Quote Originally Posted by emaidel
Here's another reason HD-DVD deserved to die: often, HD discs simply don't work! In the owner's manual for my Toshiba player, there's a statement to the effect that, "as this is a new technology, not all discs will play." Huh? Also, after having ordered the "Final Cut" on HD of "Blade Runner" through netflix, waiting several months while it was first listed as "very long wait," then "wait time unknown," to "unavailable," I found a multi-disc HD set at Target and bought it.

I waited a couple of months (I've been watching ALL the seasons of "24" in the meantime!) before openining up "Blade Runner, " and plopping it into my player. Well, last night I did just that. I was very impressed with the newly clear image, and very impressive sound for about 45 minutes, when the player simply stopped, and posted a prompt, "Cannot read or play disc." That was it. From then on, that disc, and the other HD discs in the set just sat in the player's drawer with no picture whatosever. Just to be sure, I put in an ordinary DVD, and it worked fine.

So, what's the use of a system whose player states that it won't always work, and whose software (which also had a statement in it that it might not work on all HD players) doesn't work either.

And just today, in the Sunday advertising supplements from the local paper, Sears is running a Toshiba HD player "on sale."

I thought the same when I opened the HD-D3 I purchased, a second generation machine. Right on top they recommend you perform a software update. Then I open the manual and there again they recommend you upgrade. But what really surprised me is on both free movies that came with the player had the same recommendation. Wouldn't it be just as easy to put an upgrade disc in the box. Why make the consumer go through the trouble of either downloading the ISO upgrade, or request a disc from Toshiba.

This was my second player, the first was an HD-A2. It displayed the same symptoms as emaidel. Twice during playback of Tramsformers it stopped and locked up. Nothing but pulling the power plug would allow you to play a disc. It also would not play many standard DVDs.