Customer Reviews

Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD Player

5 star:		(208)
4 star:		(76)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(29)

 

 

Many reviews on this wonderful DVD player already, so let me just bullet a few points I feel worthy.

1. Ease of installation. HDMI cable (not supplied) and the digital audio (not included) I had the audio and bought the HDMI for this player. The installation took about 10 minutes from start to set up to playing dvds. Awesome. On HDMI.. don't waste money (unless you are money bags) on expensive cables. A nice 20 dollar HDMI cable will do fine. Digital is Digital. Only the quality of the connector is in question and if you get a reliable cable, no need for the big money scams.

2. Upgrades. Easily done by lan connection or by ordering the disk from Toshiba for free. Nice.

3. Startup time is about 30 seconds. It has to load up the operating system. After that, it's just the same as any other DVD player. Don't let the nay sayers bug you on this topic. The start up time is just when you first turn it on. Not for each DVD insertion.

4. The upscaling on this is very good. I have a Sony Grand Wega and the normal DVDs now look better to my experienced eye than they did previously on my very nice Sony DVD player.

5. HD-DVD. Get the BBS HD version of the BBS series Planet Earth. Let this be your first HD you watch and let your mind be washed over in beauty. On movies.. I would research before you buy. From what I have seen.. I have a big DVD collection (over 1000) and I double dipped to get a couple HD versions right away. (meaning HD copies of dvds I already had) and there was not much if any difference. What I have found is that the greedy companies are just porting/copying movies from regular dvd over to the HD format. Like any other scanning.. it just depends on how it was done. HD doesn't mean it's really going to be better. Check out DVD reviews first before spending the extra money. I actually have one HD dvd that doesn't look as good as the regular DVD version. I was pretty stunned at having payed 25 bucks for the HD version and if I remember correctly.. 9 bucks for the DVD version. Oh well.

6. Overall impression of the Toshiba player is awesome for me. It's sleek looking in my rack and very easy to intall and to use.

If you are still trying to sort out what HD or Blu-ray player to buy I think this review will assist you tremendously. I am somewhat of a tech geek and I own both the Toshiba HD-A2 and the Phillips BDP 9000 Blu-Ray Players. I am not a SONY hater as I own a 50 inch SONY TV and love it.
The Toshiba HD-A2 is simply the best HD or Blu-Ray player available today when you factor in price, picture, sound and appearance. To begin with ignore the 1 or 2 star ratings for this player. Those usually are from people who are upset because the do not have an HDMI ready TV and can't produce the proper HD picture. If you do not have a TV that accepts an HDMI connection (or DVI connection) you should not buy any HD or Blu-Ray player.
That said let's get to the review of this player. The HD picture is the best I have seen on any player. The colors are crisp and the sharpness is almost 3-D like. As far as start up time, so what if the player takes 30-40 seconds to load. Are any of us really going to be affected by this? Someone tell me what any of us would do with the extra 15 or 20 seconds if it loaded a little quicker? The menu is very easy to use and the remote control is very user friendly as well. As far as the sound, it is unreal if you have a good home theater system. The fact that it plays Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital, DTS and DTS-HD gives it a bid advantage over most Blu-Ray players. When you are watching a movie in HD sound does matter. The design is very nice and will blend into you current home entertainment set-up. Have you seen some of the Blu-Ray players out there like the new SONY player. They are huge and unappealing. The SONY player won't even play music disks. My Phillips is a nice player but does not have DTS-HD or CDolby TrueHD but is a good unit however it is still more expensive than the Toshiba HD-A2.
For those of you that are not videophiles you should understand that HD DVD uses a technology called vc-1 and most bLu-Ray disks use an inferior technology. That is why HD DVD simple has a better picture. I have watched movies on several Blu-Ray players including the one in the SONY Playstation 3 and they just do not have a s good a picture as this Toshiba unit. One last thing about this player, it does upconvert regular DVDs and although they do not look as good as the HD-DVDs they do look much better than normal.
Last thing to think about is this: No one really know where this HD-Blu-Ray war is headed. People who are afraid to get either unit because they don't know where this is heading are really missing a great entertainment experience regardless of it being HD DVD or Blu-ray. This may not get sorted our for years. In the meantime to be able to get the HD-A2 for $400.00 is a great buy. In the worse case scenario Blu-Ray wins out (which is by no means guaranteed) and you then are able to buy HD DVD's for 1/3 the price because Blu-Ray is the winner. So you keep you player have a great library of movies and switch to a Blu Ray player later when they are under $300.00.
If you have an HDMI capable HDTV you will ove this player.

