Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Toshiba HD A2 for $98.87

You SHOULD feel bad, you evil-doer you!

Burnatonce is the, what, like fourth axis of evil?

It could have just been the movie. I was watching Backdraft which was one of the HDDVD's I picked up for $14 during the black friday sale.

However, since my Denon does not do the HD sound formats, I was using optical which is a high bandwidth DTS track.

I was just hearing lots of bass from the surrounds...

Mojo, tell us how you really feel about this player.... Slam after slam... Justified or not (many times not in this thread anyway), you are just too bitter to be healthy... You could end up getting physically sick with all of the "bitterness" inside you.

Actually, it is a problem with the Z2 not the A2... So if you don't like the A2, fine, you are just as entitled to your opinion as the rest of us, and we've all heard you. Mine works perfectly fine and with great results. So you can now get off of your soap box and go back to being the great, fun-loving Mojo we all like around here... Seriously, we (myself included) do like you...

The A2 performs great. Mojo, you need to keep in mind the Z2 came out many years ago when HDCP was a new technology. Which unit is at fault, not sure. The Z2 works with other players like my Panny S97S which is HDMI as well. The Z3 works fine with the A2, so I'm thinking the problem lies with the Z2 not being truly HDCP compliant.

Anyway, I will most likely take my A2 back, unless I think of some other option.

That is a bummer. Maybe a Z2000 upgrade will be in your short-term future.

I am trying to figure out what to do with my Panasonic S97 myself. It is currently disconnected, and I was going to keep it around for playing DVD-A (only have 1 disc that I got from CV, so not a huge loss), but that seems silly. I may still do some A/B tests of the A2 and S97 for SD DVD upconversion, but then again, maybe not... I just want to enjoy it, and so far I haven't had time with my parents being in town, and I am heading out of town in about 20 minutes for a couple of days for my aunt's funeral. Let us know what you decide to do.

Randy I sent you a PM.

Nick,

You're right and I apologize.

Every CD/DVD player that I have owned in the last 17 years has failed in one way or another within the first few months. I've counted 12 in 17 years. 5 of them have been in laptops or desktops. Some failures have been hardware-related and some software. And with most, I've had multiple failures. The majority of the failures haven't been fatal but rather some feature or combination of features doesn't work. And with some, the performance has degraded to the point where load times were/are slower or disks that once played no longer play even though they appear to be in original condition.

I haven't had this experience with any other consumer component. Why exactly is this happening with CD/DVD players? I don't know how to practically ascertain at the time of purchase what will last and what won't.

You're very welcome. Good job, Mark. Glad everything worked out for you.

Hi Randy,

I took it upon myself to research your trouble with the Z2 and A2; it turns out they are at other ends of the alpahabet with regard to their lettering and this seems to be the problem. Joking aside, the problem, as you also stated, is that you can use your component for 720p/1080i for HD-DVD but can only get 480p for DVD "upconversion" and cannot use HDMI-DVI at all.The problem with not being able to use HDMI-DVI apparently lies with the Z2 not being HDCP compliant. I am not sure how much you want to pursue this problem, but a solution I found on AVSForum is to use an HDMI stripper (Ophit DVI-to VGA Digital to Analog Convertor) in the following way:

A2<-HDMI-male-----DVI-D-male>>DVI-D-female---Ophit DVI-D female to VGA male digital-to-analog convertor---VGA-male>>VGA-female---Monoprice VGA-female to DVI-I male adaptor---DVI-I-male>>DVI in at Z2

In words:
1)connect HDMI male end of HDMI-to DVI-D cable to A2
2)connect DVI-D male end of this cable to DVI-D female end of the Ophit DVI-D female-to VGA-male digital to analog convertor ($159 at http://www.digitalconnection.com/Products/Video/DDA.ASP)
3)connect the VGA male end of the Ophit convertor to female end of VGA-to-DVI-I
adaptor ($3.57 at http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?keyword=2396&x=0&y=0)
4)connect the DVI-I male end of the Monoprice connector to your Z2
5)turn Z2 on first and let it boot up for 30 secs at least and then turn on A2.

It looks like you may need to spend $165-170 to get the Z2 working, but if this solution works, you will not have to upgrade the Z2 for some time just to be able to use HDMI-DVI.I have not perosnally verified if this solution works, so please assume that this solution has all the associated fine print regarding all the possible disclaimers.

It looks like Lorenzo may also be providing you a solution by offering to buy the A2 from you. I hope you will be happy with whatever you do. Best regards.

John