I find it hard to believe that when it comes to SD upconversion, any of the A series looks any different from another.

Well ... I'm not sure if I can wait two months (and that's only a tentative release date). I'll probably pick up another A2 this week, then when the A20 gets released, maybe I'll pick that up too (and give one of my A2s to my brother; doing my part to increase the number of HD owners).

Where did you get your first A2? Yesterday, Amazon dropped the price down to $379. Not sure if that's the case today as their prices change way too often.

If the A2 becomes available for $300 when the A20 arrives, that may be too tough to pass up. I think I'll always own the A1 though. It may be glitchy, but it's a well built machine.

This was posted by Robert of VE at AVS:

News flash, Update!

In a conversation with Toshiba software developer manager tonight I found out that we will see the DTS HD decoder intergraded in HD DVD players soon.

Other than a couple of foreign region free HD DVDs that have DTS HD audio encoding I don't see any reason why anyone would care about DTS HD. We have Dolby Digital lossless TrueHD, nothing is better about DTS HD audio.

Anyway DTS HD decoding is coming to HD DVD players in a future firmware upgrade, now all we need is for some US titles to incorporate DTS HD audio.

-Robert

Thats good news, BUT does that mean that we would have to change the setting to bitstream for every DTS HD title?

I don't know, but does that mean we'll start getting HD DVD titles with DTS MA? I asked if the A1 was included in this, but hadn't got a response back yet. I'm sure the answer is no as it seems Toshiba is finished updating that fine piece of machinery.

Yes. Though I expect to upgrade my projector in the near future.

No. They're new to the XA2. The A1 had its own host of issues, but these weren't among them.

It sounds good and is a step in the right direction, but im just curious how it will work. Maybe Josh_Z or Spiky can answer?

If the player does the decoding for only DTS MA, then will we have to use pcm for everything else?

I honestly just dont know enough about audio settings.

Robert is supposed to be releasing some more HD DVD later today or tomorrow. I'm not sure if it's regarding players or software.

This was posted in the A20 thread at AVS and includes Robert's response:

-Robert, how do we get get the 3 free movies from Toshiba? It says offer expires 2/28 and must be post marked by 3/31, it also doesnt list the A20. And when does the 5 free movies deal expire, thanks.

-reply by Robert
Desmond34 ^ ^ I can't answer till 12:00 midnight on 2/28/07. You won't be unhappy.

Sounds like Toshiba may be offering up a new free hd dvds promo for the A20.

Damn, I might have to upgrade my A2 to the A20. I can take advantage of the 1080p.

From amazon.com (had a lot of balance left on my gift certificates from Christmas). I saw that it was $379 yesterday too. When do you think it'll drop more? Many are guessing the release of the A20 should have an effect on the price of A2 very soon.

I'm betting it'll be in the next week.

I guess I could buy it today and call amazon next week to price match if it does fall in the next week. Amazon still does this, right?

I'm almost positive they do.

For 30 days after your purchase.

Yes, when I bought the oppo player from them, a week later it went down $12. I emailed and they refunded the $12.

Looks like Robert was mistaken about the Reon chip for the A20, but there looks to be some good news for some in this post:

"I am incorrect. The VP in the A20 is not the same as the XA2, but the A20 will do 1080p 60 Hz to start and is likely to be upgraded to 1080P 24 Hz.

Later I may be able to disclose the process (or should I say "lack of Process") Toshiba is using to deliver 1080p 24 Hz with the mid-summer '07 firmware upgrade."

With this news, I may just go for the A2. But I'm going to wait and see what/if any price drop happens over the next few weeks. Still, for $399 + free shipping/double boxing + 7 free movies from Robert is a great deal.

That's what I ended up doing.

Well, at least I have no reservations about purchasing the HD-XA2 from a performance perspective now. Only the myriad of reported problems that Josh mentioned.

Considering the 4 Best Buy free HD-DVDs and 5 by mail rebate, would you buy an XA2 right now? Today? Considering all else about upcoming price breaks and the A20 release in 2months. I don't think A20 is as good because it's missing the analog outs...

When is the firmware update for 1080p/24 update? Will this firmware update allow the player to read the disc in it's native 1080p/24 without having to take it thru 1080i back into 1080p?

You can't get the XA2 from best buy. The only model they sell is the A2.

I went through this problem as well trying to decide if I wanted analog outs, but decided instead of paying $800 for the XA2 I would be better off getting the A2 and buying an HDMI receiver. Of course I already have a top notch upconverting Denon DVD player so I had less reason to pay extra for the XA2.

I believe July is the current estimate.

From my understanding, Toshiba is still trying to figure out the best way to implement this. The problem is that even if you can get native 1080p24 straight off the disc with no processing, the disc's iHD menus or PiP features such as IME and U-Control are natively 60hz. So either you'll have a movie that looks fine but any overlays will be juddery, or they'll have to design the player to switch back and forth between 24hz and 60hz each time you bring up those options. Blu-ray players opt for the latter scenario, which is problematic because most 24hz-capable displays can't switch frame rates on the fly like that, so the entire picture goes out when you try to pull up a menu.

Ironically, decoding the video as 1080i60 and then deinterlacing/frame rate converting it to 1080p24 avoids both these problems.

Why did they make them natively 60hz and not 24hz to begin with? Is this something they're going to change?