----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----
Last night, I went to Best Buy and picked up the $499 Toshiba HD-A1 HD
DVD player. I also bought The Last Samurai, Serenity, and The Phantom of
the Opera. Here are my findings - just the basics to get things started.
Product build quality is pretty solid, it's bigger than most DVD
players, pretty big fan in the back. It runs some kind of Linux and
takes a long time to boot up - over a minute! In the intro, there is a
several minute long commercial for the HD DVD format - one of the
features touted is that you don't have a menu at the beginning of the
movie - the movie just starts playing, and you get a menu on the bottom
of the screen to configure it if you choose to change the default
setting. I guess people got tired of popping in a DVD and having to make
a bunch of choices before starting the movie. Out of the 3 movies,
Serenity had a menu, while the others did not. Note that Serenity is
Universal, while the other two are Warner Brothers.
Video - I have component video only, and all 3 movies played in 1080i. I
had to configure the player to do this via the remote. The picture
quality is very good, and even the box shows that it's in 2.35:1 ratio
(all 3 movies show the aspect ratio, and seem to have a standard chart
with the various specs). I have done any A/B comparisons, but it
definitely rates up there with D-theater and HDNet. I have a recorded
copy of Samurai in 1080i and will rent the DVD to do a 3-way test - when
I have time. There was no mention anywhere that I needed HDMI or HDCP,
but it vaguely said that there may be compatibility issues.
Audio - Here's where it gets weird. I have my Sony STR-DA5ES connected
to the player by way of optical audio AND the 6 channel pre-amp input.
There is a whole page in the instruction manual about how to configure
the various inputs, but for the vast amount of gear, it's easy: SPDIF is
set to Bitstream, which is the default setting. Serenity says "Dolby
Digital Plus" on the back of the box. However, when the menu comes up,
it's in DTS! When I go into the menu selection for Serenity, my only
audio choices are "English 5.1" and other languages - no mention of
Dolby or DTS. Once the movie starts playing, if I have my receiver set
to optical, it shows DTS 5.1. If i change over to the pre-amp input, the
sound is still there, but the volume is noticeably lower (and the
quality appears to be about the same or maybe not quite as good). Maybe
my equipment is reading it wrong as DTS...but I don't have a clue. On
The Last Samurai, it also had "English 5.1" as the choice, my receiver
detected DTS, and the pre-amp audio was of lower volume. With Phantom of
the Opera, however, in addition to English 5.1, it has "English Dolby
TrueHD". When I tried to select it, it rightly detects that the Toshiba
can only decode 2-channel TrueHD (lame!), and warns you to select Dolby
Digital to enjoy multi-channel. It doesn't say whether you can continue
in 2-channel, and I didn't test it.
So, those are my first impressions. Any input on the audio stuff is
welcome, and if anyone has specific things they'd like to know about,
I'll try to check it out. I did not want to wade through the thousands
of comments on AVSforum!
Jason
To unsubscribe please click: [email protected]
To receive the digest mode (one email a day made from all posted that same day) send an email to:
[email protected]
Last night, I went to Best Buy and picked up the $499 Toshiba HD-A1 HD
DVD player. I also bought The Last Samurai, Serenity, and The Phantom of
the Opera. Here are my findings - just the basics to get things started.
Product build quality is pretty solid, it's bigger than most DVD
players, pretty big fan in the back. It runs some kind of Linux and
takes a long time to boot up - over a minute! In the intro, there is a
several minute long commercial for the HD DVD format - one of the
features touted is that you don't have a menu at the beginning of the
movie - the movie just starts playing, and you get a menu on the bottom
of the screen to configure it if you choose to change the default
setting. I guess people got tired of popping in a DVD and having to make
a bunch of choices before starting the movie. Out of the 3 movies,
Serenity had a menu, while the others did not. Note that Serenity is
Universal, while the other two are Warner Brothers.
Video - I have component video only, and all 3 movies played in 1080i. I
had to configure the player to do this via the remote. The picture
quality is very good, and even the box shows that it's in 2.35:1 ratio
(all 3 movies show the aspect ratio, and seem to have a standard chart
with the various specs). I have done any A/B comparisons, but it
definitely rates up there with D-theater and HDNet. I have a recorded
copy of Samurai in 1080i and will rent the DVD to do a 3-way test - when
I have time. There was no mention anywhere that I needed HDMI or HDCP,
but it vaguely said that there may be compatibility issues.
Audio - Here's where it gets weird. I have my Sony STR-DA5ES connected
to the player by way of optical audio AND the 6 channel pre-amp input.
There is a whole page in the instruction manual about how to configure
the various inputs, but for the vast amount of gear, it's easy: SPDIF is
set to Bitstream, which is the default setting. Serenity says "Dolby
Digital Plus" on the back of the box. However, when the menu comes up,
it's in DTS! When I go into the menu selection for Serenity, my only
audio choices are "English 5.1" and other languages - no mention of
Dolby or DTS. Once the movie starts playing, if I have my receiver set
to optical, it shows DTS 5.1. If i change over to the pre-amp input, the
sound is still there, but the volume is noticeably lower (and the
quality appears to be about the same or maybe not quite as good). Maybe
my equipment is reading it wrong as DTS...but I don't have a clue. On
The Last Samurai, it also had "English 5.1" as the choice, my receiver
detected DTS, and the pre-amp audio was of lower volume. With Phantom of
the Opera, however, in addition to English 5.1, it has "English Dolby
TrueHD". When I tried to select it, it rightly detects that the Toshiba
can only decode 2-channel TrueHD (lame!), and warns you to select Dolby
Digital to enjoy multi-channel. It doesn't say whether you can continue
in 2-channel, and I didn't test it.
So, those are my first impressions. Any input on the audio stuff is
welcome, and if anyone has specific things they'd like to know about,
I'll try to check it out. I did not want to wade through the thousands
of comments on AVSforum!
Jason
To unsubscribe please click: [email protected]
To receive the digest mode (one email a day made from all posted that same day) send an email to:
[email protected]
