Toshiba HD-A3™ MSRP $299.99 OCT'07
Toshiba HD-A30™ MSRP $399.99 SEP'07
Toshiba HD-A35™ MSRP $499.99 OCT'07
Exciting things are happening now as the consumer electronics environment enters a new phase. Our television viewing which has always been based upon NTSC standard has already begun changing to High-definition. February 17, 2009 is the deadline for analog broadcasting to cease, after this date all television broadcasting and the TV sets will be in digital. Hopefully by then more broadcasting stations will be converted to high-definition as well. Millions of homes nationwide have already been equipped with high-definition television sets. As for DVDs, HD DVDs have been introduced into the market for more than a year now. During this major transition in consumer electronics Toshiba has brought HD DVD players at very affordable prices. Their 3rd generation HD DVD players are here. While these players are available at down to earth low prices they are also completely equipped with the latest required technology. At the same time these players are also backwards compatible which means you can play standard DVDs as well. The resolution of standard DVDs can also be up converted to high-definition. Isn't it beautiful that one machine alone can do all this?
The new 3rd generation HD DVD players manufactured by Toshiba are:-
Toshiba HD-A3, with MSRP of $299.99 which will be available in October 2007.
Toshiba HD-A30, with MSRP of $399.99 which will be available in September 2007.
Toshiba HD-A35, with MSRP of $499.99 which will be available in October 2007.
Street and internet prices compared to the ones listed here can be much lower. It is very refreshing news for home theater enthusiasts as they can keep their project under budget and enjoy high end picture and audio as well.
The Model HD-A3 outputs 1080i picture @60 Hertz. HD-A30 and HD-A35 outputs 1080P picture @60 Hertz and also at 24 frames per second. This allows displaying the film material in its native frame rate of 24 fps. The two higher models also feature CE-LINK, HDMI™ CEC connectivity. This functionality allows operating two or more devices through one remote control button when these devices are connected to each other through HDMI 1.3 version cables. Thus this functionality eliminates need for extra remote controls or their reprogramming.
HDMI with 1.3 version can send the picture signal for film based contents in 1080P (1920x1080 pixels) @60 Hertz, 120 Hertz or 24 frames per second. For PC based contents in 1440P (2560x1440 pixels) the data can be displayed @ 60 Hertz.
The previous transmission methods which processed video data in 8 bits could generate 256 levels per color. Now if we have three primary colors, Red, Green and Blue then the simple math will be 256x256x256 = 16.7 million colors. In the new version of HDMI cable standard the data processing can be achieved up to 48 bits which generates color levels much higher than 256 and this translates into billions of colors.
The previous cables which had a bandwidth of 6 Gbps could pass the color information in RGB and YPbPr formats but not in Deep Color™.
The new HDMI cables in 1.3 versions which have a bandwidth of 10.2 Gbps (340 MHz) can pass the Deep Color information in IEC61966-2-4 xvYCC color standard. The abbreviation xv stands or Extended Video, Y represents Luminance or Scale of Gray and C and C represents Chroma Red and Chroma Blue. This new standard is backwards compatible as well. RGB and YPbPr color information can also be transmitted over this new path.
In addition to delivering xvYCC Deep Color information, Toshiba's higher HD DVD models can also pass the Lip Sync information. In digital processing the video can take more time than audio. This delay can cause mismatch in audio and video delivery and especially in main dialogues delivery it can spoil the interest of the movie. HDMI's new version corrects this problem by delivering the dialogues and the video at the same time.
HDMI version 1.3 allows 340 Mega Hertz of bandwidth in 10.2 Gigabytes per second. This higher bandwidth supports 10-bit, 12-bit and 16-bit of RGB, YCbCr and YPbPr color depths and as a result billions of colors can flow smoothly over HDMI path and be displayed accurately. One of the great things is that the same HDMI version 1.3 cables also permits higher bandwidth lossless sounds to flow through them.
The new lossless uncompressed studio quality sounds, Dolby TrueHD™ and DTS-HD™ were encoded on many HD DVDs since day one of HD DVD manufacturing. Many multiplex movie theaters nationwide and around the world are also now implemented with these new sound systems. Toshiba's early HD DVD players decoded these sounds inside the player and the output was in the form of digital multi-audio which could go out through HDMI versions 1.1 or 1.2 and analog PCM 5.1 (6 channels) audio which could go out through 6 channel analog outputs. HDMI path was little better as the bass management on it could be done by the receiver but this option is not allowed on the PCM analog audio. So the analog path was restricted to 5.1 channels only and also it could catch any local analog interference.
Audio receiver manufacturers are realizing the need for these new sounds. Onkyo, Denon, Pioneer and Sherwood have introduced their new lines of receivers which can decode Dolby TrueHD™ and DTS-HD™ audios inside the receivers, amplify the sound, implement bass management and spread it over multi channel loudspeakers with proper equalization.
Toshiba's 3rd generation HD DVD players can now output digital bitstream over HDMI version 1.3. The higher models have option of PCM analog outputs as well. An audio receiver with lossless sounds decoding and processing would be a good match for these new Toshiba HD DVD players.
With digital bitstream output for Dolby TrueHD™ and DTS-HD™ and 1080P picture @24 frames per second these players will change the way we have been watching movies at home. It will also bring Cinema and Home Theater very close.
Great news is that these players are available at affordable prices. A very high end high-definition Home Theater can now be accomplished under a very low budget.
http://www.my411family.com/electronics/article.php?id=26&name=Toshiba's_3rd_Generation_HD_DVD_Players_With_Digital_Bitstream_and_Deep_Color_Information
