Toshiba HD-A3 720p/1080i HD DVD Player

by Toshiba

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 16.9 x 2.3 inches ; 7.3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 11 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B000U62N1S
• Item model number: HD-A3
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (374 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,699 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
  • #5 in Electronics > Televisions & Video > HD DVD Players

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The Toshiba HD-A3 HD DVD Player allows everyone into the HD DVD game with a very affordable price tag. Don't let the price fool you, however; it offers many features and an excellent build quality.

A Refined, Slimmer Look
The HD-A3's refined design--with rounded edges, a slim chassis, and a high-gloss black face plate, standing less than two-and-a-half inches tall--looks sleek and elegant in your home theater system without taking up too much real estate.

The Toshiba HD-A3 has an Ethernet port to support HD DVD titles with interactive online features, as well as to keep the player refreshed with firmware updates. View larger.

In addition to HD DVD, the A3 can also play DVDs, DVD-R/Ws, DVD-VRs, CDs, CD-Rs, and CD-RWs. View larger.

Outstanding Performance
All of Toshiba's HD DVD players support the enhanced features of the HD DVD format, including picture-in-picture video, audio commentary, and Web-enabled network capabilities. With an Ethernet port, the HD-A3 can connect to the Internet for firmware updates to keep the player up to date on new features, and to support the growing number of HD DVD titles with interactive online features and bonus content.

The HD-A3 features an HDMI interface that carries both a video and an audio signal in one cable for the highest quality and convenience. The A3 outputs video at 720p and 1080i for a detailed and sharp image. The HD-A3 has progressive scan capability, which means it eliminates the scan-lines of interlaced video and produces a clean image with no motion distortion and artifacts.

Sparkling Surround Sound
The HD-A3's built-in circuitry processes the multi-channel decoding of Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS, and DTS-HD (core only).

Plays a Variety of Formats
The HD-A3 is backward-compatible with your DVD collection: It can play and upconvert DVDs to the HD resolution that is being output. It can also play DVD-R/W, DVD-R, DVD-VR, CD, CD-R, and CD-RW formats, so you don't need extra players taking up space.

The HD-A3 is backed by a limited 1-year warranty.

More resolution than regular DVD (up to 1080i).

Upconverts standard DVDs to the output resolution.

Tons of new interactive features and bonus content.

What's in the Box
HD-A3 HD DVD player, remote control, and power cable.

Product Description

10-5-2007 - TOSHIBA HD-A3 HIGH-DEFINITION DVD PLAYER

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Hi Def player for a great price., November 2, 2007

By 

D. A. Lembree "dlembree" (Novi, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Toshiba HD-A3 720p/1080i HD DVD Player (Electronics)

Pros:
Fantastic picture
Great price
1080i/ 720p output great for 720p HDTV's
Fast startup time
Slim design of the unit
Adequate remote
Some reviews of other Toshiba HD players have stated that you can't pause the movie, and come back to it later but I have not found this to be the case. As long as you leave the unit on, you can pause the movie as long as you want and resume it when you want to.
Plays DVD+R discs with no problem even though this is not a stated feature.

Cons:
no 1080p output- not an issue for me since I have a 720p TV.
Haven't come across any.

96 of 110 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Sleek Player!, November 4, 2007

By 

Jonathan (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Toshiba HD-A3 720p/1080i HD DVD Player (Electronics)

I just got my A3 and it's absolutely fantastic. The load times are fast, start-up is fast and it's an aesthetically pleasing device. Sleek new slim design, lightweight and includes non-combo edition of 300 and The Bourne Identity HD DVDs, fully packaged in red elite cases.

I also have the A2, and prefer this third generation unit but the A2 is still a solid, and great machine. The A3 upconverts DVDs beautifully, watching DisneyDVDs is great and they look amazing. Of course HD DVDs also look great, especially Troy Directors Cut, Transformers looks beyond words - just an amazing movie experience, and The Matrix is gorgeous. I also recommend Shrek the Third next week, that will be gorgeous too.

