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

If you are like me, you have a million dvd's.

I personal love this player because it plays hd dvd's as well as upconverts normal dvd's to a 1080i high def.


well worth the money, even better features than blu ray!

I would guess that Toshiba is losing its shirt now that these fine players are selling for $[...] on Amazon. My advice would be to snatch one up now; this price war is probably about over. The HD-A3 is the same unit as the HD-D3KU sold at Costco. This latest price drop was precipitated by the announcement of another major movie studio that they are dumping HD-DVD for Blu-Ray.

A high-definition DVD player is not like a standard stand-alone DVD player. Inside the case there is a powerful linux computer, along with the actual player. That is why once the price war has ended, these things will cost considerably more than a standeard player for some time. There is a good chance these HD-DVD players won't even be available much longer. So why buy one?

I bought this player because we have a high definition camcorder. It records video in 1080i format. Previously, I had to burn DVD's made from the tapes in standard 480p, a huge hit in quality. Now following the directions at [...], [...], I don't have to re-encode and the videos play in glorious high-definition the way they were recorded. Previously, we had to plug the camcorder into the HDMI and play back from the tapes to watch our videos in hi-def.

But wait! There is another reason for buying one of these players. It is probably one of the reasons movie studio execs don't want you to buy into HD-DVD. My cable box has a firewire out port. I have recorded a bunch of hi-def television from that. I also have an over the air hi-def tuner that I have recorded TV shows from. I have even downloaded some hi-def content from the internet. Up until now I had to play these back by hooking my laptop computer up to the VGA port on my hi-def Television. Not every television has a VGA port. In addition this content takes up tons of hard drive space. All of this hi-def content can be burned to standard DVD's and played in hi-def from the Toshiba. There is only one caveat. You can only fit up to about an hour of hi-def content on a dvd blank.

I guess I should thank those studio executives. Without them the price of these fine HD-DVD players wouldn't have dropped to these bargain basement prices. Oh, and Blu-Ray... good luck playing any hi-def content from a standard DVD. I haven't been able to find any guides at this time that tell how to do this. Affordable DVD authoring packages don't appear to support Blu-Ray at this time either. Do studio execs call this security? That could be one of the reasons studios are backing blu-ray. HD-DVD has been the format of choice for hackers... er... home video enthusiasts.

A year or two down the road hi-def burners and blanks will become affordable, blu-ray authoring packages will become available and all of this will be a mute argument. At this time however, I am very happy to have an affordable player that will play hi-def content from a standard DVD-R . Thank you Toshiba.

I was very impressed with the picture quality of the HD DVDs that we watched on this player, but I was even more impressed at how great the picture was with regular DVDs as well. I am very happy with the Toshiba, and the price was definitely right. The only downfall is that most of the new movies released are either Blu-Ray or HD DVD, not both. so the selections are limited for now.

I bought an HD-A3 before Christmas, knowing that the format war could go either way. But my existing DVD player was dying. And it never worked well with our HD TV in the first place. Now we know how the format war will end: Toshiba has pulled the plug on future HD-DVD production, although it will support its existing products.

The deal on the Toshiba was good enough to entice me. I got a total of nine (!) free movies with the player (2 in the box, 5 from Toshiba, and 2 from Amazon).

The player works well. There is a slight delay when it's first powered up while it boots. That's about 15 seconds. That aside, HD-DVD and DVD load times are no different than any other DVD player I've ever used. I updated the firmware on the player, and I've never had a hang up or an error of any kind. It's a solid platform in my experience.

It does a great job upconverting our extensive DVD collection. And the HD-DVDs generate a picture that is incredible to look at. I have some small regrets, merely because this is a decent format. Too bad Warner decided to bolt.

So, if you're in the market for an upconverting player, I think this is a solid choice. You can get some free HD movies with it to boot. Not bad for the current price.

Blu-Ray will continue to be more expensive for awhile. In addition, Blu-Ray players aren't even in their final hardware version yet: from what I understand, all Blu-Ray players, aside from PS3s, are not higher than Profile 1.1. That means that any standalone Blu-Ray player for sale now is already obsolete -- it won't play back all features on future Blu-Ray discs. Their firmware cannot be upgraded to the new Profile 2.0. Only the PS3 can be modified. So don't buy that Blu-Ray standalone player just yet. Run some research.

In short, here's a good player that will handle your existing DVD collection well and will give you a few free HD discs to play around with. Otherwise, if you're in the market for a hi-def player, wait until Blu-Ray gets its act together and releases its Profile 2.0 machines.

I bought the HD-A3 the day before the announcement from Warner Bros about changing their format to exclusive Blu Ray. I was very dissapointed and contemplated about returning it. After reading some articles and discussions over in internet, I decided to give it a chance.

I had an OPPO DVD player before this. OPPO is probably one of the best up conversion DVD players out there. You can read all about them here on Amazon. Since I have a 60" HD TV and do not get HD stations at home, I decided to get a HD DVD player. The HD-A3 was the best priced HD DVD available and it came with 10 DVDs.

First, make sure you have a HDMI cable for this player!!! If you don't, your SDVDs will not upconvert to 1080i. In addition, the HD DVDs don't look as sharp. The player doesn't come with a video cable. You can get the HDMI cable for $5 here on Amazon.

I tried my SDVDs on the HD-A3 and I was very surprised that it was clearer than my OPPO. I had thought the OPPO was the best in the biz, but the HD-A3 made a noticable difference. That was probably the main reason why I decided to keep it.

The HD-DVDs were even better. The pictures are clearer and sharper than expected, and the sound was incredible!! I can hear every chirp. What I couldn't hear on my SDVDs, now I can.

My only complaint is the response from the remote to the player seems to have a little lag. It's slow by about two seconds. Loading time for SDVD is quick and HD-DVD takes a little longer, since HD-DVD holds much more data.

Overall, I am happy with the HD-A3 and hope to keep it for a while. It's a great deal even as a SDVD up conversion player.

Update: I realized that the player is quite sensitive in reading the HD DVDs. I mean if you have a scratch or dust on your HD DVD. There's a good chance it will freeze on you! So be careful!