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"Spectacular picture - increadible value"
on by legerejPros Price, picture, sound, SD upconversion, ease-of-use
Cons remote not back-lit (minor issue because my Harmony is)
Summary I have had this player for over a month and I am completely satisfied with the quality of the picture and sound. The player is hooked up to a Panasonic PT-AE500U front projector (at ~70" image size) and the level of detail in the HD-DVD at 1080i is stunning.
I have experienced no image artifacts, ghosting, or related issues. The load-time is quick, and the player's features are very intuitive.
I am particularly impressed with the up-conversion of SD discs - considering what I paid for the HD-A2 it was almost worth the price just for this feature alone. I was using a Panasonic DVD player with component cables and decided to try Samsung's best up-converting DVD player (the HD960) with HDMI. The result was only marginally better than the component hook-up in terms of image sharpness, but was actually worse than component for color and contrast.
It was only after purchasing the HD-A2 that I realized just how good SD-DVDs can look! Regardless of who wins the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray war, I will never regret my purchase because my entire DVD collection now looks phenomenal. -
"two USB-like extension ports on HD-a2"
on by R2D23CPOPros Not a bad machine for the price
Cons The up converter softens the image from the standard disk
Summary you can use one of the extention ports to charge your cell phone.
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"FANTASTIC!!!!!"
on by sommer182Pros Great budget HD maching, 720P looks GREAT on Vizio 32XL
Cons Long load times for HD movies
Summary Got this on the $99.99 special at Wal-Mart last November, and have been enjoying it ever since. HD-DVD's look GREAT on my Vizio 32XL 720P LCD TV. Even standard DVD's look better, much better, than on my old DVD player. Even with HD-DVD possibly losing the battle, at $99.99 this was the best electronics deal I've made in a LONG time.
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"Good Product for the Price"
on by pipedream24Pros Great Picture, Cheap Price
Cons Horrible Load Times, Long delay on Chapter Skips
Summary I bought this product to as an inexpensive way to be able to purchase all the new movies on one of the new formats (I already have a PS3)and basically got what I expected. The picture quality is great. If you never used a High Def player you will be really impressed. On the negative side, the load times are bad; really bad. It takes up to a minute for the player to power up and sometimes up to another minute for it to load a disc. Also while skipping scenes, it can take up to 30 seconds for the disc to start playing again. Overall for the price this isn't a bad deal. But considering that Warner Bros. has now jumped over to Blu-Ray and the format war has definitely shifted into Blu-Ray's court I would probably buy a cheap Blu-Ray player instead.
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"Great HDDVD; Poor DVD upscaling"
on by slapatreePros Plays HDDVD; Looks nice; Easy-to-Use Menus
Cons Poor DVD upscaling; Remote difficult to use in the dark
Summary As far as being an HD DVD player goes, I give it great marks. Not much to say there that hasn't been said.
But, I also bought this because it was supposed to upscale standard DVDs well. But, I was disappointed for two reasons. First, the picture was noticeably grainier when I upscaled to 720p and sent it to my native 720p projector than when I used my old JVC 480p DVD player and let the projector do the upscaling. Second, and a real design flaw in my opinion, it stretches the standard (4:3) picture to widescreen (16:9). So, even if it weren't grainy, the picture is distorted, and there wasn't an option to change this anywhere that I could find.
So, I was left using my old JVC DVD player for standard DVDs, and upscaling with the Sanyo PLV-Z5, which did had a number of options on how it did the upscaling (none, zoom, stretch, etc.), and did an excellent job of it.
Conclusion: if you only want to use it for HD-DVDs, it's a good choice!
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