Toshiba HD-A3 720p/1080i HD DVD Player by Toshiba
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List Price: Our Price: $78.00 You Save: $71.99 (48%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Home Theater See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Toshiba HD-A3 720p/1080i HD DVD Player
Digital camera Review: Best Upconverting Dvd Player I've Seen
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this player because of all the steller reviews I read on Amazon.
Com. I was looking for a player that would upconvert standard Dvd's from
480P to 1080I. My 5 year old Sony was still working fine but I wanted to
increase the scanning to present the movies in a more film-like detailed
way. I have a 5 year old projection Tv that is not able to display 1080P
so this player just fit the bill. My Tv also is too old to support HDMI
so I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to view thru the component
output connections any upconverted material. But I found a way. Just
burn any commercial Dvd Movie that you own by using a computer and the
program DVD Shrink. Once you copy your owned dvd's using this method
they will all play back through the component video output connections. I also liked getting seven free HD-DVD movies to further sweeten the deal. I don't care about the "War-of-the-formats" ,I was just looking for a
decent upconverting player that cost less than other players and it supports HD-DVD too.
Digital camera Review: Best deal on Amazon!
Summary: 5 Stars
I got the A3 with 10 FREE HD-DVD's for less than $200. Easily the best "score" for me to date on Amazon. The picture quality is stunning, the sound is amazing. It even makes my old DVD's look better. Don't miss out on this!Digital camera Review: Best upconverting player I've ever seen
Summary: 5 Stars
Yeah, I know. Warner is going BD exclusive. However, for less than $150 you can get the best upconverting DVD player I've ever owned, and 7 free HD-DVD movies. Not to mention you can pick up HD DVD movies for as little as $14.99. There are hundreds of movies already released on HD DVD, so even if no studios come out with another movie, you can still upconvert all of your existing DVDs to 1080i, and enjoy the huge library of HD DVD movies already released for a fraction of the cost of a BD player. This deal is too good to pass up.Digital camera Review: Better than I expected, actually
Summary: 4 Stars
I've had this player for like a month now, and so far so good. After I ordered it I got scared because I started reading all of the 2 and 1 star reviews. A lot of people complained about the player not reading any kind of HD DVD's (wich makes it pretty useless), that it was slow and unresponsive and that it took a whole lot of time to boot up. Even some 4 stars reviews complained about this stuff and pretty much every review mentioned what a pain in the neck it was to update the firmware. I was bummed because I had already ordered it (it was so cheap, I coud'nt resist!)
I've had none of the awful problems, luckily (I hope I don't jinx my equipment with this!). I didn't bother updating the firmware because one of the amazon reviews speculated this may be the source of the trouble, so I took note. It does take like a minute to boot up, but since I was expecting this, it doesn't really bother me. It's like waiting for 'loading' time on a Playstation game (which bothers some people, actually). The player has read all the HD movies i've rented and the two brand new ones that it came with. The dreaded '408bc504' message that has plagued so many people only appeared with one movie; the movie was rented and very scratched and at some specific points in the movie it would jitter and stop and the message would appear, but once I pressed play again it would run correctly. I skipped the faulty parts and the rest of the movie played well. I haven't bought any HD movies yet, but I guess since it's doing OK with the rented ones it should do OK with the new ones. It is more sensitive at scratches with HD movies and it is slower and less responsive('subtitles' button particularly). DVD's, on the other hand, it handles really well. Reads all of them, even the heavily scratched ones. It's fast and responsive with them and behaves pretty top notch, as one would expect from technology as well-known as DVD, with the added bonus of the upconverting. The upconverting isn't anything too magical, it's basically like a stretch, but it's convenient when you have a 16:9 screen. It only upconverts with HDMI so take notice if you only have composite. I don't know about the sound since my home teather system is pretty old and doesn't read any of the new formats. But i suppose the SPIDF should work as expected.
Overall, it's really cheap (it's even cheaper now, I'm so mad!) and I guess it's a risk taking in account all the bad experiences for some people. So read the amazon return policies carefully should you have any trouble with the system.
I only gave it four stars because it's a bit slow and because I'm still a bit scared it may screw up. But really, for the price, the player is killer. The image outputs beautifully at 1080i and it's a cheap way of enjoying your HDTV. The format war is still going on so nobody wants to end with up with an obsolete system in their hands. It's a chance buy, but at $150, i'll take my chances and watch beautiful HD until the format war is over. Then we'll see what happens.
Digital camera Review: Beware of this Unit
Summary: 1 Stars
Beware of this unit. I purchased 3 weeks ago and have been enjoying good Picture Quality, but tonight I am watching Transformers and have found points in the disc which will stop play. Upon review on the internet, multiple reports of issues with Transformers and Bourne Ultimatum with this player- other players are not exhibiting the same issue.
It may be bad firmware 1.3 - as my error happened after the upgrade, others have reported also having issues after the firmware upgrade.
Later Addition-- as it turned out, it was the Transformers disc. This is just 1 of 5 discs now that have refused to play. Taking the Transformers disc back to the store, it was checked in an A30-- that unit locked so bad the salesguy had to unplug the unit so we could eject the disc-- not the friendliest of CE devices. 3 of the discs which have not played are rentals through Blockbuster online, and had more than a little scratching, but the other newly purchased disc also appeared flawless if you look at the surface, but replacing that disc as well solved the problem. And I do have Blu-ray too- and never have had issues playing a new or rental disc.
I don't like this unit as much as my PS3, but was ready to be neutral or red whatever the future turned out-- I am not unhappy though that with Warner's announcement this format will be going away.