**Official Toshiba HD-A35 (ONLY) Thread** - Page 54

"Blueray just doesn't have the number of titles the HD DVD has" ???????????

Is that even a serious statement??

Well, I am sending back my AX2, as beautiful as it looked and as nice as it was to run my hand across the solid top, the fan noise was just a bit too annoying. Also, the Reon chip just wasn't as magical as I thought it would be on my display. I have had the ABT chip in a couple Arcams and liked the picture so I kind of knew what to expect to some degree when I picked up a A35 today at BB. Cost me $423 and I considered getting it online for $100 less but after reading the last 10 pages and seeing the potential for issues, it is worth the extra money to have the ability to return it on the spot if it acts up. I hated to part with the AX2 because I got a great deal on it and I enjoy owning something built well but I shall soon be over that and hopefully getting decent results with the A35.

I've had my A35 hooked up for about a week now. Audio goes to an older Onkyo through the 6 ch analog inputs. Video straight to my pj via HDMI/DVI cable. I viewed 300 with no problems at all. Same with Transformers which I've watched twice. I've read this whole thread and felt bad for those with playback problems. I thought I was lucky and had one of the trouble free A35's.

Last night I opened up and played my brand new copy of Children of Men -HD DVD/DVD combo disc. I was about 3/4's of the way through the movie when the video started to pixelate and stutter. It recovered but I lost audio completely. I tried reversing it a bit and it happened again in the same place. Video stutters for a few seconds and recovers but I lose audio.

I fast forwarded and reveresed and it did it again at the same spot. I hit chapter reverse a coulple of times and then fast forwarded to a minute before the trouble spot and let it play. The video stuttered for just a second at the bad spot, audio was fine and the disc played with no problems for the rest of the movie.

This was only the 3rd movie I've played and am hoping it's just this particular disc but after what I've read in this thread regarding these types of problems, my hopes aren't that high.

Edit: Firmware 1.3 installed before I played any disc

I have tried this as well and it's about a 50% chance of it doing it right. But thanks for the suggestion though. One thing I haven't made sure of though is when I turn on my Onkyo receiver I need to make sure it's on the HD DVD input. Most of the time I turn everything off I usually end the day by watching some Comcast HD. Maybe that will help? It's really not that big of a deal, just an annoyance.

Yes it's serious. Universal, Paramount and other studios have opted to put their productions exclusively on hd-dvd. I spent an hour at BB this weekend looking at movies in the blueray section vs hd dvd only to realize that the latter has more of a selection. I'm a huge blueray fan and believe that it will eventually win the format war but right now I'm willing to pay for the best of both worlds because it'll be awhile for this format war to end.
Back to my original question; any recommendations on other hd dvd players? This Toshiba clearly lacks steady performance.

Seeing as I've been contributing to this discussion I figured I'd pass on my experience last night of my first rental disc trial. Please remember, my n=1...this was the first disc that I put in the player.
Disc : rental of Shaun of the Dead...uncleaned, un-wiped...I wanted to see how things would play without tampering.
Player had 1.3 update without problems. Initiated right after update.
Player is outputting 1080p24 to Denon 3806 to RadianceXD to RS1 projector
Results...surprisingly no problems. Nothing with the layer change (the movie is 100 minutes long...I assume there was a layer change but I didn't detect one). One very brief moment of pixelation, but the player seemed to chug through.
Will keep you guys posted.

i too have contributed to this discussion re: rental discs. i just received my replacement a35 from amazon at 7:40PM last night. the unit was too cold for me to play a movie so we watched a bd instead- as usual no problems at all.

i will hook up the a35 today and hopefully get a chance to play a sd rental (i have no hd rentals at home). i'll report my findings.

I respectfully disagree, I have both formats as well however a little one sided (103 Blu / 14 Red). I obviously know who and what is exclusive, and I still disagree with your statement. To answer your question about a reliable player with steady performance.....from what I have read on every Toshiba player, there is pretty much none or you could say you have a 50/50 shot? It seems like every Toshiba player has problems of some sort, however you see a few people who have not. They appear to be the lucky ones. I have the A-35 and so far (thank god) have not had a problem BUT, I have only watched about 5 movies on it so far. I get pretty nervous everytime I go to watch a movie after reading all of these horror stories about these Toshiba players. I truly believe it is luck of the draw.

Just make sure you wash the rentals first. I always do that before viewing on my A35. I just got done watching a scuffed up Evan Almighty and Oceans Thirteen from Netflix on my A35 with firmware 1.3 without a single hiccup. The only disc I have major problems with was a brand new Bourne Ultimatum. I suspect a bad disc on that one.

Had NO issues at all with my brand new copy of Blades of Glory last night and then in the last minute or two BAM would not play. Obviously it was perfectly clean. I had to eject disc reinsert and then played fine. I'm getting frustrated with this unit as are my rooommates since my A2 NEVER had one single issue. Toshiba needs to get on the ball with another firmware.

Wizard
I too would like best of 2 worlds, what BD-player would you suggest to accompany my A-35 through movie land. Toshiba 42HL167 is my display unit. Yamaha 800 soundbar with woofer.

