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"The best Toshiba so far" on by nelll81
Pros: Slim design, Faster movie loading time, better remote control.
Cons: Lacks of the 5.1 surround sound for standard DVD, It should be easier to upgrade firmware via USB wireless internet connection and its finish is fine but is finger print sensitive.
Summary: The Toshiba HD-A2 is a piece of art, not perfect but art anyways. Mission impossible III (HD) did its job with my Panasonic HDTV 1080i, that was the first movie that I watched in the Toshiba HD-A2. I’m not going to be saying silly comments or be too technical about it. If you want to see it before you buy it go to Best Buy they have the HD-DVD demo and you can change the movies at your pleasure. The war between HD-DVD and blue ray is already in the field so I say bringer on.
For more info in which HD-DVD movies you should buy go to http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/reviews.html
It was a lot of help for me to decide.Updated
To help more in this complicated subject here is part of the article from
http://www.hometheaterblog.com/hometheater/2006/12/toshibas_hda2_f.html , I hope this is more help to decide wich way to go.
Below is Evan Powell's (Projector Central) appraisal of the 1080i vs 1080p controversy.
The truth is this: The Toshiba HD-DVD player outputs 1080i, and the Samsung Blu-ray player outputs both 1080i and 1080p. What they fail to mention is that it makes absolutely no difference which transmission format you use—feeding 1080i or 1080p into your projector or HDTV will give you the exact same picture. Why? Both disc formats encode film material in progressive scan 1080p at 24 frames per second. It does not matter whether you output this data in 1080i or 1080p since all 1080 lines of information on the disc are fed into your video display either way. The only difference is the order in which they are transmitted. If they are fed in progressive order (1080p), the video display will process them in that order. If they are fed in interlaced format (1080i), the video display simply reassembles them into their original progressive scan order. Either way all 1080 lines per frame that are on the disc make it into the projector or TV. The fact is, if you happen to have the Samsung Blu-ray player and a video display that takes both 1080i and 1080p, you can switch the player back and forth between 1080i and 1080p output and see absolutely no difference in the picture. So this notion that the Blu-ray player is worth more money due to 1080p output is nonsense." -
"Low Price w/ Problems" on by G716
Pros: Affordable, great picture
Cons: Compatability, bugs
Summary: Bought this new online for a very low price ~$300USD, and was happy with it until I unpacked it and noticed I would need a DVI-HDMI cable to connect it to my DVI, but not HDMI, projection Mitsubishi TV.
No problem, got the DVI-HDMI cable and was ready to go. No picture.
Turns out there is a known bug that requires a patch (firmware) from Toshiba if you want to run a DVI-HDMI connection. No problem, called Toshiba to get Firmware - not available for three weeks, I'm told. But I can downloaded into the DVD player direct, the rep tells me. Try multiple times, without effect. Call customer support: "yes, some DVD players have a bug preventing downloads. you will have to wait for the CD firmware to arrive." Ok. Two weeks later I get my CD with the patch. Ready to go. Plays movies great now.
After a few weeks I noticed a consistent tendency of the DVD player to freeze up and turn non-responsive. I am unable to communicate with the DVD in any way. The only option is to turn the unit off. This happens once every 10 discs played.
I also notice the HD-A2 will not play discs that are slightly scratched or dirty, while my other DVD player will play these DVDs. After a good wipe of the disc it plays, but with the scratches it still skips during playback. Perhaps this is a very sensitive DVD player.
Load times are very long. After I turn the power on, it takes a minute or more, but not more than two minutes for the DVD menu to show up. Its a bit disconcerting when you want to show off your new toy. No matter I press on, because the picture is great.
The picture quality is fantastic and the sound is what you would expect.
Connecting the unit is fairly easy and intuitive (providing you have HDMI on your TV).
All in all a good DVD player for the money, but troublesome to own, and a bit dissapointing in reliability. -
"Great picture. Nice remote. Nice look." on by altobone
Pros: Great picture. Nice remote. Great sound.
Cons: Wish it was 1080p now.
Summary: This player is blowing me away. I've looked at the difference between HD-DVD and Blu Ray, and HD-DVD just has a better picture in the demos I've seen. I was told by a salesmen at Magnolia after I purchased the HD-A2 that the next firmware upgrade will include an upgrade to 1080p. There is a small letter p next to the 1080i indicator light on the digital display as well. It's hard to imagine the picture looking any better though. Batman Begins in HD-DVD is truely stunning! The player works great, buy it!
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"Doesn't support DVI" on by daymon74
Pros: Don't know yet
Cons: Doesn't support DVI
Summary: I bought this unit ready to begin my HD DVD journey and got stopped in my tracks. My Sony HDTV only supports DVI, no HMDI. So I used a cable that runs one side HDMI and the other DVI. I could only get 480p out of the unit. So I called Toshiba only to have them tell me that this was a problem that were aware of and they were "working on it". I have no confidence in the problem being resolved and will have to buy a new HDTV to get a HDMI input. Would have been nice to have been made aware of this problem before I bought the unit. I have to go component cables and only get 720p for my HD DVD's. 500 dollars for a unit that only half works. Would not buy this unit again
Updated
The latest Toshiba firmware download fixed my problem. I now can get 1080i coming out of the HDMI output on the HD DVD player going into a DVI input on my T.V. I can now sleep peacefully. -
"Perfect addition to my Onkyo and Vizio. Achieved 6.1 audio on optical cable!" on by chrislayton
Pros: Absolutely crystal clear picture perfect and awesome sound
Cons: I have heard some bellyache about not being able to achieve 5.1 sound except through the HDMI cable but that is simply not true.
Summary: I just got this yesterday in the mail from OnSale.com at a super deal (purchased on sale for $385 plus free shipping) The construction of this machine is definately of the most streamlined and advanced design out there and is very well made. For the money I think it is an excellent buy. I popped in my Serenity HD-DVD and it produced an absolutely fabulous picture down to the minute hairs on the characters and outstanding color saturation. The Serenity DVD is recorded in 5.1 and my Onkyo HTS790 (purchased for $399.99 from Circuit City.com) is connected to it via digital optical cable and positively confirmed that it was playing in 5.1. Then I put in the standard DVD movie Gladiator recorded in 6.1 and again my onkyo positively confirmed that it was playing in 6.1 and I could hear the individual sounds coming from each speaker (the side rear and back rear in my 7.1 system combined since the movie was a 6.1 and not a 7.1 which I am anxiously waiting for) This system is connected to my Vizio 50" HDTV by the way in case you were wondering what I was viewing it from (purchased also from Circuit City.com for $1500) Honestly I don't know what everyone is bellyaching about in regards to their not being able to get 5.1 sound out of the HD-A2. Perhaps a better reading of the instructions might help. Anyway, this system makes for one tremendous home theater (sort of makes it hard to want to go out to the movie theater anymore except to see new releases but their sound doesn't match the sound of this system)
Toshiba HD-A2 user reviews
