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**Official Toshiba HD-A35 (ONLY) Thread** - Page 52

post #1531 of 4859
12/15/07 at 12:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mosman22 View Post

Switching to 1080i on my sony 52 XBR4 makes the flickering much better. However the only way to totaly stop flickering is by using the 1080/24 output.

Would you be able to comment on whether this would effect SD-DVD viewing?
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post #1532 of 4859
12/15/07 at 12:53pm
Arbitrage000, many thanks for the detailed response. My sammy does do 1080p/24 and the A35 is already set to the upto 1080p/24 setting. I will set the audio per your instructions and see how it works.
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post #1533 of 4859
12/15/07 at 2:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by arbitrage000 View Post

I know this info comes way to late, but the way to stop the XA2 poweroff bug is not to boot the player last, its to boot the player and let it load the disc and then allow the handshake by switching inputs on the receiver to the XA2s input, or if no receiver then switching the TV onto the XA2s input. This workaround has worked for all of us with the XA2 bug. But I guess now you have the A35 and since you can do 24hz you will probably be happy with it.

Arbitrage, for your method does it matter in what order you turn the equipment on? For instance, should I turn on the receiver before the A35? My setup is: A35 going into Onkyo 905 going into a TV that does 24hz
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post #1534 of 4859
12/15/07 at 2:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dude2006 View Post

Arbitrage, for your method does it matter in what order you turn the equipment on? For instance, should I turn on the receiver before the A35? My setup is: A35 going into Onkyo 905 going into a TV that does 24hz

With the A35 it doesn't seem to matter, I was talking about a different problem with my XA2. But some have reported, and I've seen this with the XA2 as well, that it often somehow forgets that it is supposed to be sending audio by bitstream and when you start up the player and play a disc it starts sending PCM. You actually have to stop playing and enter setup, you don't have to do anything in setup just enter and exit and then it seems to play with bitstream. The reason I mention this issue is that, some found that you had to have the player turn on last to correct this, its another handshaking issue. So for you I'd maybe have the player turn on last to keep the bitstream working every time. With my XA2 because I have to have it turn on first to stop it from shutting off on its own, I can't get rid of the other bug with the bitstream, but for the A35 you should be fine.
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post #1535 of 4859
12/15/07 at 4:19pm
Watched a few HD DVD's today including Next from Netflix (not in great shape). Worked flawlessly until last 2 minutes of Next where I got some skipping but took it out and cleaned it again and works fine. So far 1.3 firmware seems to work well and I got no disc error like before at all. Just some skipping at that dirty portion of Next is all.
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post #1536 of 4859
12/15/07 at 6:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by arbitrage000 View Post

With the A35 it doesn't seem to matter, I was talking about a different problem with my XA2. But some have reported, and I've seen this with the XA2 as well, that it often somehow forgets that it is supposed to be sending audio by bitstream and when you start up the player and play a disc it starts sending PCM. You actually have to stop playing and enter setup, you don't have to do anything in setup just enter and exit and then it seems to play with bitstream. The reason I mention this issue is that, some found that you had to have the player turn on last to correct this, its another handshaking issue. So for you I'd maybe have the player turn on last to keep the bitstream working every time. With my XA2 because I have to have it turn on first to stop it from shutting off on its own, I can't get rid of the other bug with the bitstream, but for the A35 you should be fine.

I've never seen any of these "forgetting" or "downgrading" HDMI-related settings with my A35. I think the "up to xxx" system is designed to allow the player to negotiate the playback resolution when playback actually starts. (Not to get off-topic, but contrast that to the Samsung 1400, which I've found to be highly sensitive to the order in which components are turned on. I like the Toshiba system better.)
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post #1537 of 4859
12/15/07 at 7:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Davemusic View Post

Would you be able to comment on whether this would effect SD-DVD viewing?

