Toshiba surprises with firmware 4.0 HD DVD player update
[Via Slashgear]
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Read - Resource for : Firmware Update Information for Owners of Toshiba HD DVD Players:
[Via Slashgear]
Read - AVS Forum
Read - Resource for : Firmware Update Information for Owners of Toshiba HD DVD Players:
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ed @ Sep 27th 2008 8:06PM
And yet I'm sure the critics will continue to claim that Toshiba left HD DVD supporters out in the cold when they quickly wound down HD DVD production.
Thanks for another update Toshiba. Your HD DVD players are fantastically built and I'm looking forward to keeping mine in use for years to come.
Timmy @ Sep 28th 2008 12:12AM
Enjoy your your new line of super duper DVD upscalers that retail for $150. I'm sure this stupid company, which never ceases to amaze, will move a warehouse of those babies.
I have to hand it to Toshiba, though. They know how to pick a failed format. XDE 1080p 24fps upscaling, anyone? I give those suckers 3 months before they're down to $40 in the bargain bin where they belong.
h0mi @ Sep 28th 2008 10:42AM
"And yet I'm sure the critics will continue to claim that Toshiba left HD DVD supporters out in the cold when they quickly wound down HD DVD production."
How could you claim otherwise? What, because Toshiba provided a fix to broken functionality 7 months later?
When Toshiba releases firmware versions later this year or next that adds some really useful abilities (like, say, divx playback) then your remark would hold some water. But I don't see how you can say Toshiba didn't leave HD DVD supporters out in the cold the way they dropped the format.
squiggleslash @ Sep 29th 2008 9:24AM
Well, for the most part they did. I don't blame them, but rather than a "soft landing" with Toshiba continuing to make and sell high-end HD DVD players in low volumes, encouraging Paramount and Universal to go non-exclusive rather than BD exclusive, and maybe making use of HD DVD's online downloads capabilities to create an infrastructure where the players were still useful for online content, they pretty much dropped the entire format.
Toshiba lost $1B propping up the format, so as I said I don't blame them. But the argument that they didn't leave us in the cold is not sustainable.
Daryl @ Oct 6th 2008 8:28AM
Here is what i am wondering. Could someone market a DVD that only give us browser access thru the HDDVD? With that, i would be able to watch Netflix, Heroes from ABC.com, etc in full screen mode on my TV. It would be great. Let's talk it up and those clearance shefl HDDVD's would fly off the shelf. I have wired broadband to mine now. With a simple link, i could be onlline. All of this assumes some things about the player but it is built on Microsoft technology as i understand.....
Daryl
DVD4ME @ Sep 27th 2008 8:23PM
Fantastic, I'll update both my players, what great support , but I just wish Tosh had kept Universal and Paramount in bed maybe and kept production going small scale, a small niche market with cheap discs, drives and a few movies, it would have been OK and who knows what the downloadable side of the format might have evolved into.
All the ranting from the Blutards against HD DVD, but they just don't realize what a quality product HD DVD was/is.
Toshiba realized HD media wasn't going to rule the world, they saw it as an addition to DVD, sony has tried to take the world over with blu, it will never be the dominant format and has just cost everyone including themselves a shit load more than it should have.
Dave @ Sep 28th 2008 10:34AM
Hahaha, a true sony hating fanboy!
I am glad that the technically better format worn just to watch you sore losers :)
They are still fixing the epic glitches the players had and that is a moment of celebration for you? :D
DEEZNUTZ @ Sep 28th 2008 5:32PM
DVD4ME:
Lets stop suckin on that Toshiba sausage there. HD DVD was good, but their players continue to have their share of issues. I still get "No disc" messages from my HD A3 (third gen, mind you), which forces me to open and close the tray... that's like 28 minutes before the movie is finally playing. HD DVD had playback issues with movie titles, and would have continued to have them if the studios didn't drop it like an ugly chick.
The ONLY reason you went HD DVD (and admittedly me as well) is because they firesold the shit out of their players last year. While you continue to act like a sore ass fanboy about something as stupid as a format choice, some of us rational folks will enjoy our movies in all the HD PQ and audio goodness that BD offers. Enjoy the re-runs on your HD DVD player.
Multi-format-mayhem @ Sep 28th 2008 8:54PM
Anyone would think Blu-ray never used firmware updates to improve their playback.
