Toshiba HD-A2
Well I've gone and done it now. A new Toshiba HD-A2 is now part of the ol' audio video system. The prices on these players has been dropping rapidly over these past months, and this particular player was had as a refurb for $200.
The original HD-A1 suffered from slow startup among a few other niggles. The A2 improves greatly on this by cutting starup time down to around 30 seconds. HD-DVD discs play in about ten seconds or so.
Image quality for standard DVDs is very nice, as the player does quite a good job of upscaling. HD-DVDs look spectacular. We viewed "Mission Impossible III" with amazing detail and color saturation. "The Big Lebowski" was also a very nice transfer, and made this great film even more enjoyable to watch. "Rattle and Hum" sounded great, but didn't seem to gain quite so much from the HD presentation. The original film is quite grainy. I suspect it was shot on 16mm film.
It seems HD-DVD has enjoyed a sales boost from these lower priced players. At less than half of what a Blu-Ray unit costs, it's easy to see why. Seems the war isn't over just yet. I would have never paid $600 for a player myself, Playstation or not. I believe this is the case with most others out there too.
posted by Pixelriffic at
4:44 PM 
2 Comments:
Having just discovered your podcast, I'm disappointed to find out that you decided to quit producing it. Nevertheless, it appears that your Blog has a lot of good information.
I'm just getting into digital video and recently purchased a Panasonic Mini-DV 3CCD camera and Vegas Movie Studio.
The only thing I don;t like about the camera is that it has no external mic. inputs. It seems you cannot buy a camera with external mic. inputs for less than $1000, which is more than I want to spend. Do you know of any???
Also, since you are no longer podcasting, are you aware of another podcast that is similar to yours? I'm making my way through your back episodes, but I will run out soon enough.
Thanks!
Dave King
www.davekingmusic.com
Hi Dave,
Thanks so much for the kind words. The podcast just took more time than I had to give. Beware of the earlier ones, they're pretty rough!
Mic inputs are definitely a problem on lower end camcorders. Most share this problem. You get near the 2K range to find camcorders that offer mic in. Keep an eye out for any remaining closeouts on the Sony PDX-10.
The other alternative is to use a separate recorder. Samson makes a couple of these under the "Zoom" label that are very slick. More of a hassle, and you have to sync in editing, but much better than the on camera mic.
Post a Comment
<< Home