New Toshiba HD-DVD Player does DVD-A and SACD!!!???

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JonUrban

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I found this thread over at the Satellite Guys forum:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=76757

In it, this picture is posted of the soon to come out Toshiba HD-XA2 second generation HD-DVD players. Take a close look at the display, and you will see SACD and DVD-A indicators, although the logos are not printed on the device.

What do you think?
 

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Promisiing, though I'll probably wait until the price drops and we see any universal player "bugs" (I'm looking at you, 563a...) get ironed out.
 
Promisiing, though I'll probably wait until the price drops and we see any universal player "bugs" (I'm looking at you, 563a...) get ironed out.

Yeah, and I am still stinging from my $2,000 flagship Toshiba DVD-Audio player that won't play most of the newer disks. I am afraid that hell will freeze over before I will buy another friggin' Toshiba. Mike.
 
I'm not sure how true this will be once these players actually hit the stores. I do know that Blu-Ray offers 5.1 uncompressed PCM as an audio option on many movies, and the possibilities for using this for music boggle the mind. It would require HDMI as the conduit to the amplifier/receiver, but the sound would be spectacular. My guess is that HD-DVD will offer something similar.
 
I haven't had much luck with Toshiba products and although I must have over a ton of home audio video equipment now, I can't think of a single ounce of Toshiba products I own now. Their first generation HD DVD player has been really good and at a competitive price, so I wouldn't hesitate to buy Toshiba if I decide to buy HD DVD. The chance the second generation HD DVD player will play SACD and DVD-A is slim but we can certainly hope the flourescent display indicates what it appears despite the lack of a logo on the front panel.

Chris
 
With out logos I'm not sure it will play either format.

Often times manufacturers will use the same circuit board in multiple players to save costs. It's cheaper to make one kind of circuit board then to make 2 (or more) different kinds.

In fact my buddy use to have a mono 4 head VCR that had a LED indicator on the front that said "STEREO", but never lit up, because of what I described above.
 
With out logos I'm not sure it will play either format.

Often times manufacturers will use the same circuit board in multiple players to save costs. It's cheaper to make one kind of circuit board then to make 2 (or more) different kinds.

In fact my buddy use to have a mono 4 head VCR that had a LED indicator on the front that said "STEREO", but never lit up, because of what I described above.

I agree, however, since the display shows HD-DVD-A, one would assume that the circuit board is new, since there were no DVD-A/SACD players that had HD capability. So, maybe the designers just added the indicators to cover their butts, but who knows.

Maybe it's only wishfull thinking on my part. I will say this, I won't do either HD-DVD or BlueRay unless the player also does SACD and DVD-A. What's the point? Have you seen the HD titles so far? Nothing makes me leap for the Visa! :D
 
Fingers crossed! I think it would be a little misleading for Toshiba to show the picture with SACD and DVD-A and not have the capability to play those formats - that's not to say that we aren't being misled. If it is true then it would seem that Toshiba sees a future for Hi Rez music. That's the kind of optimism that I like to see. Who knows, maybe the record companies plan a re-launch of SACD and DVD-A after a significant number of people have upgraded their video/audio systems. We can live in hope, can't we?
 
If there's no logo, fuggedaboudit!
Displays are used in several different machines, the fact that a display has a possibility is no indicator that the unit does it.
 
Regardless, I'm screwed. I just bought a Denon 2106, and it has no HDMI connection, so no HD for me.
 
What I've seen so far with the HD DVD players is that they're quirky, won't play a lot of discs, slow to boot up when you put in a disc, and the microprocessor tends to scram a lot. These are all problems I hope they can solve in the next generation models. Samsung's Blu-Ray player is more consistant, still slow on the uptake but not as much so as the HD DVD players. It would be great if Toshiba includes SACD and DVD-A on their new models, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
When I saw that picture, my thought was that this particular player probably wouldn't have DVD-A/SACD; but that a future model possibly would.
 
I suspect it's just a generic face plate but if it does play both DVD-A and SACD I will be very, very chuffed. I feared these formats would take forever to appear on a HD-DVD or Blu-ray player.

Also remember AFAIK Toshiba has only supported DVD-A thus far, no?

As for the logo issue agreed but then again they can't put every logo on the front and DVD-A/SACD maybe seen as less important against all the new logos.
 
I suspect it's just a generic face plate but if it does play both DVD-A and SACD I will be very, very chuffed. I feared these formats would take forever to appear on a HD-DVD or Blu-ray player.

Also remember AFAIK Toshiba has only supported DVD-A thus far, no?

As for the logo issue agreed but then again they can't put every logo on the front and DVD-A/SACD maybe seen as less important against all the new logos.

Toshiba has made some univeral DVD players that play both SACD and DVD-A and they weren't particularly well received. The Toshiba HD DVD players are really highly regarded.

Chris
 
Toshiba has made some univeral DVD players that play both SACD and DVD-A and they weren't particularly well received. The Toshiba HD DVD players are really highly regarded.

Chris

But let's remember that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are still in their first generation, and the bugs are yet to be ironed out. I also got it on good authority that the Sony Blu-Ray player not only will NOT play SACD, it won't even play regular CD's either! When I asked our Sony rep about it, he said it's because they're promoting the machine as a video player, and if someone wants to play CD's, there are more than enough players to choose from. Samsung's, on the other hand, does play regular CD, but not SACD nor DVD-A. I see an opportunity for the record companies to create even better hi-rez music recordings, stereo or surround, with lossless PCM. But knowing how these companies feel about the state of DVD-A and SACD, I'm not holding my breath.
 
But let's remember that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are still in their first generation, and the bugs are yet to be ironed out. I also got it on good authority that the Sony Blu-Ray player not only will NOT play SACD, it won't even play regular CD's either! When I asked our Sony rep about it, he said it's because they're promoting the machine as a video player, and if someone wants to play CD's, there are more than enough players to choose from. Samsung's, on the other hand, does play regular CD, but not SACD nor DVD-A. I see an opportunity for the record companies to create even better hi-rez music recordings, stereo or surround, with lossless PCM. But knowing how these companies feel about the state of DVD-A and SACD, I'm not holding my breath.

The Toshiba HD DVD players are great, especially for a first generation product. It is the inexpensive Toshiba DVD/DVD-A/SACD players that aren't considered very good. I hope we see some Blu-ray and HD DVD high resolution audio releases but I sure don't have any idea how that could be successful.

Chris
 
I have the Toshiba HD-A1 player. It has the same faceplate as shown above. It won't play DVD-A or SACD. It's rumored that DVD-A will be enabled with a firmware update. The player is a tank. I haven't had any problems with it except for the long load times which is acceptable. The video and audio are excellent and it's the best upconverting dvd player I've ever owned. If anyone's looking for a good upconverting player it's a bargain, plus you get HD thrown in to boot.
 
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