Toshiba HD-DVD player - who's buying the first batch?

Raider

Raider

Raider

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Ok a certain DVD retailer based in the UK will soon be stocking the Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD player on import (from the US). At £369.99 delivered i'm pretty tempted!

If the upscaling with standard DVDs is as good as, or close to my Denon 1920, then £370 seems cheap for the first proper HD source to market!

Also seems like a headstart for HD-DVD, especially with initial Blu-Ray players being a few more months away and much more expensive for the cheapest player. This format war could be tough!

So who's buying one? :D
 
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I think the upscaling will be fairly close though, probably inbetween the 1920 and the £100 level players.

But if I sold my Denon for £200, and effectively got HD-DVD capability for just £170 more then that's a bargain for early adoption in my book!
Worth it for the launch titles of "Batman Begins" and "The Matrix" alone :eek:
 
Will want to see true hd - dvd software first, but i would still prefer to wait six months for a hd /blue ray combi player - which ARE on their way, and "suffer" with my £90 upscaling samsung dvd player rather than invest right now on 1st gen software that could improve - as standard def dvd has in the last few years
 
Definitely found myself leaning towards HD-DVD though it will be six months or so before I have the spare cash to invest hopefully by then a few more titles to chose from.
My problem is that I've already seen most of the films in HD that I wanted to.
 
Goatboy said:
Definitely found myself leaning towards HD-DVD though it will be six months or so before I have the spare cash to invest hopefully by then a few more titles to chose from.
My problem is that I've already seen most of the films in HD that I wanted to.
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my only problem is in most right ups it yak's on about blu-ray, im gonna wait till both are out and decide.
 
FrankJH said:
Will want to see true hd - dvd software first, but i would still prefer to wait six months for a hd /blue ray combi player - which ARE on their way, and "suffer" with my £90 upscaling samsung dvd player rather than invest right now on 1st gen software that could improve - as standard def dvd has in the last few years
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6 months is optimistic and do you realise how much one of those would be.

A 1080i BD player = $1000 a 1080p BD player = $1800.
 
Something to bear in my mind is that most of the initial players tend to be orientated to the early adopter, and are of a very high quality.

My Sony S725D, that cost £550 7 years ago still totally destroys any current dvd player of under £250. RGB scart picture from that is very close to that from my upscaling Denon!!

Not saying the Tosh A1 will be that good (it's only £370 at launch), but if you spend £500+ on a HD-DVD player or Blu-ray then it should last you for years!
Assuming you pick the right team :D

And as I've said, I think the race is closer than most people think. And personally I think HD-DVD has the edge at the moment. Blu-ray may be technologically better, but HD-DVD has a lot more going for it!
 
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No they are initially Only players to be released I believe from both sides

The Sony 725 is a fabulous dvd player - I had one when they were bradn new and it was an amazing piece of kit, unfortunately mine was stolen when i was broken into and the insurance tried to palm me off with a 735 or something which was sooooo far below the technical quality of the previous model (and a lot cheaper) so I took the cash instead. Never managed to find a replacemnt unfortunately

I think it was What TV / video (i read so many mags like this i could be worng) that was claiming an imminent release in Japan of a combined blu ray / hd-dvd player for about $1000 -$1200 so by the time 2nd gen is over here, that could well be £700 - 800 if we are lucky ( there are some initial blu ray players coming in under the $800 mark, so add the difficulty factor of combi player with cost of hd-dvd parts, this SEEMS a good guess to me)

could be completely wrong though
 
You just know that in a very short time (much shorter than dvd) the players are going to be at budget prices. Also, hd-dvd plants can produce hybrid dvd/dvd-hd discs almost as quickly as plane dvd and loads of factories are already up and running. I dont know about blue-ray, i thought the ps3 would give it a good base and allow the prices to drop, but now the ps3 has been delayed and probably wont be in eu untill mid next year. Mind you, buy a ps3 and you have a blue ray player but it will be expensive to start with.

Probably worth waiting for a hd-dvd player or pc drive
 
Ive been thinking about getting one but ended up ordering a Kiss DP-600 instead, Ill probably get a HD-DVD a few months after they come out when there is more media avalable, at the moment there is more HD media avalable for the Kiss so ill see how that goes.
Ive also got Denon 1920 that may become redundant depending on hiw well the Kiss upscales DVD.

Andy
 
Slam62 said:
You just know that in a very short time (much shorter than dvd) the players are going to be at budget prices. Also, hd-dvd plants can produce hybrid dvd/dvd-hd discs almost as quickly as plane dvd and loads of factories are already up and running. I dont know about blue-ray, i thought the ps3 would give it a good base and allow the prices to drop, but now the ps3 has been delayed and probably wont be in eu untill mid next year. Mind you, buy a ps3 and you have a blue ray player but it will be expensive to start with.

Probably worth waiting for a hd-dvd player or pc drive
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not really, you didnt net a special tv for dvds tho did you so the demand for them will eb smaller
 
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