Paka wrote:Would you just shut it already, James? I'm fed up with your irrational fanboy-ism... and your bloated sense of entitlement. It makes me sick.
And yet, if no region free DVD players were available, you'd moan that you couldn't get an unedited copy of Plague Dogs? Or at least be angry?
Today I actually bought a Toshiba EP-35 HD DVD player for several reasons. Firstly and most importantly, I wanted to upgrade from the Xbox 360 add-on, because as we all know the 360 can be noisy. Secondly, with HD DVD undoubtedly going to fail, it makes sense to have a back-up player for my HD DVD discs should players become harder to find in 2-5 years. The 360 and add-on are now my back-up. Thirdly, I don't have to pay any council tax for two months, so I have a bit of extra money and prices on the players have dropped and I still got 7 free discs (although I have two already, and have to send off for the other 5).
And just for Lindsay and the purpose of being balanced, I give a fair review based on my first impressions. I know DarthPrime is still possibly considering a purchase.
DarthPrime has talked a lot about the upscaling features of the Toshiba HD DVD players. The EP-35 is the most recent generation of players so I assume it has the most advanced upscaling chip - or at least equal to previous generations. I have to say that while the upscaling did impress me, its not really any better than my xBox 360 or PS3. At a pinch, it probably is a little better - static text on a screen seems to come out sharper, but when actually playing a movie with lots of movement I can't detect a difference.
I will add a disclaimer here that my TV only does 720 natively, so it is possble on a 1080 native TV the upscaling may be noticably better.
The upscaling is much better than my TV though when my TV has to do all the work. Upscaling only works over HDMI.
But I would have to say to anyone thinking of buying one for upscaling only purposes, that you see a demo of a Toshiba HD DVD player in action before making any purchasing decision. No doubt other upscaling DVD or Blu-ray players from other manufacturers are just as good (or so close in quality, you wouldn't really notice any difference), so ask to see them too.
The Upscaling, while above average, should not be considered as a major selling point.
The boot-up time is slow (about 30 seconds from stand-by and about 20 seconds to another 30 seconds to actually load a disc). It comes as quite a shock after the speed of the 360 and PS3, but I can't say it really bothers me. My cheap bedroom DVD player, for example, takes longer to recognise a DVD, but boots up in seconds.
There's worse time wasting stuff on current DVDs, HD DVDs and Blu-ray discs such as having to skip trailers, "You wouldn't steal a car..." propagana and warning screens.
I'm not wired up to the internet yet, but I will purchase a cable today (fingers crossed) and report back later.
Finally, from my point of view, the unit is much quieter - but not totally silent. This will be useful when watching some of the more dialogue driven movies in my collection like Babel and The Preistige. Picture quality too seems a minor step up from the 360 solution. Over all the player is certainly considerably better, and fully justifies being my new main HD DVD player.
People who don't support HD DVD can take comfort in the fact that my purchase has (reportedly) cost Toshiba money, as they are (reportedly) selling for a subsidised price.
And just to make it clear I'm not recommending anyone buys a HD DVD at this point in time. I can only justify this expense due to the number of HD DVD titles I already own.
I've just realised now, with this purchase, I have 9 DVD players in my house!
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