The Perfect Vision
Toshiba HD-A35 Additional Information
1080p/24 | Adjustment Notes | Test Discs
1080p/24
The term 1080p/24 simply refers to sending 1080p images at 24 frames per second, exactly as most movies are stored on an HD DVD disc. If you have a TV that can display such a signal at a multiple of 24 (say, 72 frames per second, displaying each frame three times), such as the Pioneer Elite PRO-FHD1 I used for this review, the result is exceptionally smooth motion with none of the jerkiness that is unavoidable when film’s 24fps is converted to video’s 60fps, as it is with most players and TVs.
Even if your TV can’t display 1080p/24 at 72fps, many so-called 1080p sets can accept that signal and display it at 60fps. The result is often better than sending 1080p/60 from the player, especially if the player’s internal processor is not up to snuff. If that’s the case, you can also send 1080i to the TV, which probably has a better processor than the player.
Adjustment Notes
As with all Toshiba HD DVD players with the appropriate firmware update, the A35 can access the Internet if its Ethernet port is connected to a broadband network. Speaking of updates, I was informed that version 1.1 of the A35’s firmware was available even before I unpacked it. Updating it was as easy as connecting it to my router, configuring the player’s Ethernet settings, and engaging the update function. All firmware update procedures should be this easy! Internet access also allows discs to offer additional online content, and such discs are now starting to become available.
Other features include support for Deep Color (greater bit depth for colors, which is supported by HDMI 1.3) and CEC (Consumer Electronics Control), a protocol that allows multiple devices to be controlled with a single remote via the same HDMI cable that carries the audio and video. Toshiba calls this feature CE-Link. Also, the HD-A35 can send up to 7.1 channels of what the company calls “high bit-rate” audio (that is, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD), whereas the midline HD-A30 can send only 5.1 channels in these codecs.
The remote is much like the HD-A20’s—smaller than previous designs with black-on-black buttons and basic TV controls. The button labels glow faintly in the dark after being exposed to some light, but the glow doesn’t last long, and the labels are very small and hard to discern. The menu system is also the same as the A20’s, which is to say well-organized, though I miss the picture controls found on the HD-XA2.Test Discs
Starting with the HQV Benchmark HD DVD and outputting 1080p/60, both the video and film resolution loss tests exhibited lots of flickering in the high-frequency vertical bursts. At 1080i/60, the bursts were flicker-free, indicating that the Pioneer PRO-FHD1’s video processor did a better job deinterlacing 1080i content. Similarly, at 1080p/60, jaggies were moderate, which is to say worse than I’ve ever seen them in high-def, whereas they were non-existent at 1080i/60, letting the Pioneer’s processor take over. Because the material on this disc is encoded at 1080i/60, there is no reason to look at the player’s 1080p/24 output in this case.
Playing the HQV Benchmark DVD (which is encoded at 480i/60 for 16:9 screens), I was surprised to find that the image was played in a 4:3 window, even though the player was set for a 16:9 TV. I was able to fill the screen by selecting the TV’s Wide mode, but that cropped quite a bit from the edges. Even more surprising, setting the TV Shape parameter to 4:3 fixed the problem, even though the TV is 16:9! Jaggies were severe at both 1080p/60 and 1080i/60.
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