to BD in May on the basis of prejudicial and irreparable damage to Toshiba
2. Sue Warner for hundreds of million dollars for loss of income as a result of unwarranted and prejudicial action by refusing to release movies in HD DVD format and this without justification other than a conspiracy with Sony and BD player manufacturers to destroy HD DVD as an HDM product.

Chris Gerhard · 04-30-2008, 07:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mfabien

I beg to differ with Chris Gerhard's position on Toshiba's bid with HDM.

My position: If Warner would have elected to become exclusive with HD DVD, instead of BD, chances are that Disney would have followed shortly thereafter. And that may have been the end for BD.

Therefore, the war was decided by Warner and not by the notion that a BD piece of hardware was better than an HD DVD piece of hardware. In fact all HD DVD players were more advanced than all BD players for interactivity and for lossless audio decoding in most instances.

How much money was Warner paid to decide on who would win the war? This third party, Warner, was the cause of the HD DVD demise. It would have been interesting to see Toshiba do two things:

1. Apply for an injunction in court against Warner's planned exclusivity to BD in May on the basis of prejudicial and irreparable damage to Toshiba
2. Sue Warner for hundreds of million dollars for loss of income as a result of unwarranted and prejudicial action by refusing to release movies in HD DVD format and this without justification other than a conspiracy with Sony and BD player manufacturers to destroy HD DVD as an HDM product.

I have read about the domino theory but there wasn't enough HD DVD hardware in consumer's hands to entice Disney or others to abandon Blu-ray or switch to neutral in my opinion. The Blu-ray exclusive studios made a commitment and stuck to it and the first domino never fell so the others which I don't believe would have fallen anyway certainly never fell. That was always the argument in favor of HD DVD that A, B, C, D, and E were going to happen and HD DVD would win. A never happened so all we can do is speculate on B, C, D and E. If Warner had chosen HD DVD exclusive, it would have been tiny niche status for both for the duration is how I see it and I believe Warner saw the same. There is no doubt that we could have seen a repeat of DVD-A vs. SACD where one has a much larger marketshare and neither amount to much of anything, I am glad we don't have that.

I am certainly not an attorney but all of the legal possibilities sound ridiculous to me and I am sure Toshiba found nothing of merit to proceed with.

Chris

junehhan · 04-30-2008, 12:00 PM

Listen Chris, maybe some people can afford or are willing to afford a subpar POS HD player selling for $1000 or greater, but the rest of us consumers living on earth can't or arn't willing to pay for it. At the prices BDP's were selling for, it is very likely that it would have had a much smaller chance at success than it is right now at more reasonable prices. How big do you think the market for $1000 butt naked players are? Seriously, that is like paying $1000 for Maria Schriver(Arnold's ugly and annorexic chick). HD-DVD offered consumers Pamela Anderson for half the price, which threatened the BD-A enough to a point that they lowered prices and added features. You BD enthusiasts should be very happy for Toshiba simply because you would NOT have $400 PS3's and $400 Sony BDP's right now. It is still apalling how a $400 gaming console is more fully featured than BDP's costing 3 times that amount.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Gerhard

I am delighted with my Toshiba HD DVD hardware and it does appear that Toshiba will continue to support the hardware. Home Theater Forum does have a thread that discusses some issues getting an HD-XA1 repaired and the report initially was that Toshiba had indicated it couldn't be repaired but ultimately he received a refurbished HD-XA1 which I think is fine but the OP didn't.

I continually see the same nonsense posted here about how great it is that we had two formats and I disagree strongly. I believe Blu-ray would be much better today, with a much larger market if not for two years of the format war. The opinions that HD DVD was necessary for competition are absurd and all HD DVD meant to me was the need to own two formats at greater cost to have access to software from all companies. The congratulatory tone towards Toshiba is what I dispute, that has nothing to do with the product itself since I believe HD DVD was fine but clearly second best.

I did download this firmware update but haven't installed it. My history with Toshiba firmware updates has been good and the HD-A1 continually improved throughout the process with a couple of minor setbacks that Toshiba acknowledged and fixed with the next update. My player choked on some HD DVD/DVD combo releases and I haven't seen a glitch with combo playback since the last update.

I am happy to talk about the product and how to make it work since many here own it, but I am not happy to allow the how great art Toshiba praises for making Blu-ray competitive to go unchallenged. If Toshiba had competed by offering great Blu-ray hardware at low prices, now that would have helped the market and the product.

Chris

**PFC5** · 04-30-2008, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Gerhard

I have read about the domino theory but there wasn't enough HD DVD hardware in consumer's hands to entice Disney or others to abandon Blu-ray or switch to neutral in my opinion. The Blu-ray exclusive studios made a commitment and stuck to it and the first domino never fell so the others which I don't believe would have fallen anyway certainly never fell. That was always the argument in favor of HD DVD that A, B, C, D, and E were going to happen and HD DVD would win. A never happened so all we can do is speculate on B, C, D and E. If Warner had chosen HD DVD exclusive, it would have been tiny niche status for both for the duration is how I see it and I believe Warner saw the same. There is no doubt that we could have seen a repeat of DVD-A vs. SACD where one has a much larger marketshare and neither amount to much of anything, I am glad we don't have that.

I am certainly not an attorney but all of the legal possibilities sound ridiculous to me and I am sure Toshiba found nothing of merit to proceed with.

