Toshiba HD-A3 720p/1080i HD DVD Player
See it at Amazon.com for $144.99Average Customer Rating
(4.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(5 out of 5)Great player
Connected to a Sony KD-34XS955 HDTV
What can I say. It works great!
Easy to set up out of the box. Picture and audio quality were great as expected. Now that I've seen both I can honestly say you will not be able to tell the difference
Pros and Cons
Internet setup (DHCP for me) was a little time consuming but that had as much to do with configuring it to work with my cable router and it's fire wall than the player itself. Once connected I uploaded and installed the latest firmware. It takes a while even over high speed so get it going then go do something else for a while. Once done the player will install the firmware and turn off. Turn back on and you're good to go.
Con?- No 1080P output. Since My HD TV's max is 1080i this doesn't matter to me. It may some 6 or 7 years in the future when I replace it but by then who knows where the content delivery world will be? A word to the wise...Most flat panel displays out there right now aren't even a true 1080 by 1920 resolution anyway so before you spend the extra dough on a 1080p player make sure your display has a NATIVE display of 1080X1920. Otherwise it will just downscale your 1080 picture and you will have wasted your money. The Sony 300 does output 1080P but so do like priced HD DVD players. The difference in picture quality is minute since a 1080p display will upscale the 1080i picture anyway. There is no broadcast 1080p.
Since the only other HD player I've looked at was the Sony 300 Blu Ray that's what I'll compare to
Pro- Short boot time (20 seconds) and disc load time (15ish)so far.
The Sony was at least a minute per.
Good response time to remote commands. Still slower than a standard DVD player and the scan is more like windows media player than a standard DVD player. The Sony's reaction time was terrible and it cued commands so you could easily lose track of where you were. The A3 also provides you with a soft beep (can be turned off) so you know your command was received.
Pro/Con Unlike the Sony this deck has zoom and pan however it does not like to play in slow while zoomed. This can be a pain if you like to check out CGI.
Pro-Did a great job upscaling my standard DVDs. Picture was as good as my Sony NS75H upscaling player. The Sony was terrible no matter what settings I used. I found that rather strange since I know they can make a good upscaling chip.
Pro- The afore mentioned internet connection. Simply put the 300 does not have one. I imagine it can be upgraded via disc as can this player.
All and all a great player for a great price! I'm not going to get into the content argument other than to say that I have a problem with a manufacturer trying to force me to pay inflated prices for an inferior product by withholding content. My simple remedy will be not to buy any content from Disney, FOX or any Sony exclusive even on standard DVD. Any releases held exclusive to Blu ray that I want to watch will be rented in standard def via NetFlix. In fact my DVD purchasing has all but stopped anyway. This is not only due to the huge amount of titles for rent at Netflix but also because Hollywood has produced little in the last few years worth owning. I know Toshiba has its partners and exclusives but they are not charging an arm and a leg and their format is much more stable Blu Ray.
When Sony or one of it's manufacturing partners comes out with a WORKING Blu Ray player that won't go obsolete in 6 months for $225 I'll get one. Until then my A3 will remain my only HD player.
(1 out of 5)Standard DVD ok- Intolerable HD DVD performance. Substandard.
I eagerly awaited the arrival of my Toshiba A3 for Christmas. I coordinated the arrival by also renting 3 HD DVD's to watch from Netflix. Installation was a breeze by connecting this to my Sony Grand Wega HD Televison. First impression was that after it booted up, (says Welcome) and I hit the open drawer button it took over 45 seconds to open the drawer.
I then inserted the .iso image for the firmware upgrade to the player. Firmware update was easy and took about 10 minutes.
The firmware was the latest 1.3 from Toshiba's website.
