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

Yeah it stores your bookmarks as well as anything downloaded for titles connected to the net, i.e. Trailers, deleted scenes. I'm sure your password and account info is stored there for your log-in info, and apparently some other stuff. If you go into maintenance and then persistent storage it should give you a list of the studios and some common data most likely. You can then select each studio and it will give you a list of titles that information is stored for. Usually thats where you find more common data files and those are the ones I've tracked down as causing problems with my discs. I have just never wanted to delete all of the information for each studio because I don't necessarily want to lose all my bookmarks but if it doesn't bother you than that's the easiest way to do it.

akbled: It was late last night when I read your post and I was so anxious to solve the problem before going to bed (I would have lain awake all night thinking about it -- yes, I'm like that... ), I didn't really explore Persistant Storage fully. I guess once you highlight the studio (both Warners and Universal were listed) you can open that up and see what's what, right? I just highlighted and chose delete. No big deal. I always delete bookmarks once I'm through with a film. I guess anything else can be re-written, if need be. It would be nice if the manual explained things a bit more.

So what's your take on firmware 3.0? Have you updated your unit(s)? Do you plan to?

Thanks again.

I haven't updated my A-35 yet and I don't plan to until we know more about what it does or doesn't fix, we need more beta testers to take the plunge. I rarely use my A-35 it's pretty much a back-up to my XA2. I haven't had any problems with the A-35 yet, though I don't think I've tried Ultimatum on that player. Ultimatum when I got it was a disc that gave me the same problem that you were having with Alexander on my XA2. I think I will probably burn a copy of the firmware once it's available for download just to have it on file for future use though. You never know when it will be hard to find, most likely when I'll need it.

I'm useless with a hex editor. Can someone please create and post a "rollback" firmware that will revert the A35 to version 1.3 after having loaded 3.0?

I have the file that will revert to 1.3 after 2.0, but that won't work if 3.0 is loaded.

I'd like to play around with 3.0, but I'm not going to do it if I can't roll back to 1.3 afterwards.

akbled;14139525, please pardon my ignorance, how do you access the persistent storage on the HD DVD player?

I just played Ultimatum this weekend again and I've yet to have any problems with it (first time was on an A3 with 2.0, this time on an A30 with 1.3). I definitely agree there's no rush with 3.0. In fact, now that I've switched out the A3 for the A30 (I have a new TV that handles 1080p/24), I haven't even experienced the hang on Welcome that I was seeing before. I also have it connected via HDMI directly to the set rather than HDMI through my AVR, which may be significant. Who knows?

Go to the settings menu when you load the player by pressing setup on your remote, you can't access this while a disc is playing, so you'll have to either stop the disc or load it without a disc. Then it should be on the same page where you prompt to update, I believe it's 'maintenance'. There it should give you three options one to update, one for persistent storage, and the other to initialize the player. Click on persistent storage and have fun.

You can make your own rollback with the ppf if you are afraid of editing yourself. It worked for davemusic.

If if it isn't broke, then don't fix it. If 1.3 works ok then don't upgrade to 3.0. But if you do upgrade to 3.0, you can still go back to 1.3.

More words of wisdom. If you got a UPS. Plug your player into it before you upgrade. A small brown out is all it takes to mess your player up while it is upgrading. And if it takes a long time. Be patient. Do not shut it off or unplug it. If you do, you will have a brick.

DO NOT UPGRADE TO THIS 3.0 FIRMWARE!

After much comparison I rolled back to 1.3 which is still far superior in detail color , gray scale and sound!

Use N8YWF instructions post#15.


This new 3.0 firmware may enable you to play problem titles but it destroys 1080p 24 output if you intend to use it.

Josh Dont bother you wont like it!Keep 1.3 for 1080p 24.

So does anyone have any idea/inside info on why Toshiba would distribute firmwares that downgrade performance? Is it just to appease the masses that only want their discs to play, period?

I would say that alot of combo discs wont play on a35s.
Also, some players freeze,also the shutdown bug.It just depends on how much complaining about certain problems toshiba hears.
They dont intend to downgrade performance but are trying to make everbody happy. but it seems like one thing fixed creates another problem.

