Tech Review: Toshiba HD-DVD players have a few hiccups

Victor Godinez of The Dallas Morning News writes:

"I've been using the Blu-ray movie player in my PlayStation 3 game console for about a year now and have been invariably thrilled with both the quality of Blu-ray discs and the ability of the device to sharpen the image on regular DVD's. The HD-DVD players were equally adept, technically speaking, but they do have a couple of drawbacks..."

[Blademask]

Red Ring a HD-DVD player.

[richie007bond]

idiot

[sonarus]

lol nice one

[MaximusPrime]

i approve this even though it is HDDVD Player. There has been so many news on here regarding HDDVD and Bluray. So why not a review on one of the players?

[Blademask]

Bloodmask/TheRoundPeg don't want you to.

[crazy25000]

they are an annoying bunch arent they?

[TANOD]

Now they dont want to approve this VALID article since it talks about how inferior the HD DVD players normally

PEOPLE report ROUND PEG to the ADMINS

that is how we can restrain this paid MS EMPLOYEE

she is destroying n4g with her horrible pro bot STORIES

@XGAMER

HD DVD's lower end models cant output 1080p

you know that too.

Plus it support only partial list of codecs which a high end model does

[TheXgamerLive]

writes a review based on one mans biased opinion and you act like it's now certain that all HD-DVD players are bad, lol, you fool. Keep on thinking it lil boys.

Stupidity follows you.

[demolitionX]

Tanod: just to add that, bloodmask is just a suckup with the rest of gates b!tches. these people are supported by this site, so forget about it.

[Snukadaman]

your worst then pog anyday...lets see if there are more crybabies on this post reporting the news then the gt5 not 1080p post. funny thing is regardless of the glitches, he still recommends all the hd-dvd players he reviews.

no you post inflamatory news from other places.. you like too post up your propaganda as well...im not going too defend them..whats different tanod is you like too use up your bubbles too try and get your point across...pog and bloodmask just post once....you spam

[TANOD]

I dont post inflammatory news from XBOX KINGS like POG/RP

i dont approve any flamebait too

i dont post misleading and FALSE news like HD DVD outselling BD at AMAZON

i dont post anti x360 news

Those ROUND PEG/TNS/BLOODMASK report all stories that are a TAD AGAINST HD DVD despite their VALID ORIGINS and

AT THE SAME TIME XBOTS like BLOODMASK AND ROUNDPEG approve ARTICLES at N4G which are infact written by them

[TnS]

TANOD: I really don't care whether is a news against HD DVD or Blu-ray. I think you should realize that this is a gaming site, not a movie site.

[wallace1000]

@ TANOD because he likes to keep saying it, what about people that only have HDTVs that support 720p/1080i, why would they want to spend the extra money to buy a player that outputs 1080p when they can't use 1080p?

[mighty_douche]

dont play Blu-Ray's?

[TANOD]

ROUND PEG also approved the controversial story releated to UT3 MODs as well

even the DECEPTIVE story of HD DVD beating BD when AMAZON rakings itself say 2:1 for BD

PEOPLE report both TNS and ROUND PEG

[TnS]

If you are talking about this then neither me or The Round Peg approved that...
http://www.n4g.com/NewsPend...

Come and report me...

[socomnick]

TANOD shut up already jesus and whats with all the blueray and hddvd crap getting approved isnt this a gaming website stop approving all this movie crap.

[name]

In my opinion, I think most of HD DVD's sales come from people who don't know much about HD formats and see the words HD and DVD and assume it's the successor. Plus the price doesn't hurt either. The problem is, most people who are willing to spend 1000+ dollars on an HDTV does their research before spending more money on a player. And these people usually come across the whole "blu ray is winning by..alot" articles.

[power of Green]

HD-DVD sales come from people that wan't to support DVD and Toshiba plus they might like the movies. Your opinion is like that because your a Sony fanboy. Its like saying PS3 has support because people don't know any better.

[LoydX-mas]

HD-DVD actually IS the successor to DVD. (DVD forum voted for it)

[Baron79]

That is a VERY IMPORTANT point that most people forget.
They also forget that bluray will NEVER be able to store a Reg DVD version of a movie and Hi Def version of a movie on the same disc. This is somthing EXCLUSIVE to HD-DVD.

