Tweeter has the Toshiba HiDef DVD online

[SteveInNC]

CES just happened, and Tweeter already has the Toshiba HD-DVD player listed in their online catalog. Note the "12 to 13 week" delivery...:

Toshiba HDA1

 

[Reverb2009]

And so does CrutchField.com.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-Zq1sjdFEenN/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=279850&I=052HDA1

 

[Robin]

How about the first DVD's on Blue-Ray or HD-DVD...

And so does CrutchField.com.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-Zq1sjdFEenN/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=279850&I=052HDA1

Steve or Joe,

Do either of you know when the first DVD films are due to come out on Blue-Ray? or on HD-DVD? Will they be coming out at my local Best Buy in 12 -14 weeks?

Cheers

-Robin

 

[Reverb2009]

Steve or Joe,

Do either of you know when the first DVD films are due to come out on Blue-Ray? or on HD-DVD? Will they be coming out at my local Best Buy in 12 -14 weeks?

Cheers

-Robin

HD-DVD is looking to launch at the end of March and Blu-Ray at the beginning of April. Movies should hit store s as soon as players start to hit the market.

 

[SteveInNC]

They've got media for both formats at this point, although I have no idea as to what quantities are available. In a related vein, cNet News has an article describing how it is unlikely that there will be a dual-format player anytime in the immediate future, since both organizations have intellectual property that they won't license for a dual-format player. This means early-adopters will have to guess at the likely winner of a format war, or be prepared to eat the cost of their investment if they guess wrong. I'm often an early-adopter for new technologies - I bought DirecTV before it officially rolled out as production in 1994 - I think I'll wait and see for this battle (I still have a Betamax VCR...)

http://news.com.com/A+DVD+combo+Dont+hold+your+breath/2100-1041_3-6024875.html?tag=nefd.top

 

[Robin]

Great...

HD-DVD is looking to launch at the end of March and Blu-Ray at the beginning of April. Movies should hit store s as soon as players start to hit the market.

Joe,

Thanks again... I only hope the Blue-Ray DVD's will offer better sound at least 7.1 or better, with 50 gigs or more per DVD disc, they have plenty of space for much, much better sound offering... I want all of my ML's and speakers in my system to sing sing sing... Have you heard anything more regarding the sound to be offered on the Blue-Ray DVD's?

Cheers

-Robin

 

[Reverb2009]

Joe,

Thanks again... I only hope the Blue-Ray DVD's will offer better sound at least 7.1 or better, with 50 gigs or more per DVD disc, they have plenty of space for much, much better sound offering... I want all of my ML's and speakers in my system to sing sing sing... Have you heard anything more regarding the sound to be offered on the Blue-Ray DVD's?

Cheers

-Robin

Hi-Def DVD's are using DTS-HD and Dolby True encoding. This new codec is a low loss High fidelity codec that should raise the bar for Home theater movie sound tracks.

Here is the good and bad news for using a Hi-Def DVD player with your audio system.

You have several options to get the audio single from point A to B.

1. You can send the single over Toslink or Digital coax but it will be down converted. (That would be bad)

2. You can use the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player’s internal decoders and output the processed single threw the RCA jacks.

3. You can Process the single in the player and output a PCM single over HDMI to your receiver/Pre-amp.

4. Send an unprocessed Dolby True/DTS-HD single over HDMI and let the Dolby True/DTS-HD decoders in the receiver/pre-amp processes the single.


There is a thread going over at the AVSforum about Pioneers Elite Blu-Ray player. The thread was started by a Pioneer rep, he has been answering most of our questions about the new player. From what he has said the Dolby True specifications are not yet done and will not make it to production in this player. They have also chosen not to do DTS-HD processing in the player so the only way to get DTS-HD to work with this player is to have the decoder chip in your receiver/pre-amp.

We will see.

 

[Robin]

DTS-HD special decoder chip...

Hi-Def DVD's are using DTS-HD and Dolby True encoding. This new codec is a low loss High fidelity codec that should raise the bar for Home theater movie sound tracks.

