Tosh HD-A20 HD DVD - First End User Reports! - Users only please ! - Page 4

Disc playing problems could be HDMI handshake related. Try turning on your TV and set it to HDMI before turning on the player. Or try turning the player off and on. One thing that is weird but sometimes works, is to take out the disc that doesn't load, put in another that does, take that one out and try the first again.

Thanks, Dave224 and plazman!

I'll try the 1080i setting. I had had that set earlier but mostly used 720P.

Update: tried 1080i, still had load problem. I agree problems like this could be HDMI handshake related. Last night I think I ruled that out, going through several dozen iterations of powering down just the HD-A20, letting it sit, sometimes unplugging its power source completely and letting it sit, repowering it - sometimes with the media already in the tray and sometimes not - trying to find the magic set of keystrokes to get the HD-DVD disk to reliably play.

All through these tests I kept all other components powered and available - TV, AV receiver, etc. Also tried lots of disk swapping - having read in these forums and elsewhere that that could be a factor.

This took literally hours - I was quite persistent. Bottom line: no sweet spot. No combo of behavior that I hit on, would make the disk reliably play. (Heartbreaker!)

So that's how I've concluded it's time to reject this unit for - whatever - having put it through its paces first.

Update: Amazon makes defect exchange easy, plus I can test the replacement alongside the originally shipped unit, as long as I return the defective unit within 30 days. So it's settled. Thanks for responses. Will let you know how it turns out. - Jerry


Final Update - SUCCESS!! I'm pretty thrilled!

See my full report on the previous page. Many thanks to all who helped.

Whoa! I hadn't heard this feature before on any HDDVD player... I'd love to have 1080p72 (or more precisely, 71.928).

1080p @71.928 or @47.95 looks so much smoother than 60 Hz.

Time to start searching for any 72Hz HDDVD discussions.

Mine shipped today from Amazon.. it was slightly over $400 with shipping included. You need to buy HDMI cable also.

Although I am no technostar and don't yet have any HD DVD discs, the A20 I got (from Amazon for about $383 delivered) is great given the one movie I have watched (The Last King of Scotland).

I do not have a problem with the upconverted image....it is good or better than my Samsung, which is all I know.

I have no problem with fast forward or fast backward....it is smooth and progressive.

Edit: After changing to HDMI inputs the fast forward is still just fine.

I have no problem with my Sony Bravia XBR. When I change inputs the A20 stays playing.

Edit: That was with component...now with HDMI, it will stay playing but there is considerable flickering before the channel input change will stabilize at the disc being played.

I am currently using component for the A20 and my HDMI is on the Scientific Atlantic 8300 set top box. I suppose that I will have to switch that because of copy protection but upconverting seems to work through the component cable.

Edit: My bad.....it wasn't upconverting with the component. So I have switched the A20 to HDMI and am using the component for my cable box. It is now outputting in 1080i on a non HD disc.

At this time my Sony Bravia is running without a receiver or separate speakers so won't attempt to comment on audio but would suspect that optical out would be as good as I would ever need. I may put this in the living room some time and that would play audio optically through a receiver and better speakers, but that is not likely to happen anytime soon.

I hope this has been helpful to some.

Perry

ok so everyone keeps saying there is already a firmware update for the a20....I plug straight into the modem and all it says is that it cant find the modem. This is the first time I am trying to update any kind of player so any advice would be helpful. thanks.

I have not purchased the (A20) yet but looking at Toshiba's site you could download and burn the firmware and install it that way I believe.....

$383 delivered?? wow.. I overpaid from amazon. Got it for $419. Should be here Thursday. Can I ask them to match their own price?

You'd be wrong there. You either have to connect your player to the Web yourself or send Toshiba your address so they can mail you an update disc.

Just ordered the Planet Earth HD DVDs tonight. Can't wait for them to get here to really show off my new player and TV.

I don't think you overpaid, I think one of their suppliers screwed up their pricing for a day and I happened to buy that day. Also they had a very limited number available at that time.

May be someone trying to form a relationship with Amazon. It came from Electonics Expo.

And I misspoke...that was the price but there was $25 shipping added. So I drove out at about 410.

I could not find anything about the res on my sony kds55a2000 besides it being 1080p
is it 1080 p/24,60,or 72 ? I am expecting my Toshiba hda20 soon and wanted to make sure i got the best match player for the tv. btw if it makes anyone feel better i paid 499 at tweeter on 4-11-07 and now they say i have to wait till 5-13-07 . its ok though i'll just get my high end speakers somewhere else when i get it paid off.They dont sell paradyme anyways.

