yea i've heard about that too
im not sure whether its the discs or the player now
most of my hd dvd's, even non combo ones, just stop playing halfway thru
but DVDs always play flawlessly, its so frustrating

it's funny how people complained about blu-ray profile players, but hd-dvd discs dont even work.im sorry for your loss.

it's funny how people complained about blu-ray profile players, but hd-dvd discs dont even work.im sorry for your loss.

If you are having problems playing HD DVD discs make sure you have the latest firmware update for your player you can get the update from Toshiba web site my player had problems until i updated the firmware all my disc play with no problem

Just a side note but circuit city is running a similar offer for HD-DVD's only

It's not all HD-DVD disks, it's just some of the DVD/HD-DVD combination disks that seem to be problematic. Superman Returns has been an abomination. I've tried 4 different disks and none of them are playable or readable 100% throughout with either my XBox 360 HD DVD player or my Toshiba A2. I've had no problems with other combos like Knocked Up and Music and Lyrics.

@ msam137

Where'd you see the CC BOGO HD-DVD offer? TIA.

i have the latest firmware, and its not just combo disks, its all kinds and all studios
circuit city is going to be kind enough to let me exchange my player, so ill find out if its discs or player

Those trying to pretend that only HD DVD has the occasional problem are simply lying.

Go to the various owner forums and you'll find owners of all the various brands and both high def formats periodically talking about 'issues'.

Blu-ray has had their problems too from disc-rot to extremely buggy players (Samsung in particular).

My new Toshiba HD EP35 (the Euro version of the HD A35; an outstanding high spec & great value player) hasn't missed a beat with anything I've thrown at it yet.

Issues with HD-DVD titles isn't anything new Sorry for those that have spend there hard earn money but can't watch there movie because HD-DVD has issues with there Disc.Here are members from HD-DVD forum stating there issue with movies & some players.

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"Cannot Play Disc" message on Miami Vice with XA2...
...but only when chapter skipping to chapters 18, 19 and 20, and scanning forward through these chapters is extremely sluggish. When trying to skip to chapters 18, 19 and 20, the message "Cannot Play Disc. Error Code: 408bc504" comes up. But, starting at chapter 17, the XA2 can play through these chapters just fine, without any glitches. Can anyone else verify?

Also, my friend had no such issues with Miami Vice on his HD-A2.

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Quote:

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trouble with Alexander Revisited
I have a Toshiba HD-A3. When i insert the movie i get the message "system error occurred". I updated the firmware online last night and tried again. Same response. I called Toshiba and their rep told me no problem have been reported with this disk. Any feedback?

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Quote:

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what does 409bc504 error code mean?
any ideas? i was playing The Last Samurai and in a specific part of the fil it stopped playing and this kept popping up, is it a problem with the HDDVD disc? oh and i have a Toshiba A3, the problem happens in the middle of Scene 22

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Quote:

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Knocked Up Problem
I have the Toshiba A-2 & Toshiba A-3. Both have the latest firmware. The movie Knocked Up plays in the A-2 but in the A-3 it just keeps loading & nothing else. Spoke with Toshiba & they don't know why

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Toshiba has a problem & they need to own up to it because movies freezing & not playing at all has been going on for sometime now.I was in that forum 5 mins & came away with just these post but there was more.


http://forum.hd-dvd.com/

I'd say if your firmware is up to date and you have difficulty with all kinds of disks (combo or not), it is likely your player is faulty. There are people having intermittant problems with some titles and no problems with others. I'm not aware of multitudes having problems with everything. There are always going to be bad presses and faulty hardware in the same manner as standard DVDs. There were problems in the early days of DVDs as well. Superman Returns is the only HD title that has been problematic for me so far. May my luck hold as we trudge forth. That said, I'm not convinced that HD-DVD and BD media nor playback hardware and software, let alone pressing, is quite up to snuff yet either. There really is little room for error on HD disks, either making or reading.

you get what you pay for i suppose, always wondered why they could bring out those HD-DVD players soo cheap ;o)

Firmware? On a DVD Player???

WTF is happening? Like, I can understand console updates, but why DVD Players? What ever happened to building something and just shipping it out as best as it could be? Next thing you know they'll be selling specialized Wi-Fi adapters!

I personally never had a problem playing HD DVD disks.

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Firmware? On a DVD Player???

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Tell me about it, I just picked up a $40 Philips dvd player for a friend and one of the first things mentioned in the manual is to check their website for firmware updates.

I can somewhat understand HD players needing firmware updates because the tech is still evolving but standard def players? wtf...

I wouldn't doubt that people from both HD media camps are having some play back issues for whatever reasons. Like others have said, it is a new technology that is yet to be perfected, which is yet another reason not to jump the gun and buy into the new HD formats. The safest bet would probably be HD VMD since it is pretty much SD discs with a little boost, but I don't see you getting your money's worth in the long run.

Originally posted by NexGen76:

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Issues with HD-DVD titles isn't anything new

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- You just couldn't let it go, could you?

Of course I could just as easily post up links & quotes from dissatisfied Blu-ray owners complaining about their buggy players, bad discs or of course that special one that Blu-ray has all to it's self 'disc rot'.

People just have to go & look at the various owners forums.

(Like as if anyone needs links to something so easily found.)

All new stuff can have teething problems.
Even 'ordinary' DVD went through the same thing when it started
(but back then you sure as hell didn't get the speedy firmwares or troublesome movie discs replaced like people do nowadays).

Sadly the Blu-ray fanclub want to pretend these kind of problems are an issue that is completely one-sided.

You're not fooling anyone.

Originally posted by vinny13:

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Firmware? On a DVD Player???

