Customer Reviews

Toshiba HD-XA1 HD-DVD Player

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

First off, read all the reviews for the HD-A1. They all apply to the HD-XA1. It is simply a great DVD Player.

Is it worth $300.00 more than the HD-A1? From a performance standpoint probably not. While the dual layer chasis and vibration isolation feet are supposed to improve performance,I don't see any improvement in performance over the HD-A1. If you want to integrate with the rest of your theater with RS232 then you need the HD-XA1, the HD-A1 does not have the RS232 port. The remote that comes with the HD-XA1 is back lit, the remote with the HD-A1 is not, so if you need to see the remote in the dark, the HD-XA1 remote is what you need. Also, the HD-XA1 has a motorized door on the front that covers the DVD tray and control buttons.

If you need the back lit remote, or RS232, or just want the best, then get the HD-XA1, otherwise get the HD-A1

I had the opportunity to extensively test both the Toshiba XA1 and the new Samsung Blu-Ray and the Toshiba machine has better image, better sound, more movies available and lower price. Blu-ray may be dead before being born. I know is too early to call but the first round goes to HD-DVD. The Samsung player is killing Blu-ray with its buggy machine, neither is helping the very inconsistent quality of the few titles available.
Other that a dorky remote, the Toshiba machine is near perfect (after the firmware update). If you are tired to wait for HD recorded material, wait no more.

I just got this HD DVD player. The image it produces is very crisp. I tried the Last Samurai, Phantom of the Opera, and Good Fellas HD DVD on the Samsung 32 inch 1366 x 768 LCD HDTV. The image is amazing.

Comparing the quality of other upconverting DVD players and HD DVD player. The upconverting players are "not bad". The HD DVD picture is fantastic. Even with a 1366 x 768 LCD HDTV, the picture is already so amazing. I wonder what it would be like when it is on a 40 or 50 inch 1920 x 1080 plasma HDTV in the future.

As compared to HD Cable or Directv, HD DVD is a little better. I checked the Warner Brothers HD DVD using the Toshiba notebook that has a HD DVD drive. And it shows that the HD DVD disc is a dual layer disc, and the content is 27GB. So the Last Samurai movie is probably at about 25Mbps. I heard that cable or directv HD channels are usually at 15Mbps. With HD DVD, i feel that it is superb, while HD channels are "excellent".

If money is not an issue, get this player. Otherwise, wait a little while to see how the battle between HD DVD and Blu Ray goes, or wait for a dual-format player. It will be sweet in the future when the player is $200 or even $120, and the HD DVD or the Blu Ray disc are $9.99 to $14.99 each.

At last, High-Definition. I love this machine and what it does. Superb performance with the new HD-DVD format. I tried a few films like Last Samurai, U-571, Goodfellas and The Fugitive... And it's like watching the real things happening live in front of me. I was simply amazed.

This is the format for the true Cinema lover. Color, contrast, detail... it is like being in a theater that was build just for you. Now I can really appreciate good cinematography.

And there also another great thing: it upconverts our Current DVDs to near-HD image. It plays DVD just like a hi-end player.

I just hope they'll release more titles soon.

Go HD-DVD. You will be unable to take your eyes off the screen.

My wife and I are enjoying the heck out of this player. I can't find anything that I outright don't like about it. It has not hiccuped once playing any of our movies. Movie load times are a bit long, but once they get going, it is a beautiful sight to behold.

Don't forget to update the firmware. I had a bit of trouble with the network setup (my fault, I forgot to turn off the MAC address filtering on the router), but it went well once it connected and everything progressed flawlessly. In trying to figure out the problem, I called the help number on the back of the owner's manual. After one ring, and I mean just one ring, a real human answered (no surfing through endless touch tone menus) and helped me figure out what was wrong. He even sent me a copy of the update on CD. I was quite impressed with the customer support.

Hooking up the player was a breeze. Plugged in the power cord, connected the audio cables and then the HDMI cable and within 5 minutes was watching an HD DVD movie! Can't get much easier than that. I just love it when things work the first time out.

We have watched several movies so far and am impressed with the video and audio quality of this player. Clarity is awesome and colors jump out at you. One thing that everyone must remember is source material makes a big difference in the viewing experience. Let me give you some examples by the titles that we own so far:
Batman Begins: Excellent clarity, but the movie was shot with an ever so subtle filtered effect softening the image the slightest bit, but it looks beautiful (and is extremely consistent in that it lets you know that was the film makers intention and it fits the subject and style of the film) and the sound will knock your socks off (TrueHD). Grade: A+
Ray: Razor sharp picture and clear sound. The video on this title is the best of our collection for that super clear HD experience you would expect. Would have been nice to have a TrueHD soundtrack but the DD+ is great. Grade: A+
The Mummy: A nice presentation with good resolution and colors. A newer film, it does well with a relatively clean print (not perfect though, unfortunately with white specks and some dirt here and there) with good colors and uniformity. Sound design is pretty good. Grade A
Caddy Shack: Older catalog title but the print was cleaned up quite nicely. Colors jump off the screen and are sickeningly accurate when it comes to Rodney Dangerfield's outfits. The sound is design is quite dated (remember, this is a movie from 1980) but dialog is clear. Grade A
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation: Great holiday film, one of my favorites. Looks sooo much better in HD. After so many years of crappy transfers it is nice to see it cleaned up so much and in proper widescreen aspect ratio. Still, a bit more work could have been done on the print for that super fantastic home theater experience. Grade A-

I can't say enough good things about this player. Great picture, great sound, great customer support. This machine does all that would expect, and does it perfectly.