1080P 60

Yes - I took advantage of this on my HD-A20 on Saturday. Click "Help", then "Contact Us" "By e-mail," and write a request for the price guarantee at their new lower price. You'll need to cite your Amazon order number and the item (they help you find it from your purchase history), send that off - and they'll email you a confirmation.

Is there no way to get the downsampled DTS on this thing? I thought I may have read that the x2 doesnt doesnt do that either. That kind of dissapoints me. TO ME DTS seems to sound better with what I have. As many others have mentioned, the DTS in Riddick sounds pretty dang good. I just wish I could get all my other movies to sound like that.

Neither the XA2 nor the A20 handle the audio optical out that way.

But the a2 does? Why is that? I still havent been able to get the firmware update and they said they cant send me a disc cause they are on back order...BA!!! I swear it looks more grainy then my old add-on......anyone else notice this or is this what the update fixes. I mean....whenever there is an update that comes out like the same week as the product ....thats more then likely a sign thats an important fix. Also....on dvd I can't seem to get mult-channel to display on the a20. I have the optical set to bitstream in the setup. How do I have it do multi for dvds?

Zero - Im gonna say its your tv for the grain, thought I mentioned it before but I used to have the 56" mits and took it back because the quality was worse than my old rca 50".

now on for a review.....

My Toshiba HD-A20 Review,
Once recieved I checked it out to compare from my old rca hdv5000 that I recently sold, I like the looks a lot better, a lot lighter, and build quality is great (I dont understand why people say the build quality isnt there in the a2... but maybe thats beccause I dont plan on running it over with a car) After I hooked up the ethernet and updated to the latest firmware (v1.5).

The menu system was similar, easy to navigate. Dont spend any time in there except to update and set resolution.

load times seem improved, (55 sec from cold boot to play, and 35 sec from eject to play - dog day afternoon)

I heard of a few problems with combo discs so what do I do? I put in Children of men... yes I will admit it didnt read the disc, but I ran it under hot water.. easily you can tell there is a film there that needs to be washed. After that I put the disc back in and ran perfect, same goes for smokin aces.

After viewing all the new movies I aquired and both my benchmark movies (Batman and Tokyo Drift) I can say the picture quality is greatly improved from my first gen player and an a2 I had.

Over all the 1080p output sold me, and with the previous experience ive had with the others, I will say it is worth it. I would like to test a xa2 vs the a20 but my funds are weak... but for a guess based all on the chipsets used, it would look near identical.

reviews and writing are not my thing, so if I rambled.. to bad, and if you have personal requests on the a20, pm and I will repost.

actual comparison of a20, is to a2, and on the other side xa2 and denon 2930ci, and samsung 1200

I really dont see how that can be my tv....the add-on didnt have that much grain and it was only 1080i through componet....not only that but my dvds dont look grainy with the a20. The only thing I can think of is that its the firmware which I cannot odwnload for some reason. In fact I got a call today form the big T who said there wasnt even a firmware out...lol...nice....so what am I suppose to do about that?

I think the jury is still out on whether the A20 is or isn't comparable to the XA-2 from a video standpoint.

How are the upscaled SD dvds on the A20? Just got rid of my Oppo 971 to buy the A20 so I'm curious. Great review btw.

are there any plans for these to convert DD+ to 1.5 mbps DTS?

I wouldn't think so, the players were set up to handle optical audio that way from the beginning, so it's not a "problem" that needs correcting from what I understand. Though I have a preference for DTS as well, it's not as if it's that bad -- the audio sounds quite good, and you still get 1.5 mbps DTS on DTS and PCM tracks.

I've been searching for more info on this myself, and the XA2 thread has some comments on it:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...s#post10161049

"Note for the XA2 it is 640 kbps DD for DD+ or TrueHD sources, 1509 kbps dts for dts or PCM sources -- quite good actually but not lossless."

I have the Oppo 981 and upscaling is very comparable on the A20 from the discs I tested. In fact, as I wrote before, if the A20 did PAL and other region discs I'd get rid of my 981.

Briefly off topic... Just read a pretty funny thread on Toshiba & BR..
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=839907

back to business.....

Can any of the A20 owners confirm that the 72Hz refresh rate is available in the setup menu?

I can't find this mentioned in any of the specs or manuals.

The A20 will output 72Hz? I wasn't aware of that, interesting.

You are correct - too many people (DD purists) complained about this aspect of the A1, so Tosh decided to keep DD and DTS strictly seperate.

Why isn't this thread a sticky?

Someone posted another thread since this one sank down a page or two...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=840910

Should be merged and stuck