Here is the good and bad news for using a Hi-Def DVD player with your audio system.

You have several options to get the audio single from point A to B.

1. You can send the single over Toslink or Digital coax but it will be down converted. (That would be bad)

2. You can use the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player’s internal decoders and output the processed single threw the RCA jacks.

3. You can Process the single in the player and output a PCM single over HDMI to your receiver/Pre-amp.

4. Send an unprocessed Dolby True/DTS-HD single over HDMI and let the Dolby True/DTS-HD decoders in the receiver/pre-amp processes the single.


There is a thread going over at the AVSforum about Pioneers Elite Blu-Ray player. The thread was started by a Pioneer rep, he has been answering most of our questions about the new player. From what he has said the Dolby True specifications are not yet done and will not make it to production in this player. They have also chosen not to do DTS-HD processing in the player so the only way to get DTS-HD to work with this player is to have the decoder chip in your receiver/pre-amp.

We will see.

Joe,

Oh my God... I'm going to have to make sure I purchase a Blue-Ray player with the DTS-HD special decoder chip already in the Blue-Ray DVD player, as my Pioneer VSX 59TXi reciever, I don't think is up-gradable, but maybe it is?...

I hope, I can achieve the sound improvements I desire, through just acquiring a new Blue-Ray DVD player. Well, I suppose your advice is the best, "We will just have to wait and see...

Thanks Joe,

Cheers

-Robin

 

[Reverb2009]

Joe,

Oh my God... I'm going to have to make sure I purchase a Blue-Ray player with the DTS-HD special decoder chip already in the Blue-Ray DVD player, as my Pioneer VSX 59TXi reciever, I don't think is up-gradable, but maybe it is?...

I hope, I can achieve the sound improvements I desire, through just acquiring a new Blue-Ray DVD player. Well, I suppose your advice is the best, "We will just have to wait and see...

Thanks Joe,

Cheers

-Robin

The sound will be improved over DD & DTS, I just don’t know by how much.

As for the player I think I will pass on Pioneers player. It basically requires that you have a new receiver/pre-amp with the Dolby Plus/True & DTS-HD decoders in it to decode the new high rez singles. And those are about a year away, I am going to try and get a player with built a built in DTS-HD decoder and hopefully a Dolby Plus/True decoder so I can output a PCM single over HDMI to a HDMI receiver/pre-amp.

My plan was to get the Anthem D2 upgraded with HDMI switching and scaling so I can send the Pre-amp a PCM single over HDMI. But I just found out the price of the Statement D2 pre-amp is now being estimating at around $8000.00 and the D2 upgrade for $3000.00. That’s double the price of what the upgrade was thought to be, so I may have to come up with a new plain.

Again we will see.

 

[Robin]

Pioneer interconnect-ability...

The sound will be improved over DD & DTS, I just don’t know by how much.

As for the player I think I will pass on Pioneers player. It basically requires that you have a new receiver/pre-amp with the Dolby Plus/True & DTS-HD decoders in it to decode the new high rez singles. And those are about a year away, I am going to try and get a player with built a built in DTS-HD decoder and hopefully a Dolby Plus/True decoder so I can output a PCM single over HDMI to a HDMI receiver/pre-amp.

My plan was to get the Anthem D2 upgraded with HDMI switching and scaling so I can send the Pre-amp a PCM single over HDMI. But I just found out the price of the Statement D2 pre-amp is now being estimating at around $8000.00 and the D2 upgrade for $3000.00. That’s double the price of what the upgrade was thought to be, so I may have to come up with a new plain.

Again we will see.

Joe,

It is really astonished that the Anthem upgrade will cost double.
Pioneer Receivers and Pioneer DVD players used to have a fire-wire interconnect-ability, which offered a clearer picture. I'm wondering if the new Blue-Ray Pioneer DVD player will offer this interconnect-ability once again. Do you know if they will? I should take you advice and check out the AVS Forum and ask the Pioneer company rep...

Joe, you are a wealth of excellent information. I hope you don't mind my picking your brains, as I have been doing?

