$99 HD-DVD Player Coming Soon?

Frank writes "Rumors of the high definition holy grail persist. The latest is that Toshiba will be offering their basic HD-A2 player at $99 for one week only, beginning July 22. An added bonus is three free HD-DVD's."

I wouldn't buy it

[Durrok]

I might use it if they give it away. This player has numerous issues, highlighted here.

For those of you who don't like to click links:

The HD-A2 is the least capable of the current crop of HD-DVD players available from Toshiba. Both of the other two models, the HD-A20 (Buy now) and the HD-XA2 (Buy now), support 1080p video. In fact the HD-A20 is nearly identical to the HD-A2, it just adds 1080p for an extra $100 more on the MSRP. So the odds that a firmware upgrade will ever be available for the HD-A2 to allow 1080p are pretty slim. How would you explain that to someone who bought an HD-A20? The HD-XA2 also comes with HDMI 1.3, better video processing, and gold plated input jacks. But the HD-A2 is the one that's getting all the hot sale prices, so it appears to be the most popular right now. But if you shop around, you might find a great deal on the HD-A20. For example, right now it's only about $25 more than the HD-A2 at the HT Guys store (as of 6/22).

Dammit

[Durrok]

The link was there in the preview, I swear! Here it is [hdtvmagazine.com]

Just a marketing SCAM!

[jsldub]

Did you read the fine print in the press release?

Questex Media Group provides certain customer contact data (such as customers' names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses) to third parties who with to promote relevant products, services, and other opportunities which may be of interest to you...

Re:$50

[anakin876]

Did you mean HDMI? how about this? $4.79 http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id =102&cp_id=10240&cs_id=1024004&p_id=2412&seq=1&for mat=2&style= [monoprice.com]

Re:Nice loss-leader...

[dunezone]

Marketshare? Ill be honest, I haven't seen one Blu-ray or HD-DVD player in someones house yet nor do I know anyone that owns one. Wait, I take that back Ive see one Blu-ray player and thats a PS3.

Is it just me? Is it the Chicago area and we just refuse to buy into it? Ive read countless articles on which one is better, which will win, and that the Blu-ray has already won. And I still haven't seen one outside a store yet.

Re:wow

[Anonymous Coward]

HD-DVDs are cheaper to produce now, but in the long run Blu-Ray discs will be because they are simpler to produce and use less raw product; one sheet of plastic vs two.

Re:That's it, Blu-ray is toast (dont be naive!)

[Anonymous Coward]

No, the sure sign that blu-ray is getting the upper hand was Blockbuster Video's announcement mid-June that it is going to exclusively stock blu-ray titles in its stores while phasing out HD tiles in it's online service.

Re:Won't buy till...

[dpaton.net]

Sorry, you're delusional. Asking for HD output on a commodity composite connector is like asking for GB ethernet on a cat3 cable.

Component can only do 1080p over short distances without the addition of expensive repeater boxes or expensive cables.

VGA is the same.

An F connector could, if you got people to change to expensive high grade coax and got all the TV manufacturers to put GOOD ATSC tuners in their sets.

DVI is dead as a consumer A/V interface. It's still great for computers, but it offers no A/V connection capability. People don't like dealing with a mountain of cables. Yes, the change to HDMI was industry driven, but it was also consumer driven. It was generally good thing, despite the inferior connector that HDMI came with.

If you're really intent on complaining about the HDMI/DVI issue, spend $20 over at Parts Express and get a DVI to HDMI adapter cable [partsexpress.com]. I use two, they work just fine.

Honestly, your bitching and whining post struck me like someone asking their computer to support dual layer DVDs and magtape at the same time. It's just lame and uneducated.

I'm not going to get into the DRM argument, but suffice it to say that for the short term, if you want 1080p, you need a digital connection. That means DVI or HDMI. You don't get any other choices. Put up or shut up.

Re:Nice loss-leader...

[jridley]

Probably largely true, but the video decoding part is going to require a lot more horsepower. A DVD MPEG2 stream can be played by very lightweight parts these days, but last I heard the chips that play HD streams are powerful enough that they require cooling fans. According to the MythTV howtos I've read, playing HDs on PCs requires a hefty graphics card that costs probably $300+ and about a 3GHZ machine. By contrast, you can play regular DVDs on a 600 MHz machine with an 8-year-old graphics card that you pulled from a dumpster.

Re:Nice loss-leader...

[PygmySurfer]

That doesn't sound right - the Intel GMA950 (crappy onboard graphics chipset) can decode two HD streams at once. It doesn't even require a fan.

Re:I wouldn't buy it

[Shabbs]

The only way to avoid the 3:2 pull down is to have a 24fps device. So, a 1080p/24 source (like HD DVD or Blu-ray) output to a 1080p/24 capable display device will eliminate the issue you keep posting about.

For others, more info about 3:2 pull down (Telecline) can be found here:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecine#3:2_pulldown [wikipedia.org]

Cheers.

Re:I wouldn't buy it

[Type-E]

All movies are in 1080p 24fps. You have a point though since 1080i is in 1080 interlaced 60fps. If 3:2 pull down is done correctly, 1080i should be able to see as good image as 1080p/24. The problem is not many chip does 3:2 pull down perfectly, and a lot of 1080p LCD cheated with a cheap deinteracing processor that does not perform 1080i to 1080p dot for dot. Thus you loose some of the original signal.