Chris

The same insider who told me in advance that Warner was making a decision on that fateful Friday before CES 2008, had emailed me charts that showed how things would play out if Warner went with HD DVD, and what would happen if they went with BD as they did.

The dominoes WOULD have fallen i have no doubt myself, but you are entitled to feel differently.

Regarding where we would be if HD DVD never launched is that BD would have probably launched at least one year later and we would in STILL looking at higher BD player prices now than what we have currently.

Even the BDA/Sony admitted that they launched at least one year before they wanted to. Virtually EVER BD player mfg stated that they wanted to keep hardware prices higher for the higher margins and that meant higher prices for the consumer. I remember some of the BD player mfg stating that they were forced to lower BD player prices prematurely because of the price points Toshiba released HD DVD players at.

Give those FACTS, I find it hard to believe that BD would have the prices below what they are now or even close to what they are now. How anyone can think this baffles me.

ClashFan · 04-30-2008, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PFC5

The same insider who told me in advance that Warner was making a decision on that fateful Friday before CES 2008, had emailed me charts that showed how things would play out if Warner went with HD DVD, and what would happen if they went with BD as they did.

The dominoes WOULD have fallen i have no doubt myself, but you are entitled to feel differently.

Regarding where we would be if HD DVD never launched is that BD would have probably launched at least one year later and we would in STILL looking at higher BD player prices now than what we have currently.

Even the BDA/Sony admitted that they launched at least one year before they wanted to. Virtually EVER BD player mfg stated that they wanted to keep hardware prices higher for the higher margins and that meant higher prices for the consumer. I remember some of the BD player mfg stating that they were forced to lower BD player prices prematurely because of the price points Toshiba released HD DVD players at.

Give those FACTS, I find it hard to believe that BD would have the prices below what they are now or even close to what they are now. How anyone can think this baffles me.

No doubt in my mind that HD DVD was and is great for the consumer. I've had home HDM for about a year and a half now. My initial entry price was just a bit over $300 for a player that was, in effect, BD 2.0 and decoded all the HD audio formats.

I'm STILL waiting for that from BD.... I have a feeling it may be well over $500 when it happens...

Scoob · 05-09-2008, 10:42 PM

I downloaded mine via ethernet last Sunday morning. (May 5th) One main thing this new firmware does is it allows you to change inputs on your tv without getting that annoying HDMI error. Give it a try boys, you'll see it works now. You can change inputs while your player is loading.

04-29-2008, 08:15 PM	#18
HD-X2A It's all about HD! Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Wilton, NY Age: 57 Posts: 67	Thanks for the heads up PFC5. Installed version 3 upgrade for the A1 via the net last night. As usual went without a hitch. Hope this resolves the "freezing" that seemed to occur more frequently at startup after installing the v 2.4 firmware upgrade. __________________ 132 titles (including 5 free) 40 titles Family Room: Samsung BD-UP5000 Toshiba HD-XA2 - Decommissioned 4/27/08 to closet as spare unit Toshiba 42HL196 Pioneer VSX-1018AH-K BOSE 4.2 Series II L/R speakers Teac LSR 200 Surrounds Klipsch Synergy Sub-12 TW cable, Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD DVR Living Room: Toshiba HD-A1 Toshiba D-R4 RCA VCR682HF (for nostalgia) Toshiba 61H70 Pioneer VSX-516K JVC speakers TW cable, Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300 DVR

04-30-2008, 06:02 AM	#22
mfabien High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Montreal Posts: 1,087	I beg to differ with Chris Gerhard's position on Toshiba's bid with HDM. My position: If Warner would have elected to become exclusive with HD DVD, instead of BD, chances are that Disney would have followed shortly thereafter. And that may have been the end for BD. Therefore, the war was decided by Warner and not by the notion that a BD piece of hardware was better than an HD DVD piece of hardware. In fact all HD DVD players were more advanced than all BD players for interactivity and for lossless audio decoding in most instances. How much money was Warner paid to decide on who would win the war? This third party, Warner, was the cause of the HD DVD demise. It would have been interesting to see Toshiba do two things: 1. Apply for an injunction in court against Warner's planned exclusivity to BD in May on the basis of prejudicial and irreparable damage to Toshiba 2. Sue Warner for hundreds of million dollars for loss of income as a result of unwarranted and prejudicial action by refusing to release movies in HD DVD format and this without justification other than a conspiracy with Sony and BD player manufacturers to destroy HD DVD as an HDM product. __________________ Samsung LN52B750, SA8300HD, Energy speakers, Yamaha RX-V540, SVS PB12-ISD, Harmony 880, HD-A1, BDP-1400, Oppo DV-970HD, Zektor HDS4.1

05-09-2008, 10:42 PM	#27
Scoob High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Boise, ID Posts: 334	Back to the 3.0 firmware and what it does.... I downloaded mine via ethernet last Sunday morning. (May 5th) One main thing this new firmware does is it allows you to change inputs on your tv without getting that annoying HDMI error. Give it a try boys, you'll see it works now. You can change inputs while your player is loading. __________________ Panasonic 50PZ80U 1080p Plasma Vizio 37 inch 720p LCD 20 GB PS3 Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player Philips BDP 7200 Blu-ray Player Onkyo TX-SR605 Audio reciever Canon Vixia HF100 HD camcorder

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