Finally, the A3 is a solid player, better load times than the A2, slightly smaller, a beautiful chassis that really compliments your HT and Toshiba REGZA or any piano finished black TVs, and a great value. I recommend it.

39 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent player for first time HD-DVD, November 18, 2007

By 

Adam Miarka (Fishers, IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Toshiba HD-A3 720p/1080i HD DVD Player (Electronics)

This is my first HD-DVD purchase and an excellent player for the price, features, and free HD-DVDs!

First, the reason for a four star rating is the initial boot-up / load time for the player. Although the start up time is slower than regular DVD players, I found that once you are actually watching a movie or jumping around menus during a movie, those actions are definitely faster than a standard DVD player.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, I can get to the good stuff. I ended up purchasing the A3 two weeks ago at BestBuy for $175. They were also running the 10 free HD-DVDs promotion and I had a 12% rewards zone coupon. I had been on the fence about Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, but couldn't resist this price. I had missed out on the $99 Walmart deal for the A2, but I think this is a better deal in the end with the extra HD-DVDs you get.

Setup was easy. Just plug in the HDMI for video to my TV and plug in the optical audio out to my receiver. I needed to set the audio out on the A3 to bitstream to get correct 5.1 sound to my Sony receiver. Eventually, I will purchase a receiver that will decode lossless audio (I'm looking at you Onkyo 605!!), and allow me to have the audio and video connection both through HDMI.

There have been 2 updates for this player so far and I would suggest updating to the latest firmware. This can be done in the setup menu by plugging in your A3 into your home network and grabbing a dynamic IP. Be sure to reboot your A3 so that it picks up the new settings. The A3 will contact Toshiba's servers and download and install the latest firmware. Each update took about 30 mins to complete. The current firmware is 1.3/1.1.

Our current HDTV in the house is the Samsung 56" DLP (HL-T5689S) which supports 1080p resolution. Although the A3 can only output up to 1080i, the TV does an excellent job reconstructing the 1080p signal. I have read the debates about 1080i/1080p and in the end, the picture quality from the Samsung and the A3 look amazing! There are some moments when you are watching a movie and it almost seems 3D because of the clarity in the picture!

The A3 also supports up converting of my old DVDs so I do not need to worry about purchasing HD-DVD version of those any time soon (at least until this silly format war is over with). Up converting works really well and I have no complaints. If I had to compare HD-DVD to DVD picture quality, it would be like putting on a pair of new glasses. Everything is much clearer and visible.

I recently purchased refurbished Harman Kardon HKTS 18 speakers for $280. These provide the best sound for a low price for my audio setup. The 200 watt subwoofer that comes with these speakers creates intense sound for action movies, but also provides the mids I need for music.

So, back to the player. The physical dimensions keep getting smaller with every generation. The A3 is about the same width and depth as my DVR from Insight cable. The A3 is slimmer overall than the DVR. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I wouldn't worry about the size.

As far as additional features of the HD-DVD spec, I am happy with the ability to browse menus while the movie is still playing, something that regular DVDs will not allow. The ability to play back additional commentaries is nice too. You basically watch two movies at once (picture in picture). One video is the actual movie, the other is the commentary. Another cool feature is the ability to download additional content from the web. This content will download and play during a movie (a la Transformers GPS featurette). Very cool!

This is what I like about HD-DVD over Blu-Ray, a completed spec for each system that is made and sold to consumers. When you purchase an HD-DVD player, you will be able to play older and newer HD-DVDs and not have to worry about "does my player support this or that feature?" No fussing with Blu-Ray profile 1.0, 1.1. 2.0, etc. Blu-Ray is still meddling with their specs and not all players are equal. There will be a lot of PO'ed people when they realize their 1.0 player can not take advantage of 1.1 or 2.0 features. With HD-DVD, I don't worry about that.

In the end, I would recommend purchasing this player for anyone that wants to start the HD movie collection. Especially with the 10 free HD-DVDs, you can't go wrong. Amazing features, completed specs, excellent up-conversion of older DVDs.