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Toshiba HD-A30 1080p HD DVD Player
See it at Amazon.com for $249.99Average Customer Rating
(4.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share150 of 157 people found the following review helpful:
An excellent effort by Toshiba
(5 out of 5) by J. Orr on Oct 11, 2007 (Cedar Rapids, IA United States)I didn't buy this from Amazon, but since reviews of the player are scarce, I thought I'd share some thoughts.
A few short months ago I bought the Xbox add-on to try the HD-DVD waters, and have been nothing but impressed, so when my standard DVD player died (my 7th one in 8 years, I'm a very heavy DVD watcher), I decided to invest in a player that will (hopefully) last (I also purchased a 4 year warranty this time).
The player itself is beautiful, both in appearance and on screen (watching on 1080p Samsung LCD). Picture quality of HD-DVD is, as expected, superb, and DVD upscaling is the best I have ever seen (easily destroying my 1 year old Sony).
A very few negatives. Boot times are still a bit slow, it takes about 40 seconds before the HD-DVD logo appears on screen, with another 20 seconds to load the disc, it's around 60 seconds total from power on to actually start watching the disc. Discs also don't resume play, which is odd as it seems to be a feature. If you don't power off the unit and stop a disc, it will resume where you left off, but if you power off the player, it restarts from the beginning, very odd, but Toshiba could easily fix in a firmware update.
All in all I am very, very pleased, the unit feels sold, looks amazing on your shelf and features some of the best video quality I have ever seen. The few, "problems" don't really bother me, but I wanted to mention them as it could turn off some people. Thanks for reading!
A few short months ago I bought the Xbox add-on to try the HD-DVD waters, and have been nothing but impressed, so when my standard DVD player died (my 7th one in 8 years, I'm a very heavy DVD watcher), I decided to invest in a player that will (hopefully) last (I also purchased a 4 year warranty this time).
The player itself is beautiful, both in appearance and on screen (watching on 1080p Samsung LCD). Picture quality of HD-DVD is, as expected, superb, and DVD upscaling is the best I have ever seen (easily destroying my 1 year old Sony).
A very few negatives. Boot times are still a bit slow, it takes about 40 seconds before the HD-DVD logo appears on screen, with another 20 seconds to load the disc, it's around 60 seconds total from power on to actually start watching the disc. Discs also don't resume play, which is odd as it seems to be a feature. If you don't power off the unit and stop a disc, it will resume where you left off, but if you power off the player, it restarts from the beginning, very odd, but Toshiba could easily fix in a firmware update.
All in all I am very, very pleased, the unit feels sold, looks amazing on your shelf and features some of the best video quality I have ever seen. The few, "problems" don't really bother me, but I wanted to mention them as it could turn off some people. Thanks for reading!
60 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
Movie Bliss
(5 out of 5) by T. Smock on Oct 7, 2007 (Ohio, USA)I just watched my first HD DVD, and all I can say is WOW! The picture quality of 1080p/24 is amazing. This player also does a nice job on SD DVD,the upconversion to 1080i looks great too. I have this player connected to a Samsung DLP 1080p TV and an Onkyo receiver, all interconnected via HDMI. This is the finest picture and sound combination I have ever owned. I am looking forward to more releases on HD DVD, Amazon has a great selection at great prices.
89 of 110 people found the following review helpful:
Great picture, but DOES NOT pass the new Audio Formats
(3 out of 5) by R. Garcia on Nov 5, 2007 (USA)I bought this player probably without doing my homework thoroughly; even all the literature says that it passes the new audio formats (True HD, DD+, etc), this player does not pass these formats via the HDMI cable to be decoded by the AVR. It makes its own decoding, and as the Toshiba customer service rep said, it passes "its own version" of the new formats, and only in 5.1
The ONLY player that as of today can pass the new audio formats via the HDMI cable to be decoded by a capable AVR is the HD-A35.
I am returning it and getting the HD-A35.
Other than this, the player works as designed and the picture is absolutely breathtaking.
The ONLY player that as of today can pass the new audio formats via the HDMI cable to be decoded by a capable AVR is the HD-A35.
I am returning it and getting the HD-A35.
Other than this, the player works as designed and the picture is absolutely breathtaking.
37 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
Overall Good player for 1080p only, otherwise to expensive
(3 out of 5) by HD1080p on Oct 12, 2007 (Omaha, USA)I have had this player for a few days now, and have the following to say.
1. It takes me 50-52 seconds to load, from on to off. then another 25 seconds to load a disc, so about 1min 15 seconds from off to Menu Screen.
Not very quick, but better then Gen 1 players.
