Toshiba’s BDX2000 Blu-ray Player Hits Best Buy

[chris gerhard]

Originally Posted by Juio

Don't some BD movies with dobly true hd tracks have a bitrate around 1.5 mbps which is the same as DD+?

DD+ is a compressed lossy codec, Dolby TrueHD is a compressed lossless codec and although maybe theoretically possible to do Dolby TrueHD at 1.5Mbps, I don't think there has been a Blu-ray release with such a low bitrate. I would guess a mono soundtrack without much dynamic range would be the candidate for such a low bitrate and then why bother with Dolby TrueHD in that case. I don't believe there is any theoretical minimum limit bitrate for Dolby TrueHD and I believe the maximum is 18Mbps on Blu-ray.

After living with Dolby Digital Plus on HD DVD for almost three years now, I believe that was the best choice for the format due to bitrate and capacity constraints. It really does sound great and I wouldn't pay much to replace HD DVD's with Blu-ray discs just to get lossless audio. MLP is used with Dolby TrueHD, the same compression method used with DVD-A and after using DVD-A for many years and being able to compare it to standard DVD Dolby Digital and the often profound difference between lossless and lossy, I was expecting a big difference between Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus. Dolby Digital Plus would be great for premium HDTV pay services but it is too late for that now.

Chris

[chris gerhard]

As far as this Toshiba Blu-ray player, all we need to know is who makes it and what clones are available to determine how much it is really worth. I don't think Blu-ray player manufacturers are making much right now and Toshiba probably believes having a player to bundle with displays and sell a few at a profitable price is smarter than trying to compete at market prices for any given player level. Of course Toshiba could sell the player at today's market price for the given feature and performance level, make nothing on each player sold and sell more but why bother? I haven't cared enough to figure out the OEM and I used to try to figure that out with each new player release. We had hoped for HD-XA2 performance and build quality but that just isn't possible at $200. An Oppo clone must have been considered but Toshiba doesn't have a premium brand name to justify trying to market the player at $800 or so. I think Toshiba made the right choices here but the player isn't going to amount to anything in terms of marketshare, Toshiba can say me too when consumers want to have HDTV and Blu-ray players be the same brand, nothing more, nothing less.

Chris

[GizmoDVD]

Originally Posted by ObsoleteFuture

Fully understood, but... Ya'll don't care for the audio upgrade to DTS-HD MA? Or certain new transfers being used, new art/cover work, EXTRAS etc? One example: I can think of is: An American werewolf in london is better overall.

also, the prices aren't too bad. and if you wait a lil bit, you can get some newly released Univsersal titles at $12/13

DD+ to DTS MA isn't much difference for 95% of people. And new 'transfers' is typically just added DNR/EE. Extras...well, some titles do have more extras and some have less. You can certainly pick up many Universal BDs that are 'superior' in one or all of those field, but others are not. It's not worth the hassle to me.

[GizmoDVD]

Originally Posted by chris gerhard

As far as this Toshiba Blu-ray player, all we need to know is who makes it and what clones are available to determine how much it is really worth. I don't think Blu-ray player manufacturers are making much right now and Toshiba probably believes having a player to bundle with displays and sell a few at a profitable price is smarter than trying to compete at market prices for any given player level. Of course Toshiba could sell the player at today's market price for the given feature and performance level, make nothing on each player sold and sell more but why bother? I haven't cared enough to figure out the OEM and I used to try to figure that out with each new player release. We had hoped for HD-XA2 performance and build quality but that just isn't possible at $200. An Oppo clone must have been considered but Toshiba doesn't have a premium brand name to justify trying to market the player at $800 or so. I think Toshiba made the right choices here but the player isn't going to amount to anything in terms of marketshare, Toshiba can say me too when consumers want to have HDTV and Blu-ray players be the same brand, nothing more, nothing less.

Chris

Nailed it.

Had Toshiba shocked us all with XA2-quality we'd be very happy. Instead they released a sub-par player with no 'online' features and nothing that makes it stand out. Its for bundling purposes only. Maybe they will care in 2010.

[Juio]

What are the tech specs for this blu ray player then? I don't really give a damm about the online features like netflix and youtube. I just want to know if it bitstreams up to 7.1 DTS MA through HDMI. Does it also do 24p mode for blu rays?

[JAC35]

Additional Product Features:

* BD-Live™ (Profile 2.0)
* 1080p/ 24fps Full HD Video Output
* AVCHD Playback
* Toshiba REGZA-LINK® (HDMI-CEC)
* Support for enhanced audio formats from Dolby® TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio | Essential ™
* Bonus View
* SD Card Slot
* ENERGY STAR® Certified

Supported card types: SD cards: 8MB~2GB, SDHC cards: 8GB. Supported file types: JPEG, MP3, WMA and AVCHD. Some cards and files may not be supported.


Pricing and Availability:

Toshiba Blu-ray Disc Player
BDX2000 available November, MSRP $279.99

Why is everyone saying the price is out to lunch? 279 CDN MSRP is what it is coming into the market at and the Panasonic is $299.99 right now on the store shelves.

[JAC35]

I just read somewhere that this player is a re-badged funai player, is that correct??? Quality??

[ObsoleteFuture]

there's one review on amazon, its from a buyer. says this is his FIRST blu ray player, though... waited this long? kinda weird... he gave it 4 stars

[Juio]

It's almost $190 from amazon themselves. That's a pretty good deal, but the LG BD 370 is less than that at Fry's which is $130.

[ObsoleteFuture]

it below 190 now, looks like $179.02! I rememebr i had posted a few days back and it was like 188$ the price keeps dropping! hopefully will drop more

i didn't know the LG BD 370 is $148. always loved the design, especially that blu ray button in the middle

[Juio]

Isn't the LG BD 370 known for having upscaling problems or are those just rumors I hear? It's just better to get the BD 390 instead of the 370 right?

[ObsoleteFuture]

im not really sure,i dont own it, so i haven't heard much. isn't the BD 390 a more updated player? i remember hearing you can stream vids/pics, mp3s etc from PC, sounds nice.

[ObsoleteFuture]

Originally Posted by vinnie97

There are still over 100 exclusives...and some folks are content on using their HD DVD hardware until it dies, whenever that may be, so no, they haven't paid the cost for the same movie again. I'm not one of those people but at the same time, I am considering not bothering replacing my HDs with their Blu counterparts, as it is pretty much money down the drain and there won't be much loss if I am unable to see some of the films again.

100 sounds like a lot, and nice, and i can see where your coming from, but how many exclusives are NOW from BD? The list will continue to grow.
I'm just curious what # BD is on now

I too enjoy (or enjoyed) my XA2, but with the massive amount of titles I've bought, collected for a while now from blu ray I just don't see myself using much of the XA2. It was my main player for viewing upconverted SD DVDs, but when Oppo came, just didn't use it anymore

[vinnie97]

Who knows? The number surely exceeds a thousand now since the (HD DVD) format's been dead for nearly 2 years.

As far as HD DVD exclusives, if you include smaller studios and imports for which there is no BD counterpart, there are 240: Complete List of HD DVD Titles (exclusives in Red)

[JAC35]

What is the Essential ™ part of DTS-HD Master Audio | Essential ™ again?