Home > Consumer Reviews > Toshiba HD-A30 1080p HD DVD Player

No expert in HD here (my first high def DVD player), but this seems to be a solid unit. Menu use is very simple, and the slow load times seem to be an issue on all products. The only glitch I've found so far is that, while playing one of the Planet Earth discs, it stopped and displayed an error and continued to do so at the exact same spot. I've yet to try the firmware update, so maybe that will help. The 24fps setting with my 1080p/120Hz Samsung is honestly the best picture I've ever seen and makes all our friends ooh and aah. With the 10 free disc offer Amazon is running, you can't beat it.

I bought this from Amazon, and I received it sooner than expected. I must say that I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon and that their good reputation for customer service is deserved.

It came with a default setting for 1080i, I wanted to see 1080p for the first time on my new TV and it took me a few minutes to figure out how to change this setting. You apparently cannot reconfigure this while it is playing a DVD, so I finally figured out that I had to stop the DVD and then I could pull up the configuration menu and make the change. No problem. I could have just looked in the User Manual, I suppose, but it is an ego thing to try to figure it out on your own first I suppose.

It came with two movies in the box. The Bourne Identity is a good movie in my opinion and I enjoyed watching it in HD and all the bonus features. When I first put the DVD in, I was in awe of Universal logo, it was crisp. Oh, and the movie looked good too. The other movie, 300, just isn't a good movie. It was very poorly produced/directed and I just didn't enjoy it.

You can also send off for 5 free HD-DVDs from Toshiba/Microsoft when you buy this machine, though the selection is very limited. You have to go the HD-DVD website and download and print the form. Worth a 41 cent stamp to me. I haven't gotten the movies yet, but I only sent it in a week ago today, so I am not expecting them yet.

I have read mention of the load time and so I was expecting it. It is longer than regular DVD players, but I really don't mind. The payoff is well worth the wait. The picture is beautiful.

I watched some standard DVDs to see the up-conversion. It looks better than my old DVD player, but maybe my expectations were too high and I have nothing to compare it to. Still watchable, but I notice the difference easily.

Now, bring on the Battlestar Galactica HD-DVDs.

Finally got rid of our family TV...a fifteen-year-old color 27" POS and did my part for the economy! Went high tech nuts and bought two HD DVD players and two HD LCD TVs. Got from Amazon the A-30 and the cheaper A-3 with 20 free HD DVD's. Connected these via hdmi to a Samsung 40" 1080p LCD TV and a Sharp 42" Aquos 1080i. Man I feel like George Jetson. The HD DVD picture is fantastic.. glad that we finally up-graded to this new technology. Both DVD players work great - I have found no outstanding issues. Note I did not do an internet update for the DVD players, which worked right out of the box. Also get real .....to those who complain about having to wait 20-3O sec for the DVD to load content? Jesh I dont consider that a big deal when for the next 90-120 min you will be sitting and staring at the tube ... enjoy : )

I've had this player for roughly a month now. Picture quality in 1080p/24 is great. Updating the firmware is effortless, but it can take awhile to update. My first attempt to update the firmware went through 34 of 34 I believe, then froze. Fortunately the second attempt worked without any hitches.

Pros:
- Great picture quality in 1080p/24 and 1080i
- Easy to update
- Good upconversion of DVDs
- Also has optical output

Cons:
- Slow startup (approx. 1 minute)
- Slow loading (approx. 20 sec)
- No resume (stopping or ejecting movie starts from scratch for HD-DVDs)
- 1080p (1080p/60) has some jaggies in certain scenes

Mixed:
- Does not come with a universal remote (Just get a Logitech Harmony remote)

This is Toshiba's 3rd Generation HD DVD player. Other then being slimmer then the HD-A20, I don't know that it offers anything in the way of improvements. Load times are still SLOOOWWW! On average time to open DVD tray door is 38 seconds, and then it takes another 38 seconds after closing the door for the DVD to start playing. This is better than the 1st gen players, but not better than the 2nd gen players.

If you bought this player for it's '1080p60' capability, then you will find that it works, but offers little if anything in the way of improvement over '1080i'. This is due to the fact that it was implemented incorrectly by Toshiba. Fortunately for me it's '1080p24' capability works correctly.

I suppose Toshiba could offer firmware updates to fix these 2 flaws, but I wouldn't hold my breath. I would only recommend getting this HD DVD player if your TV set supports 1080p24 input. Otherwise I would get the HD-A2 or HD-A3 and save a $100. Or if you can afford it, get the HD-XA2 for it's superior standard DVD upconverting capabilities.