Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Jane, get me off this crazy thing

True. The LA Times review of the Toshiba HD-A1 is far from flattering, both of the player itself as well as the marginal bump in quality offered by the format.

Thanks for the link to the review. You're right, it makes HD-DVD sound like too much of a pain right now. Although he didn't review the discs on large screens or projectors. Wonder if that would have made a difference.

"I started on a 32-inch Sony HDTV that was about two years old. It had no capability to accept the most current digital hookup technology — HDMI — so I used the analog audio and video cables included with the player."

I stopped reading the LA Times article after this line. The review is amateur-ish. Why would anyone review a state of the art technology with a with the old red, white, and yellow RCA cables? Of course you are not going to know the difference!! It wouldn't surprise me if this guy's next revalation was that the speakers on his TV produced less sound quality than a full range 5.1 system. The only conclusion he comes up with is "screen size matters", which we knew already.

Nonetheless, the potential fact the majority of home theater hobbyist do not have an HDCP complient screen (count me as one, I bought my Panasonic 47" HDTV 2.5 years ago) means that this format could be dead from the start. Not only would we have to spend $1000 on the new player, but then we would have to spend more to replace a TV that is only 3 years old.

royce73, you are so totally right. I read the article too fast and didn't even catch that he used the RCA cables. Geez. Amateurish indeed! Misinformation lives!

In fairness, the article got better from there:

"Next, I switched to an almost new, 23-inch Samsung LCD set with HDMI hookup. The HD DVD image looked great. But a plain, old DVD of the same movie looked just as great on the set. In fact, the images looked almost identical"



What's next hooking up the player to your 1977 19" B&W TV?

Agreed, the largest TV he used was 37".

If you liked that one, you'll love this one: screwed.

Next will be a couch that won't let you get up until the shows finished

Or a device that won't let you close your eyes until the commercial is over.

I notice with a lot of recent DVDs that you can't hit "Menu" during the previews.

Luckily Chapter Forward works. Look, I want to watch a Family Guy episode, I don't want to be forced into watching the preview for the latest Rob Schneider waste of celluloid every time I pop the disc in.

Bren R.