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

Generally speaking I agree. However updating firmware should be a fairly simple task (when you know the procedure) and is pretty painless. Setting up a 7.1 system, getting the acoustics and settings right is way more difficult and time consuming than burning and loading an ISO (when you know how). It certainly isn't right out of the box. The problem is poor explanations of the procedure.

can't you just connect your Ethernet cable to the A2 for the firmware upgrade? dunno this for sure as i'm in canada and we got @#$@ on the A2 deal (i bring that up every chance i can) oh and for the people aggravated about the constant new handshake issue don't worry! in 2 years once you've upgraded everything to HDMI a new connection technology will come out!

Update, gave up on the ISO.

took the player upstairs and plugged it into my ethernet connection, took about 20 minutes for the auto update from the website.

Anyway, still have the same problem. Need to think about things for a bit now. The picture looks very nice, but after a few minutes a get the Sanyo's blue screen saying no signal. If I click to the next chapter it comes back.

Now, I also tried component, it works fine. In fact the picture looks better than the HDMI in my opinion. So I've thought about using that, however, I can only watch standard DVD's through HDMI.

As mentioned earlier in this thread I usually use my HTPC, which my nvidia card is set to 720p to match my projector. I may just go back to that as I can also use my DVD Theatertek software to scale the 2.35 images before introducing my anamorphic lens.

To me it sounds like based on what I've read on AVSforum, there is a handshake problem to the Z2 via HDMI/DVI. Others with certain Oppo's have had the same problem. I think the Z2 was just introduced about the time HDCP was being talked about, and it truely is not 100% compliant.

HDMI from my HTPC to z2 works great. Looks like this boy may have to wait to get another projector someday. Unless some of you have other ideas.

sorry to hear several people are having problems.

I watched spider man 3 last night (standard def) with the a2 hooked up via hdmi and it worked great. picture was excellent and no problems whatsoever.

I rented children of men hd dvd/dvd combo disk from blockbuster (we have one store in our state which offers hd dvd's)

I popped in the movie on the standard dvd side and watched the opening scene. watched the same scene on standard dvd in both the a2 and my 360.
A difference between the standard def version comming from the a2 and the 360 was harder to distinguish then it was with the transformers dvd. I checked my display settings and apparently the 360 only upconverts to 480p through component cables...
That may be why I was able to spot a difference between the 360 and the a2 last night, not sure why it was harder to tell a difference with the opening scene of this movie.

I then popped the movie in on the hd dvd side into the a2 and compared the same scene to the upconverted a2 version. The hd-dvd version was MUCH clearer and crisper. From 11 or 12 feet away on my 50" 720p/1080i sony lcd rp you could notice a difference easily. looking at the screen closer (a few feet) you could see why. Looking at an old ladies face close up on the standard def version her face was grainy and 'blocky'. Her face was very detailed and 'smooth' on the hd version.

I am happy with the purchase. I did have a little trouble updating the firmware (took about 30 minutes of trial and error because I could not get the a2 to network to my router.. ended up using the iso method).

Mojo, There is a number inside the box you can call and Toshiba will mail you the newest firmware version on cd. So for anyone who has problems networking or burning an iso can use this method. I wouldn't call having to wait on a cd in the mail or plugging in an ethernet cable 'all kinds of contortions'. It would be nice if the firmware was up to date, but did not find the update process extremely difficult.

sir quack, can you provide a link to the avs discussion?

here is a review i found of this model at audioholics:

audioholics review

Walmart still had a ton when I went over lunch to get mine yesterday. I picked up two. Finally got mine hooked up this morning via HDMI cable straight to my Hitachi 42" Plasma (don't have a receiver yet). No setup problems or wierd issues so far..

I don't have any HD-DVD's yet, but I have played several SD movies straight (just now taking a break to download the firmware and whatnot) without a hiccup. I have it set to 1080i and Downsteam PCM (I'm using TV's speakers). My old dvd player is a Toshiba Progressive scan, which did a nice job.

Started off with Black Hawk Down. Picture quality was about the same, color seemed a bit more realistic, but the grainy effect in alot of this movie was slightly more noticable as well. Not sold yet..

Next I popped in Gladiator (special 2 disc version). Now I started noticing a nice difference, espcially in facial features and details in the armor. Color definately looked more realistic as well. The scene where Commodus is looking out his balcony over the CG Rome and the morning sun is brightly shining in definately looked better. The color was great and the blending of Commodus and the background looked much more natural and real. On my old DVD player it looked alot harsher like he was just cut and pasted on top of a CGI backdrop.

Next up was special extended edition of LOTR: Two Towers. Same concensus as Gladiator, color seemed better and details in faces/hair seems clearer/sharper. Not a huge difference like going from SD to HD cable TV, but enough to notice if you're comparing.

I've got the Firmware disc ready and LOTR: Return of the King ready for my next round of watching/testing pleasure. Now all I need are my Axiom speakers and a receiver.. lol. Can't wait to try some HD-DVD's as well.

So far I'd recommend this if you are still using a regular progressive scan DVD player and want a cheap entry into HD-DVD's. For $98 its hard to say no. Perhaps my very simple setup is why I haven't had any issues like some of you have.

Well, I decided to pop the unit in place of my Oppo for a quick install and am having problems with the firmware update via CD.

Can someone confirm that the actual file burned to disc is HD-A2-2501N ?

I downloaded the burnatonce utility and burn the above file, only to get the error message "Error Code : 2007c5c2" when that burned CD is placed in the Toshiba....which, according to Toshiba, means I'm using an incorrect firmware version. (Hence, wanting to confirm the actual file above). It sure seems like it would be the correct one as it was downloaded after correctly selecting the "HDA2 / HD-D2 radio button on Toshiba's site. Also, the Toshiba itself seems to be indicating that it's currently runnin on firmware 1.3T19M and it looks like the new file is firmware V2.5....so unless I've somehow selected the wrong file to burn to disc, it sure SEEMS like it should be an update???!!???

Mark, here is the file that i got:

HD-A2-2.5.iso

Taken from this link posted earlier: http://209.167.114.38/support/ceg/downloads/#

I think you have the wrong one.

It is very easy to update online, that is if you have a broadband connection.

Will it auto detect and update without user intervention? My problem is I don't have a cat 5 cable long enough to reach where my TV/DVD is hooked up. I tried running it into my LCD monitor but it was out of the frequency range (computer monitors don't like 30Hz input). I don't have any other TV's that will take HDMI/Components that I could carry over to where my Modem/Router is.

I guess I could memorize the steps and blindly try to navigate to it and update... lol. Probably not a good idea with something like a firmware update >_>