Cheers

-Robin

 

[Reverb2009]

Joe,

It is really astonished that the Anthem upgrade will cost double.
Pioneer Receivers and Pioneer DVD players used to have a fire-wire interconnect-ability, which offered a clearer picture. I'm wondering if the new Blue-Ray Pioneer DVD player will offer this interconnect-ability once again. Do you know if they will? I should take you advice and check out the AVS Forum and ask the Pioneer company rep...

Joe, you are a wealth of excellent information. I hope you don't mind my picking your brains, as I have been doing?

Cheers

-Robin

Well the price of the upgrade and D2 is an estimated price, Anthem has not officially announced a price yet. Originally the price for the upgrade was estimated to be $1000, but later was thought to be $1500. Which is not much of a difference considering what you’re getting, but then jumping up to $3000! The Anthems scalier should be comparable to that of the Crystallio II, which has an MSRP of $4500.

We will see, just trying to give you some heads up if you were still thinking about getting a D2 when it finally comes out, I didn’t want you to faint if the price does jump from 5 to $8,000.


The Pioneer Blu-Ray player right now look’s like the best player coming out for Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. Pioneers rep did say unless Dolby finishes there specs on Dolby true very soon it will not make the release of the Pioneer Blu-ray player, so this player will not support it. As for DTS-HD, he said DTS does not want the consumer to be able to send the DTS-HD single over RCA interconnects to the receiver/pre-amp, so no decoding in the player.

 

[Robin]

Anthem D2...

Well the price of the upgrade and D2 is an estimated price, Anthem has not officially announced a price yet. Originally the price for the upgrade was estimated to be $1000, but later was thought to be $1500. Which is not much of a difference considering what you’re getting, but then jumping up to $3000! The Anthems scalier should be comparable to that of the Crystallio II, which has an MSRP of $4500.

We will see, just trying to give you some heads up if you were still thinking about getting a D2 when it finally comes out, I didn’t want you to faint if the price does jump from 5 to $8,000.


The Pioneer Blu-Ray player right now look’s like the best player coming out for Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. Pioneers rep did say unless Dolby finishes there specs on Dolby true very soon it will not make the release of the Pioneer Blu-ray player, so this player will not support it. As for DTS-HD, he said DTS does not want the consumer to be able to send the DTS-HD single over RCA interconnects to the receiver/pre-amp, so no decoding in the player.

Joe,

Yes, I am still considering the Anthem D2 even at the higher price... I really want it especially, if it comes with all of the goodies i. e., DTS-HD, DTS-True decoding. It will be awesome with my Anthem P5 amplifier as you know. I will be watching and waiting to see what Anthem finally has on the D2...

Thank you for soooo much information about all of this. I really appreciate it, Joe.

Cheers

-Robin

 

[Reverb2009]

Joe,

Yes, I am still considering the Anthem D2 even at the higher price... I really want it especially, if it comes with all of the goodies i. e., DTS-HD, DTS-True decoding. It will be awesome with my Anthem P5 amplifier as you know. I will be watching and waiting to see what Anthem finally has on the D2...

Thank you for soooo much information about all of this. I really appreciate it, Joe.

Cheers

-Robin

The new D2 will not have DTS-HD/Dolby ture decoders built in (it's too soon for that). What it will do is except a DTS-HD/Dolby true PCM single over HDMI. So your Blu-Ray player will do the decoding of the audio single, and send a PCM single to the D2, and the D2 will play it back.

 

[Robin]

HDMI Capable Anthem D2....

The new D2 will not have DTS-HD/Dolby true decoders built in (it's too soon for that). What it will do is except a DTS-HD/Dolby true PCM single over HDMI. So your Blu-Ray player will do the decoding of the audio single, and send a PCM single to the D2, and the D2 will play it back.

Joe,

That's great, Joe as I understand it long as the D2 will play back the DTS-HD/Dolby True with the accuracy I've come to expect from Anthem Statement "D" Processor series I think it will be too cool... I'm hoping that I have more choices / Bells and Whistles will be on the D2, by the time I'm able to purchase one... At this point do you know what will be on the newest version of the up-coming Anthem D2 Processor?

