One Installer’s Opinion
Dear Gary:
I was disappointed in August’s “One Installer’s Opinion” segment. I sent Terry Paullin an email, and I thought you should be copied what I sent, since it concerns your magazine.
Hi Terry:
I just read your article in Widescreen Review’s August issue. I would like to take issue with you on a few things.
First of all, you devoted what I thought to be an unnecessary amount of space complaining about the remote. Not that I don’t think the remote could be better, but please, we have all seen poorly designed remotes. This would probably not be a huge influence on someone's buying decision.
Next, you go into a rant on the loading times, exclaiming that it takes an entire 65 seconds to load a disc. Again, this is longer than a standard DVD player but hardly long enough to go to dinner, as you said. Then you said you had a lockup on another occasion. Many people experienced lockups that were solved with firmware updates provided by Toshiba. Part of the beauty of this player is its ability to be updated.
Then you complain of four different overscan settings for four different resolutions but never mention whether it was HDMI or component connections you were using.
When you said you were “underwhelmed” with the picture quality, I knew you either had an agenda, you had something wrong with your setup, or you were grossly incompetent for a high-end installer who should know better. But the final straw that made me want to email you was this paragraph:
“As a final data point, I did something I normally hate to do (because it usually just makes me mad)—I visited a couple of A/V chat forums to see if there was any ‘buzz’ on the street. Boy Howdy, was there! Sifting through more than a hundred pages of postings, sentiment seemed to run about two- or three-to-one extolling the merit of the HD-A1. This was troubling until the epiphany came and further explained more of the nonsense I had read there. Invariably, those offering lackluster reports of the new box were questioned by others as to what kind of equipment they were using. They ALL had reference systems (read that: costs more than a BMW M5).”
Your elitist opinion of anyone who doesn’t have a “reference system” is outrageous. To say that the complainers on the forums, (which even by your account, there aren’t many) have “reference systems” and apparently only they can see the “underwhelming” performance of the HD-A1 is ridiculous. Many of those who have highly rated the HD-A1 have very high-end systems. You apparently didn’t read very carefully or were not on the AVS Forum.
HD DVD is a new technology and is enthusiastically being embraced by early adopters. And who is Widescreen Review aimed at if not early adopters. We, the early adopters, realize that not everything will be as smooth as it will be when the format is more mature. Therefore, we expect to have a few problems. Thanks to Toshiba and their outstanding customer service, those problems have been all but eliminated. Funny how you never mentioned the software updates and Toshiba’s speed in providing them in your article.
Frankly, this is one of the most one-sided, biased articles I have read, and it certainly is not up to Widescreen Review’s standards. Here is to hoping you print a follow-up article, which corrects this poorly written and researched one.
Stacy D. Lehman
Editor-In-Chief and Publisher Gary Reber Comments:
My sentiments are with you, Stacy. I allow great latitude to our writers to express their experiences with new technologies and equipment. As for my own personal viewpoint, I have enthusiastically embraced HD DVD as I did previously with D-VHS® D-Theater™, which was the benchmark for prerecorded, high-definition content encoded with the MPEG-2 codec. With the VC-1 codec employed in the HD DVD releases to date at a 12- to 18-megabits-per-second data rate (Mbps), the picture quality is even better than MPEG-2 at the 25 Mbps data rate used for D-Theater. And let’s not forget the significantly outstanding audio quality potential of the format––which can support linear PCM 96 kHz/24-bit resolution as well as lossy Dolby® Digital Plus and DTS-HD™, and lossless Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio.
I think the initial response of some serious home theatre enthusiasts and our own writers was to express their disappointment that all the ingredients possible weren’t always used to produce “the best that it can be” picture and sound experience. They were simply “underwhelmed” and disappointed that the Toshiba players and the initial movie releases did not fully exploit the format’s potential.
This will all get resolved in a relatively quick period as the critical input provided by magazine reviewers and enthusiasts is evaluated and the issues and “wish lists” are addressed in next-generation players and content releases. I am confident that we can look to stunning picture and sound experiences, which, rather than format specification-limited, will be limited to the quality of the source elements and the quality of the telecine high-definition transfers and encoding.
You can E-mail Widescreen Review @ mailto:editorgary@widescreenreview.com