**Official Toshiba HD-A3/30/35 Thread** - Page 115

Black duct tape. Best $1.33 I ever spent. Parents only call once a month now.

OK...so I tried a few things: unplugging the unit, setting the clock, initializing the unit. Nothing works. All I get is the 'no disc' message.

What should I do? I'd like to take a baseball bat to it but that won't do my aunt any good.

Does the A3 have internet update option?

Did you pay with Paypal? If so there might be Paypal insurance on it

Sounds like a bricked unit to me...Talk to the seller...If you paid by Paypal file a claim if the seller ignores or is unwilling to work with you...And start looking for another player...

Returning it is my last option. I did pay by Paypal. This is my 2nd HD A3 that I got for my poor aunt. The last one I bought came broken. The beotch that sold it to me put it in the box with no foam/newspaper. It came with a broken lid and no remote. I got my money back from her.

I'm starting to think that getting a used HD A3 is a BAD idea. My unit has given me tons of problems but I'm used to it. My aunt would not know what to do.

What did the seller promise? Was it in working condition. Did the box arrive smashed? Sounds like it's dead. Last hope, hook it to your router and see if it'll update via the web.

The box was in good shape. The unit looks new like promised. Last night, with the player still hooked up, I decided to turn it on. By golly, it worked this time. I don't understand it. I tried 4 disc (including a disc cleaner). Each one resulted in the message, "No Disc". So I get frustrated and turned it off with one of the DVD still inside. 5 hours later, I turn it on and it works. Now all 4 disc works including the disc cleaner.

Is there a ghost in the machine? WTH is going on? Does anyone know why it wouldn't recognize anything during the afternoon, then without any changes, it recognizes everything during the evening?

Did it have anything in its persistant storage?

Or maybe the cleaner needed some time?

Seggers

[quote=toby10;14771104

Does 4.0 address any issues other than 24fps?

Thanks
[/QUOTE]
In today's mail I received the firmware disk from Toshiba and I
upgraded my firmware and noticed quickly the improvement in the
rendering of the upscaling of text on regular DVDs. Formerly I had
seen blurry letters, for example in subtitles, but today I noticed
clear letters. It is hard to assess other improvements, although I
was thinking that Toshiba may have shared with us the improved
upscaling that they claim to have with their new upscaling DVD
player XD-E500.

Thanks. I wonder why Toshiba doesn't make all improvement aspects of their FW Updates known? Seems like they hide such improvements instead of making such information more readily available.

Toshiba doesn't "hide improvements"...They may not spell out specifically each improvement but instead generalize under the "fixes known playback issues" heading...

Call it what you will......not spelling out what fixes / improvements / new features are in each update is just silly. I'm not accusing Toshiba of being deceptive. Whether hidden or generalized would it be that much bother for Toshiba to give us a brief bullet point on any such changes?

Could be that your laser pickup is dusty or dirty. Do you have a cleaning disc? You could also try using some compressed air to try and blow it clean.

Bob

I believe the issue has already been resolved...

PANIC: I was just fixing my cables and my HD-A3 suddenly won't power up. Any ideas? Anybody know what the warranty duration was when these were sold in 2007?

yes.

Every Toshiba HD-DVD has the internet/ethernet update option. I recommend burning a firmware CD or calling Toshiba for an update CD though. After reading about other people's mishaps, I just burn a CD and my players have updated flawlessly each time.

To each his own, I suppose. I have updated my A3 twice and Sony BDP-S350 once each via ethernet and it has always gone smoothly. I will not swear that this process CANNOT brick your player, but in general, all of these updates are done in a 2-step process: (1) Download; and only after the download is complete (2) Installation.

So if your download is interrupted, it shouldn't brick your player. And if there is an interruption during the installation, it wouldn't be due to dodgy internet connectivity, but due to a power fluctuation or interruption, in which case having and using a disc won't protect you anyways.