Toshiba HD-A2 is excellent DVD player, one of the best I've ever seen. It upconverts regular DVDs better than almost every other DVD player I've seen and I have used Toshiba's SD-5000 (too dark) and the Oppo DV-970HD (close but not quite as sharp). This DVD player makes DVDs look very close to high def DVDs. One feature this DVD player has that is not talked about a lot is a Dialog Enhancement. It makes sure that the dialog doesn't get lost in music or sound fxs and it really works. You can play movies at a lower volume and still hear what's being said.

The design of HD-A2 is spot-on and much better than the A1 series. They fit in perfectly with today's slick glossy black flat-panel TVs. It's a tad bigger than I expected but it looks fantastic so that doesn't bother me at all and you can stack on it easily unlike game consoles. The HD-A2 is extremely quiet as well. You would never know it's on. Seriously!

The unit comes with an ethernet port (broadband connection) built-in on the back that allows it to update the software running the unit. The updates are totally optional but I would recommend getting them. They already made the unit load up faster through one of the updates which is amazing for a DVD player.

Now here's some things about this player not everyone knows about. HD-DVD format is region-free, unlike both DVD and Blu-ray. This means that if a movie comes in say Europe or Japan and you want to buy it, you can buy it and play it without worrying about whether it will work on your player.

It's also a little know fact that even though this player's max resolution support is 1080i, almost all TVs that support 1080p output will upconvert the picture to 1080p anyway. Most 1080p TV only display at 1080p anyway so there's not much of a need for a 1080p player although there's suppose to be an extra 24fps update for the 1080p players.

Why did I choose to give a HD-DVD player a shot? Why not? I got mines for under $300 and with 5 HD-DVD movies to boot so it's like I paid a little over $200 for it. It's pretty cheap and is one of the best DVD players you can get. There are some things HD-DVD has going for that the other format doesn't have to going for too. I love the fact that it's region free. I'm also weary of Blu-ray because Sony is charge of it. After the DRM encryption thing they put on their music CDs (with spyware and limiting use) that resulted in them having to give customers money-back or replacing the disc with regular versions I really don't want to buy into their next format unless I have to.

The last reason why I currently like HD-DVD a little better than Blu-ray right now is because the disc seems to be getting more bonus material on the disc. If you compare the bonus features for a lot of Warner releases including 300 which is coming out very soon you'll see that they have more behind the scene material and I generally like things about the way HD-DVD interface works better than Blu-ray at this time. The ethernet port in all HD-DVD player will also allow you to get even more bonuses for the movie in the future, which is pretty cool. As far as picture and sound quality they're about dead even these days.

There Is No Difference Between 1080p and 1080i
My bold-printed, big-lettered breaker above is a little sensationalistic, but, as far as movies are concerned, this is basically true. Here's why. Movies (and most TV shows) are shot at 24 frames per second (either on film or on 24-frame-per-second HD cameras). Every TV sold in the United States has a refresh rate of 60 hertz. This means that the screen refreshes 60 times per second. In order to display 24-frame-per-second content on a display that essentially shows 60 frames per second, you need to make up or create new frames. This is accomplished by a method called 3:2 pulldown (or, more accurately, 2:3 pulldown). It doubles the first frame of film, triples the second frame, doubles the third frame, and so on, creating a 2-3-2-3-2-3 sequence. (Check out Figure 1 for a more colorful depiction.) So, the new frames don't have new information; they are just duplicates of the original film frames. This process converts 24-frame-per-second film to be displayed on a 60-Hz display.

It's Deinterlacing, Not Scaling
HD DVD and Blu-ray content is 1080p/24. If your player outputs a 60-Hz signal (that is, one that your TV can display), the player is adding (creating) the 3:2 sequence. So, whether you output 1080i or 1080p, it is still inherently the same information. The only difference is in whether the player interlaces it and your TV deinterlaces it, or if the player just sends out the 1080p signal directly. If the TV correctly deinterlaces 1080i, then there should be no visible difference between deinterlaced 1080i and direct 1080p (even with that extra step). There is no new information--nor is there more resolution, as some people think. This is because, as you can see in Figure 1, there is no new information with the progressive signal. It's all based on the same original 24 frames per second.

Just got mine about a week ago and have it hooked up via HDMI to a Sanyo PLV-Z5 720P projecting on a 110" white screen in a dedicated theater room hooked up to a Marantz A/V 5.1 receiver.