Of course it's good Toshiba continue to refine their playback.
But on every a/v forum I ever saw this "jaggies" issue had to be looked for and pointed out.
So it obviously wasn't the massive problem some want it to have been.
I've yet to read of the Blu-ray player that does not have 'issues' with some discs.
Vazquez @ Sep 27th 2008 8:28PM
Does anyone know if this update works for the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player?
WebDev511 @ Sep 27th 2008 10:06PM
No, it's just for Toshiba HD DVD players. You'll have to contact MS for a 360 firmware upgrade
Timmy @ Sep 28th 2008 12:15AM
I hear Microsoft has their best engineers on it.
Bill @ Sep 29th 2008 11:46AM
Microsoft issued an update a few months ago. Since the update, Everything I own plays perfectly, and it added online content to some of them as well. On another note, I'm hoping the "New XBox Experience" dashboard will not disable the HD DVD players abilities. I use mine still. Have lots of movies I haven't even watched yet I got for nearly free on Ebay and Amazon.
shawnmos @ Sep 27th 2008 9:21PM
It's not up over ethernet yet. I'll wait until then because I don't want to waste a CD. I have this player hooked up to a SDTV now that I've got the Samsung Combo Player so I probably won't see any benefit to this FW update anyway. Still it's nice to know that Toshiba stands by their products (unlike Samsung). I will definitely buy another Toshiba product again.
Garst @ Sep 28th 2008 12:41PM
Haven't you heard of CD-RW? With that format, you can burn something you will only use once, erase it, then use it again for anything else.
Jeff @ Sep 27th 2008 10:22PM
Funny how the majority of technically savvy people opted for HD DVD whereas the rich man who doesn't know what 1080p even means ended up being conned to the blue side :(
Too bad Sony made better deals than Toshiba...
JimC @ Sep 27th 2008 11:33PM
I must have been in the minority of those "technically savvy" people...
jackie blue @ Sep 28th 2008 12:08AM
The ironic part of your disgruntled drivel is that if you look at the technical specs of both formats you would easily discover that Blu-ray was superior in almost every category. Fortunately, the majority of consumers decided to go with the format that held 60% more data than the inferior format.
Andy @ Sep 28th 2008 12:12AM
I'd say I'm very technically savvy therefore I could tell the benefits of Blu-ray, not only that but I could foresee the fact that Blu-ray was included in PS3 was going to boost sales enormously. I was right.
There is nothing technically superior to Blu-ray with HD DVD, the only pros were price. Sure some features were unavailable on Blu-ray at launch, but if you actually read up on Blu-ray you knew those features were coming with a profile/firmware update, so there was nothing to be worried about.
DVD4ME @ Sep 28th 2008 12:47AM
jackie blue said...."The ironic part of your disgruntled drivel is that if you look at the technical specs of both formats you would easily discover that Blu-ray was superior in almost every category."
Talk about drivel, blu ray was, and still is a crippled and inferior version to HD DVD, blu ray 'won' a Phyrric victory that's all, (a victory lead by the PS3 kiddie console crowd as TT would have said had he not been gagged,) and that has now been proven, -- 1 $billion Toshiba loss- V -3.5 $Billion sony loss, .............enjoy your phyrric victory blutards, you will all be paying back that loss for many years to come IF your crippled format survives that long!
Negativecool @ Sep 28th 2008 2:08AM
DVD4ME-
Jesus dude. I haven't seen a comment as laced with as much hate since before Toshiba bowed out of the format war.
This is great that Toshiba is keeping up support for those that supported them. But it IS a dead format and whether you believe it to be the superior format or not is completely irrelevant.
jackie blue @ Sep 28th 2008 4:17PM
DVD4ME: It must hurt to wake up everyday knowing that your beloved format was slaughtered and the company that expunged it out of its crusty orifice is now peddling DVD upscaling as their new technology. Like HD-DVD, you've been made obsolete, so just crawl back into the hole you expunged from and decay.
h0mi @ Sep 29th 2008 9:16PM
"Talk about drivel, blu ray was, and still is a crippled and inferior version to HD DVD, "
In what was was blu-ray "crippled and inferior" to HD DVD?
