arch_8gl's Full Review: Toshiba HD-A2 Player HD-DVD Player
UPDATE 5/4/08: I have removed my complaint about this player not being able to play the new lossless audio codecs. I've found out (after writing this review) that since all HD-DVD players were required to have a built in Dolby TrueHD decoder built into the player, anybody with an HDMI receiver will be able to take advantage of this new wonderful sounding codec. And the sound IS stunning. For a very informative article on this read here: http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/22/how-to-actually-use-dolby-truehd-and-dts-hd/
Also I've changed my recommendation of this player to a yes, but there are other players for similar money that are definitely superior now. Especially since the demise of the format is secured.
Also depending on if Toshiba is planning on continuing support for the players, firmware updates are available online to keep it as current as a dead format can be. I had to upgrade mine to watch a few movies. (before it was a dead format)
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HD-DVD is on a slow downward spiral as I write this review. A major movie studio has pulled support for the format and now there is only 2 major studios backing HD-DVD. The rest of them are all with Blu Ray disc. This could mean a number of things... 1) HD-DVD is going to be this generations Beta-Max 2) HD-DVD will start doing better due to the reduced prices of the players (even the cheapest blu ray players are upwards of 4 times the cost of a HD-DVD player)
Onto the DVD player. It's a great looking piece of equipment, and fits right in with almost any other black piece of AV equipment you have on your rack.
The start up time is somewhat slow... actually it's very slow. I'm not sure how it relates to other players on the market, perhaps they're all really slow. If that's the case, that's something they should fix as an industry. I think mine clocks in the realm of 1 minute to have the tray open to accept a movie from powered off.
Once your movie is in, there are a number of "HD-DVD Perks" that the movie companies want to gloat about and refuse to let you fast forward through.
The dvd player is built to spec (HD-DVD has specific requirements that each player must meet in order to be acceptable) so you'll find pretty much a very similar feature set on most players. the reason they have a set of guidelines for what must be included is so that a new movie with new features shouldn't be able to outdate the player.
In that vain, the players are all able to go online to access extra features on some hd-dvd's and to enable firmware updates. I had some initial difficulties trying to setup the internet to work with the HD-A2, but when I tried it on a different connection, it was very easy to setup. The directions are quite thorough on how to setup the player.
Movies look fantastic. I've mostly watched movies that have been rated rather highly by the HD-DVD community for picture quality and sound quality, but I am definitely impressed. Even the ones that didn't rate so well, still looked better then standard definition Dvd. The sound is simply amazing too. In the movie the Corpse Bride, there are a couple of scenes when they are playing the piano, and if I close my eyes, the room is filled with piano music to the point that I feel like there is a grand piano right next to me, playing just for me... it's that good people.
One nice thing about this unit is that even though I had just bought a more expensive upconverting dvd player (Oppo), this unit upconverts very nicely as well.
A few downsides, if you want to access the players setup menu, you must stop the movie you're watching and enter the menu, change the setting, then start it all over again (yes you have to watch the stupid "HD-DVD perks" each time you make a change.
However I digress... This model is not made anymore and has been replaced by the HD-A3 which has HDMI 1.3 and is only marginally more expensive... but even that price is dropping weekly.
I like my HD-DVD's but until Blu-ray starts making players much cheaper, there is no way I'm going to adopt it.
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