I agree with the first part. However, if 40" is too small for HD then the HD biz should give up now, unless they expect the majority of households to have tv larger than that.

+1

I'm really sorry about your terrible situation. Next time a Blu Ray exclusive comes out, you will be forced to buy the SD version just like you would if you had bought the Oppo. I'm sure this is a difficult time for the family. Please send my kind regards.

This is why I got the A3. I have a very good V. D1 player, but even after the mod it was starting to get flaky. I got a year or so out of it and only paid $40 for it.

I just hooked up my A3 over the weekend and am pleased. SD looks great. I wish I would have left my D1 hooked up to directly compare, but I'd say right off the A3 is better.

I have no plans to replace all my SD DVD (I've had a PS3 for nearly a year and only have a handful of blu-ray discs). I'm sure I'll get some. And I MAY repeat a few really favorite titles, like Matrix, but otherwise I'll only buy HD for movies that I don't all reay have and that are on sale, if then.

I paid $123 shipped for the A3 IMHO, for my needs, I think a much better value then the OPPO.

CaptainRon, I feel the same way. I got a A3 player and 10 free discs for under $200, which is how much my OPPO cost me. The Oppo was a far better investment. I really regret buying the A3.... but I think the movies really really look better than DVD- It's just that most movies I want are on BlueRay- and a a bunch are not out- and probably won't be out for years. I check the release announcements thread every day and realize that I made a big mistake. Nothing new is coming out anytime soon. Would I be better off with BlueRay... maybe, I think I should have waited to see what happens. I am a testament to Toshiba's master marketing plan of cheap players. I did get the A3 as sort of a gift, so I really didn't have much of a choice, but I can't really recommend anyone to invest now. And I have been telling lots of people to wait.

I'm planning on unloading my A3 and picking up a second oppo for the bedroom. In a year or so I'll see what's availible as far as movies and what players don't take a freaking minute to boot up.

Again, the terrible situation I was referring to is the format war ,not my personal situation.

But you are hilarious, do you do parties?

I dont understand how you're involved in a format war. You're not going to be drafted into battle on a forum. You're just as involved now as when you only had an SD player. You can opt to buy only SD-DVDs and never think about the format war again.

Just think of the A3 as a normal dvd player that came with 10 free movies.

D

I don't understand how this thread got up to 3 pages.

Now this is something with which I agree.

But if you got the A3 as a gift, why drop it for an Oppo? It upconverts exceptionally well - probably better than the Oppo - and even if you don't take advantage of the HD feature, it's still there in case your interest is ever piqued.

The Oppo, depending on the model, has two specific advantages over any HD DVD player:

1. Region free playback with correct PAL->NTSC conversion.
2. On the newer models, SACD and DVD-A playback.

Neither Oppo upconverts as well as any of the standalone HD DVD players. If region free SD capabilities and SACD/DVD-A are important, than the Oppo is a better choice. Otherwise the A3 (or A2, or even A1) is a better machine for upconversion and HD playback.

Captain Ron why not dump the A3 and the 10-free movies at a pawn shop and trade for an used Oppo? I have seen craploads of Oppos at pawn stores since the Toshibas got real cheap! Why eat away at yourself for your "bad" buying decision when all your concerns can be dumped at a nearby pawn shop? I hope this info helps you make a wise decision regarding your dilemma. No thanks are necessary.

You may not believe this now, but you're gonna miss that A3 when it's gone.

You can call yourself an early adopter. If this thing (HD DVD and/or Blu-ray) ever catches on to about 50% of the popularity of a DVD player within 5 years, you'll still be one of the first 1% to buy an HD player.

Anyway, I changed the thread title for you (per your change).

The upconversion of the A3 is nowhere near the oppo. A3 upconversion does a decent job, but it is no upconverting player. I've compaired the oppo and the A3 and without a second look, the oppo does a far, far better job.

Also I like my player to turn on when I turn it on. and when I press a button on the remote, i expect the player to respond immediately. Dedicated SD DVD players are far better performers.

WOW. So this makes me completely re-think my options. Does anyone else agree with this?

Nope, it's probably just him...the A3 (heck, even the A2) is a better upconverting player, but the Oppo is still very good. And if +/- 20 seconds is too long to wait for the A3 to boot up, that's probably where his bias begins and ends.

I have to disagree with this. Both do a good job, but the Toshibas do a (slightly) better job.

I'd be curious how you can say that the Oppo does a "far, far better job". That seem incorrect to me. At the very least, it seems like hyperbole, given how similar both machines perform.

What, specifically, did you see that impressed you about the Oppo?

Nope... Used to have an Oppo, sold it when I got my A1.

My only thing is that for people who are regretting their purchase, the things that are being complained about are kind of well established. What was the reasoning behind the purchase then?

On my display, my Oppo 970 looks better on upconverting than my A1 or A20. It also looks better than my BDP-S1. Of course the differences are subtle at best.

The 970 was recommended to me specifically for my model of Sammy DLP, so of course YMMV.

Interesting quote from an article on Video Business which kind of goes along with my orginal point...

“Both formats will be established and co-exist for the foreseeable future,” said Helen Davis Jayalath, senior analyst at Screen Digest. “By 2012, U.S. high-def software will be evenly split between the two formats, where Blu-ray represents 55% of the market and HD DVD represents 45%. But high-def formats won’t boost volume sales [for home entertainment] to the degree that DVD did [over VHS]. Backwards compatibility and upscaling reduces consumers’ desire to replace existing DVDs.”


The interesting twist is that I assume they are talking about the "typical" consumer. However in my case I am an informed DVD and Home Media buyer, and I STILL feel this way.

Is that a recent quote? I've been saying something like that at my previous job for almost two years now (and over a year in this forum).

Too many people (none of you of course) have a hard time distinguishing HD content from upconverted SD content. Heck, a lot of people can't distinguish HD from regular SD content. If I got a nickel for everytime someone asked me, "Is this in HD?" when watching something on my HDTV, I'd be rich.

Here is a link to the article. It came out yesterday.

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6509576.html

thanks for speaking for me but no.

The oppo upconverts far better than the A3 with the A3 having far much more noice and jaggies on the lines. Even my wife, who has trouble telling upconverted DVDs from HD can tell the differrence. yeah it's marginal, but not only can I see it easily on my calibrated set, having watched over 30 hours of upconverted DVDs on my new A3, there are things the A3 just don't handle as well- and I'm very used to seeing decent upconversions from the OPPO as I've been using their players for over a year. I have both players hooked up and have had them playing DVD's in sycn and without question, the OPPO wins every time. I'd like to know where you are getting your info from.

I have a 981 and a 970 (the A2 seems closer to the quality of the 970, which is good, but not as good at the DCDi based players).

The start-up time on the player is annoying. You turn it on while standing in front of it and you have to stand there holding the disc for 40 seconds before the tray even opens. then every button press and the machine has to think a split second- makes for a terrible day-to-day DVD player. It just does not perform as fast and as good as the OPPO when handling standard DVD's. I think the technology to open a tray and accept a disc olmost instantly has been around for what... over 10 years now? If you watch a lot of DVD movies and use the player a lot, it will annoy you.

How do you have the A3 and the Oppo hooked up? I'm guessing HDMI to a receiver? Or, are you using any kind of HDMI switcher?

Nogura