John B @ Sep 28th 2008 1:32AM
As someone who is purple (HD-A2 + PS3), I just want to thank Toshiba for continuing to support their customers. To still be offering this kind of support for a product that was officially "abandoned" almost 8 months ago is extraordinary and is something that a lot of companies need to learn from.
As for the rest of you who are using this announcement to keep up your pathetic fanboy warfare, just do the world a favor and shut the f*ck up. We already know how immature you are, as proven by the fact that you can't let the whole situation die. You don't need to keep proving it to us.
gamer7 @ Sep 28th 2008 3:02AM
Truth is MS Xbox 360 player is rock solid reliable and really didn't need anymore updates (although they did provide one after the hd dvd went belly up).
Toshiba's players are great but still buggy on playback of some disks. I say that owning over 200 hd dvds. It's good that they stood behind they're customers with this release.
Mike @ Sep 28th 2008 4:34AM
Maybe this shows Toshiba hasn't quit working with HD DVD and a HD DVD A4 will be released soon???
I agree with those that thought Toshiba should have kept selling some A3 and A30's and kept Universal and Paramount for awhile longer.
and before the hd dvd fanboy is thrown at me... i am a money fanboy and will get bd 2.0 when it gets down to $120...$150 if it comes with 2 or 3 movies.
squiggleslash @ Sep 29th 2008 9:18AM
No, it just shows Toshiba supports players that are less than a year old and therefore still under warranty. As they damned well should.
I'm glad they're still fixing bugs, and hope they'll continue to do so, but this is an obligation of any consumer electronics manufacturer. Let's not let those who don't do this off the hook by pretending this update is anything special.
Toshiba has dismantled its HD DVD manufacturing operation. Their most recent pronouncements on the subject are that they believe online downloads are the ultimate future of content, and in the mean time they want to concentrate on their SD card business and have no plans to do anything with anything optical in the future. If HD DVD makes a comeback, it'll not be from the company that lost $1B trying to get the format into people's homes.
Pete @ Sep 28th 2008 5:16AM
"Playback issues" and "jaggies"???!!! You HD DVD guys had us believe these players were flawless pieces of machinery that no tech could challenge either now or in the future utopia that existed only in your firmware-excited minds. Thanks for all the fish HD DVD, so long, and the world moves on, oblivious to the fact it ever existed...
squiggleslash @ Sep 29th 2008 9:13AM
Who the hell said that about the players?
The HD DVD format has plenty of fans. The players themselves are good, but there have been complaints about, for example, H.264 over p24 for a long time.
mntwister @ Sep 28th 2008 10:19AM
Wow, that's pretty decent of Toshiba to continue to fix problems..... with what some people above are calling the perfected format, LOL.
squiggleslash @ Sep 29th 2008 9:12AM
No, they're fixing problems with players, not with the format.
Not sure who you think is referring to HD DVD as "perfected". It was excellent, but "perfected" is hyperbole.
Patrick @ Sep 28th 2008 10:50AM
I didn't read this piece until just now, and my first thought was, "Boy, the Blu-ray fanboys are going to eat this one alive." I was right.
Pete @ Sep 28th 2008 4:09PM
Congratulations on your first thought. Better luck with your second.
netgem21 @ Sep 28th 2008 12:43PM
Does anyone know if Microsoft are continuing support for the HD DVD drive within the New Dashboard Update? I ask, because they haven't confirmed either way.
dom @ Sep 29th 2008 6:22AM
Iron man BluRay recall???? Wont play on most Blu players???? Looks like the Blu players need to intall service pack 8. Stick with DVD, it works.
Ron @ Sep 29th 2008 4:36PM
hmmm
Simon @ Sep 29th 2008 8:50PM
Who cares either way, I think it's grand of Toshiba to continue support the format, hats off to them, however I wouldn't be buying a spinning disc format either way now, got my apple tv with 720p HD movies, they play almost immediately on my 30mbit cable connection, I am happy with the quality of them for now and I am sure 1080i or p will be just around the corner.
Redge @ Oct 7th 2008 10:30AM
The guys that write on this site are retarded, with a slash gibbled from time to time.
Profile 1.0 and 1.1 are dead as well, but they hype them like the second coming of Christ.
Those dead HD DVD players, still have more functionality that the newest profile 2.0 machines.
Second thought they are not retarded, they are plain stupid.