I have a refurbished HD-A35 and after 2 months it freezes up, has audio drop outs, and is sometimes completely unresponsive to either the remote or the front panel buttons. I'm not sure what firmware it is but I assume it's pretty old because I don't have the stop resume function (I belive that's what it is where I hit stop and have to return to the main menu). I am running it bitstreamed to an Onkyo 705 and at 1080p/24 to a Ben Q W10000. Would 1.3 fix the problems I am encountering?

I don't know what that means. Is there another post that explains it?


Unfortunately, I was watching The Searchers the other night and the player froze up in two different spots. That's not even a Combo disc.

If 3.0 can fix some of the playback glitchiness of the player, I might be willing to settle for 1080i output. My video processor can convert to 1080p24 if needed.

Josh, I can send you what I've already sent a couple of other people with instructions from user N8YWF. He's right, it did work for me. The new .iso created is a bit too big to send as an email attachment at 38mb, so his patching system works great. You'll just have to download the stock 1.3 firmware yourself and the patching tools. I have links for all. No hex editing involved.

Dave

I have alot of combo discs and my A35 plays them fine w/the 1.3 FW...

I guess.


But if the firmware is primarily upgraded to fix glitches with certain discs, which may or may not be out of spec, or other bugs which can't always be be found or anticipated until the player software is out for general use (public Beta anyone, but that's another topic...), changes in color, gray scale and sound which are inferior (as you claim), and especially new firmwares that break 1080p/24 playback aren't a reasonable trade off, IMHO. Toshiba shouldn't have to wait and hear who's complaining about what, unless we're talking about new releases that come out after a firmware is issued. The basic decoding and playback technology, I would think, would be set to go and not broken by an "update." This isn't like Microsoft, trying to deal with millions of different computer systems, with the endless combinations of settings and peripherals, and settling for making updates that will hopefully work in most situations (public Beta anyone...oh, never mind... ). Toshiba has, what, half a dozen models of players, dealing with a few different display and signal transport technologies, all with well established specs. To degrade performance (which is what you're saying) just "to make everybody happy" just doesn't make any sense to me.

Bottom line, I'm just an ignorant end user who doesn't want to worry about applying an upgraded firmware for fear of breaking something. Or to have to work at ensuring that there is a way back in case I do.

So firmware 3.0 does NOT address the 1080/24p problems that were introduced in 2.0? Is that confirmed, if you use 1.3 currently and are using 1080/24p output from the A35, you should NOT upgrade to 3.0 since it will cause jaggies to appear in some titles played back at 1080/24p. Is that accurate?

That appears to be the case, yes.

I don't get this post. I did 3.0 on my A30 (not 24p though) and there is no difference in color, detail, or grayscale. Maybe it affected some settings WRT to black level and normal/extended color and that's conflicting with your display. Picture is perfect, as always, here.

I did not see anything you mention...I DL'd, played TopGun and my very unscientific review is that it looked fabulous, atleast as good as it ever did. Chalk it up to my eyes, display, or whatever you want, but to blanket say with no backup/evidence/proof whatsoever, you can't say what you did...

I've been running 1.3 fw on my A35 for eight months. I now have 6 frozen discs and one unplayable disc. Can any members confirm that 3.0 makes problem discs more playable? Thanks, John

I was having problems with bourne ultimatum freezing with 1.3 so I took a chance on 3.0 and everything plays fine now. According to the other posts the 1080p/24 is not fixed but for me I am fine with how transformers looks on my display at that resolution but I am no expert.

I've had no problems with 2.0. I don't know if I should update to 3.0? 1080p/24hz runs awesome.

I also upgraded to 3.0 and I see no difference in picture quality! The Black levels are great and detail is as good as 1.3.
I am not using 1080p/24, Is this where the color problem exist?
I also have HD DVDs that play without freezing up since the 3.0 download.

I also am not a expert but I do watch a lot of Television; I have had my Television Professionally calibrated meaning I take great pride in PQ. My picture with 3.0 is as beautiful as its ever been.
The Upconversion on my A30 is also very good.

I have a player with a firmware of 1.0. It freezes, has audio dropouts, and sometimes unresponsive. Is there a way I can install 1.3 to see if that solves my problems or do I have to jump to 3.0?

Umm, bump?

You won't be able to do it over the internet. It will install 3.0. So, you'll need to have or burn a 1.3 disc. That should work fine.

Thanks where would I find one or the means to do it?

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=999557