Well I bought Gods and Generals today while it was on sale for $19.99 This is a combo disk of sorts but with one side being special features. Tossed it in a few minutes ago and it boots the WB logo and locks with a system error on my A2, and I'm running the latest firmware in this one. I'm not even going to bother booting up the HDV5000 again tonight to try and watch it on there, I'm exchanging it for another tomorrow. Two in a week. First a cracked copy of Elizabeth and now a copy that won't play. Better get the quality control up to snuff before going with a setup like this disk.

Same here. (Not a 'combo' but supplements are on reverse side.) Like yourself my WB logo plays fine and the BAMMO. Error code.

Warner has been screwin up alot lately. First my copy of Alexander...then my copy of Smallville which requires the twin format switch. It is very annoying...I try to order the HDDVD version when I can but this makes me want to stick with the Blu versions...I returned Alexander and had no probs with the BD version. not trying to start a flame war here but its these little technical snaffoos which make me so angry with the HD camp sometimes.

And yes I am running firmware 2.5 in my A2 ;)

Think its a running defect or player related? What player/firmware are you using? I'm gonna try exchanging it for another tomorrow regardless. If that one doesn't work I'll try the HDV5000 (actually I'll be at my girlfriend's on Thursday before I come home and test it on the HDV5000 there). If the HDV5000 doesn't work either I'm going to videotape the bootup sequence on my phone, take it back and demand a refund. If they won't refund then I'll dispute the charge on my credit card. I go to FYE enough that I could easily run through the 14 or so copies they've got between the two superstores and try and get a working one. I know I'm running up to date on the A2, I think both HDV5000s are at Toshiba firmware 2.2.

I've had hardly an issue even with noted problem disks since upgrading to the latest firmware on the A2 that I tested this in, this is the first total lockup since and its not the usual code it used to give with defective combo disks, just says "system error".

Make sure you have the latest firmware update for your player.

I've also read that you should 'initalize' under the maintenance menu after completing firmware updates (that restores all player settings to baseline).

I've also read that you should 'initalize' under the maintenance menu after completing firmware updates (that restores all player settings to baseline).

I have done that too. Still a no go. Have to keep switching the twin format to and fro for Smallville.

Does anyone know what the special features are on this disc? I never watched the original DVD release-- I was under the impression it was pretty bare-bones. Does the HD release have more features than the DVD?

I should be receiving this today - I'll give it a go in my A30 and post the results here (for anyone curious).

I did not own the original DVD release (though I do own Gettysburg), so I can't comment on the extras, but I am excited about having this one. I know plenty of folks that will debate how boring or inaccurate it is, but I found it interesting and fairly factual - at least from the perspective it's being told.

To each his own, I suppose...

A quick search turns up that the HD DVD special features are the same from the standard def. release:

· Introduction by Executive Producer Ted Turner
· Commentary by director/screenwriter Ronal F. Maxwell and historical advisors Col. Keith Gibson and James I. Robertson Jr.
· "Journey to the Past: The African-American Slave Experience" documentary
· "The Life of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson" documentary
· "The Authenticities of the Film" documentary
· 2 Music Videos
· Theatrical Trailer

maybe it locked up because your player refused to regurgitate such a horrible and pretentious movie?

Could have been worse. It could have been one of the million or so Halo 3 Limited Edition discs that fell off the spindles during shipping and resulted in a ton of people paying $70 for a game that was scrached to Kingdom Come and wouldn't play.

I should be receiving this today - I'll give it a go in my A30 and post the results here (for anyone curious).

I did not own the original DVD release (though I do own Gettysburg), so I can't comment on the extras, but I am excited about having this one. I know plenty of folks that will debate how boring or inaccurate it is, but I found it interesting and fairly factual - at least from the perspective it's being told.

To each his own, I suppose...

I, too, never had a problem with the film. I saw it in theaters, and one of the things people found most grating (beyond the largely pro-Southern slant of the film), the dialogue, didn't really bother me. I think people these days expect their period movies to use modern dialogue and speaking methods. This film simply incorporated the more articulate speechmaking of that era into its dialogue. If you've read any period letters and writings from the Civil War era, people were simply very florid and articulate in their dialogue at that time-- even individuals considered "uneducated" in that era. We don't really know if it was quite that way conversationally, but people definitely sounded different in that era.

Ang Lee's Ride With The Devil was another film that incorporated mid-nineteenth-century dialogue into its script, and I think it did a little better job of finding a happy medium between historical accuracy and finding dialogue that sounds less stilted to modern ears.

Anyway, hopefully this release bodes well for a Gettysburg release in HD. Ideally, it will be the extended edition of Gettysburg. But given that this is a pretty bare-bones HD release, I don't have my hopes up too high.

Could have been worse. It could have been one of the million or so Halo 3 Limited Edition discs that fell off the spindles during shipping and resulted in a ton of people paying $70 for a game that was scrached to Kingdom Come and wouldn't play.
I'm one of them, at least the tin case looks nice though :rolleyes:
Sorry to hear about everyones problems with Gods and Generals. Wasn't lucky with Halo but I must be with combos because I've never had a problem. The error code sounds like an authoring issue not the format. Can't wait till Gettysburg is on HD DVD.