Sorry Dave, to tell you the truth i really don't watch sd dvd anymore. The only things i could ever see myself watching on sd dvd ever again are TV seasons, classics, and some of my old concert dvd's other then that it is HD all the way. I will say that even though 1080/24 output can affect how sd dvd menus work, when i have watched a sd dvd i left it at1080/24. I just don't have any experience watching sd dvd and switching resolutions for comparision. Maybe i will stick in a couple regular dvd's tonight and let you know.
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post #1538 of 4859
12/15/07 at 8:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by capra1628 View Post

Recently received tha A35 from Amazon (final cost $329.98)...my other gear:

HDTV: Tosh. 62HM196
AVR: Yam: RX-V661
DirecTv: H20-600...Also OTA outside antenna for locals
DVD Recorder: Tosh. RD-XS35
7.1 Speaker set-up..All JBL's

A35--> HDMI-->AVR-->HDMI-->TV (HDMI's are 1.3a compliant, from MonoPrice)

First made ISO burn of ver. 1.3 (used DeepBurner and Memorex CD-RW), and updated the A35, which took about 14 minutes.
Next, wanted to test various disc types for any problems (A35 set for "up to 1080i"):

HD-DVD: "Space Cowboys" and "Seabiscuit" (both of which I own)..both played right
through, no problems, great picture and sound.
"Elizabeth" (a Netflix rental)..no problems...I liked this movie better than I
thought I would...(there will be more netflix rentals in the future).
SD-DVD: "Star Wars, A New Hope"...Beautiful picture and sound..about the only movie I
never get tired of watching, and now it looks better!
CD: "Eagles, Their Greatest Hits": Played with no problems...love this disc.
DVD-R: A recording I had made of the last BCS championship of Florida vs. Ohio St.
Looked great, ended great!
DVD Ram: Didn't expect this disc to play, and it didn't. Gave a display of NO DISC.
DVD AUDIO: Although the A35 manual didn't seem to indicate that it supported DVD
Audio, I tried two discs that I had (Eagle's "Hotel California" and
Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours")...Both played flawlessly and sounded
great.

So far have not run into any of the complaints noted in the thread..and so far quite happy with my purchase (especially at $330)....The days ahead will determine how it plays with the Netflix rentals yet to come. I'll report them if they occur.

As I recall, both of those offer a common configuration including a "DVD-Video" zone on a DVD-Audio formatted single sided disc. The high-resolution, multichannel audio losslessly encoded using MLP is only playable on DVD-Audio hardware but the DVD-Video zone, which can contain Dolby or DTS 5.1 mixes and even video makes the disc compatible with all DVD players.
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post #1539 of 4859
12/15/07 at 9:37pm
a-35 is on sale at vanns.com for $339 shipped
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post #1540 of 4859
12/16/07 at 4:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by arbitrage000 View Post

With the A35 it doesn't seem to matter, I was talking about a different problem with my XA2. But some have reported, and I've seen this with the XA2 as well, that it often somehow forgets that it is supposed to be sending audio by bitstream and when you start up the player and play a disc it starts sending PCM. You actually have to stop playing and enter setup, you don't have to do anything in setup just enter and exit and then it seems to play with bitstream. The reason I mention this issue is that, some found that you had to have the player turn on last to correct this, its another handshaking issue. So for you I'd maybe have the player turn on last to keep the bitstream working every time. With my XA2 because I have to have it turn on first to stop it from shutting off on its own, I can't get rid of the other bug with the bitstream, but for the A35 you should be fine.

Ah ok, thanks for clarifying that...
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post #1541 of 4859
12/16/07 at 6:18am
I received my A35 last week and have now watched 6 HD DVD's. Only 2 have played without any problems. All HD DVD's I have are new. As soon as I received the player, I updated the firmware via ethernet without any problems.

Batman Begins - played without any problems.

Transformers - played without problems.

Serenity - at approximately 1 hour 30 minutes into the movie it stopped for a few seconds, then skipped for a few more seconds then started playing again with the audio out of sync.

Bourne Identity promo HD DVD that came in the box with the A35 - no sound when the movie starts playing. It starts out for a few seconds with sound then it stops and my Integra 9.8 says no signal for the audio. I tried stopping and re-inserting the disk several times and each time no audio after a few seconds.

300 promo HD DVD in the box with the A35 - at about 1 hour 28 minutes in it just stopped, the screen went black for a few seconds, then it started playing again (the audio was in sync), and played the rest of the movie without any more problems.

King Kong - at 2 hours 20 minutes it stopped and went to a freeze frame for a few seconds, then re-started playing (audio was in sync), and played the rest of the movie without any problems.

How do I determine if this is this a player problem or a disk problem?
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post #1542 of 4859
12/16/07 at 7:27am
I just got the A35 about 2 weeks ago. Did the firmware upgrade and have had no such issues with playback. I would exchange it for a new one.
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post #1543 of 4859
12/16/07 at 7:55am
Do a search on the board . There is a way to RESET the player and all should be well
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post #1544 of 4859
12/16/07 at 8:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dcrna View Post

I just got the A35 about 2 weeks ago. Did the firmware upgrade and have had no such issues with playback.

