Firmware 4.0 available for A-3, A-30, and A-35 - Page 2

I wouldn't say it's unwatchable. Simply, there are "crawling lines" (jaggies) which appear to move on the hood of the car at chap. 5 in Transformers. By no means does it affect every scene. But, as we all like to point out: it shouldn't be there

I lost Toshiba's website for downloads, could someone please post the link to 3.0 update? Thanks!

The website still has version 2.0. They haven't uploaded 3.0 yet. Click

Thank you! I wonder why they didn't upload it yet? Is there any official release of what exactly this update addresses?

I have two A30's. One has 2.0 and the other has the 1.3 firmware. I crossed my fingers and upgraded the 2.0 to 3.0 and it worked. I haven't noticed a difference yet. A friend of mine upgraded his A35 to 3.0 yesterday and now it is frozen on the welcome message.

I do not use 1080p/24...my set is a CRT 1080i...but I have no issues with the 1.3 firmware version...What makes 3.0 so special???

I guess I'll stick with my current firmware on my A35 units.

Dl'd and installed without incident. (A30)

And what did you gain with it???

Version 3.0 now allows the A30 to play Blu-ray discs!:

At this stage there is no way in hell I'll be updating any of my 1.3 players. Not worth the risk.

Full ack, my EP35 is also broken after update.

Both my A35 and A3 HATED playing back the last 20 minutes of Bourne Ultimatum. Constant freezing, or picture breakups. Now they both play it flawlessly. My A35 is my second string Quarterback if my XA2 ever goes down, so I'm super thankful to Toshiba for not letting sleeping dogs lie.

I recently downloaded the 3.0 firmware update via Ethernet to see if there were any noticeable changes with my HD-A35. The DL took about eighteen minutes over DSL and the player shut itself down when it finished. I powered the player back up to make sure it was still functioning and it was fine. I shut down the A35 and unplugged the unit for about a minute then powered it back up again.

PROBLEMS/ANNOYANCES I HAVE OBSERVED:

It still takes a long time to boot up and also does not instantly open the tray when the button on the unit is pressed if it has not booted yet. More of an annoyance than a problem as my previous DVD player came to life and opened the tray instantly upon pressing the eject button. I believe that this should be standard on any high profile DVD player.

I still have tons of SD DVDs that I enjoy watching. I find it odd that there seems to be a zoom button missing from the remote. Only HD-DVDs that support this feature (using the A-B-C-D buttons) will allow zooming. I would think that the A-B-C-D buttons would be able to be used for zooming during SD DVD playback. My other DVD player was so old, it didn't have progressive playback capabilities or a zoom feature either. Try to find any DVD player today lacking either of these features.

I think this next problem is absolutely absurd: The VIDEO output setting in the player affects the AUDIO output. The A35 has the capability of bitstreaming the audio to a receiver for it to decode the raw signal over an HDMI connection. I changed the settings in the player and my Onkyo TX-SR605 for weeks as I tried to stream DD+, Dolby True HD, and DTS-MA. All I got was a stereo PCM signal. Other audio formats from SD DVDs such as DD 5.1 and standard DTS stream just fine. It wasn't until I set up a progressive capable monitor and switched the settings from 480i to ANYTHING ELSE was I able to get it to bitstream properly. Even though the setup menu APPEARS that everything should be working properly, the manual makes no mention of this oddity. Surprisingly, the Toshiba Customer Service Representative stated that the player was never meant to be set up in this way. Then why can I make these choices from the setup menu?

Also, I noticed that the player did not prompt me for the date and time after installing 3.0. I believe that Toshiba was tired of getting the "How do I enter the date and time on my player?" question. And yes, you STILL have to enter the date and time with the numeric keypad. Oh wait - the choice to enter AM or PM can be selected with the arrow keys.

FW 3.0 FIXES:

As of this writing, Toshiba has not posted what this update from 2.0 to 3.0 specifically fixes. I have read that it has successfully allowed complete playback of certain problem discs for some people. I noticed that with 2.0, my SD DVDs froze quite often when pressing fast-forward then rewind too quickly. At least you can resume playback after pressing stop with SD DVDs. (Don't get me started with that deficiency of HD-DVD...) This problem seems to have disappeared with the release of 3.0. That is - I tried to replicate the intermittent problem with many discs and they all kept playing fine.

I have personally not experienced any playback issues where a disc failed to play at certain parts of a movie.

Unfortunately, I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of "jaggies" with FW 3.0 as I do not have a 1080p/24 capable display.

So am I a picky nerd that feels the need to dissect a piece of technology, or just someone that expects a product to work the way it was meant to? I'm sure every person reading this feels the same way. *continue nodding*

Here's to the next firmware update! Maybe the stuff that matters will get fixed eventually.

I played the Bourne Ultimatum with 2.0 on my A30 and had no problems. I just watched it with 3.0 and noticed no change.

Under 2.0 I've had a few movies freeze at the VERY end of the credits. When they show the DVD production company logo. I can't remember which ones they were but I'll do some checking under 3.0. The A30 in my bedroom is still at 1.3 and I'm not sure I want to upgrade it yet.

Hi.
Could you please explain to an idiot (me!) what those numbers mean, if you don't mind, and have a minute to spare?
0514=?
1300=?
0BBB=?
0BBC=?

Thanks for your help with the rollback. I followed your instructions and it worked perfectly, but I don't understand what those values signify.

Thanks again.

The code is written in Hexadecimal which is a base 16 counting system. Read more about it at Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexadecimal_notation

05 14 in Hex = 1300 in decimal.
03 BB in Hex = 3003 in decimal.

If you add one to 03 BB you get 03 BC or 3004 in decimal.

Hex counts with 16 numbers intead of 10.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

I completed the upgrade to 3.0 on both players without a hitch.

Thanks for your explanation and the link, Htwaits.

I will read up on it!! ;-)

i have a3 on 1.3 and it works fine

i also wont be upgrading

Not!

Is anyone having playback problems of I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry on an A-35? Does 3.0 fix this for you? I believe I'm running 2.7, and was wondering if 3.0 will fix my freezing problems. I don't want to upgrade if the disc is at fault.

2.7???

Apparently I'll have to go check which firmware I'm running, I was going from memory. :P

Wow, I guess having 3 different players confused me, I only have 1.3 firmware on my A-35. I've been hesitant to upgrade because of the reported problems that the later firmware adds. I don't have a 1080p24 capable display at the moment, but I will have one in the future.

I have no complaints with 1.3 and so my A35 will remain with that FW...

My A30 won't play the second disc. It will load, play the first track (privacy warning/Warner Home Video logo), but gives a "system error" after that. This is the first disc that has given me a problem like this.

I have firmware 1.3 and am really hesitant to upgrade. Has anyone else experienced this with this film and is it likely that 3.0 will fix it?

Myself and many others had this same problem with Alexander when it was released. It is something in your persistent storage. Clear out some of the WB items, more specifically the common data files or non-title specific files. It should work after that.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! That worked. Up till now, I knew nothing about persistent storage. What gets stored there? Bookmarks, I would suspect, but apparently more. I couldn't see any way to actually pick and choose what to delete; it seemed all or nothing (at least per studio).

Anyway, good news is I can finish this film (excellent PQ, albeit curious casting ). Better news is that firmware 1.3 is still viable!

The EP30 firmware is the same as the A30. And the EP35 firmware is the same as the A35. So if you are tired of waiting for it to show up on the Toshiba North America site, you can always download it from Toshiba Europe site.