When the HD-DVD group eventually announces this, a single SKU HD-DVD/DVD,(both on 1 side, just put in and press play) with no regular DVD SKU even released , this war will be history.

[ITR]

I disagree, because I've sold a many HD DVD players to well informed consumers.
Reasons they buy:
Two versions to buy depending on what HD TV res they have.
Two low price points. Our current price point $199(A3),$249(A30)
Two movies from the get go.
Combo disc lets you play HD and SD versions.
3 ways to upgrade your HD players.
Will up convert their old DVD collection.
No region lock.
Lower DRM restrictions. (we all know DRM is stupid and will be cracked eventually)
Interactive movies w/ DLC.
Likes the studio's.

[wallace1000]

I have heard that no region lock is a big thing for many people, my old man for one. He likes lots of British shows that can't be purchased in NA. Not a selling point for me though.

[wil4hire]

But BLOODMASK wrote an article, and submitted it to N4G.

Something wrong with that isn't it?

The Round Peg has already said he used to approve xboxkigns sites before he knew what the site was about.

[actas123]

Well the things in the article do make sense, and they are things that you encounter on everyday basis, I mean the long load times could drive people crazy...

[The Dude]

I'd rather own an HD-DVD player that has internet firmware updates for new features. Than a standalone blu-ray player that doesn't support blu-ray profile 1.1.

[aiphanes]

There are like 7 million of them sold to end users....how many HD-DVD players are there totally sold?

Less than 1.2 million after a year and a half....if you think about it, it is pretty sad for HD-DVD...

And 40 secs to power up? and 30 secs to play a disc? I know there was a new firmware to cut the disc loading time down to 20 secs on the newer Toshiba players...and why come there is only one manufactutuer of HD-DVD stand alone players...toshiba?

[Universal 08]

so Vic is comparing a Bluray game system(aka PS3) to a stand alone HDDVD player. That doesn't seem right at all, at least use a stand alone Bluray player instead of a video game system to do comparisons.

[aiphanes]

And also one of the best DVD upscalling players on the market to 1080p..

Why are some people so pissed that there are over 7 million BD players on the market...it does not matter if they are PS3 or Standalone...they are still BD players....I would even count the XBOX 360 HD-DVD add on as a HD-DVD player...but we all know there are only like 400k of them ever sold to date...and we know the quality of it is sorry at best since it does not support the HD audio codecs....

[whoelse]

Enough about round peg and bloodmaSK. ThiS article Shouldn't have been approved.

[tk]

It plays Blu Ray and normal DVD so well, that I removed the standalone DVD player from the living room setup and moved it to the second TV with the PS2. That is because the PS2 used to be a good DVD player - but not anymore.

I could not care less if HD-DVD players eats disks or output 480 interlaced. The PS3 gives me Blu Ray playback. XB360 owners should push for MS to either include a BR player or HD-DVD player in a higher end XB360. It is worth it to have less things connected to the display.

[Bill]

For a format that is cheaper, first to the market, and has a company (MS) that has extremely deep pockets, HD-DVD's success has been pathetic.

[ITR]

I found this funny:
"Both players are atrociously slow at powering on and launching playback on their discs.

If the machines are turned off in the standby mode and you hit the power button, it takes a good 40 seconds or more before the devices are ready and you can pop open the disc trays.

Once you insert a disc and close the tray, it's 30 seconds or so before playback begins."

The PS3 is the only fast loading BD player out on the market.
Try the BDPS300(sony), BDP1400(Sammy), and BDHP20U(Sharp) and prepare to wait.
The BDPS300 has to be the slowest BD player to date. How to not sell a BDPS300:
Do not shut down the machine and then turn it back on in front of the customer.

As for the firmware updates. Just DL them from Tosh or just call them up for a disc.
I've only experienced one freeze up on a stock A30 and that was with the new Bourne movie.
The next 5 times it played through fine.

[chfthnder26]

i 4 one do not have n e experience with the toshiba players but my 360 add on is not slow at all