Gosh, I was beginning to think that I had the only A35 which worked fine.
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post #1545 of 4859
12/16/07 at 9:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by WaltA View Post

Gosh, I was beginning to think that I had the only A35 which worked fine.

Same here, no problems at all for 2 weeks. Just wish there were a button to toggle digital direct mode. (There is a future use button on the remote...Toshiba???)
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post #1546 of 4859
12/16/07 at 10:00am
For the record, my A35 has not had any issues yet either (and I'm still on the original FW). I've only watched two netflix discs so far, but both were combos (Hot Fuzz and Children of Men) and had no problems at all. All of my purchased discs have played fine as well.

My only (minor) gripe is that I wish you could directly change the resolution without stopping the disc and going into Setup. Since I normally have it set at 1080p24, I have to change it to 1080i or 1080p to watch video-based extras that are choppy at 1080p24.
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post #1547 of 4859
12/16/07 at 10:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by threefirstnames View Post

Since I normally have it set at 1080p24, I have to change it to 1080i or 1080p to watch video-based extras that are choppy at 1080p24.

Setting the picture mode to auto will work in most cases. If a particular movie has problems you can always set it back to either film or video depending on the content of the disc.
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post #1548 of 4859
12/16/07 at 11:17am
My A-35 is connected only to the 705's HDMI 3. I thought the fs was only displayed when using PCM. I see a fs of 48khz watching 300 with DD True HD bitsteamed and "Direct Digital Audio Mode" selected on the A-35. DD True HD is also displayed. The same setup with the A-35 set to PCM shows MCH PCM and 48 khz. "Direct Digital Audio Mode" selected off the A-35 shows MCH PCM and 96 khz. Why is the PCM fs shown as double that of bitstreamed DD True HD?

DD+ titles do not show a fs when bitsteamed from the A-35. PCM out with "Direct Digital Audio Mode" selected on the A-35 shows MCH PCM and 48 khz. PCM out with "Direct Digital Audio Mode" selected off the A-35 shows MCH PCM and 96 khz.
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post #1549 of 4859
12/16/07 at 12:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by speedoflight View Post

I received my A35 last week and have now watched 6 HD DVD's. Only 2 have played without any problems. All HD DVD's I have are new. As soon as I received the player, I updated the firmware via ethernet without any problems.

Batman Begins - played without any problems.

Transformers - played without problems.

Serenity - at approximately 1 hour 30 minutes into the movie it stopped for a few seconds, then skipped for a few more seconds then started playing again with the audio out of sync.

Bourne Identity promo HD DVD that came in the box with the A35 - no sound when the movie starts playing. It starts out for a few seconds with sound then it stops and my Integra 9.8 says no signal for the audio. I tried stopping and re-inserting the disk several times and each time no audio after a few seconds.

300 promo HD DVD in the box with the A35 - at about 1 hour 28 minutes in it just stopped, the screen went black for a few seconds, then it started playing again (the audio was in sync), and played the rest of the movie without any more problems.

King Kong - at 2 hours 20 minutes it stopped and went to a freeze frame for a few seconds, then re-started playing (audio was in sync), and played the rest of the movie without any problems.

How do I determine if this is this a player problem or a disk problem?

Ok. I just watched Bourne Ultimatum which I just purchased at BB this morning. It froze at 1:29, then restarted about 5 or 6 seconds later with the audio out of sync. I skipped back one section and started playing again. It played through and then froze at 1:39. I hit the play button and it started playing with the audio out of sync. I skipped back one section again and restarted play. It then froze again at 1:36. I stopped the movie and gave up.
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post #1550 of 4859
12/16/07 at 1:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by speedoflight View Post

Ok. I just watched Bourne Ultimatum which I just purchased at BB this morning. It froze at 1:29, then restarted about 5 or 6 seconds later with the audio out of sync. I skipped back one section and started playing again. It played through and then froze at 1:39. I hit the play button and it started playing with the audio out of sync. I skipped back one section again and restarted play. It then froze again at 1:36. I stopped the movie and gave up.


Welcome to the club.
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post #1551 of 4859
12/16/07 at 1:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by speedoflight View Post

Ok. I just watched Bourne Ultimatum which I just purchased at BB this morning. It froze at 1:29, then restarted about 5 or 6 seconds later with the audio out of sync. I skipped back one section and started playing again. It played through and then froze at 1:39. I hit the play button and it started playing with the audio out of sync. I skipped back one section again and restarted play. It then froze again at 1:36. I stopped the movie and gave up.

