Toshiba Laptop with built in HD DVD

[Angel1403]

I just saw the above on demo in my local John Lewis.

WoW! the pic was amazing on a Pana Plasma via HDMI.

Price was £2000 for this high spec laptop.

[JonMace]

Brought mine from Tottenham court road for £1895 on Sat, it is a superb piece of kit (all the better because work paid for it:grin: ) have got it connected to my PJ and amp, it is sitting on my AV stack and doing no Office work at all:rotfl:

[rentagas]

Brought mine from Tottenham court road for £1895 on Sat, it is a superb piece of kit (all the better because work paid for it:grin: ) have got it connected to my PJ and amp, it is sitting on my AV stack and doing no Office work at all:rotfl:

Interesting!
I assume it plays HD-DVD's. Have you tried a US HD DVD?. Are there any region issues? I assume it only plays region 2 DVD's (or lets you change region 5 times etc.) How does it get around the HDCP problem. There must be some hardware acceleration to decode HDDVD presumably using the nvidia chipsets HD stuff. The Sony Blu Rry notebook is said to stutter during playback of HDDVD does this? of course an obvious ploblem is no optical writing ability.

http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/cgi-bin/ToshibaCSG/jsp/productPage.do?service=UK&PRODUCT_ID=116152


So is this the first HD DVD player officially available in the UK?

ps wanted one from the first time I saw the press release!

[JonMace]

Yes it plays US HD DVDs have only watched Conicles of Riddick so far, but no stuttering. Have not watched any standard DVDs so not sure about the regions on that.

It is connected to my Panny PT700 via HDMI which is HDCP complient.

It does have optical writing abilities but only up to DVD9, so no writting of HD DVD.

Any other questions I will do my best to answer

[rentagas]

Just reread the specs on the Toshiba site-sorry it is a writer as well!
Presumably it outputs 1080i not 1080p (if it did output 1080p it would be the only existing HD DVD player to do so). If it upscales region 2 DVD's to 1080i that would be interesting.
It actually is begining to look good value!

Anyone who is thinking of buying an imported player may want to look at this, I had thought they would delay release until the UK launch (the US version was released around the same time). I assume Toshiba want to shift them before the next core duo processors come out.

Obviously it would be good to compare performance with an A1/XA1

I have a qosmio at present and have been very pleased with it (but it is heavy). I was hoping to donate to my wife and buy a lighter laptop but this is very tempting.

[JonMace]

I think when I looked it was 1080/60i, as I say I have not looked at and SD DVDs get so cannot report on whether it up scales or not, but will have a look over the weekend and report back

[Avi]

Just reread the specs on the Toshiba site-sorry it is a writer as well!
Presumably it outputs 1080i not 1080p (if it did output 1080p it would be the only existing HD DVD player to do so). If it upscales region 2 DVD's to 1080i that would be interesting.
It actually is begining to look good value!

Anyone who is thinking of buying an imported player may want to look at this, I had thought they would delay release until the UK launch (the US version was released around the same time). I assume Toshiba want to shift them before the next core duo processors come out.

Obviously it would be good to compare performance with an A1/XA1

I have a qosmio at present and have been very pleased with it (but it is heavy). I was hoping to donate to my wife and buy a lighter laptop but this is very tempting.


I've also got a Qosmio and it's great as a desktop replacement but as you say it's heavy. I'll check out my local JLP's at the weekend.

AVI

[Mr.D]

Just reread the specs on the Toshiba site-sorry it is a writer as well!
Presumably it outputs 1080i not 1080p (if it did output 1080p it would be the only existing HD DVD player to do so). If it upscales region 2 DVD's to 1080i that would be interesting.
It actually is begining to look good value!



Surely it just outputs the desktop resolution like any other computer, so in effect it will scale anything to any resolution you like.

[JonMace]

OK had an othe play - It does up scale SD.

But when I go into the options on the PJ it shows 1125/60i on both HD and SD when set on 1080i, then 750/60p when set on 720p.

Any one got any ideas?

[Nic Rhodes]

1125/60i on both HD and SD when set on 1080i, then 750/60p when set on 720p.

Any one got any ideas?

That is what we mean by 1080i and 720p, it is counting some hidden lines as well.

[Mr.D]

How are you hooked up tp the projector ? VGA ? DVI?
If so you are best setting your desktop to 1280x720 and matching the panel res in the projector , that way the PC does all the scaling .

[sold5]

Hi all,

I have one of these laptops (again work were generous enough to buy it for me :clap: ) and it "seems" to have upscaled the matrix from SD last night, the pic was definitely really good quality but I never thought of checking it out.

It automatically changes the screen settings when plugged into the projector, so both match... seems to be 1280 x 1024... does that make any sense?

Audio is fantastic for a laptop and plenty to use the speakers while watching the matrix - my amp is out of the living room for now but I didnt miss it much.

2 x 120gb hard drive is excellent, only one filled so far since last week :eek:

Will not output HD DVD by VGA, so work will just have to get me a "back-up" hdmi projector, in case my current one fails of course.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Is it heavy? Hell yes. But manageable. Wont be used much on my lap for sure.

Was call of duty 2 good on it? Yep, especially through the projector. Sound is plenty for gaming.

Does it burn HD DVD's - nope but there's no HD DVD media to burn any cheaper than buying films just now anyhow.

Does it have region coding - No. Phew. Plays US HD DVD's and seems to play any SD stuff ive tried

Will it play HD clips off the internet? Yes, a bit stuttery on one or 2 but being sorted by driver updates. HD clips look fantastic - eg elephants dream 800mb free animation off the net looks great, also HD trailers. Just need to turn off background apps when running the clips, and have the clips on the hard drive not cd.

Screen is just fantastic for general MS documents, PDF's, surfing the net etc. Brightness up/down buttons are handy. It also hibernates very well with no apparent loss of battery life. Just press the off button.

1080p on screen but only outputs 1080i or 720p - via hdmi.

What dont I like - left and right mouse buttons click too harshly and too stiff - kind of like the clutch on a massey ferguson tractor - so I use a wireless mouse - logitech G7 is really nice.

Would I buy one if I didn't get it free through work? Not too sure, its great but not many HD DVD films to look at so far, and by the time there is will this laptop have been superceded by a much cheaper one thats as good? I could not wait so got HD DVD or be stuck without it for another few years till upgrade time again.

I will use it a lot for music though and the speakers really are top class for this.

So - Great speakers for music, huge hard drive, core duo, graphics fine for games, HD DVD, upscaling (im pretty sure) of SD with great quality pic, great screen for general work use, Big thumbs up.

Bad stuff - mouse buttons are stiff, very square and flat keys, touchpad is fine but preferred my older toshiba one, it had the flat "glass" pad not this slightly rougher finish, styling is a bit like a 90's volvo - boxy but good.

Hope thats of use.

Anyone wanting a more thorough review please fax me on 1800 MY ASS
:devil:

Sold5

[JonMace]

That is what we mean by 1080i and 720p, it is counting some hidden lines as well.

So it is correct and no need for adjustments?

[Nic Rhodes]

So it is correct and no need for adjustments?

Yup as expected :thumbsup: