Toshiba HD-DVD player is $100 this Friday at Walmarts nationwide.

[daveymark]

Originally posted by: SmoochyTX

Originally posted by: chuckywang

Originally posted by: SmoochyTX
Scored two after work today - one for me and one for a co-worker. One more was still left on the display.

How did you get one so late?

I didn't get off work until 5:00. Drove to Wal-Mart using my car. Walked into Wal-Mart. Took a cart. Went straight to electronics department. Took two players off the display and put in my cart. Paid the cashier. Walked out of Wal-Mart. Drove home. Posted on ATOT about it.

:laugh:

Did you pay with cash or credit card? How many stop lights were there on the way home? Did you have the heat or AC on in the car?

 

[techs]

Originally posted by: torpid

Originally posted by: techs

Originally posted by: torpid

Originally posted by: techs
Well, I spoke with Toshiba support and the disk has to restart from the beginning whenever you turn off the player. He said it was a function of HD-DVD so thats a drawback. Not a big one, for me, though.
However, I can't update the firmware. I downloaded it to my pc and burned it on a disk like Toshiba said. Says incorrect version.
Toshiba support says I should try different burning software (I tried Nero 7 and DeepBurner).
So I asked for a disk to be sent. They are out of stock and backordered.
I tried to update via ethernet but says it can't find the server. I will try it with my router later instead of directly into my cable modem (despite the fact it did get an IP, subnet mask, etc). Maybe the server was down.

Did you burn it into a +R or a -R? The spec sheet only claims that it supports -R

Neither. It says it needs to be on a cd not a dvd.
I did get it updated when I connected it to my router, so I am a happy camper.

Cool. Glad to hear it, as I was going to try it tonight. Anything special you had to do with your router? Why did it work with the router and not the modem directly?

Not exactly sure. After further research I did find something on the web telling me that I should go into Ethernet on the player and set it to DHCP and obtain dns automatically and then shut down the player, and turn it back on then attempt the update. Maybe it was the sequence of doing that which made a difference.

 

[TerryMathews]

Originally posted by: michaels

Originally posted by: Aikouka

Originally posted by: michaels
My wife surprised me with the Toshiba player and Clerks 2. Now before I open it should I open it or return it and get a 360 hd-dvd addon? I have a 720p/1080i tv

Clerks 2 looks like shit on HD-DVD. Trust me, I own it.

[

It looks nice on dvd to me, surely hd isn't any worse

It may not look any better though, which would make it shit by HD standards.

 

[w3stfa11]

Probably won't buy a player until I'm able to burn HDDVD or Blu-Ray disks on my computer.

 

[gingerstewart55]

I did essentially the same thing you did, techs, except I didn't shut down and restart the machine after getting its ethernet connection set. I just turned on DHCP, DNS, confirmed and OK'd it, then went out to menu, entered maintenance, then updated it. Carried out its update flawlessly. Never restarted the machine at all.

 

[IGBT]

..still waiting for the 59.95 player with free HDMI cable at costco. mabe after the holidays.

 

[Shawn]

My dad ended up buying the A2 at circuitcity.com for $130.

 

[jpeyton]

Got one at Sears for $82.

 

[adairusmc]

I was in the local wal-mart this morning, and I don't know if I was the only one to buy a couple of them yesterday, but they had 15 of them left.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Some lucky bastards who ordered theirs from BestBuyBusiness.com got stocked out on the A2 and got the A3 at the same price. Lucky bastards

 

[altonb1]

I'm watching mine as I type on the new Acer laptop I bought, too.

(Disclaimer--not really using the Acer laptop--I bought it for the wife and quickly upgraded the RAM to 2GB and removed the DVD-cdrw drive and replaced it was a DVD burner w/ Lightscribe. I'm on my laptop)

 

[Muadib]

Man, I missed out on this.🙁

 

[Pepsei]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: Pepsei
(does this mean that blu-ray has a better quality so it'll fail in the end like beta?)

No. The quality between the two is pretty much the same. They use the same VC-1 codec though Blu-Ray studios first started putting them out on MPEG2 first before switching.

The only differences right now are:
1) Blu-Ray has 50GB per disc vs HD DVDs 30GB.
2) HD DVD has the interactive extra features going while Blu-Ray is just getting started.
3) HD DVD players can have their firmware upgraded over the internet. Only a few Blu-Ray players have this.
4) The Blu-Ray spec is not final apparently. They are still updating it.
5) Blu-Ray has the BD+ copy-protection on top of the AACS copy-protection.
6) Blu-Ray uses uncompressed audio.

i stand corrected. looks like HD-DVD is beeter at this point.

 

[waggy]

went backto walmart today. they had maybe 3 left.

but they had 6-7 of the acer laptops.

 

[Soundmanred]

They had a stack here too.
I have an SD TV, so no need for me...

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: jpeyton

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: jpeyton

Originally posted by: waggy
not to nit pick jpeyton. BUt the walmart had Cars in blu-ray today! i almost got it.

Street date is Nov. 6th, along with Ratatouille and Pixar Short Films Collection.

thats nice. BUT i seen it at walmart for sale today. I nearly purchased it.

You should have. I saw a Cars Blu-Ray demo disc at Best Buy on a 1080p LCD. Stunning. Easily a reference disc for all HDM.

i went and picked it up today.