I know many have had issues with their 35 but with the exception of a couple DD+ dropouts (that were remedied with combo of firmware 1.3 and different HDMI cable), my 35 has been trouble-free. I played Bourne Ultimatum the other day without one glitch. TrueHD track bitstreamed to my Pio 92 was awesome and the screen didn't flicker or stutter or freeze or anything. Played great.
I think you got a bad machine and my suggestion would be to return it for a new one. The 35 shouldn't perform as badly as it has for you.
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post #1552 of 4859
12/16/07 at 1:41pm
Bourne Ultimatum plays flawlessly on my A35 with FW 1.3. I had to clean the new disk with a CD alcohol based cleaner because the disk was loose in the case and marked up a bit.

Bill
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post #1553 of 4859
12/16/07 at 1:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ricwhite View Post

Welcome to the club.

WOW Toshiba better fix this FAST. I cnanot believe all the issues i see here on this player. I have one myself and am having hte same problems it is driving me nuts. My $40.00 player from Sams Club plays ANYTHING i throw at it with none of these problems.
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post #1554 of 4859
12/16/07 at 1:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by speedoflight View Post

Ok. I just watched Bourne Ultimatum which I just purchased at BB this morning. It froze at 1:29, then restarted about 5 or 6 seconds later with the audio out of sync. I skipped back one section and started playing again. It played through and then froze at 1:39. I hit the play button and it started playing with the audio out of sync. I skipped back one section again and restarted play. It then froze again at 1:36. I stopped the movie and gave up.


Watched Bourne Ultimatum on Thursday night, played from beginning to end with zero problems. Not sure why some players are having problems and some don't. I must admit, I have Panasonic BD30 and Samsung 1400 and when I play Blu-Ray movies I am just never worried. Every single time I go to watch a movie on this A-35 I am nervous. I am almost scared to watch a movie with someone else becuase I don't want to be embarrased if the movie freezes up or something. So far, I guess I have been lucky though. I have read so many posts with people having problems?
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post #1555 of 4859
12/16/07 at 1:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrMcGoo View Post

Bourne Ultimatum plays flawlessly on my A35 with FW 1.3. I had to clean the new disk with a CD alcohol based cleaner because the disk was loose in the case and marked up a bit.

Bill

where did you get that and what kind (name/brand) of cleaner is it? I would like to have some just in case.
thanks
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post #1556 of 4859
12/16/07 at 2:09pm
Obviously there are some "bad" discs out there with out of spec authoring tolerances which "sensitive" players have problems with. I have an A35 with firmware 1.3 and have no problem at all with every disc I've thrown at it including some pretty scratched up Netflix discs; yet, I couldn't play the Bourne Ultimatum.

I am exchanging the disc and, hopefully, will get one can can play all the way through.

This is an issue with the technology. There are so many different HD DVD players all with different calibrations, specifications, tolerances and firmwares. Some discs work in all players, while others only work in some. Authored discs are not run through every possible player configuration and firmware version. The result is hit or miss playability depending upon what player and firmware version you have.

Most of the little "tircks" that people recommend (re-booting, pugging out, washing discs, initializing, chanting and dancing, etc) have no bearing whatsoever on a disc's playability. The only thing I found even somewhat useful is washing rental discs.

I've been pretty lucky so far. My RCA HDV5000 plays anything thrown at it. My A35 plays "almost" anything. I think as the number of player models and firmware updates increase, and the number of disc features increase, the more likely these incompatibility issues will surface.
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post #1557 of 4859
12/16/07 at 2:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dperrone View Post

Watched Bourne Ultimatum on Thursday night, played from beginning to end with zero problems. Not sure why some players are having problems and some don't. I must admit, I have Panasonic BD30 and Samsung 1400 and when I play Blu-Ray movies I am just never worried. Every single time I go to watch a movie on this A-35 I am nervous. I am almost scared to watch a movie with someone else becuase I don't want to be embarrased if the movie freezes up or something. So far, I guess I have been lucky though. I have read so many posts with people having problems?