Picture quality is very nice, especially when playing HD DVDs - even on a 110" screen, the picture quality looks film-like, or at least as good as the source is - Batman Begins (HD), for example, looks absolutely incredible. I imagine with a 1080P projector/TV that deinterlaces well, it'd be even more spectacular. My wife and I did discover that the upscaling of my projector is slightly nicer than the Toshiba's (at least to our eyes) so for standard DVDs I actually output at 480i (this may draw fire from some other reviews) and let the projector do the upscaling/de-interlacing (I haven't tried 480P yet - maybe tonight). I'm sure the Toshiba has a fine upscaler, just not as good IMHO. I don't have an OPPO player but I'd love to hear about a comparison between the two in this regard (upscaling standard DVDs to 720P). I tried outputting at 1080i but it looked horrible - a fault of my 720P projector which cannot deinterlace a 1080i input - I'm only mentioning this to say that I can't comment on how good it might potentially look at 1080i. My only gripe in the video regard is that this player does tend to push reds a tad (especially with component video connections) and I haven't seen an advanced menu that allows me to adjust/correct colors, gamma, etc., with the player. This coupled with the fact that my projector also pushes reds (yes, the player pushes them a tad further, it's not just my projector), means that I have some bright reds to deal with.

Audio seems great, but I'm no audiophile. I have it hooked up to my receiver via optical and it successfully plays dolby digital, DD+, True HD, etc. (the latter format downscaled, I assume). No lip-sink issues or other problems that I can think of. I have had a few of the often-cited lip-sink issues with my XBox 360 HD player, as a side-note. I haven't really done an apples-to-apples comparison between the 360 HD player and this but I think they're comparable in video quality, perhaps the Toshiba has a slight edge (my 360 player is hooked up via component) but the 360 is a clunky way to play movies (IMHO) and only has analog video output options (component or VGA).

Player load-time is acceptable. I don't have the latest firmware (maybe that speeds it up a bit?) but my startup times from loading the DVD/HD-DVD to playback are ~28 seconds - a tad slower than I'd like but you only do it once per movie, so... This is one area where I think my 360 player is better/faster.

The remote control is okay but no back-lighting in a dark theater room is a pain. Needless to say, I plan on switching to a back-lit universal remote. The 360 player has a backlit remote, but I hate the look of the remote.

The player itself looks very sharp, has a sleek profile, is still somewhat deep (reminiscent of early DVD players), doesn't run hot, doesn't make noise, etc. In otherwords - great aesthetics unlike the 360 player (I shouldn't rip the 360 player - if someone already owns a 360, like me, it's an under $200 way to play HD content while waiting for the regular players to drop in price).

I would have given this Toshiba player four stars due to the load-time, ho-hum remote, etc., but for under $400 - this represents an incredible deal, IMHO, and I can live with a cheap remote (or willing to replace it, at least) and the load-time is par for the course with early generation players so how can I really complain? My biggest concern at this point (no fault of the player, of course) seems to be the HD-DVD/Blu-ray pendulum swinging into Sony's favor as of late, but IMHO, better to gamble with less than $400 on this player than gamble with $600-1500 on the competition if you lose, and I'm still frustrated about the fact that Blu-ray movies tend to cost more and include much less (I'll still probably buy one if/when they come down to the ~$400 range). I wish all the studios would simply support both formats and let the consumer choose, then I'd be in HD nirvana (thank you Paramount and Warner! curse you other studios!).

I bought this player for one reason: price. I could go on and on about the technical specs of this player, and how it compares to others, but for me it really comes down to bang for the buck. This one takes the cake. The improvement it makes on my old DVD's is alone worth the money. I was really blown away by how well the upconversion worked! Watching the King Kong DVD again on this player, I couldn't get over how good a standard definition DVD could look! Oh, I guess I should mention that it has the added benefit of playing HD DVD's too. :) As my first HD DVD, I bought the Planet Earth series (Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series [HD DVD]). It's hard to put into words how incredible this series is in HD.

I hear there's a format war out there, but I'm not too worried about it. With this player, I've stepped into the world of high-definition movies and am enjoying my old DVD's all over again. The 5 free HD DVD deal is outstanding, and with the money I saved I can afford to get more. If you own an HDTV, this is a great investment any way you cut it.

I have had this player for 2 months now, and it has been perfect since the day I got it. I have watched over 20 HD-DVD's without a single skip/pause or issue of any kind. It also makes my old DVD's look great, better than my Oppo V971H. And don't get hung up on the 1080i/1080p issue. Any 1080P display worth owning can de-interlace the 1080i output to full 1080P. If you are looking for a relatively inexpensive way to get the best in HD movies this is the player for you.

I bought this player at my local BB a few months ago when the Matrix Trilogy came out for $269 ($299 + 10% off coupon). Since I bought the Matrix Trilogy too, I got 2 HD-DVD's instantly for free, plus I sent in for the 5 free HD-DVD's by mail (which I received yesterday). So, for $279 I got 7 Free HD-DVD titles, and an HD-DVD player that looks and sounds fantastic with my system (even with up-converted DVD's). You just can't beat it.