2. My Sony upconverting DVD player seems to do a better job in my tests. Cleaner picture then this player for upconverting, but it was close.
3. HD-A30 does a nice job at 1080p at 24 frames per second output, if your TV is capable of 1080p/24 then this player will work great. Otherwise, the 1080p/60 doesn't look very good. It tends to show a lot of jaggies this way. When I flip to 1080i mode and let the TV handle the processing then the jaggies are gone. If your HDTV does a good 1080i deinterlacing you can set the HD-A30 to 1080i mode, however, this would be a waste of buying the HD-A30 as its full 1080p processor. You would be better off saving $100 and getting the HD-A3
4. For the money, its an OK HD-DVD player, slim, looks nice. No analog outputs (HD-A35 has this) so if you are going Strictly HDMI 1080p, get this player. If your TV is 1080i or 720p, don't bother, the HD-a3 is good enough.
Honestly, I don't know if the differences between the HD-A20 and HD-A30 are worth $100 price diff. Take about the same time to Load, same PQ/AQ for the most part.
1. It takes me 50-52 seconds to load, from on to off. then another 25 seconds to load a disc, so about 1min 15 seconds from off to Menu Screen.
Not very quick, but better then Gen 1 players.
2. My Sony upconverting DVD player seems to do a better job in my tests. Cleaner picture then this player for upconverting, but it was close.
3. HD-A30 does a nice job at 1080p at 24 frames per second output, if your TV is capable of 1080p/24 then this player will work great. Otherwise, the 1080p/60 doesn't look very good. It tends to show a lot of jaggies this way. When I flip to 1080i mode and let the TV handle the processing then the jaggies are gone. If your HDTV does a good 1080i deinterlacing you can set the HD-A30 to 1080i mode, however, this would be a waste of buying the HD-A30 as its full 1080p processor. You would be better off saving $100 and getting the HD-A3
4. For the money, its an OK HD-DVD player, slim, looks nice. No analog outputs (HD-A35 has this) so if you are going Strictly HDMI 1080p, get this player. If your TV is 1080i or 720p, don't bother, the HD-a3 is good enough.
Honestly, I don't know if the differences between the HD-A20 and HD-A30 are worth $100 price diff. Take about the same time to Load, same PQ/AQ for the most part.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
Toshiba HD-A30
(5 out of 5) by M. Webb on Jan 22, 2008 (CA)Toshiba HD-A30 1080p HD DVD Player
I own a Toshiba HD-A20 and just purchased a HD-A30 for the following reasons:
I have no plans to purchase Blu-Ray hardware or discs for many years, if ever. In this sense I'm going to sit this round out and wait for the next big thing. Blu-Ray is simply too expensive and will always be too customer unfriendly for me to stomach. If you don't know what I mean by Blu-Ray being "consumer unfriendly" - I can only suggest more research.
I never intended to purchase/repurchase a zillion titles in either Hi-def format. Most titles are just fine when played with an excellent up-scaling player such as the HD-A30. Blu-Ray players also do up-scaling but at twice the price. Not being able to enjoy a handful of (worthy) titles in Hi-def isn't going to ruin my life.
If HD does survive, for me, that will simply be a welcome bonus. Meantime, the HD-A30 is a first-class product from a company with excellent customer support.
One final thought - HD and Blu-Ray are already doomed to replacement. Replacement possibilities include broadband on-demand and very high capacity non-volatile memory media. Movies on memory cards rather than discs - no moving parts, no lasers, just a card/stick slot in the TV. Could be.
I own a Toshiba HD-A20 and just purchased a HD-A30 for the following reasons:
I have no plans to purchase Blu-Ray hardware or discs for many years, if ever. In this sense I'm going to sit this round out and wait for the next big thing. Blu-Ray is simply too expensive and will always be too customer unfriendly for me to stomach. If you don't know what I mean by Blu-Ray being "consumer unfriendly" - I can only suggest more research.
I never intended to purchase/repurchase a zillion titles in either Hi-def format. Most titles are just fine when played with an excellent up-scaling player such as the HD-A30. Blu-Ray players also do up-scaling but at twice the price. Not being able to enjoy a handful of (worthy) titles in Hi-def isn't going to ruin my life.
If HD does survive, for me, that will simply be a welcome bonus. Meantime, the HD-A30 is a first-class product from a company with excellent customer support.
One final thought - HD and Blu-Ray are already doomed to replacement. Replacement possibilities include broadband on-demand and very high capacity non-volatile memory media. Movies on memory cards rather than discs - no moving parts, no lasers, just a card/stick slot in the TV. Could be.