 

[Reverb2009]

Joe,

That's great, Joe as I understand it long as the D2 will play back the DTS-HD/Dolby True with the accuracy I've come to expect from Anthem Statement "D" Processor series I think it will be too cool... I'm hoping that I have more choices / Bells and Whistles will be on the D2, by the time I'm able to purchase one... At this point do you know what will be on the newest version of the up-coming Anthem D2 Processor?

Here is Anthems D2 press release from CES'06.

http://www.castercomm.com/pr_docs/Anthem Statement D2.doc
http://www.castercomm.com/press.cfm?id=111

I was told from a friend at the AVSforum that Anthem has an Auto room EQ setup in the works for the D1/D2. It is suppose to work like Velodyne's SMS-1 but should cover the entire frequency range. They may do an upgrade to the audio decoding later for Dolby Plus/DTS-HD.

 

[Robin]

Wow Anthem D2 is awesome....

Here is Anthems D2 press release from CES'06.

http://www.castercomm.com/pr_docs/Anthem Statement D2.doc
http://www.castercomm.com/press.cfm?id=111

I was told from a friend at the AVSforum that Anthem has an Auto room EQ setup in the works for the D1/D2. It is suppose to work like Velodyne's SMS-1 but should cover the entire frequency range. They may do an upgrade to the audio decoding later for Dolby Plus/DTS-HD.

Joe,

Wow, I had no idea Anthem company was going to pack soooo much excellent stuff in side of the next generation Anthem D2. It is totally great, Wow...
I appreciate your posting the internet link to the CES show and press release too.
Thank you Joe, you are great to share all of this information...

 

[Reverb2009]

Joe,

Wow, I had no idea Anthem company was going to pack soooo much excellent stuff in side of the next generation Anthem D2. It is totally great, Wow...
I appreciate your posting the internet link to the CES show and press release too.
Thank you Joe, you are great to share all of this information...

Your welcome, Robin.

 

[Reverb2009]

OK, I found what I was looking for at the Avsforum.


___________________________________________________________

Blue-Ray.

I spent some time speaking with Andy (Hideyuki) Hata, Manager of Product Marketing (and the only one their that could translate for the Blue Ray engineers there).

Here are the limited details. Will be available this summer (hoping June), will likely come out at a price similar to the Pioneer Elite BD Player ($1,800) range. It will pass 1080P/60 through HDMI (ver 1.3), it has not been decided whether 1080P will pass through component outputs, it will play standard DVDs and upconvert 480i material to 1080P. They have not decided on whether it will play Redbook CDs...the spec is not finalized yet, they also did not have the back of the unit open for viewing (something I hope will change for the show tomorrow).

It will decode DTS-HD,DTS, DD+, DD TrueHD, and DD.

SACD support has not been ruled out, and when pressed about SACD's future, they have not made a decision on where to go with it (or not go).

As far as Sony's persepective on the format war, the main arguement they are sticking to is that they would not concede the technical merits of BD (.1mm vs. .6mm) and the potential of 200GB. Sony wants to position itself with the best technology and 'let the consumer decide'.

They don't seem to be to concerned with Toshiba's under $500 player, believing that pricing will not win the war. And of course they know that the PS3 will put many of these players into homes.

As far as content they will have about 20 BD titles available at launch.

Overall it was interesting to hear the company mantra about breaking down the Silo's within Sony to achieve a unified goal, sounds like Sony is really committed to changing.


By John Haghighi

 

[Robin]

Sony's Commitment to Quality Technology...

Joe,

I like how Mr. Haghighi from Sony expressed his companies willingness to "provide the best technology and let the consumer decide". It will be interesting to see what Sony's finial Blue-Ray player will include, specifications wise... I too hope Sony includes SACD and Red Book. I look forward to seeing for my self this summer... Once again Joe, Kudos to you for posting this excellent communication from AVS forum, I don't know what I'd do with out your fine help assistance and advice...

 

[68sting]

Do you know if these will support DVD-A and SACD also?