MY God it looks amazing! for reference i threw in my regular DVD of cars. there is a huge diffrence.

a couple scenes are just jaw dropping.

heh then i had to explain to the wife why i purchased the movie in blu-ray when i already had it

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: TerryMathews

Originally posted by: michaels

Originally posted by: Aikouka

Originally posted by: michaels
My wife surprised me with the Toshiba player and Clerks 2. Now before I open it should I open it or return it and get a 360 hd-dvd addon? I have a 720p/1080i tv

Clerks 2 looks like shit on HD-DVD. Trust me, I own it.

[

It looks nice on dvd to me, surely hd isn't any worse

It may not look any better though, which would make it shit by HD standards.

bad mastering i guess. its 35mm from imdb info. for a moment there i thought it might be dv source. dv source movies are garbage. like 28days later etc

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: Pepsei

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: Pepsei
(does this mean that blu-ray has a better quality so it'll fail in the end like beta?)

No. The quality between the two is pretty much the same. They use the same VC-1 codec though Blu-Ray studios first started putting them out on MPEG2 first before switching.

The only differences right now are:
1) Blu-Ray has 50GB per disc vs HD DVDs 30GB.
2) HD DVD has the interactive extra features going while Blu-Ray is just getting started.
3) HD DVD players can have their firmware upgraded over the internet. Only a few Blu-Ray players have this.
4) The Blu-Ray spec is not final apparently. They are still updating it.
5) Blu-Ray has the BD+ copy-protection on top of the AACS copy-protection.
6) Blu-Ray uses uncompressed audio.

i stand corrected. looks like HD-DVD is beeter at this point.

HD DVD has lossless audio as well. They both uses the same video and audio encoding so for the most part, there isn't a difference to the average consumer.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: waggy
went backto walmart today. they had maybe 3 left.

but they had 6-7 of the acer laptops.

I picked up one of those Acer laptops. It's ugly as sin, but it's pretty nice otherwise. Fast enough for Vista Premium and works with Aero. (it only comes with Home Basic though).

 

[intogamer]

Blueray is by Sony. Which will some-what fail just like the Pro Duo memory cards. Sometimes you can't just take over...

Regarding with the 50GB per a disc. I'm sure HD-DVD can just pump out a Dual Layer disc when technology advances. Prices then Technology. I'm pretty sure that HD-DVD is far much cheaper to produce. You can get OEM Toshiba HD DVD Drive (xbox 360 drives) direct from Hong Kong via eBay for $65~ Shipped

 

[Pabster]

HD DVD has a triple layer 45GB disc already in the pipeline.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: intogamer
Blueray is by Sony. Which will some-what fail just like the Pro Duo memory cards. Sometimes you can't just take over...

Now that is a detailed anaylsis.

Regarding with the 50GB per a disc. I'm sure HD-DVD can just pump out a Dual Layer disc when technology advances.

Their 30GB discs are dual-layer.

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: TerryMathews

Originally posted by: michaels

Originally posted by: Aikouka

Originally posted by: michaels
My wife surprised me with the Toshiba player and Clerks 2. Now before I open it should I open it or return it and get a 360 hd-dvd addon? I have a 720p/1080i tv

Clerks 2 looks like shit on HD-DVD. Trust me, I own it.

[

It looks nice on dvd to me, surely hd isn't any worse

It may not look any better though, which would make it shit by HD standards.

bad mastering i guess. its 35mm from imdb info. for a moment there i thought it might be dv source. dv source movies are garbage. like 28days later etc

ya. there are plenty of HDM out there that look no better than upconverted DVDs. the first mastering of Fifth Element is a big example, as well as the original Full Metal Jacket--the one released before last week's Kubrick flicks came out. The good thing is that the HD groups have been pretty responsive to the AV crowd in terms of putting out high quality transfers, and re-mastering bad ones that have received stark criticism.

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: Pabster
HD DVD has a triple layer 45GB disc already in the pipeline.

that's a 51 GB disc, supposedly...so 1 gig more than BD. problem is, they can't make these as blank media...which defeats the purpose of making one if you support the HDDVD argument that 30GB is more than enough for a quality HD flick. I tend to agree with this argument for the most part (it seems the lack of uncompressed audio on the vast majority of HDDVDs is not b/c of storage space); however, taking films such as the extended LOTR into consideration makes this argument laughable. Sure, it could fit on 2 HDDVDs, but it can easily fit on 1 BD.

That's one of the issues with BETA max that pissed off the consumer--2 tapes for one ~2 hour movie vs VHS's one tape.

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: zinfamous

Originally posted by: Pabster
HD DVD has a triple layer 45GB disc already in the pipeline.

that's a 51 GB disc, supposedly...so 1 gig more than BD. problem is, they can't make these as blank media...which defeats the purpose of making one if you support the HDDVD argument that 30GB is more than enough for a quality HD flick. I tend to agree with this argument for the most part (it seems the lack of uncompressed audio on the vast majority of HDDVDs is not b/c of storage space); however, taking films such as the extended LOTR into consideration makes this argument laughable. Sure, it could fit on 2 HDDVDs, but it can easily fit on 1 BD.

That's one of the issues with BETA max that pissed off the consumer--2 tapes for one ~2 hour movie vs VHS's one tape.

Hmmm, I'll have to look in to this. Last I was aware, the triple-layer was 45GB, and indeed would be recordable blank media.