freudguy

The 3.0 update improved the functionality of my A3 remarkably. I had numerous problems with picture freezes and episodes of pixelized video. Like many folks, I had a helluva time playing HD-DVD/DVD combo disks (including my Star Trek Season 1). Since I updated last week, I have had no problems at all with any discs. I'm very happy about that because I was considering dumping the player and discs and then getting the blu-ray versions of the ones I didn't want to be without.

JimRochester

Hopefully will get to it this weekend. I never liked the idea of combo discs anyway. They were like the original "flippers".

chanster

Does 3.0 speed up start up time or anything? I have an A-2, and think I am running like 2.5, I guess I would only bother to upgrade it if speed times are increased. Thanks

JimRochester

I'm still running 1.1 in my A3 and haven't had any trouble at all with that machine. I may leave well enough alone. Don't fix what ain't broke.

Gizmo

1.1 to 3.0 would be faster disc loading...but its understandable why you would not want to mess with something that is working fine.

darkside

Hmm, i have had freezing issues on a few discs with my A3 so I will definitely give this a try.

Goldberg74

Running the firmware update now.

Hopefully when it is done my "No Reservations" combo will play.

DVD Polizei

Would be nice if Toshy would release a Region-Free Firmware Update for SD DVDs.

darkside

They can't officially release something like this, but I'm surprised someone didn't hack the firmware by now to do it.

Goldberg74

While I do notice the decrease in load times, this $#@! combo disc still won't play.

Oh well.

redbill

someone did. Problem is it doesn't do PAL -> NTSC conversion. so your tv has to be able to display in PAL format.

keyed

The region-free firmware hack has been out for months; I applied it to my HD-A2 two months ago. Check the HD player forum in AVSforums. IIRC, it involved updating the firmware twice; first a downgrade to an Australian/Euro firmware, and then an upgrade to the hacked firmware.

The Cow

still freezes during Transformers for me. Ugh.

GreenMonkey

Ditto. You can hack it to region-free without PAL support or you can hack it to true region-free but then the menus/etc are at PAL hz (720p, 1080i or 1080p/50hz instead of 60hz). Both of my displays show PAL fine (Optoma HD72 projector, Olevia 37" LCD) so I did it to my XA2 and it works great.

There's the normal RCE discs that won't play, but there's a quick remote hack that will work around that I programmed ito my Harmony.

obidawsn

I received the firmware disc in the mail, yesterday, so I'll try to install it soon. I haven't had any problems out of my A2, but what the heck. Maybe it will improve my load times a little. I'm surprised that Toshiba is still creating new firmware for their HD DVD players. Makes me respect the company a little more.

chanster

anybody know if there is noticeable loading time improvement between 2.5 and 3.0?

Goldberg74

I noticed a faster load between 2.1 and 3.0. I either skipped 2.5 or didn't know it existed. Sorry.

darkside

Very cool. There are similar hacks for my LG BH200 and its great to be able to watch PAL Region 2 DVDs on it. It doesn't do conversion either, but my Aquos can thankfully handle it. Maybe someone will hack the 3.0 firmware for the A3 at some point.

DVD Polizei

It hasn't even been a year since Toshiba announced that DVD was better than HD DVD and Blu-ray. Give'em till the end of this year. Besides, what major features have been added to this firmware update, anyway.

RocShemp

So what, if anything does the 3.0 updated do to the A2? I ask because I haven't noticed anything different after I did the update.

alfredog1976

if you guys do upgrade and your movies get pixelated or freeze after update, try "Initialize" option in Maintenance menu.

Goldberg74

I took my combo disc of "No Reservations" to a friend's house that has an A2 (original firmware) and it played just fine. My D3 (firmware 3.0) still won't play it.

Oh poop!

islandclaws

I dl'd the new update last week. I couldn't tell any difference in my loading time. I have yet to try out any combos that previously gave me issues, though.

Manzana

I've been unable to access the menus on The Searchers HD-DVD on my HD-A30 using factory firmware v1.3. I upgraded to v3.0 and that didn't help at all. The menus work fine on this disc on my HD-A2 (which I keep as a backup in a closet) using its factory firmware. I see that Toshiba just released v4.0 for the HD-A30.

Could anyone who owns a HD-A30 and The Searchers HD-DVD tell me if upgrading to v4.0 finally fixes the menu problems? I'd rather not waste my time upgrading to v4.0 if it's not going to fix the problem. I wrote more details about my problems with The Searchers in:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/hd-talk/539...ease-help.html

applesandrice

Just saw this listed at AVS -- Toshiba has firware version 4.0 ready for download. Apparently, it's for all HD DVD player models, too.

http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/resource.asp?resourceid=71