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

Yeah, I know. Warner is going BD exclusive. However, for less than $150 you can get the best upconverting DVD player I've ever owned, and 7 free HD-DVD movies. Not to mention you can pick up HD DVD movies for as little as $14.99. There are hundreds of movies already released on HD DVD, so even if no studios come out with another movie, you can still upconvert all of your existing DVDs to 1080i, and enjoy the huge library of HD DVD movies already released for a fraction of the cost of a BD player. This deal is too good to pass up.

Right now, there continues to be quite a number of exclusive HD DVD only titles. It looks like its going to remain that way. That said, at the prices this player is selling for, its a outstanding buy for those people on a budget with a HD display, or already blu thinking about purple. For those people without an upscaling DVD player, and a HD display its a no brainier. The price difference between this player and a name brand mid range up-scaler is non existent.



Mine arrived ready to go with the latest firmware installed. There is a delay ( >10 seconds) while the machine boots, but that is about the only user interface glitch I've seen. I've had it for about a month now, under heavy use and I haven't seen it lockup, hiccup or behave strangely. In that regard its been better than the majority of other audio/video hardware I've owned which has exhibited assorted strange behaviors.

This product (and HD DVD in general) is extraordinarily well polished, as you would expect, from a 3rd generation device. The player setup screens are well laid out, and easy to understand. Others have talked about the features of this player so I won't repeat them. The player responds instantly to user commands, even during playback, about the only delays I've seen are switching between rewind and play on some disks where its generally less than 1 second or so. The disk specific menu's pop-up smoothly even when they are being transparently rendered over a playing video streams.

As someone who is purple and owns a player from the other camp i can say: The best way to describe this machine, compared with the products from the competing camp is like the difference you feel driving a quality performance sedan vs a low end American "sports car". It can do everything the competing camp can (and more), but it does it without the bumpy ride, loud motor, and plastic interior.

We found the Toshiba HD-A3 DVD player to be a great adjunct to our new Toshiba HDTV. The 1080i resolution is great and much crisper than viewing HDTV via satelite. It was cheaper than blu-ray HD-DVD players that we priced by about $100.

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

The Toshiba HD-A3 hd dvd player Toshiba HD-A3 720p/1080i HD DVD Player is a great addition to my home entertainment system. At the price offered it seemed too hard to pass up, especially considering the 2 + 5 movies included in the purchase price. Also the hardware, from everything I read is superior to the current generation of blu-ray players available at the moment. It looks great on my 50" plasma TV, and even improves the look of my current standard def DVDs.

Since my 7.1 tuner system has component switching I chose to use the component output as the primary viewing method. Out of curiosity, I also purchased a HDMI cable to see if I could tell the difference. As a video production professional for the last 25 years I am used to looking for minute differences in detail. To my eyes at about 12' from the screen I could not discern any difference between the two. One thing that I did discover though while playing one of my standard DVDs though is that some discs are programmed not to show up on the component outputs! The video would only appear on the HDMI output of the unit. After this experience I looked it up in the manual and found this is a "feature" programmed into the disc to deter copying of the material.

Purchased right after CES in January 2008 and Toshiba's announcement to fight back against futher blu-ray studio announcements with low prices this player seemed like a good bet. Since that time Best Buy and Walmart have annouced the phase out of hd-dvd; yet another nail in the coffin for the format. Perhaps the inclusion of the movie 300 is a little too prophetic for the player. It seems that the determined supporters of hd dvd are becoming like the 300 valiant Spartans in the movie who fought valiantly, but in the end were crushed by the magnitude of the forces against them.

All of that said, I still believe that my purchase was the best decision I could make at this time and would do the same again. If you add it up; better hardware, much better price, seven "free" movies, plus HD up-conversion of my existing DVDs it is still a great buy.