One area could do with improvement, however, is start-up time. Press the on button and you’ll need to wait almost an entire minute before you can put a disc in, and after that a further 30 seconds until it actually starts playing. In the grand scheme of things, having to wait a minute and a half before sitting down to watch a two-hour movie isn’t that great a hardship, but it’s annoying if you want to quickly flip through scenes from a number of discs.
Looks-wise, the EP30 could pass for a player costing twice the price, with its sleek black and sliver lines. The bright white LED display may appear a little dazzling at first, especially if you’ve dipped the lights for that movie theatre feel, but you can dim it or even turn it off if you find it distracting.
Looks-wise the EP30 could pass for a player costing twice the price
Like its predecessors, the EP30 has a USB port at the front hidden beneath a flap that is currently non-functional and reserved for future use – but it can use it to charge up your iPod if you don’t want to boot up your PC just to give it a boost. Round the back you’ll find the usual connectors for HDMI and component-video, plus standard-definition composite-video output. You won’t find a Scart connector. There’s also an Ethernet port, providing access to additional disc content and player updates over the internet, provided you wire it up to your broadband box, of course.
Verdict
All in all, the EP30 is a bit of a steal – even if you’re just looking for a new DVD player then it’s worth considering since it’s not half bad at upscaling your existing movie collection. Put in a HD DVD disc, however, and the results are fantastic. If you’ve got an HD telly, then you’re really not doing it justice feeding it standard definition content. Add in the fact that you get seven discs included – worth around £75 at least – and it’s a bargain.
Toshiba HD-EP30 HD DVD player
COMMENTS
Upscale
Are there any players that will upscale to 1600 x 1200 to a DVI?
HD DVD V Blu Ray
I'm afraid that after reading all this Hi Tech stuff, I am totally baffled as what to buy.
I agree with the chap before who said it's a case of who die's first - HD DVD or Blue Ray, then I shall decide which to go with.
In the mean time I shall purchase a cheap HD DVD player and wait for the fight to finish!
Cheers
Whatever happened to consumer choice
Well I have no googled pages to back me up here, but didn't consumers choose the victors between Betamax and VHS? I'm sure all the film studios simply released in both formats until a clear winner (the inferior VHS format) emerged.
Seems to me the guys with the biggest backhanders won this time, with studio exclusives and such like (they probably preferred the region coding in Blueray too - maybe HDDVD should have gone that route) - or maybe the film studio execs should have accepted that cinema going is a dying social disease, and the human race moves closer to a matrix like reality of not leaving the house unless strictly necessary.
If thousands upon thousands suddenly started buying HDDVD machines because their prices dropped like stones, would the film studios and 'quality' newspapers still call it dead?
Personally, I'm rewatching all my SD DVDs thru' an SD player on a HIDEF TV and loving the qualitive<sp?> difference, and whichever HD players breaks the sub £100 barrier, I (and I'm guessing) millions of other (normal folk) will make the jump to rewatch our SD films upscaled.
Apart from an extremely select few most loved movies, I will not be rebuying my DVD collection in HD format. I hate Microsoft & Sony (the corporation, not the folks who work in them) in equal measure - I realise MS don't own the HDDVD format, but they do back them, but if I had a choice I would always go with a consortium of backers of a format.
Apologies for the long post.
Tony F Paulazzo
You call that research?
From your first link.... "The DVD Forum's representatives said that the issue is still under study."
Please find me a single player or disc that uses TL51 or region coding for HD-DVD movies.
There are none.
All HD DVD players today can play all known and planned movies with all features.
Can the same be said for blu-ray?....
@kevin re blu-ray fud
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx?NewsId=21372
quote
However, the new HD DVD-ROM discs may not be compatible with the first generation HD DVD players, since their triple-layer nature could require the use of spherical aberration compensation techniques for reading, a feature that is not currently supported by the HD DVD hardware
also
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10863296&&#post10863296
which has a very interesting conversation on the topic as well as the PLANNED region coding with Amir Majidimehr, Corporate Vice President, Consumer Media Technology Group, Microsoft one of the driving forces behind HD-DVD.
So much for the blu-ray FUD. Unlike some, I research before commenting
