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

Trying to talk the wife into it, I mentioned Nick was getting his wife a laptop, I assume the Acer 398$ special. I wish it showed specs....

Randy, also know that you'll have to connect the player to your Z2 with component since it won't work with an HDMI/DVI adapter due to the Z2's faulty HDCP compatibility.
Which means that you won't get dvd upscaling (only works through HDMI). Of course you have an HTPC so that shouldn't be a problem right?

Well, I picked up two A2s this morning. I got to the closest Walmart at 7:30am and was 2nd in line behind some lady that was there since 6:00am waiting for a laptop.

They rolled out the goods around 7:40 am and by then about 10 people were in line. We wanted to grab the stuff and at least wait in line with it, but there was no real rush because there were so many. The official count was 35 HD-DVD players even though they were supposed to get 50.

I went over to get my two, and who do I see? Good ol' Randy (Sirquack). I have only seen his picture in a family photo he posted on here, and he had only seen me in a picture during my old home theater's construction. Needless to say he was looking his best in his picture, and I was my worst.

Hey Randy, sorry I couldn't stay and chat. I had to get to the office for an 8:30 meeting, just to find out when I got here that it was cancelled around 8:15....

Anyway, I got to the counter again and they said, "Limit 1 per customer." Instead of putting the second one back, this really nice lady who was there for a laptop said that she would put it in her cart and meet me near the main checkouts. So I ran my first one out to my car, ran back in, met up with her, and bought it in the regular (non-electronics department) checkout.

That was probably best anyway. Then I have a receipt I can give my father-in-law when he gets it for Christmas, and I have a receipt for me.

I also picked up an optical cable since my monoprice.com cable isn't here yet. AND I grabbed a laptop for my wife. I was very hesitant at first since I like to get the best performance I can being an IT guy, but I grabbed one thinking that I could always return it.

The specs on the laptop are (from memory since it is still out in my car)
Acer
1.73GHz Mobile Celeron (never owned a "stripped down" celeron before)
15.4" WXGA screen
80 GB hard drive
1GB RAM (upgradable to 2 GB)
DVD player/CD-RW
Wireless networking
10/100 LAN
56kbps modem (who needs that?)
Windows Vista (Ugh! with only 1 GB of RAM)
$348

I will have to do some checking at places like TigerDirect to see if I can get a better deal or not. My biggest concern is the Celeron. For what my wife is doing (internet and MS Office) it should be enough, but I just don't want even her outgrowing it anytime soon.

Yeah Randy, I did a quick search and it looks like there is a certain combination of firmwares that work, but most don't. You will probably need to update the firmware on the A2 (just connect it to your home network, or download the firmware and burn it to a CD), and on your Z2. The Z2 is the problem though since it has to be sent in to Sanyo to get updated, and even then it is a crap shoot on if it will work. Maybe in your searchings on the subject you will get better details.

No such deals in the land of the silver birch and home of the beaver.

You're right that some people have reported success when upgrading the firmware of their Z2 but it's so rare that it's statistically null... I wouldn't count on it. On top of that when the Z2 came out HDCP 1.0 wasn't even finalized so there's some hardware issues that might be insurmontable with the toshiba drives. In any case it should look fine with component with the Z2.

You'll be my guinea pic Randy! Since I have a Z2 also...
Let us know if it works with a HDMI?DVI cable.

I was just glad to hear that my Z3 will work OK... Whew...

Hey congratulations on your new A2 guys. For those of you who want to update by disc here's a link for you.

Toshiba Firmware

I like to use Active ISO Burner for the discs. It's a free program and works every time for me.

Active ISO Burner

Well, I bought two of the A2s and a laptop as well.... there wasn't any limit. They hadn't gotten in the HDDVD titles, so I didn't bother with that.

My dad finally bought a plasma a few weeks ago, so the 2nd A2 might make a good Christmas gift for him. The laptop didn't have any specs, but for the price I figured I could always use a seventh computer!!!