When are the next gen HDDVD players due to come out? Any price drops?

I want to believe in BR, but every piece of news that comes out about it is discouraging. I'd like to see what steps HDDVD is taking to improve their product.

1st Q next year, I'm hearing.

Doesn't matter because there will be firmware upgrades between now and then for current players. We'll see what those do to fix things.

Also, there is an HD DVD drive in the newest toshiba laptop.

It most certainly does matter. The A1 doesn't have everything some of us want, and firmware can't change that.

Don't seem to be any public plans as regards 2nd gen so far. BTW I think the Toshiba notebook reference above is priced over $3000 which might be a little steep for some people.

I was thinking the same thing. Firmware can't do a lick for hardware upgrades.

BTW the Sony BD notebook is $4,000.

Yeah the notebooks are crazy money.

So then you will also be bypassing the 1st gen Blu-Ray players, which are even less equipped than the 1st gen HD-DVD players?

Only in some ways... The major problem with the first gen Tosh seems to be the lock-ups many have reported. It's probably a little premature to claim the Samsung suffers the same issues.

Which is something the firmware CAN fix.

Such as? The only thing i can think of is 1080p.

It's under $3000

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=466265

$2999 You're right, under $3000. Just.

BTW how do we know what can be fixed with a firmware upgrade? Region coding would certainly seem to be something that could be "fixed" this way, but the length of time it takes for the device to recognize and play the disc type? How dat?

It depends on what is causing it to take so long. We already know that the initial startup time is being caused by the Linux OS "booting." If the version of the firmware that shipped in the player is poorly optimized, then it should be possible to reduce that time by as much as 50%. As far as the time it takes to read the disc, it may be that that portion of the startup can't be improved much, but then again, maybe it can.

I agree, it's all just speculation, which is makes some of the posts claiming firmware will fix all these bugs all the more ludicrous. BTW do we really "know" that the linux os is the cause of the slow boot up? Perhaps it is just one cause. Considering it is the os it would take one hell of an update to alter that aspect significantly!

It's not ludicrous since we're told that it's being worked on AND that these things are possible. Plus a firmware has already been updated for Japan.

It's ENTIRELY possible and it's definitely being worked on.
Try again.

Are these "problems" widespread or just a bunch of vocal victims? I haven't really seen or heard aside from load times that there is anything amiss. Maybe I don't fixate on each and every report of a problem.

Rest assured, Sony boys, your G1 BD players will have issues too.

Firmware is being worked on, but to fix what? As to what can be fixed, who has specified this information?

Your reading comprehension skills are for shit. Either that or your immense love for BD is impairing them.

How many threads are you going to go into and ask questions that have been answered already?

There are threads over at AVSforum that answer these. People have had direct contact with Toshiba. There is a VP at Microsoft who is also working with them. There is also a firmware upgrade that already came out in japan as well.

Please try doing some research yourself next time if you are so very interested.

Such hostility towards some simple questions. Should we take it you don't know then, and are just guessing? Yes, I'm aware there has been a firmware update released for the thousand players in Japan, but aren't too sure how that helps anyone in the US. BTW, unless you hadn't noticed, this isn't AVS, so these questions certainly haven't been answered. Please provide more information.

The latter.

I haven't had a single issue with my player. No freeze ups or any playback problems. I'm sure they can speed up the boot time a bit with the firmware, but it will never match a regular DVD player.

Well there is also High Definition audio. The HD-A1 is only capable of two channel Doby TrueHD and no DTS-HD at all. I am sure future models will have that ability. Assuming the format survives the Playstation 3s attack.

Please tone it down a bit. I get that you're a vocal HD DVD supporter, but there's an awful lot of hostility in a lot of these threads now, and I'd like everyone to do their part to keep this a sunny, happy place with rainbows, unicorns, and gumdrop waterfalls like it was a couple months ago.

I swear it is absolutely impossible, IMPOSSIBLE for you to post anything without blowing Sony's horn.

If I were you, I owuld put more energy worrying if the PS3 launch will be a success or not.