Gizmodo
Reviewers at Consumer Electronics Net weren't impressed with the $500 Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player, calling it "a disgrace." Fan noise, crashing, a clumsy remote and slow performance doomed the first-to-market player, and the reviewer wasn't too impressed with its standard-definition DVD up-rezzing capability, either. There were even choice words for electronics retailer Best Buy, where a duplicitous blueshirt tried to sell the reviewer an unnecessary $100 HDMI cable, denying that there was already one included in the box. Said the reviewer of the Toshiba player:
"Please, do yourself a favor and don't go through the trouble of buying it, setting it up and being frustrated by it. Wait until this format is more mature, because now, it reminds me of the early days of MS-DOS computing. The only reason I give it more than one star is because of the high quality of its video. Not recommended under any circumstances. 2 out of 10 stars."Overall, it's a disappointing performance for the HD DVD player for which we had such high hopes. It can only get better.
Review: Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD Player [Consumer Electronics Net]
Comments
The remote and slow performance complaints have been echoed in pretty much every review, but I'm shocked that these guys are complaining about image quality. The picture quality reviews have been overwhelmingly positive from every other review I've read.
haha.. screw that... i hope both formats die...
Why do people expect upscaled SD to look better? It can't add lines!
I really feel that the analog down-res is going to be the sticking point that kills both formats. I also think the companies are now fully aware of this, and thus the recent backpedalling on the subject. And since, in the past, neither the music or movie industry has ever proven themselves to act in anything but a blind, letigious fury, I think both formats stand a good chance of being stillborn. Good riddance, I say. I don't want any more damned DRM ruining my media.
in defense of my retail brethren...perhaps the "kid" didn't know it came with it and wanted the consumer to have the cable and be happy. if it did, big deal. best buy has a 30 day, no questions asked, restocking fee free return policy. wow, for shame that he tried to sell you too much instead of not enough.
No, the shame is that he tried to sell you a HDMI cable for $100 that costs $15-20 online.
On the other hand... a 2.2GHz P4 with HD-DVD drive for $500 may not be such a bad deal (the HD-A1 has a 2.2GHz Pentium 4, 1GB DDR-SDRAM, and the usual fixings. Wonder if the HDMI output is easily used - the entire thing runs on Linux on a 256MB thumbdrive). You can get Dells for cheaper, but try finding one with an HD-DVD drive for that price. If nothing else, the sheer hackability is tempting.
The fact that the review of the HD-A1 is referred to as if it's an outside article when in fact it's written by a Gizmodo writer lends a lack of credulity to both the review and this blog. Why would you even try to get away with something like that? There's a reason for journalistic ethics - they help the public trust you, which leads to more readership and more money. So it's really in your own self interest to point out things like that.
I just want to rent 1080p movies for ~$2 each, for a one time viewing. Sorry guys, DRM is ok with me. The Netflix price is ideal for me, and they now have HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. This format war caused drive makers to stupidly miss a huge opportunity. Once I can rent 1080p movies with a 50GB download or a USB thumb drive type thing through USPS mail, I'm going to do that.
Agree with you weatherman. I'll add that this sort of promotion passed off as guerilla journalism is disgusting. It displays contempt for consumer electronics buyers and, I daresay, the industry surrounding it as a whole. Please, beware of the false prophets in the technology journalism world.
Both Blu-ray and HD-dvd are a disaster in their current form, both from a standpoint of speed and ergonomics. However, if Im going to take a plunge I would rather do it with a four-hundred dollar HD unit than a $1000.00 blu-ray.
Incidently I just bought a HD-XA1 HD Toshiba player for $350.00 from ebay and signed up with Blockebuster for HD movies.
I'll roll with this hi-def band-aid until something better comes along.
F.W. Brown (fiction writer)
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