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"Great Player" on by 20glove
Pros: Picture Quality, HD Sound, Amazingly good CD sound
Cons: Start up and Load time, HDDVD light
Summary: This player is a very good player. The upconvert on normal dvd's are really good and the HD DVD picture quality is AWESOME. The HD Sound is really cool as I have it hooked up to Denon avr-3808ci and 7 sapphire speakers and a Martin Logan subwoofer. It really feels like you are at the movie. The dilouge enhancement is GREAT. The channels are so clear, tight, and concise.
What was most suprising was the sound quality on both a CD and CDR, wow! I have an old Pioneer Elite CD player only from like 2000-2001 which sounds good, but this HD DVD player CD quality sound is much better. I could not believe that. So a plus I was not expecting.
The only complaint I would have really is that the start up time is painfully slow. Timed it at 34 - 35 seconds from turning on the machine, hitting the eject button, and the drawer being ejected. Then when you load a disc, the HD DVD are of course read faster about 15 -20 seconds and then CD's and normal DVD's are about 25 -30 seconds. Can live with this due to the sound quality and picture qaulity.
This system looks great on the shelf, I would love for Toshiba to tweak the HDDVD light. It is very bright and the only way to turn it off is to turn off all backlights on the machine, wish I could turn off HDDVD light and keep time and chapter at a low light. But oh well... if that is something I have to live with that is ok.
Overall, I am very happy with the machine. Hey I got 2 free HDDVD's in the box, then 2 more HDDVD's instantly from Best Buy and I have 5 more coming in the mail from a Toshiba offer. Plus I had 2 places competing for my business so walked away with the machine for $429 and in a few weeks I will have 9 free HDDVD's. So to me was well worth it. Given the price, the free HD DVD's, and the sound qaulity both on movies and CD, it was awesome choice! -
"Great HD DVD player EXCELLANT AUDIO!!" on by jzikul
Pros: True HD & DTS Master Audio over HDMI cable
Cons: audio menu could use work
Summary: I just purchased this HD DVD player from Amazon.com (100.00 cheaper than Best Buy). I wanted to upgrade from an earlier Toshiba model for the 1080p and the Dolby True HD & DTS Master Audio features.
My first HD DVD player did not let you use the High Definition audio tracks through the HDMI cable connection. Now, the HD-35A allows you to activate this feature (via Bitstream, not PCM) in the set-up menu of the player.
WOW!!! WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!! Dolby True HD and Dolby Digital + sound great! I could not believe the difference. The HD DVD of Transformers almost made my 5 year old son deaf.
I am using the Denon 3808CI receiver to decode the HD audio tracks....
If you are an audiophile nerd like me, this HD DVD player should be in your system. -
"Terrific player" on by norvabear
Pros: Easy set up, great decoding of new soundtrack formats, picture quality
Cons: Slow boot up and starting of discs
Summary: This is a terrific player, with a few quibbles. The Dolby Digital HD soundtracks have a slow recovery time when skipping chapters on a disc. Takes almost a minute for the sound to start again. The picture quality is excellant, the soundtracks on films sound great and the unit is smaller than previous versions and is attractive looking on your shelf. I'm not thrilled with the very bright HD-DVD logo that lights up when it's turned on, though. It's almost glaring it's so bright.
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"Perfect machine" on by KeithTX
Pros: Lossless Audio
Cons: Loading time. Use pause, not stop if you want to go back to where you are left off
Summary: Audio bit stream of Dolby TrueHD to Onkyo 805 is superb. Any AV receivers from the latest releases of Onkyo and Denon will do.
Nothing out there can match, Blu-ray or any other HD DVD players. -
"Almost the perfect player" on by jacquescas
Pros: first HD player to have HDMI audio passthrough
Cons: no Reon HQV
Summary: if this had the Reon HQV it would undoubtly be the best HD-DVD player on the market. for true afficionados wait until they put the Reon HQV in this player and call it the HD-XA3 or something like that. Still one of the best players on the market.
Toshiba HD DVD High-Definition Player with 1080p Output user reviews
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