I had several friends over to see the new player and we popped in Blades of Glory. The movie took about 1-2 minutes to load. Afterwards it played fairly well. From time to time there were noticible glitches in the playback. Often there was a severe pixilization so bad it stopped the movie. I read that if you reboot the machine it fixes those problems. I did so and the movie played fairly well for about 1 1/2 hours. Near the end of the movie, about 5 minutes from the end it completly froze. I repeated the steps.
In the mean time my friends were not entirely impressed with the player. I dont have any other player, my other player broke a few weeks before I ordered this one.
After several attempts to get the movie to play I gave up and we popped in 300 the brand new one that came free in the box. It played very well with only 2-3 times where artifacts showed, with no freezing at all. It seemed that the player had redeemed itself.
They all left and I went to watch another one I had rented. It would not load at all. So I tried the last one I rented and it did play for about 10-15 minutes. I became frustrated and took all 3 disks and cleaned them with my CD/DVD polisher. They came out spotless and virtually scratch free. I put them back in and all 3 played fairly well but Blades of Glory froze at the very same spot. The other 2 froze in different spots than previously.
I sent all of them back. I then waited for the next batch. In the mean time I watched 300 again. My 1 year old had touched it when I was in the shuffle of disks that ensued from the first attempt. All she did was pick it up. I got it from her, but there was a small thumb print on the reader surface. I cleaned it off with a microfiber cloth and saw no smudge. When I put it in this time it froze consistently. I gave up. The last bunch of DVD's came to my house and before I even put one in I gave each a cleaning with a microfiber cloth and approved cleaner. None exibited any real damage other than some very small superficial scratches. Not one of them played longer than 1 hour.
My 4 year old was upset because we made popcorn and sat down as a family to watch a movie. I ended up putting in a standard DVD and it played very well. Matter of fact as a regular DVD player its not bad. The long load times even for a SDVD and drawer opening make this a very expensive slow to use player.
I returned this to Amazon.
Final note:
I am re-writing this review because I was treated very poorly by members of this site by voicing my opinion. I have purposefully left out all of the "talking points" of the detractors. This product arrived at my house with every expectation to be a great upgrade for my old broken DVD drive. I had no proclivity to one format or another. I just wanted a DVD player that would play the DVDs at a high resolution, one befitting my television. To attack me personally and make disparaging remarks is petty and rude. I hold no agenda and I hope by me explaining myself in better detail that you can open your minds enough to see that maybe I got a lemon. It is my right as a consumer to not be happy with a product no matter who the manufacturer is. By all of you attacking me for my poor review it not only shows your bias and petty behavior, it also pushes people in the other direction. I am not in a war with anyone. I am a dissatisfied consumer and have every right to post that dissatisfaction here on this public forum. You also have the right to disagree with me, but to attack me or my integrity over this that is uncalled for.
Thank you,
Joe
(5 out of 5)Fantastic Sleek Player!
I just got my A3 and it's absolutely fantastic. The load times are fast, start-up is fast and it's an aesthetically pleasing device. Sleek new slim design, lightweight and includes non-combo edition of 300 and The Bourne Identity HD DVDs, fully packaged in red elite cases.
I also have the A2, and prefer this third generation unit but the A2 is still a solid, and great machine. The A3 upconverts DVDs beautifully, watching DisneyDVDs is great and they look amazing. Of course HD DVDs also look great, especially Troy Directors Cut, Transformers looks beyond words - just an amazing movie experience, and The Matrix is gorgeous. I also recommend Shrek the Third next week, that will be gorgeous too.
Finally, the A3 is a solid player, better load times than the A2, slightly smaller, a beautiful chassis that really compliments your HT and Toshiba REGZA or any piano finished black TVs, and a great value. I recommend it.
(5 out of 5)Fantastic Hi Def player for a great price.
Pros:
Fantastic picture
Great price
1080i/ 720p output great for 720p HDTV's
Fast startup time
Slim design of the unit
Adequate remote
Some reviews of other Toshiba HD players have stated that you can't pause the movie, and come back to it later but I have not found this to be the case. As long as you leave the unit on, you can pause the movie as long as you want and resume it when you want to.