In fact (and I may be mixing things up here), I recall a recent firmware update had a problem with the disc image that folks were downloading and trying to burn and use, while the direct ethernet update was working correctly. (Although that may have been the Sony 350, and not my A3 - the mad cow disease is affecting my brain!)

Just my 2 cents.

And a third option is to sign up for Toshiba to send you the FW Update disc via USPS, eliminating disc burn issues. Though this isn't perfect either as Toshiba recently sent out some bad 4.0 FW Update discs for certain models.

Bad 4.0 discs? I just updated both my A3's with the 4.0 that arrived in the mail yesterday. Updated. Reset. Adjusted the time/date. Did not try anything afterwards (it was late). How would I know the disc from Toshiba was bad? I am guessing that if the update ran fine, the disc was fine???

I only read about this issue on another forum. If it's bad it won't even load. You are fine.

I have tried to search and in fact found some metion of this in other threads (as well as this one) but I guess I'm just thick. I remain confused about the A3 and its handling of the new HD Audio formats. Maybe I'm just confusing it because I (think that I) understand how this works in my Sony BDP-S350, or maybe it's written in a confusing manner. From the owner's manual for a receiver connected via HDMI and that can decode everything internally (like my Onkyo TX-SR875), I should:


For the NON-HD Audio formats, I understand that the player will output bitstream data in "Auto" and decoded multichannel PCM in "PCM" - which gives me a better result? I would imagine using Onkyo's decoder with the "Auto" setting.

For the HD Audio sources, however, it looks like NEITHER Dolby TreuHD nor DTS HD will be bitstreamed, so I cannot use the Onkyo's decoder, correct?

As I read it, if I select "AUTO", the A3 will decode Dolby TrueHD but only the "Core" from DTS HD and output these as Multichannel PCM.

If I select "PCM", the A3 will decode BOTH Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD and output them as multichannel PCM.

So I can only get the lossless HD Audio streams using the A3's internal decoder, and in "Auto" I can only get lossless audio via PCM for Dolby True HD but not the DTS HD while in "PCM" I get lossless audio PCM streams for both?

It seems illogical. Anybody help?

Capn......

Nope you have it correct.

You cannot bitstream the new lossless codecs with the A3. You need the A35 or XA-2 for that.

If you want the lossless codecs your only option is to set the player to PCM and allow the player to do the heavy lifting.

Dilemma. I bought the A3 before the war ended, figuring I could upgrade later when prices dropped and I upgraded my TV to 1080p. I chose...poorly.

I'm figuring I better grab a full 1080p player before they all disappear. I'm thinking A35 but wondering what y'all think.

Can ya try going back to 3.0 or less and see what happens? What have ya got to lose?

I purchased a A-30 on ebay approx 6 months ago. I also used paypal.
To make a long story short, Its was a 'BRICK".
The good is the seller refunded my money.
I t took approx. 7 working days to reflect in my paypal account.
Thats part 1.

NOW PART 2
This A-30 looked brand new.
The seller did not want it returned.
I called Toshiba and told them I had a A-30 that was basically brand new but would not work.
They had me send my A-30 to them and they sent me a brand new A30 in the mail with 2 free HD Movies within 2 weeks!
They did not require a receipt or anything.
I basically got a A-30 for nothing.
I do not feel bad because the seller could have requested the broke A-30 back but he insisted he did not want it.
Also Toshiba looked at my A-30 and made a decision to send me a new A-30!.
Try and get your money back. My seller was not even a power seller; just someone who was fair. After this is worked out, call Toshiba and plead your case. I worked for me.

P.S. I never told Toshiba I purchased it on ebay but they never asked either! NO HARM NO FOUL!

I agree this is confusing. So if I want the player to do the heavy lifting (I have a HDMI-connected Marantz 8001/no HD decoding), I need to set my A30 to PCM? I've had it on auto...

I'd guess auto would send PCM in your case. Either way, check that the current playing movie is using the HD audio track (TrueHD / DTS-MA), then check that your AVR displays that it is receiving Multi-Ch PCM (usually says MPCM on the AVR's front panel).