Just curious, how many of us bit on the X# free movies with purchase offer. I got a Toshiba HD player at Sam's, registered on-line, sent in the check list for the 5 "Free" movies and waited, and waited. Got a card that said they were out of stoce and the next delivery would be in ANOTHER 6 weeks. So here I am at week 12 or 13 waiting some more. I just tried to email Toshiba customer service, only to get a "delivery failed notice".
Anyone else experience this shell game BS?

Scott

That sucks, I noticed Best Buy and American electronics are offering the same stuff in the flyers. You get 300 and Bourne Identity HD-DVD right away + 5 more you order.

I'll take those two easily. The other selections through Toshiba are so-so. Haven't sent in for my rebate yet. Mainly because most of the movies are ones I'm not so crazy about. They are free, though. . .

Yeah, the selection isn't the best. I actually liked the choices the "first" go around (for the rebate that ended the end of September).... The current rebate doesn't have as many movies that I like, but for free....

I am still looking at getting a lower end HD-DVD player (HD-A2 or HD-A3) soon. I would love to get the HD-XA2 for the analog out, but I am going to save my cash and get a new receiver some time in the future (not in a big rush, as I am going for HD picture as a priority over HD sound). By the time I am ready to get a new receiver, all of the decoding (DTS-HD included) will be ironed out and the ability to play it all will be more reasonably priced...

I bought mine too early, when there were no free ones, but I'll probably get a third-gen player this holiday season and hopefully there will be good freebies to be had. I really hope to see a lot more reduced prices on movies this holiday.

I got my free ones, but it was the first offering. It was 2 weeks or more after the published ETA.

I got three freebies with my A2 but they were included in the box so no choice as to what you get. Still for 199 and three movies, I was happy.

I'm still trying to locate an A2 in the $200 price range locally... BB wants $299 for old stock, and the A3 is the same price. I know that they exist, I just need to find one.

Nick, Amazon has it here with free shipping for $227.12 Toshiba A2

It seems like you only hear about Toshiba HD/DVD players, so two questions.

1. Who else makes them?

2. Is there a good summary somewhere of the different Toshiba models and what the differences are? As long as it does 1080p, it should be fine, although it sounds like if your receiver doesn't support TruHD audio (or whatever it's called) then you want the one with analog as well, correct?

Right now Toshiba is the only available HD DVD player other than LG's dual format player and Microsofts Xbox360 add on. Onkyo and Wallmart (Chinese made player) will be joining with their own offerings soon.
Here is a link to compare Toshiba's players. Toshiba

I took me about eight weeks to get a card telling me the supplier was out of stock and if i wanted to "cancel" my "order" of free DVD's..... I about pissed my pants laughing at that one. It took another four weeks to get them. The selection is pathetic at best and are all the first HD/DVD's releaced. But if you don't have any, it's better than a poke in the eye.

HomeDad, thanks for the link. I was hoping to find something local just in case BlackFriday comes with a good deal on an A3 or something. I talked to a guy at best Buy who said that they were expecting a price drop "in time for the holiday shopping season"... I asked about Black Friday, and he said that he couldn't say when, but to be looking at the ads that week. Of course, this could be $20 off too... I just thought that if I picked up an A2 locally, and then in less than 30 days found a better deal, I could return it. Just being honest with my intentions.

Zarak, I can only display 720p on my projector, so for me, 1080p isn't important. By the time I upgrade to something with more resolution, the HD format war will be over . If you have a display that does 1080p, then by all means, go for it. Now, if you want HD sound, but don't want to upgrade your receiver too, then you will need something, like you said, with analog outputs on the player, and analog inputs on the receiver. Make sure that they both are 5.1 analog. Some manufacture specs say "analog" but are only 2 channel. For HD-DVD, you need to jump to the HD-XA2 to get 5.1 analog. And that will cost you around $600. I'm going cheap first, just to get the HD picture. I want to get DTS-HD too, but nothing really decodes that for a reasonable price yet, so I am waiting on a new receiver. Besides, my currently receiver is pretty darn nice if you ask me, and it seems silly to upgrade all of the time.

Amazon has the A2 for 229 and free shipping. The A3 is pre selling for 300 and the A30 is 330. I'd get the A30 out of those three. Or you could wait till I get a different one and I'll send you my A2, for a reasonable fee.

Or, just a thought, but if you have a Costco near by, they have their own A2 called the D2 for under 200 usually.

The A30 gives you 1080p over the A3, and the A3 has the same specs as the A3 but the A3 is just a tad smaller in size.

If I had a 1080p display, then I've spend the extra $30 on the A30. But without any other benefits, for me anyway, it is just a wasted $30.

I will have to check out Costco... I don't have a membership, but I think that I can find someone that does. And from what I understand, it too qualifies for the 5 Free HD-DVD offer.