2 suggestions before using this player. #1, get an HDMI cable. This thing only comes with a standard set of analog RCA cables, which are worthless for HD video and digital sound. #2, update the firmware when you install the player. It's a piece of cake to do if you have a home network. If you are living in the stone ages and don't have a home network, you can get the update on a disk from Toshiba. I never had a firmware related problem, but some people (who don't seem to understand the concept of a firmware update) seem to whine about certain discs not playing, HDMI problems, etc. My philosophy, just do the update and spare everyone the whining! It could be worse man! Products didn't used to update themselves! With most consumer products, if there is a bug...you're just plain out of luck!

Once you've hooked this bad boy up, the quality is amazing. You definitely notice the deeper blacks, richer colors, and crisper resolution compared to standard DVD. If you have a receiver that supports MPCM over HDMI (like the Yamaha RX-V661...which I highly recommend too), you can set the HD-DVD's to Dolby TrueHD. Once you do that, the HD-A2 will feed 6 channels of UNCOMPRESSED audio into your receiver. This makes the sound quality astounding.

Anyway, after enjoying this thing for several months now, I highly recommend it. It's worth every penny, even without the free HD-DVD offers.

This time last week, I had no plans on dipping my toes into the HD-DVD or Blu-Ray market. I am an avid DVD collector, owning over 1200 standard DVD's and have been very happy with those for now over 10 years.

I was cruising around Amazon Friday night, and had seen that the price for the A2 had been dropped to $299.99 and suddenly my interest perked. Not only had it been cut by $100, but had even been lowered an additional $62.12, where it now comes in at a cool $238.88. My eyes grew, and decided to look around the area (Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, etc.) to see if I could find a similar price (I'm a "want it right now" kinda guy).

I found that Circuit City had the same listed price, and then headed to Best Buy to see if they would match my price (I'm a Rewards Member....can you blame me?) They said they'd match, so I snagged one at the ridiculously low rate listed above.

But you wanna know the best part? I had saved all of my Christmas gift cards, equaling $230. So I paid $8.88 for a brand new, fresh outta the box HD-DVD player!

As far as the player goes, the hook up was a cinch. Plug in the HDMI cord and BAM!, you're connected. Now I'm not a very savvy tech man, but this was easier than tying my shoes people, just a breeze.

I popped in "Miami Vice" (which was shot in HD) and "Batman Begins" yesterday, and I promise you my jaw was on the floor. Yes, I've got HD cable, but this is something really special, this is one of those things you show off to all your friends and family. The picture is crisp, especially "Miami Vice", and the surround sound is what really sells it.

If you have any plans on submerging yourself into the HD world, this is a perfect jumping off point. The price is just ridiculously rock bottom (but I'm not sure for how long, so keep that in mind) and the quality is top notch. I firmly give this a five star reccomendation.

I know it's only been 36 hours since I've gotten the A2, and if something glitches or goes wrong, I'll be sure to update. But knock on wood, this bad boy will live a long and prosperous life.

To all of you questioning....don't. Now is the time.

Enjoy!

The Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player is an entry-level player aimed at expanding the market penetration of HD DVD beyond the enthusiast and gaming crowds. I think it will succeed, but not without some growing pains. The output is 720p and 1080i, NO 1080p. Look to the HD-XA2 for that.

The player is handsome, in black and silver. It looks like a DVD player of a few years ago. Use is simple, just like any DVD player. The boot-up time is about 30 seconds, and loading time is scarcely longer than any DVD player. Picture quality can be stunning, if the source material, and the playback equipment is good enough. "BBC Planet Earth" is fabulous, for instance. Sound quality is also surprisingly good, and is better than my previous player, an Oppo 971H.

I had to buy new 24 gauge HDMI cables for this player to reach 27 feet to my front projector without the dreaded sparkles. This is a warning to front projector users: This player does not drive the HDMI cable as well as the Oppo, and length could be a problem. For the typical 6 foot run to a big screen TV, there is no issue.

The audio output is optical ONLY, no coaxial audio. That is a real travesty. They should have deleted the composite video output instead, if money was so tight. There is also no 5.1 audio. I was able to swap the optical audio connection with my TV tuner, which has both coax and optical outputs. Buyers should beware of the limited connectivity. I think that was a poor place to scrimp in the design.

Finally, The upscaling of DVDs only works with anamorphic widescreen DVDs. If you have one of the widescreen formats that is not anamorphic, the player will produce a smaller image with a black border all around. You will need an outboard scaler in your PJ, TV, or rack to correct this. I keep the Oppo around for those discs.

In summary, you can get into HD DVD for the least amount of money ever right now. The player is a best value at this time. If you want more player, 1080p, and more connectivity, look at the HD-XA2.