HDTV Magazine Reviews

In case you hadn't heard, the HD format war is over. The Blu-ray camp struck a huge win just before CES when Warner Brothers announced they would be moving exclusively to Blu-ray by mid year, tipping the scales majorly in Blu-ray's favor. Then, in February 2008, Toshiba announced it would discontinue the development, manufacturing and marketing of HD DVD, officially ending the format war. They did, however, confirm that they would honor the warranty of all HD DVD players.

The Toshiba HD DVD players featured in this review were the latest (and as it turns out, last) generation to be released. While it may seem an empty effort to review them now since HD DVD has removed itself from the race, these third generation players from Toshiba have a performance response at crazy low prices to be reckoned with and deserve the full story.

It's just a switcher; there is nothing to set up so installation is a newbie breeze. The power supply wall wart is offset to the side to avoid taking up two outlets. That seems like a great feature but that will depend on the orientation of your outlets. Oddly enough for me my outlets and strips made that the most difficult part of this installation. It supports hot plug and play and auto switching as evidenced when I hooked it up. I simply inserted the HM-31 in between a Toshiba HD-A35 HD DVD player and a Denon AVR-3808Ci receiver while in the midst of a movie. I looked up at the screen and within a few moments there was Phantom of the Opera in 1080p24 with sound. A quick look at the receiver confirmed my bitstream DTS True HD was still engaged. From there I connected...

Well the folks at OPPO Digital are at it again. This time they have released a new high end Up-Converting DVD player. The DV-983H is the new gold standard in up-converting DVD players. It incorporates Video Reference Series processing (VRS by) Anchor Bay. This is the same technology used in video processors costing $3000 or more.

This week we finally get to the review a lot of listeners have been asking for, the Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote by Logitech. We reviewed the Harmony 880 almost three years ago, and although Ara questioned the price premium, it eventually became our standard universal remote recommendation. Now with the release of the One, we were eager to see if it would replace the 880 in our hearts and minds. It won the 'Best of Innovations' award in the Home Theater Accessories category at CES 2008. You can find it in retail stores and online for an MSRP of...

Last month Ara picked up an Apple TV for use in his media room. That became the fourth HDMI device which was one device too many for his Yamaha RX-V2700 receiver. So he contacted Pioneer to see if he could review the Pioneer VSX-94TXH 7.1 A/V Receiver. In actuality, Ara was auditioning the receiver for his own personal use. Within a few days the receiver showed up and it's not going back! Just so everyone is clear, Ara has to pay for the receiver to keep it.