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

This is my second HD-DVD player. When you also get 5 free HD-DVDs, this is a REAL BARGAIN for all HDTV owners. It's like just paying $100 for a HD player. Stop complaining this player is not 1080p. 1080i look just as good. Most consumers will not be able to tell the difference anyway. I hooked up this player to my Sony Bravia 1080p HDTV via HDMI, the picture looks FANTASTIC. Component is excellent too. This player also upconverts your standard dvds to 720p/1080i . Trust me, once you pop a HD-DVD in this player and watch it on your HDTV, you will never want to go back to standard dvds. This HD-DVD player is a MUST BUY !!!

Just purchased this as a replacement for my Denon DVM-715S. I have it hooked up to a Sharp Aquos LC-37D42U (37" 1080i LCD) via HDMI. I have not used it to view HD-DVDs yet, but I already notice a big improvement in watching my standard def DVDs. Better clarity, color, and contrast. Make sure to download the latest firmware from Toshiba via the Ethernet connection, or request a free update DVD from Toshiba. There are some bug fixes that you will need. If you are using the Ethernet port to connect, the instructions in the manual are pretty easy to follow. Just make sure to power cycle the DVD player after you have set up the Ethernet port, otherwise, you will not connect to Toshiba's update server.

The only thing I would change about this DVD player is the boot time. When first powered on, it takes a pretty long time to boot and load a DVD (1 minute maybe). Not a big problem overall, more of an annoyance if you are used to quick loading DVD players.

If you don't have a TV over 40" in size, you won't notice the difference between 1080i and 1080p unless you are right on top of the TV, so this is a good choice for the "smaller" large screens. Great price too!

Ive been keeping an eye on the HD DVD players since they came out. Waiting for the price to go down, Hd or Blue ray, so heres my review after buying this item.

The main reason I went HD over Blue ray is that for months I have been looking at the Blue ray setup at various shopping outlets and something about the way the image looked never sat right with me. Didnt matter what TV the store dislpayed it on, the screen always looked wrong not sure what it is, kind of a washed look. HD DVD doesnt have that problem to me. The colors seem tight, and compressed to where they belong. Blue ray has the most DVD's and storage space but to me HD DVD has better pure richer image quality.

Regular DVD's always sounded great to me but now that Ive heard HD sound I can honestly say its more of an experience than listening entertainment. The Superman shuttle scene reminded me of when I went to see it at the IMAX.

As far as up-conversion of my regular DVD's, I previously owned an OPPO which up-converted very well so I dont see a difference in up-conversion.

Ive been on the fence for awhile waiting for this whole vs's thing to pan out but at this price I had to bite and Im glad I did, HD on my Sharp Aquos has changed the movie experience for me. A piece of equipment like this for under $300 is a great deal to bridge the gap from here till the debate is settled.

I have had no problems with the player at all. The picture is beautiful and the sound is awesome. The upconverting is almost as good as the hd discs. I hope the format can hang in there. I do not plan on buying a blu-ray because they are too pricey, and they can become out of date with no way to update. The upconverting of this player is excellent and I see no reason to pay $400.00 and yes maybe less for an out of date blu-ray player. Sony said you have to keep buying their players to keep up with the lastest version. I think downloading hd movies will be the next thing anyway. Hd movies on disc may be like the 8 track in a short time. I've been doing a lot of reading on the subject and I think it just may go that way. I have talked to several people and they agree that blu-ray players are just too expensive.

I picked up this baby when Wal-mart/Best-Buy dropped them to $98. I got the last one at Best-buy and I was thrilled about it. I plugged it in and the first thing I did was update the firmware using a disc. This player has been running nearly non-stop ever since. The audio is spectacular and the picture is amazing. I totally trumps the Xbox HD DVD drive I have and the thing runs whisper quiet. Don't let the 1080i/1080p argument from the blu side fool you. No one I have talked to can even tell a difference. And theoretically you shouldn't be able to tell a difference unless the TV is over 60". All I can say is 1080i on Transformers is fantastic and more than I could have hoped for.

Some things to note:
If you are using a receiver that does not accept audio over HDMI this is the player to get. When using and Optical/Toslink connection it will drop the Dolby Digital + or Dolby True HD track and extract a core DTS track at 1.5 mbps and send that to the receiver over bitstream. My receiver gets it as a regular DTS track and it rocks. The newer A3 won't even do that. It sends it over as a regular Dolby at 600kbps. All I am saying is that this thing connected via optical is outstanding. Its just great for me until I can get a HDMI capable receiver.