I hear the PAnny bd-30 is the best of the BR players currently.

OK I have searched everywhere for this to work correctly.

Please Help!!!

A35-> Denon 2808 -> Panny 50700U.

No problems with playback at all.

Trying to get the True HD to show on my 2808 ( playing Bourne Ult).

What settings do I need to have on my A35 and 2808 for this to work properly.

Thanks in advance.


Joel

For decoding in the player:

Digital Out SPDIF: PCM
Digital Out HDMI: Auto or PCM (Auto will send DD/DTS as bitstream, PCM will send it as PCM)
Digital Direct Audio Mode: Off


For decoding in the receiver:

Digital Out SPDIF: PCM
Digital Out HDMI: Auto
Digital Direct Audio Mode: On

That is my understanding as well.
I got a Panny BD-30 along with my A35. It has done an excellent job. (both are set to bitstream to a Pio 94)

Dr and mapatton
Thank you for quick replies I now have a new challenge. I'm back, checked it out on Amazon 499.00. Impressed with the 6 reviews 5 & 4 stars. Not sure of how I'm going to convince wife, My A-35 is not quite 2 mths old, Oh well. I wonder does the price bounce around as much on BD as the HD players.

I just bought my HDMI 1.3 Onkyo and 120mhz samsung. If I watch a mix of HD and SD, is the A 35 a good choice?

Panasonic BD30 by far without question. I have had the Samsung 1000's and I currently have two Samsung 1400's and two Panasonic BD30's and the BD30 is the best stand alone player out. Worth the money, If you read many of the threads regarding any of the Samsung players, you will see a lot of issues, The BD30's load times are very fast, PQ is the best as well.

As of yesterday, I am officially HD Format neutral thanks to my new HD-A35.
I played 300 and it was flawless. Bourne Identity had bad audio drop-outs and pixelation during the 2nd or 3rd chapter. I skipped a few chapters ahead and then back and it didn't happen again.

I have 1080p/24 Sony A3000 TV and 1080p/24 Denon 3808ci, and I downloaded the latest firmware for my A-35.

I am not sure what happened. I was listening to the DD+ track. Any suggestions?

I have the exact same set up.....Panny BD30, A-35, 360, PS2, with the Pio 94 all going to a Pioneer Plasma 5010

Christmas came early here with the procurement of those 2 players.

Both are feeding into a new Pio 94. Display is a new Sony XBR5.
Like I said Christmas came early!

follow up to receiving 2nd unit from amazon- although i don't have any rental hd's i just played "sublime" sd with no problems at all. will watch it again more closely tonight.

one other thing- i did NOT do a firmware upgrade so i am assuming i am using 1.1. the interesting thing about it was when i pressed "stop" there was a prompt on the screen to press "play" to resume from where i left off. very nice feature. i was unable to do that on my first unit which i did upgrade to 1.3. could it be that the 1.3 firmware upgrade eliminated that feature?

Anyone else having this problem with their HD-A35?
I am burning HD-DVD of HDV @25Mbps to disc to watch on the player.

When I burn to DVD-R the player works fine
When I burn to DVDRW the player skips (both audio and video)
When I burn to DVD+R DL the player skips (both audio and video)

Interesting huh. Even more strange is the skipping stops if I lower the bitrate below 20Mbps during the authoring stage, regardless of media.

I have tried several different booktypes while burning using nero and other software. I always use Verbatim media and have 1.3 FW.

I think my last straw would be to try another burner.

Any insight is helpful. TIA!

Well i went to my local Hollywood video at 10:30 this morning and picked up STardust on HD DVD. I get home stick in stardust and immetiadly get the not recognized as a DVD message. I took the disc out wondering it it was scratched, the disc was basically perfect expect for the fainest scratch. I washed the disc off and the whole movie playedback fine through the end. That means the transfer of this disc at HV from its orginal case to the rental case "damaged" the disc enough to make it unplayable in my A35. Even though cleaning made it playable it is not a good sign that the A35 is so "affected" by basically unseeable damage. This just reaffirms the belief that the A35's laser is way to sensitive for real world viewing. Toshiba needs to addres this annoying quality control issue.

has anyone received any indication from toshiba that they will address this issue? i haven't. actually before they address it, they need to admit to it as a problem which they seem reluctant to do.

Make sure you actually select the TrueHD audio format on the disc's option menu. This has stumped several memebers who thought that it would be automatically selected.

yeah i have to agree with you. i have the bd30 and the a35 and when i have the option i always buy b) versions. also i feel the better titles are on b). my panny is bullet proof and one heck of a machine as are my ps3 units. my a35 has yet to proove itself however my a2 has prooved it self but is seldom used.

i have my A-35 connected to my 705 via HDMI
was watching V for Vendetta and bingo TrueHD lights up on my receiver.
but i had to enable TrueHD audio format on the disc's option menu

I have the A35 and the Sammy 1400 after reading these I wish I would have waited for the Panny BD30.

That is the line of thought I am following