Plays DVD+R discs with no problem even though this is not a stated feature.
Cons:
no 1080p output- not an issue for me since I have a 720p TV.
Haven't come across any.
(5 out of 5)Exceptional Player. Great Value. Highest Quality Out There
I'm not an early adopter, but I do know quite alot about High Def and all the technology involved. I have been on the fence for so long, waiting for the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray war to be over, so I wouldn't buy into the losing format. But, after recently getting an Plasma HDTV, I felt it was time to jump in.
I purchased this on 12/27/07, which was right before Warner Bros defected over to the Blu-ray side, producing movies exclusively for Blu-Ray. My first thought was to return the player. But the more and more I thought about it, there was no reason to return this. Here are some reasons why, and why you should NOT believe all the hype about Blu-Ray:
It is a fantastic player. Very very well-built, great features, high quality, and I was pleasantly surprised at how nice a player this is. I look at details, finish work, etc. For example: take a look at the many lower cost DVD players, and when their trays open up. Many are flimsy, open fast then slow down, or even open up shaky. Not the Toshiba A3. When the tray opens, it pushes the front door down as it slides open. No flimsyness, the tray speed is consistent from open to close, doesn't clunk, etc. Fit and finish is tight. The metal cabinet and the front panel are nearly seamless and very consistent.
As with all HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players, the HD-A3 does take some time to "boot up". These devices are not mearly "fancy DVD players". Rather, they're more like computers, so they do take some time to come up. From the time you press the power button, and the movie starts playing, is about a minute or so. The slowness is way over-hyped. Turn it on, pop the movie in, and go grab your popcorn. Before you even get back, the movie is all set. It's really not much slower than regular DVD; just takes a little bit to get accustomed to.
Toshiba is now touting the Upconvert ability this player has to upconvert all of your existing DVD movies to near HD quality. Well, no HD-DVD (or Blu-Ray) player will make ANY DVD look like HD, but depending on the type of player you have, the quality of the upconvert varies greatly. The HD-A3 upconverts DVDs EXCEPTIONALLY. It is truly amazing the difference. The only one superior to these (the A3, A30, A35) is Toshiba's own HD-XA2, which has a different chip inside, and, as such, is far more expensive.
To see the difference, I compared my Daewoo DVD player to a Panasonic DVD-S53K I had (before returning it), to the Toshiba HD-A3. I used "Finding Nemo" and "The Wild". On the Daewoo, both movies looked fine, which means it was what I've been used to seeing on my TV for months now. Nice. The Panasonic is a dedicated upconvert DVD player, and I definitely noticed an improvement. But when I tried it on the HD-A3, the difference was phenomenal. Both movies were so so close to looking like they were HD movies, that I was shocked!! Keep this in mind as Blu-ray players don't upconvert nearly as well as HD-DVD players.
As for actual HD-DVD movies, the picture and audio quality are nothing short of stunning!!! The tiniest of details are shown in such great detail, its like you're watching the movie for the first time again. Do yourself a favor and purchase the Planet Earth series on HD-DVD, and watch you and all your friends/family's jaws drop !!! The same can be said with all the other HD-DVD's I've purchased so far...with Transformers also being a totally stunning viewing.
Toshiba HD-DVD players are FAR less expensive than Blu-ray players. Currently, the cheapest Blu-ray is more than twice the price of the HD-A3. To some, they might perceive this as proving that HD-DVD is less quality. This is not true for the general consumer. True...the HD-A3 is only 720p/1080i, but if you really want a 1080p player, then get the HD-A30 or HD-A35. Most people have a 720p/1080i HDTV, so you won't get any benefit in purchasing a 1080p player, but if you do have a 1080p HDTV, then the A30 or A35 will be your better option. Either way, only a diehard Video junkie will ever notice the difference. Trust me on this one. I can go into audio codecs and Dolby Digital/DTS, audio sampling rates, bit rate conversion, etc, but honestly the general consumer will never notice the difference.
