A neighbor tells me that Sound and Vision chose the Toshiba A1 as their "product of the year". Haven't seen the article yet but thought it was an interesting tidbit.

With firmware 1.4 I agree. With firmware 2.0 I have to strongly disagree.

Well, as I have said before, I haven't had any problems with 2.0 except for a bug in analog sound output, which had an easy workaround. And 2.0 played some things that 1.4 didn't, like the M:I:II extras. I got my update CD directly from Toshiba.

Perhaps I am the only one who isn't having any problems.

Anyone who claims that 2.0 is glitchier than 1.4 simply didn't use 1.4 long enough to run into glitches. My A1 has had skipping and freeze-ups with every firmware. They've gotten gradually better with each successive firmware, but none has fully resolved them.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/chat/hdvd07.txt

Home Theater Forum HD DVD Transcript

Subject: Live Chat with Kevin Collins
Date: Monday, July 15, 2007

some highlights from the chat:

- The HD DVD Promotion Group is deciding where the HD DVD Mobile Experience will go next. Right now it is schedule to be in Miami at the SuperBowl. It was very successfull in driving awarness around HD DVD.

- For instance, the Matrix trilogy will be coming out this year from WHV, Star Trek will be exclusive to HD DVD this year, Babel and The Good Shepherd. All in all there will be over 600 HD DVD titles by EOY.

- Universal announced "The Good Shepherd" and "Babel." They have a slew of titles that will be coming out in 2007.

- I have not seen Jaws being tossed around for 2007, but even the information that I have changes on a month to month basis.

Star Trek is a big exclusive to land, even if only for this year.

Babel is Paramount. I know it's what the guy said, but he's wrong about that (unless it's being released by Universal internationally).

How about this:
"There are 20 companines on the DVD Forum Steering
committe and many oppose region coding. Also, there is no way to back
retrofit the existing HD DVD players to enforce region coding. So, this
is another advantage of HD DVD over the other formats."
SO it seems that even if they do region-code the discs, the players can't enforce the coding. Sweet.

I agree, and I will be buying them ASAP as I dont have any Star Trek on any SD DVD...Im excited about this.

Damn curious as to why Paramount would keep Star Trek HD-dvd exclusive.

That would be a huge coup for HD DVD. I will firmly believe it when I see it though. This might be something they are trying to get a deal signed for. I also can't believe Toshiba or Paramount will be too happy with this guy for leaking this info. Now that would have been a huge announcement at CES. Too bad Martin Blythe does not post here anymore.

If this war comes down to Sony and Toshiba trying to secure exclusive windows for certain titles, it is going to piss alot of people off. HD DVD gets Star Trek, maybe Blu Ray gets Indiana Jones. It could happen, and could happen often if this Star Trek deal is true. You know Sony will pay whatever it takes to get the next big title exclusive for a window of time.

Possible. Amir posted today that it was CBS releasing these over Paramount's head. Like you said I'd wait for an official announcement.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/...7002a2524dddc3

CBS Home Entertainment also will take the lead in other home entertainment initiatives, including the launch of high-definition discs. Like Paramount, CBS will release titles in the Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD formats. First up: the original "Star Trek" TV series, rolled out on DVD/HD-DVD combo disc in the fourth quarter.

"The reason we chose to do that is to give us the ability to make high-definition transfers of the show available to people who don't yet have high-definition players," Ross said.

A Blu-ray Disc release has not been scheduled.

I'm not having any problems either. Running 2.0 on my A1.

Damn, I dont want the TV series...just the movies.

How the hell did Universal get rights to Babel?

a probable error from Kevin Collins' chat

Same here...

That might be a minority position with ST fans.

The person from the HTF chat did specify that the movies were coming in 2007.

I'm thrilled to see Bullitt and The Getaway on the schedule, but I'm disappointed to see that Warner has ground their HD DVD catalog titles to a screeching halt.

Assuming that Warner doesn't fill anything in between then and now, the grand total of their catalog releases (using anything released theatrically more than a year ago as a cutoff point) is five titles from the beginning of December until the beginning of March. Scooby Doo, A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, and these two newly announced titles. Two in December, one in January, two in February, and their schedule really doesn't have much in the way of day/date stuff either.

Its amazing how quickly I've gone from buying 2-3 titles a week to zero. Warner having such a weak start to the year has me very worried about the future of the HD DVD format. Even the stuff Universal has announced is underwhelming.

The BD side on the other hand has a ton of stuff in the pipeline. I really don't know how much longer I can side with HD DVD exclusively if they refuse to release content. I think March will be the month I buy my BD player.

Do the studios traditionally announce any worthwhile DVD releases in January? I'd expect a post-holiday slump to be pretty normal for home video as a whole, much as it is for theatrical releases.

But this is the start of a new format, you would expect a lot more titles. Also it'd be great if they had something to say "hey we got tons of titles coming too," but that's not the case.

And out of all of that stuff in the pipeline, I think there are maybe 3 titles in which I'm interested. There are a few others that have me interested, too, but their prices are WAY too high right now. Have you looked at the average price for Blu-Ray discs on Amazon? They're absurd; Mr. and Mrs. Smith is listed at $35.99. Thirty-five freakin' dollars and ninety-nine cents! What's more, it probably won't have any extras, if most other Fox titles are an indication. Despite the fact that I eventually gave in, my loyalty is still going to be with HD DVD, primarily because of price. If BD gets things under control, that might change. For now, though, the lack of HD DVD releases don't necessarily bother me.