I might just have to jump on that. I mean, what is the chance that the A3 will come down to $200 for the holidays. Although with the A3, you do get 2 other free movies bundled with it (300 and the first Bourne movie), but I don't care to own 300, and would rather spend the money saved on a couple of movies that can really showcase the HD capabilities.

Thanks for the tip about Costco.

The A20 and the A30 both have a better scaling chip for SD DVD than the A2/A3 alternative.

That alone was why I bought the A20. I only have a 720p/1080i display, but I wanted superior scaling if I could.

How does the chip in the A# and A#0 (fill in 2 or 3 for the # sign) compair to the SD scaling chip in the Panasonic S97? I am pretty happy with the output from my S97 for SD DVDs, so anything on that level would work for now..

I recommend the A30 over the A3 because the A3 will NEVER have the capability to pull the native 1080P/24 data off the disks, where the A30 does have the ability; if Toshiba pushes a firmware update out to enable this.

If you're wondering why I think this is important.....

HD and BR are recorded at 1080P/ 24 frames per second. This “native” information is on the disks. Until recently, ALL BR and HD player MPEG decoders would only pull the interlaced 1080i data off the disks (a significant net reduction of usable X’s and O’s for you code geeks).

These decoders would then output this 1080i/24 data to the player’s Video Processing Chip. The VP would then, if capable, de-interlace this to 1080P/24. After de-interlacing it, it would apply a 3:2 cadence to that data stream to output a 1080P/ 60hz (60 frames per second) that was more display friendly than 24 Hz. Depending on each player’s video processor’s performance, some players would do a better job at this than others. The X2 for example uses a Reon chip set, which is highly regarded for outputting a very good 1080P/60 video stream.

So….a few months pass and 1080P/24 displays start coming out. The buzz around this started to educate users and all of a sudden, consumers were starting to feel “cheated” because their “HD” players were cheating them out of all that raw 1080P/24 data. All they were getting was some possessed, or “fake” 1080P/60 video stream.

About this time BR players hit the shelves that were actually pulling the raw 1080P/24 data off BR disks. Toshiba, after about a year, decided they would follow suit and pushed a firmware update to the X2 to output 1080/P24. The X2, A20, A30 and A35 all have MPEG decoders that have the functionality to do this, but for some very odd reason, Toshiba would not enable the X2, A20 and A30 to so this and decided to process the 1080i data to output 1080P at either 24 or 60 Hz.

Currently, only the A35 outputs the actual, RAW, 1080P/24 native data on the disks. Although the X2 does output 1080P/24, it is a “processed” data stream, and not native. I do not know exactly what it does to it, but the Reon is doing something to it that changes the color space from Rec 709 HD color standards. I personally think this is a bug with the Reon itself because this exact "change" to the color space is occuring with the new Onkyo/Integra audio processors that use the Reon. It is also occuring with the JVC RS1 projector that uses a Genum VP, so it could be a simple oversight that is correctable, or it may be a hardware issue with these two chips. ABT chipsets do not do this, nor does the Realta.

So, to recap why I suggest the A30, is that it has the ability to pull the native 1080P/24 data off the disks and it DOES NOT use the Reon. Even if you do not have a 1080P display, you will still benefit from 1080P/24 because there is SOOOO much more data to work with before down rezzing to 720/P.

Clear as mud???

So, if it can read the 1080p/24, you are saying it just starts with a more "correct" image, or at least the "best" image possible before down-scaling it to 720p?

Thanks Mike, That answers the question I asked in another thread.

Yes Nick, you got it! More info to work with.

Whew, thanks Michael....I don't have to type all that again.

Now back to the woodshop. I'm building an oak table for my new printer.

A2-D2 ?

That would make it a repair droid wouldn't it?

So I did read that card correctly? Return ONLY if I wanted to cancel my order? Guess I need to be more patient...

Scott

Toshiba made good on their 5 disc offer! Arrived yesterday. Guess I just needed to wait. I'm just not known for being patient.

Scott

Our A2's box was thrown out a couple of days after receiving the unit, obviously so was my chance at getting the free movies since the UPC printed on the side of the box and a copy of the receipt are the required ingredients for the free movie offer.

My bad.

I'm starting to really dig the A2 now though, wife and I watched 'Transformers' in HD DVD last night and we both really enjoyed it, although I *still* don't see much of a difference in SD DVDs between the A2, the Oppo 980H or the Denon 2910.

You guys are right, the HD DVD 'Corpse Bride' is incredible PQ.

Just wait till you see native 1080P/24 in all its glory.....

Wow my free HD Dvds finally arrived, after a major delay due to the fact that they wouldn't ship my Dvds to a PO box I finally got my discs.
It's been so long, that I didn't get one of the 5 HD Dvds I requested but I'm not unhappy with what they sent.

Red Dragon
Harry Potter
Alexander Revisited
The Departed
AEONFLUX

So in the past two days I've gotten a $50.00 rebate and 5 free HD DVDs, I'm okay with that