Bought my A2 in June and never updated the firmware cause every disc I play so far plays flawlessly. Just watched Gods and Generals last night (Netflix) and had no problem.

Though I only watched bits and pieces, my A30 had no trouble playing this disc either. Sounds like there might be a batch of duds out there...

Pq/aq???

Copy #2 is DOA and I tested it on both the HDV5000 and A2. Same error, locks up after the WB logo on both players. Gonna go back tomorrow and complain that I wasted gas going there twice, try and get a gift card as well as a working copy. Definately has to be a defective batch and they're both from seperate stores, and each store had a considerable number of copies. Anyone have a number, email or address that I can get in touch with Warner Bros. about this, I'd like to voice my complaint with them too.

Copy #3 is DOA as well, also tested on multiple players. Sent a nice email to WB and I'm curious to know how they'll handle this. This one is going back tomorrow, and I'm going to ask for a refund, I've wasted plenty of my time dealing with this as it is. I'm going to demand a price guarantee should they ever get a working copy in. If they refuse me a refund I luckily charged this one and I'll dispute the charge.

I want to know how they could let that many defective copies through quality control. One every so often I can understand. Three in a row is just rediculous, especially when two came from two seperate stores.

I'm wondering if there is a possible authoring error here? I played around with it and the disk will work if I let it begin playing with the TV off so it can't handshake the HDMI unit it is in the opening credits, this works on the A2 but not the HDV5000. Don't ask me why this works. If you go and boot it with the TV on, back to DOA. There shouldn't be any real reason for this. I can't figure out why it would work either. I'll fool around with the HDV5000 if I get a chance and see how WB responds to my email before I return it, so long as I have a way to make it work.

My working copy came from Buy.com if you're looking to find a replacement now. I'm by no means promoting them, just stating that i can confirm that I received a working copy from there...so it looks like the "batch" they got is okay.

Sorry this isn't me attempting to troll or anything, but at normal catalog pricing for this. Shouldn't it finally set to rest the idea that combos are more expensive.

Well, I finally got around to this, but as advised above I hit 'initialize' in the Maintenance menu (software version 2.3) and viola'! Movie fired right up. I tried it enough times before this step to know this probably wasn't a coincidence. Thanks for the tip!

I got it from Best buy, and my god this is one of my top 5 titles. The colors of the war, are very resolute, sharp, detailed, picturesque. Very top notch transfer, i am glad i bought it. I was about to blocbuster online it, but not yet released so i pulled the trigger, and am i glad. This is one of the most amazing transfer. The outdoor scenes are sharp and very 3d. I love watching the battle scenes again and again. One amazing transfer, one of my 5 all time favorites.

Pq/aq???

It played fine on my A20.

I noticed the colors and details instantly with the first sequence of the flags. My gf instantly noticed the colors as well as the background detail. This is a 3.5 hour movie that looks great and fits on a HD-DVD30.

Warner/Image/New Line needs to hook us up w/ Gettysburg ASAP. Actually, scratch that. They are always taking my money. Most of my library is from Warner.

I rented this from Netflix. As many have reported, it died after the Warner logo on my HD-A1 (v 2.2) with a hex error code.
I updated firmware to 2.3 from Toshiba's CD.
Same problem....

Finally, after jotting down my settings, I went to Setup / General / Maintenance and did the Initialize. Then the disc plays properly.

yrly, guys: I remember someone ?Kevin Collins? from Microsoft has opened a dedicated thread in the HD DVD software section, and he offered to replace defective discs with working ones if you send them in. Please contact him, so they can do a little research on those discs and hopefully solve this issue.

EDIT: here's the link to his thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=924537

3.5 hour film. Looking forward to seeing this.

I assume at that length, no room for a lossless track?

I had a similar problem on my Alexander Revisited HD DVD. I posted about that in the dedicated thread. Maybe this fix can help on the Gods and Generals disc.

Still got an error messsage on the disc sent directly to me from the WB as a replacement. The solution someone else posted that eventually got my disc to work was to delete all of the "persistent memory" items in the unit each time I want to play one of the discs. I am using an XA2 (FW 2.5).

I sent emails to Toshiba and WB about the issue (I have no clue if its a software or hardware issue). Only Toshiba responded indicating that the problem would be "passed on to our team". I hope a future firmware update can fix the issue as it is pain to delete everything each time I want to watch the disc (even going from Alexander disc one to disc two).

Not necessarily related but I just got done watching Alexander Disc 2. It would instantly after the warner logo go to internal system error. I did an update still no success, then I changed the twin settings to DVD and did an initialization. One of those two did the trick and I think it was the initialization.

There is a thread over at HTF where Microsoft is trying to collect some bad combo discs. If you have one send it in. As soon as they get it they ship you a new one.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/showthread.php?t=262897

I assume at that length, no room for a lossless track?
I believe it's DD+.

I believe it's DD+.

Yes, 5.1 DD+ only on this one.

I also wish this would spur a Gettysburg release. Preferably the longer version they usually air on TNT.