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- Yes, of course.

Where have you been?

There's a whole & long established sub-culture of modding DVD firmwares to get better non-standard features out of various regular DVD players whether it be getting region-free hacks to altering the ability to handle different languages, longer title lengths, different subtitle sizes, subtitle outlining & colours, fonts, screen-savers etc etc.

Why not?

Originally posted by hughjars:

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- Yes, of course.

Where have you been?

There's a whole & long established sub-culture of modding DVD firmwares to get better non-standard features out of various regular DVD players whether it be getting region-free hacks to altering the ability to handle different languages, longer title lengths, different subtitle sizes, subtitle outlining & colours, fonts, screen-savers etc etc.

Why not?

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Because it is a waste of time. It doesn't do much as to fixing problems as it can always create new ones. Firmwares are never really worth it until 2 years of development... Through my experiences anyways...

Uh, firmware for all the HD players be it BR or DVD to my understanding for pre spec was that if a hd key got cracked they would make all new movies with an uncracked code build in & to play the new movie you would have to update your HD player & by update i mean firmware with th enew codes to play the new media!
Does no one else remember this? That shouldn't be a big deal since i know HD dvd's have web enabled content so they are meant to be hoked up to the internet!

Originally posted by vinny13:

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Because it is a waste of time.

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- Ah, I see.

So even though you know nothing about it and have no experience of it, you have decided it must be a "waste of time".

Thanks for that incisive & informed point. Not.

Originally posted by vinny13:

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It doesn't do much as to fixing problems

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- Er, actually fixing some of the bugs and annoying characterisitcs some players come with as standard is exactly what it's about.

It's all about adding functionalities the player doesn't come with as standard
(for instance the modded firmware on my Pioneer DV696 not only quickly, simply & easily added multi-region to it but it fixed the cr@ppy FF & RW through Divx discs as well as making several other little useful adjustments).

.......and how would you know anyways, you hadn't even heard of it before.

Originally posted by vinny13:

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as it can always create new ones.

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- Well in theory that's true of any firmware.

Of course the guys designing these new unofficial ones test thoroughly and I've yet to hear of one bricking anybodies' player (except the dev's own one in the testing).

Originally posted by vinny13:

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Firmwares are never really worth it until 2 years of development... Through my experiences anyways...

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- There's a hell of a lot of very happy owners with modded DVD players that would seriously disagree.

Originally posted by ripxrush:

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Uh, firmware for all the HD players be it BR or DVD to my understanding for pre spec was that if a hd key got cracked they would make all new movies with an uncracked code build in & to play the new movie you would have to update your HD player & by update i mean firmware with th enew codes to play the new media!

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- Well that's true.

It's 'a' use for firmware.

But it's certainly not the only use for it.

There's are all sorts of unofficial hacks going around (handily I've seen some that stay operating even when the official firmware upgrade gets loaded).
The last one I've heard about is a multi-region update for the SD DVD playback side of the Toshiba HD A2/E1 HD DVD players.
Lots of very happy HD DVD owners.

Originally posted by ripxrush:

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Does no one else remember this? That shouldn't be a big deal since i know HD dvd's have web enabled content so they are meant to be hoked up to the internet!

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- Yeah of course.

But it's much less of an issue for HD DVD.

AACS has been cracked twice now, it's just getting easier cos it's getting fully understood.

On the otherhand BD+ and the hardware watermarking Blu-ray uses have not been cracked (despite claims that that is imminent).
It remains to be seen what will happen when they alter BD+ if this version does get cracked and whether it will become easier every time or whether people have to go right back to square one.

(not to mention the 'issues' it may bring to all the Blu-ray players that have to be updated to it, it's introduction alone caused problems for many last time)

So hoping it was just the disk, I returned to Best Buy to exchange Bourne Ultimatum, but they were all out, so I received a full refund, and got to keep the other movie for free. Good deal, and Friday I get to exchange my HD-A3 at Circuit City =D

I have an hd-a3 I bought for 169 at sears. Got it home and updated the firmware immediately, and personally have never had a single problem playing any discs hd or otherwise with it. Except for the occasional "this is a PAL disc".. Been very happy with it so far. I hadn't really bought any dvd's other than maybe 1 a month for a few years but now I have 5 hd ones. I only think pricing them at 30 bucks a piece is not a smart thing to do. The price will keep most people from buying them in droves. Just a thought,

Sontiago

Originally posted by Sontiago:

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I have an hd-a3 I bought for 169 at sears. Got it home and updated the firmware immediately, and personally have never had a single problem playing any discs hd or otherwise with it. Except for the occasional "this is a PAL disc".. Been very happy with it so far. I hadn't really bought any dvd's other than maybe 1 a month for a few years but now I have 5 hd ones. I only think pricing them at 30 bucks a piece is not a smart thing to do. The price will keep most people from buying them in droves. Just a thought,

Sontiago

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glad to hear youre not having problems man, at least someone got what they payed for

things got worse for me, only ONE of my HD DVD's works, the Bourne Identity, Transformers works as well but i have to FW a few minutes around the middle
the rest (about 10) all freeze around the middle every time all the time
taking the HD-A3 back to CC tomorrow so I hope its just the player

Originally posted by Sontiago:

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personally have never had a single problem playing any discs hd or otherwise with it. Except for the occasional "this is a PAL disc".

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So you do have a single problem playing disks.

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Ocean’s Thirteen ($29.99)
SAW III ($29.99)
Spider-Man 3 ($29.99)

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These are the only ones i see that blu-ray has got in the list that are worth the investment.

HD DVD has more in the list that take my fancy.

i updated firmware on my toshiba everything plays on it flawlessly