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Thursday August 31, 2006
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 What the heck? So I'm messing around with the Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV650, an all-around pretty nice laptop--albiet hefty, at over 10 pounds. But the thing that's most interesting is, of course, the integrated HD-DVD player. The laptop has a ginormous widescreen, built in Harmon Kardon sound system, and...oh, heck, just go read Cisco Cheng's review. It should be an ideal portable high-def DVD player--particularly with the cool QosmioPlayer, integrated software from Toshiba that lets you play DVDs in seconds without booting into Windows, just like a set-top DVD player. So I grab some popcorn and a copy of the HD DVD version of Jarhead and press the instant on button, only to get an ugly error message: Can't read disk.
What?
I stop to check the disk out. It's HD, sure, and the player's HD. Try it again. Same thing. In fact, after running through a fistful of disks (which cost more than a fistful of Euros, let me tell you), and reading reviews, and poring over charts, I stumbled across the "Detailed Specs" on Toshiba's Web site, which contains this odd bit of info:
Toshiba's QosmioPlayer does not support HD DVD playback function.
Buried there, in amongst the rest of the fine print. Toshiba's QosmioPlayer doesn't support Toshiba's HD DVD format. Again, what gives? Sure, the laptop comes with Intervideo's software, which does a crummy passable good great job, but at least reads the darn thing. Oh, and before you ask, no, the higher-end G35-AV660 doesn't appear to have fixed the problem. From where I sit, it looks like one division of the giant Japanese corp. ain't really talking to the others.
Posted By:
Gearlog
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August 31, 2006 4:09 PM
This reminds me of the time that reporter "discovered" the fake BluRay disk in the Sony BluRay Laptop. The jury's still on out on whether the reporter was overzealous or Sony screwed up, but this one...Boy this is clear cut. Someone get Toshiba on the phone. An HD-DVD player that cannot natively play HD Disks. I'm speechless (except for all that I just wrote here).
August 31, 2006 4:26 PM
The Intervideo software works, as I said, though everyone's noted it's limitations. But the integrated, instant-on DVD functionality uses a different player, and can't read HD DVD disks. In short, Intervideo's WinDVD plays 'em, Tohsiba's QosmioPlayer won't.
September 1, 2006 12:57 PM
Someone at Toshiba needs to rewrite the instant-on DVD firmware so that the Qosimio can detect and read the HD-DVD format. In the meantime, Toshiba ought to put a warning on its packaging and in its ads. Many of these units will be sold as surrogate HD-DVD players when they really aren't. I have been able to play the Windows WMV disks, but there are fewer of those around, but not HD-DVD as well.
September 1, 2006 1:32 PM
Bleeding edge technology always has a few road bumps. At least it's not the scratch and smudge prone Blu-Ray where you wouldn't enjoy the movie if all the software worked anyway because you accedentially finger printed it.