Negatives include the slow startup times (which has been mentioned a million times and not something that bothers me a whole lot personally) and the back-lit remote. The automatic back-lighting feature is a bit goofy. Sometimes is lights, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it stays lit for a reasonable amount of time, other times it just flickers on then is dark all too quickly. I would have preferred just a big easy to find button to turn the lighting on myself. What I do like about the back-lighting is how thorough it is. I like the fact that the button labels are lit so you can actually read the functions. Kudos to Toshiba on getting that part of it right. Why aren't more remotes like that. What good is it if the button itself it lit but not the function label?

My father in law has a Samsung Blu Ray and while the picture quality is drop dead gorgeous (no doubt helped by his 57" LCD Samsung TV), I am not sure that the home theater experience is as good (not even taking into account the image freezes and signal scramble blocking that occur. The player is definitely glitchy). Sure it is razor (and I mean razor) sharp, but it is almost TOO razor sharp. I am a person who likes a film to look like a film. You lose that certain visual quality on his setup. But the clarity is amazing. It definitely has that WOW factor. Still I prefer our Hitachi 65" RPTV, which imparts a "gentle warmness" to the image without sacrificing clarity.

So now that I have rambled on long enough my final thoughts are as follows:

It is a great piece of technology and is well executed. No, it is not perfect, but it does what it promises to do, and does it superbly. The price was right and I see us getting many, many hours of viewing enjoyment from our investment, and it is hard to beat with the current street price under $500.00. I would highly recommend this product to other home theater enthusiasts in search of the next technology.

The Bad:

Takes a while to boot; about 40 seconds. Need to update Firmware out of the box; its easy though.

The Good:

It seems as though some reviewers do not understand the concept of Firmwarfe updates. Unlike hte Blu Ray players all HD-DVD players have an ethernet port. Just plug into any internet connection and it automatically downloads update. Only did this once since purchase and it is totally bug free. Sammy has same bug issues. Toshiba will also send a disc free of charge within 5 days. Also future proof since upgrades such as 1080p possible via update.

Picture quality is better than anything I have seen on Blu Ray.

Supports internal Dolby True HD decoding. No receiver offers this yet. Blu Ray does not decode True HD so you'll have to wait and spend big $$$$ to get Dolby True HD audio. True HD is a huge audio upgrade do not be fooled.

This unit upconverts SD DVD's to an amazing level some look darn near HD.

Unit upsamples standard CD's.

This unit was over built very good solid quality.

All in all I love this player. Top notch quality.

Got it in the mail from Amazon (or sub-vendor) the other day.

Terrible set-up and out-of-the-box experience. Got same cryptic error as other reviewer when I first tried to play an HD-DVD. Relatively quick and painless firmware download fixed initial problems (or get update disk from Toshiba, insert, and it fixes self). Manual barely helped - Toshiba needs to pay a few more cents per unit to hire ENGRISH SPEAKING manual writers - terrible.

Followed instructions for online (connected to internet) frirmware update). MONTHS OF TRYING - NOW NOTHING SHOWS UP ON TV MONITOR OR FRONT PANEL OF HD-DVD PLAYER. NOTHING WORKS! I'M TRYING TO GET MY MONEY BACK FROM TOSLHIBA. THIS IS BY FAR THE WORST CONSUMER PRODUCT EXPERIENCE I HAVE EVER HAD. TOSHIBA, YOU ARE THE WORST!

NO, blu-ray is not better.
And this HD-DVD machine will blow away any other blu-ray player in business.

I am a proud owner of this amazing HD-DVD player.
I have it for months now and I must say I had no problems whatsoever with it. It it true loading times are longer than a with DVD player. But that's peanuts if I think about the amazing picture and sound this machine delivers.

By now, I own around 30 HD-DVD titles and I am very pleased with this player's performance in every way.
And if i think about all the problems blu-ray players are experiencing along with disappointing picture quality... I'd recomend any HD-DVD player.

And the good thing about HD-DVD is that it is backward compatible with DVD. And since I brought the subject... this player is also an amazing DVD upconverter.

HD-DVD is the future. It is the best format. It has proven it can deliver.
I love DVDs.
And HD-DVDs are the best advance since standard DVDs.
People everywhere are praising the wonders of this format.

The machine is incrediable the picture you get is lifelike. It's like your at the show with hd dvd's or regular dvd's the picture is superb. My family loves it and we would recomend it to anyone.

AFTER READING MANY FORUMS AND PROFESSIONAL REVIEWS AND VIEWING HD VS BLU RAY I MADE THE INFORMED AND WISE DECISION TO BUY THE HD-XA1. THE PICTURE QUALITY IS SPECTACULAR ON HD DVDS AND THE UPCONVERSION OF STANDARD DVDS ON THIS PLAYER IS IMPROVED OVER MY SONY. SOUND QUALITY IS QUITE AN IMPROVEMENT ALSO. NO ISSUES OTHER THAN MAINTAINING CLEAN DISCS IS A MUST.