Home > Consumer Reviews > Toshiba HD-A3 720p/1080i HD DVD Player

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.

I have owned and thoroughly enjoyed the Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD player for a full year now. It was and continues to be worth every penny of the $400 I paid for it. With its successor, the HD-A3, now selling for only $125 on Amazon, I couldn't resist. I was in the market for a second DVD player - one that would equal the HD-A2 in playing standard DVD's and at the same time provide the novelty of the occasional full HD experience.

I am happy to report that the HD-A3 is every bit as good as the phenomenal HD-A2. In fact, it just struck me tonight in watching a standard DVD why Sony and Warner Brothers have conspired to tank HD-DVD and specifically the incredible players from Toshiba. Both the HD-A2 and A3 produce a picture from standard DVD that surpasses anything you will see at your local multiplex - a picture extremely close to full HD. When you think of the number of standard DVD movies available though Netflix, movies that will never be transferred to HD, especially Blu-Ray given its extra production costs, then getting a Toshiba HD-A3 is the way to go. Based on everything I have read, absolutely no Blu-Ray player can upscale standard DVD's like these Toshiba machines. Is this perhaps because Blu-Ray is so radically different from DVD that the players are at a disadvantage in even playing DVD's let alone upscaling them?

HD-DVD players from Toshiba upscale standard DVD movies effortlessly. I am using an Optoma projector and seven foot wide screen and getting spectacular results. The sound is also amazing. So if you like movies - I mean really like movies - then what are you waiting for? Get a Toshiba HD-DVD player for its ability to bring you the over 90,000 movie titles at Netflix with virtual HD quality. It is certainly a great way to wait out the format wars and growing pains of HD and the ever changing specifications of Blu-Ray, giving you time to see if even Blu-Ray makes it in the market place. After all, whatever happened to DVD-Audio and SACD which were supposed to replace the CD? They both failed, and even the CD is being replaced by MP3 files and the Ipod. It is very likely that both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will go the same way. In the meantime, you can enjoy the HD-A3 and send a message to Warner and Sony in the process.

This player is an incredible deal -- especially with the latest price drops. I've been playing HD movies with no issues and the quality is great on my 1080p TV, as is to be expected. Startup times are a bit longer than DVD players, but it's not a problem really.

I just want to point out to people that the lack of a 1080p output is not as significant as you might think. If you have a 1080p TV, it will deinterlace the 1080i signal and create the exact same picture you would get from a 1080p output. In most cases, there is NO quality reduction. It's the same picture -- just a different processing path.

There only two cases where you might get improvement from a 1080p output.

1.) Your TV has a 72Hz or 120Hz refresh rate and can accept 1080p/24 as input. In this case, 3:2 pulldown is avoided, potentially reducing some "judder".

2.) Your TV has a deinterlacer that doesn't work properly, which might be true on a few older/value sets.

Bottom line: Don't buy into the marketing nonsense surrounding 1080p outputs. The HD-A3 is a great player even for those of us who have 1080p TVs.

I think this HD player is great- especially for the price. The picture is amazing. I bought the "Planet Earth HD DVD" set and watched it and its unbelievable to watch.

If you are in the market for an upconverting DVD player, this is your best bet. I have a Phillips upconverter machine and it doesn't do the job near as well as this Toshiba. The HD-DVD format may die, but so what; you'll have one of the best upconverting machines out there.