Toshiba HD-EP30 HD DVD Player. £119.99

cheapskate58

Shoppaholic12345 wrote: »

Mine arrived yesterday. It's fantastic. I got it for £114 with a 5% discount code and another £5 via Quidco. Got it region hacked as well.

Filled out the free films form and sent it off too. :j

How did you get it region hacked?

The world and it's dog are trying to find a hack for the HD-EP30.

Point us in the direction and become a hero:cool:

Jefft_2

I just tracked my Toshiba EP30 ordered from Amazon and to my surprise discovered it had already been delivered yesterday by Home Delivery Network at 11:00am (left at doorstep) so went outside in the middle of the night to investigate and discovered it had been dropped over my back gate 2 metres onto concrete. Nice!!! I am extremeley tired of delivery problems with Amazon, I have only just got a refund for a camera that disappeared in the post. My previous order never turned up and was returned to Amazon three weeks later as "undeliverable" although there was no attempt at delivery. And now they appear to have a foreign call centre with an extremely bad line and accents that are difficult to understand, after around 8-10 minutes I got cut off. Well it is going back for a refund. Enough is enough.

MORPH3US

@ Jefft...

Let me guess, was it HDNL that "dropped" (pun intended) it off?

Heard a lot of horror stories about them and also had a digital camera thrown up the alley at the side of my house (its securely gated so only way they could of got it that far up the alley is to throw it) because no one was in...

M

Renovatio

mertuk wrote: »

I have a PS3 and a Sony 46" full 1080p TV, I went for the PS3 to play games on and watch Blu-ray movies. It does look like Blu-ray will ultimately be the stronger format in the long run.

I bought the HD-DVD player from play because it's a fantastic deal especially coming with those free movies, I also get the best of both worlds in HD.

HD-DVD will still be around for a long time, for £120 it's a good buy.

Buy one and have fun.

My sentiments exactly.

This is a 1080p 24fps HD player that currently out performs the PS3 in the image it outputs. If you are more interested in movies and have a large standard DVD collection then this is a bargain.

As they say in highlander, "there can be only one" but the nail is not yet in the coffin of HD DVD so personnally i will utilise the best of both formats for the foreseeable future.

james3333

Renovatio wrote: »

My sentiments exactly.

This is a 1080p 24fps HD player that currently out performs the PS3 in the image it outputs. If you are more interested in movies and have a large standard DVD collection then this is a bargain.

As they say in highlander, "there can be only one" but the nail is not yet in the coffin of HD DVD so personnally i will utilise the best of both formats for the foreseeable future.

nonsense.......ps3 blows this out of the water.
ps3 is being CONSTANTLY updated via firmware updates with everything from 24fps to the very latest HDMI standards and loads more.
the format war is over.......BLURAY won.
dont waste your money on a player that will no longer 'be' in the next 6 months.

malcyplop

As the OP, I didn't buy one because I have a PS3 and a multi region upscaling Denon 1930. If the EP-30 could be made multi region with a free hack, I'd jump at it to replace the Denon because whichever way you look at it, format war or no, it is a bargain player if you like the free DVD offer.
If you have an HD screen and no HD player, it is the cheapest way of seeing your screen as intended.

hander

If you are going down the HD-DVD route, then you might want to pick up one of these to go with it ...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=170186870653

richto

Surely thats another Sony product more appropriate to go with your Sony Blutamax player (if you were stupid enough to buy one)? Seeing as they are already obsolete.

The new profile required to play newer BLu Ray discs requires NEW HARDWARE and these players ARE NOT AVAILABLE YET. So anyone who buys a Blu Ray player now - well its already another Betamax.

The only possible exception is the PS3 - which might be able to overcome these requirements in software but its by no means a certainty at this point in time.

For the cost of a PS3 you could get an Xbox 360 (with superior graphics and games) AND a more flexable standalone HD DVD player for less. Of course that also give you all the advantage of HD DVD too - greater 51GB capacity, no region restrictions, online and interactive movie functionality that actually works now, a player that is not already obsolete, no waste of disk space having to include an uncompressed soundtrack like BluRay, the ability to have a standard DVD movie on the flip side of disks, etc, etc.)

If you already bought a PS3 as a Blutamax player, at least when you upgrade you can still put it to good use:



IMO the writing was on the wall for BluRay the minute China (40% of the world population) decided to go exclusively HD DVD. The market will soon be flooded with dirt cheap players.

And seeing as Toshiba could give away HD DVD players and still loose less than Sony does on each PS3 I expect the price of branded players to drop even further.

The Warner Brother action is a desperate rear guard defense by movie studios conspiring to restrict consumer's rights - and they consider it worth the $500 million bribe that they paid Warner to do it. They know that they only have a limited time to win the war before the massive preference the consumer has for HD DVD in standalone player sales overtakes the PS3 effect once HD player sales hit mass market volumes. I note that 2 different HD DVD players are both well above any Blu Ray players including the PS3 on both Amazon UK and US sales rankings.

nb - the Warner change doesnt even take effect until June. And as Universal are planning to release their entire 2000 disk back catalog only on HD DVD, is likely of no impact for at least a year or two.

richto

BluMonkey wrote: »

and before any1 shouts 51mb HD ... Months ago Hitachi developed a 100gb BD disk that a SDBD player can play with a firmware update they even have developed a 800GB but because of the number of layers current generation machines cant play them ... But the Movie Companies and Manufactures for whatever the reason are now heading Blu Ray ...

Triple layer 45GB HD DVD was always in the standard. It was updated to 51GB in April and finalised to a production ready approved standard in August 2007. And all HD DVD players can play the disk (with a firmware update).

100GB BluRay is one manufacturer's concept, is still in the in the lab, and was offically announced in September 2007. And they only said that the Hitachi player could play the disks. Which will be extremely expensive to make.

One movie company and no manufacturers have changed camps. And the change doesnt even take effect until June.

HD DVD has 80% of the laptop HD market and nearly 70% of the standalone HD player market. If those numbers are maintained with growing player sales its currently a matter of when, not if, HD DVD disk sales overtake Blutamax.

richardb70

james3333 wrote: »

nonsense.......ps3 blows this out of the water.
ps3 is being CONSTANTLY updated via firmware updates with everything from 24fps to the very latest HDMI standards and loads more.
the format war is over.......BLURAY won.
dont waste your money on a player that will no longer 'be' in the next 6 months.

Sigh. Yawn. Did you read any of the previous posts? And last time I checked, HDMI standards are mainly hardware related - like USB - in which case they can't be upgraded through firmware.

I really can't see why there's the level of rabid anti-HD DVD feeling out there. Yes, you've got a PS3. Yes, you've got some Blu-Ray films and they look great. Good for you. If you have a PC, do you post negative comments on Amazon when a new Apple Mac is released? They've only got - what - 10% of the market? Let's demonise them! And as for those cars running diesel! Give 'em hell!

So if you're waiting and waiting for the Bournes, Transformers, Star Treks, Serenity and so on - plus the old Warner HD catalogue titles like Batman Begins and The Matrix - what's the problem with coming up with the (very reasonable) £120 for the best of both worlds? You even get SEVEN free films. So that makes the player around £50. Seems a bit silly to rant away on forums when you could be enjoying ALL the HD media out there for a fraction of the cost of your HD telly, PS3, and surround sound system...