Home > Consumer Reviews > Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD Player

I've had this player for about 6 months and continue to be amazed by the quality of HD-DVD. Blu-ray ia essentially the same picture quality but the HD-DVD players start at about half the price...it was a no brainer choice for me. Yes, it's a little slow to boot up with an HD-DVD disc (30sec), but the quality is worth it and it makes my existing DVD collection look great. This player would be worth it just to play DVD's now that Amazon has it for $237. And don't bother getting the 1080p version(A20), it does a crummy job of converting to 1080p. Most HDTV's only display 720p or 1080p anyway so let the TV do the converting. It looks great on my 1080p Samsung 56" DLP set.

I bought this player for one reason: price. I could go on and on about the technical specs of this player, and how it compares to others, but for me it really comes down to bang for the buck. This one takes the cake. The improvement it makes on my old DVD's is alone worth the money. I was really blown away by how well the upconversion worked! Watching the King Kong DVD again on this player, I couldn't get over how good a standard definition DVD could look! Oh, I guess I should mention that it has the added benefit of playing HD DVD's too. :) As my first HD DVD, I bought the Planet Earth series (Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series [HD DVD]). It's hard to put into words how incredible this series is in HD.

I hear there's a format war out there, but I'm not too worried about it. With this player, I've stepped into the world of high-definition movies and am enjoying my old DVD's all over again. The 5 free HD DVD deal is outstanding, and with the money I saved I can afford to get more. If you own an HDTV, this is a great investment any way you cut it.

I did a lot of research before buying this product. I just purchased a Panasonic 58" Plasma with native 720P resolution. The TV has the capability of receiving 1080P signals but down converts them to 1080i. IF you really want full 1080P you will pay a premium for your TV. (At least in the LCD, Plasma arena) I doubt most people would be able to tell the difference between 1080i and 1080p anyway. The content is the same, only the way it is painted on your screen is different. I really can't find any fault with this product. I downloaded the 2.1 firmware release to a CD and it updated without a hitch. A lot of people complain about the 20-30 second startup time, but you have to understand that this is built on a PC platform with the linux operating system loaded in it. This thing has a lot of processing power and it needs to boot just like your pc. I purchased a couple of HD DVD's and was very impressed with the detail and color. I was also very impressed with the it's ability to up-convert my standard DVD's to 1080i. In fact, I would have probably purchased it just for that feature alone. Having the ability to watch true HD DVD's is a real bonus for the reasonable price. I was also very impressed with its audio capabilities. If you use the optical cable to your receiver it will down convert to a DTS signal. Make sure you have a receiver that handles DTS or you will only get 2 channel sound. It was still very impressive even when down converting to DTS. I wish it had analog outputs, but heh, what do you expect for $250 bucks? I could have purchased their flaship product for an extra $400 but decided against it. I figured I could always purchase a new reciever that handles HDMI later. I like the fact that Toshiba gives you three different options with their models.

I think Toshiba did an excellent job with this player. It looks great, it works great, and delivers what it advertises. For the small amount of change it cost me, I'm really not very worried about my investment. If Blue Ray should win in the future, I'll simply purchase a Blue Ray player when the price comes down and the product matures. For now, I'm going to enjoy the new HD DVD's coming out and my existing DVD collection.

In fact, I'm betting a lot of people are going to make this same decision, which, may in the end, promote HD DVD as the winner. The winner of format wars is never about having the best technology, but is the format that the most people buy. Remember VHS vs. Betamax?

I have had this player for 2 months now, and it has been perfect since the day I got it. I have watched over 20 HD-DVD's without a single skip/pause or issue of any kind. It also makes my old DVD's look great, better than my Oppo V971H. And don't get hung up on the 1080i/1080p issue. Any 1080P display worth owning can de-interlace the 1080i output to full 1080P. If you are looking for a relatively inexpensive way to get the best in HD movies this is the player for you.

I bought this player at my local BB a few months ago when the Matrix Trilogy came out for $269 ($299 + 10% off coupon). Since I bought the Matrix Trilogy too, I got 2 HD-DVD's instantly for free, plus I sent in for the 5 free HD-DVD's by mail (which I received yesterday). So, for $279 I got 7 Free HD-DVD titles, and an HD-DVD player that looks and sounds fantastic with my system (even with up-converted DVD's). You just can't beat it.

2 suggestions before using this player. #1, get an HDMI cable. This thing only comes with a standard set of analog RCA cables, which are worthless for HD video and digital sound. #2, update the firmware when you install the player. It's a piece of cake to do if you have a home network. If you are living in the stone ages and don't have a home network, you can get the update on a disk from Toshiba. I never had a firmware related problem, but some people (who don't seem to understand the concept of a firmware update) seem to whine about certain discs not playing, HDMI problems, etc. My philosophy, just do the update and spare everyone the whining! It could be worse man! Products didn't used to update themselves! With most consumer products, if there is a bug...you're just plain out of luck!

Once you've hooked this bad boy up, the quality is amazing. You definitely notice the deeper blacks, richer colors, and crisper resolution compared to standard DVD. If you have a receiver that supports MPCM over HDMI (like the Yamaha RX-V661...which I highly recommend too), you can set the HD-DVD's to Dolby TrueHD. Once you do that, the HD-A2 will feed 6 channels of UNCOMPRESSED audio into your receiver. This makes the sound quality astounding.

Anyway, after enjoying this thing for several months now, I highly recommend it. It's worth every penny, even without the free HD-DVD offers.