Also don't believe the hype about Blu-ray discs having more capacity than HD-DVD. OK...currently they do: Blu-ray has 50Gb discs where HD-DVD has 30Gb. However, Toshiba and the HD-DVD group recently approved a triple-layer 51Gb disc. These will work flawlessly in any HD-DVD player, and upcoming movies will take full advantage of this extra space. And to me, isn't 51 > 50?
Speaking about compatibility, what the Blu-ray group and Sony "forgot" to mention to the consumer is that Blu-Ray has 3 different formats/profiles/specs. Yes, they released their technology before it was completed in order to compete with HD-DVD, and as such, they have 1.0 players, 1.1 players, and eventually, 2.0 players. Well guess what...if you just went out and bought a Blu-ray player, and it's a version 1.0, you are pretty much out of luck when it comes time to play the bonus features available on 1.1 discs (and eventually, when they come out, 2.0 discs). This means, many of the bonus features like extra scenes, menu interactivity, additional footage, picture-in-picture commentary, multiple viewing angles, raw footage, and web-enabled features won't be accessible to you. And 1.0 players can NOT be upgraded. To some people, they can care less about the bonus features. But why buy a movie that when you put it in your profile 1.0 or 1.1 player, 1/2 the menu options are greyed out and not accessible? Did Sony tell you about that?
As for HD-DVD, they had a finished spec since Day 1. All HD-DVD players have USB and Ethernet ports. Upgrading is as simple as connecting your Cat-5 cable to the back of the player. When I got my HD-A3, I needed to upgrade the firmware to version 1.3. I plugged the Cat-5 cable, went into the settings, and the player did the rest. The upgrade was flawless and simple. In addition, only HD-DVD players can take advantage of this internet connection, and download new content, movie trailers, and tons of additional features. All something that Blu-ray can't do currently, and won't be able to until profile 2.0 comes out for them (late Fall 2008).
Another feature only available for HD-DVD players are the COMBO movies. These are movies that have HD-DVD on one side of the disc and standard DVD on the other side. What better way to move into the HD world by having both formats on 1 disc. Advantages of this? You can watch the HD-DVD version on your TV, and if your friend/relative wants to borrow the movie to watch it on their standard DVD player, they can do so. Or think about the typical American family road trip. The kids can watch Shrek the Third at home on their stunning HDTV, and when it comes time to pack up, they can bring the movie with them and watch it in the car. No need to buy both versions. And your right....Sony and Blu-ray can NOT do this.
Add to the fact that when buying this player you get 2 free movies (Bourne Identity and 300) right in the box, as well as 5 free movies by mail, and you can not beat this deal.
To those worried about this being a dying format, here's a few things to think about: If HD-DVD were to die, it's not like these HD-DVD players will all of a sudden stop working. There are well over 600 HD-DVD movies currently out, with many more to come. HD-DVD is region-free encoding, meaning, you can purchase HD-DVDs anywhere in the world, and they will work fine on your player. Not so with Blu-Ray. HD-DVD has the exclusive support of Paramount, Dreamworks SKG, and Universal, all major movie studios. Plus you can play ALL of your regular DVD's in stunning near HD upconvertability. Finally, with the recent price drop on all the Toshiba players, many many more people are jumping on the bandwagon. Do you honestly think all the other Blu-ray exclusive studios are going to continue supporting only Blu-ray with such a large number of HD-DVD players out there? As for sales, just look at Amazon's consistent ranking of the HD-A3 player in the top 10 in ALL of Electronics. The closest Blu-ray player? A paltry #68.
Do yourself a favor and puchase this player. You will not have any regrets.
My apologies for this review being so long, but I hope I have provided you with a wealth of information, and that you now have the facts between what you hear about Blu-ray being superior, and what's actually true.