I agree. Bourne 3 played fine here. I did have an issue with 300, I updated FW and cleaned what I thought (the lights were low and it was late) was a clean disc. It actually had a smear on it. Afterwards, no issue.
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post #1558 of 4859
12/16/07 at 3:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dperrone View Post

Watched Bourne Ultimatum on Thursday night, played from beginning to end with zero problems. Not sure why some players are having problems and some don't. I must admit, I have Panasonic BD30 and Samsung 1400 and when I play Blu-Ray movies I am just never worried. Every single time I go to watch a movie on this A-35 I am nervous. I am almost scared to watch a movie with someone else becuase I don't want to be embarrased if the movie freezes up or something. So far, I guess I have been lucky though. I have read so many posts with people having problems?

Absolutely, I am nervous everytime i turn on my A35 now. When i have friends or family over i try and steer away from HD DVD and suggest a blu ray title instead. I had family over on friday and they wanted to watch Bourne Ultimatum. I got nervous feeling in my stomach and suggested we watch Superbad, but they insisted on Bourne. Luckily the Bourne Ultimatum played without a hitch. Althoug my player only outputted Lpcm which i just dealt with, I just couldn't face mutiple power cylcles with my family sitting their wondering what the heck was wrong.

I have a pretty nice HT setup and it should enjoy showing it off to friends and family. I shouldn't have to get a sinking feeling in my stomach every time a friend or family member wants to watch HD DVD. It is getting to the point to where it isn't worth the stress to risk having an HD DVD not play in front of company. Toshiba needs to address these playback issues now or i fear they will lose alot of loyal customers like the posters on this thread.
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post #1559 of 4859
12/16/07 at 3:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mosman22 View Post

I just finished watching the Bourne Ultimatum at 1080p. I had wrote previously that the 1080p bug doesn't affect normal viewing. Well, i was wrong, watching the Bourne Ultimatum at 1080p the shortcomings of that resolution on the A35 become readily apparent. Since i usaully use 1080/24 i figured i would give my A35 a 1080p real world test.

First, any time you bring up the pop up menu during playback they flicker very noticably. At 1080i my 52XBR4 takes away much of the flickering at 1080/24 it is totally gone. The first noticable failure of 1080p comes right at the begining of chapter 4 at the 13:55 mark. There is a pan and simultanious zoom of a building, the picture totally falls apart. Jaggies are some of the worst i have ever seen in real world viewing. Worse then anything i have seen on HD cable or HDM. The pixelation is so bad i felt like i was watching hd football on NBC. That scene is the worst offender in the movie and like i said before it is better at 1080i and perfect at 1080/24. However later on at about the 29 minute mark there is a shot of a TV on a metal stand, the metal stand flickers noticably. From then on there are several instances of flickering and a phenomenon i can only explain as ghosting. Agian latter in the film during the chase scene in NY the camera pans over a driver in an SUV. Once again there is a noticable flicker over the AC vents in the car.

So basically 1080p does affect real world viewing. When outputting 1080i the problems are reduced and at 1080/24 they are non existent. I am just glad that i have a TV capable of 1080/24. If i bought my A35 for it's 1080p output i would be very dissapointed. It's funny b/c i watched the movie with my family and they didn't notice it at all, but it was driving me crazy. So if you are a videophile that wants 1080p output it seems like the only way to go is the XA2. If you are like my family and don't notice these issues, I guess 1080p would be fine although it is definitly noticably worse then 1080i on my 52 XBR4. The fact that Toshiba doesn't think this is a problem is also very disappointing. They need to find a way for good 1080p output on there new players, I just hope this is not a sign of things to come in future HD DVD players.

You may have a unit with clock out of sync. I had one with which my HC500 showed something like 22.8Hz vertical rez. , tons of motion judder, exchanged it and voila 23.98Hz. Very pleased with RX-V3800 HC5000 combo.
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post #1560 of 4859
12/16/07 at 3:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr.Lobrow View Post

Is it just me or does there seem to be a wide range of user experiences with the A35? Common complaints have included:
1. scratched disc playability
2. lip synch issues
3. DD+ drop outs
4. update issues
5. 1080p/60 issues

I have played over 20+ movies with my A35 and I haven't had a single issue. Maybe this player is hit or miss and I just got lucky?

You betya, i was ready to keep exchanging (thx Amazon) until i hit the right one, the second one works like a charm. China's "Special Economic Zones" are labor camps where people get free housing, and a little money, no benefits and mandatory "retirement" at 40 or so, go home no pension. Get sick, you go to your home village where you will be lucky not to starve, period. Imagine how motivated people like that can be. Frequent trips by midlevel US and Japanese managers, threats and bribes can do little to moralize the workforce, so local managers use thugs with batons to muster discipline. Forgive me moderator, no politics, but this bears upon the components we get.
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