Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Looking for a DVD player

My HD-A35 has gone black and come back with an HD DVD. I can't remember what movie I was watching, but it only happened during that one viewing. Still annoying.

I did the 2.5 update but the 2.7 came out within a couple of weeks and never bothered...maybe I should.

I never thought I'd run across anyone else who had a Denon 2910, Oppo 980H, AND an A2. Rick, you've gone a long way toward relieving any guilt feelings I may have entertained.


Ditto this too. Spooky, huh?

Could this be a HDCP issue?

Jack if you remember sometime back whenever I thought the 2910 went south on me I purchased the 980H as a replacement only to find that the Denon was on 'Pure Direct' mode (thanks Harmony remote), found that out on the day the Oppo arrived ... DOH! The A2 was that Wal-Mart $98 deal, I thought what the heck and got it.

The Oppo is my favorite out of the three, the Denon is nice but for $800??? (or was it only $700?) and the A2 seems to have some bugs that needs to be worked out.

If you are in the market for a dvd player then DO NOT buy a dvd player, especially if you have a hdtv. I just went on amazon.com and they have a Toshiba HDDVD player for about $225 and you can get 10 free HDDVD's. This offer is also good for any HDDVD player from Toshiba. So it really doesn't make any sense to buy a Oppo or any other DVD player for that matter when the Toshiba does that as well and more for about the same price with 10 free movies.

- Nick

I have both a Oppo 981 and the Toshiba A2, and though the picture quality of a SD DVD is about the same on both, the A2 takes a long time to load. For that reason alone, I won't unplug my Oppo.I also like the feature on the Oppo of displaying on screen how much time is left in the movie...if this feature is available on the Toshiba, I have not been able to find it.

I do have to admit that the A2 with a HD-DVD does provide a great detailed picture and it seems the colors seem stronger (maybe my imagination).

I watched The Aviator with just the updated prior to 2.7. Can't recall the number. 2.5 maybe? I had no blackout issues. Have not seen this in any other movies either.

No bugs with 2.7 yet either, although I have only watched 1 complete movie with it so far and demoed some clips for others a few times.

The local Blockbuster has a small HD-DVD & Bluray rental section now I have been told so hopefully I'll be watching something new tonight.

Ohh, One think to check after the 2.7 update. It, or the reset it does afterwards, changed my auto-dynamic-range feature (or whatever it's called) back to "on". I went to Demo some scenes from Transformers and the audio just didn't sound as impressive. If I hadn't just done the update the night before, I might never have suspected and wasted hours checking all my receiver settings first.

I have the "pre-Oppo" king of upconvertion DVD players, the Panasonic S97, and it now sits in the back of my home theater, on my stack of unopened Bass Shakers for when I EVER get to the customer furnature in my theater, but that is another story. I am "flying solo" with my A2 ($98 Walmart special from the first Friday in November). I really like it and have only had 1 issue so far, but it seemed to be more of a scratched disc than anything else. I do keep it updated on firmware, which is easy. (BrotherBob, I could send you the current firmware CD like I did the last one, but I wouldn't be able to do so do to a business trip and vacation until January 2nd. Let me know.)

Anyway, I have a Sanyo Z3 front projector (720p) at 104" and I can tell a difference between SD (upconverted) and HD movies. On a smaller screen you would think that the difference would be less noticable, but it is still a factor. I've hooked up my player to a 55" 1080p LCD TV at my in-laws. (Yes, they didn't listen to me about viewing distances, and what resolution is really needed.) Anyway, I know that it is 1080p, but there are resources that show that at normal distances, you can't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p on screens less than about 60". Anyway, you could tell the difference in upconverted SD movies and the same movie in HD. Most of the things you will see differently is less grain (unless it is supposed to be there for extra "gritty" feel that the director wanted), less blocks, less "jaggies", etc. Basically the flaws introduced by compressing a movie down to fit a standard DVD. Even the best upconverting player doesn't know what is supposed to be there and what is a compression introduced "block" or blocky image. It upconverts everything, errors in the compression and all. And when it does, it is dealing with limited SD information.

Here is another situation, I really like the first Matrix movie. I watched it on HD-DVD last weekend. I never quite realized how "pitted" Morpheus' (Lawrence Fishborn's) face was. You saw every little detail that is lost on even an upconverted SD version of the same movie. And I was a BIG pusher of upconverted DVDs for years on this forum.

So go HD, get your free movies, and have a great upconverting SD DVD player.

As for the long boot/load times, you will see that for some time in the future. A chunk of it is supposed to be because of the wonderful copy-protection built in to the HD formats that require extra "hand-shaking" with the player and display device. I don't know how much of that is true, but that is what is said in home theater magazines and such.

Of course, I don't mind because my HD-DVD player is booted up faster than my Sanyo Z3 projector, so it really doesn't matter to me. Even the projector is ready way before anyone is when they want to watch a movie. We've got popcorn to make, other food and drinks to get situated, people to get settled in to their seats, etc. At my house, people aren't waiting on the equipment, the equipment is waiting on the people.